Cranberry Marketing Committee

Cranberry Friendsgiving Photo Contest Social Media Campaign

Objectives: To reach the Millennial audience and drive cranberry consumption, the Cranberry Marketing Committee launched a strategic social media campaign designed to create a paradigm shift around the fall season and engage a younger audience — specifically Millennials — through a cranberry photo sharing contest timed to the Friendsgiving holiday.

Campaign: Friendsgiving is a Millennial-driven trend in which this generation celebrates the holiday with friends in the days and weeks before and after Thanksgiving. The campaign capitalized on an existing event through social media to capture the interest and attention of this important audience in order to create cranberry buzz, drive cranberry sales and generate creative contest entries on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. Millennials’ love for food and social media, participation in Friendsgiving celebrations and admiration of social media influencers steered these actions:

1. develop a social media photo sharing contest focused on creative cranberry recipes and décor to generate news about the versatility of cranberries and their myriad uses;
2. time the contest to Friendsgiving to maximize interest and social media buzz;
3. partner with social media influencers to motivate Millennials to purchase cranberries, enter the contest; and
4. conduct in-store promotions to reach Millennials at the point-of-purchase.

Results: The campaign resulted in hundreds of cranberry contest entries, significant social media chatter about cranberries and impactful sales increases across all cranberry products. Traditional and social media generated more than 200 million impressions. The partnership with retailer, Redner’s, reached more than 1.2 million shoppers through an in-store circular.