SuperPages Baits Users To Write Reviews, Download Coupons

Last month, Verizon SuperPages.com launched its largest promotion of the year, a holiday sweepstakes, in an effort designed to convince users to test some of the service's newest features: reviews, downloadable coupons, a search function, and a downloadable toolbar. The campaign, which involved an estimated $4 million total ad spend, resulted in these new features being used 7 million times to date, the company said yesterday.

The campaign by Verizon and its agency of record, TM, involved entering users in a daily sweepstakes whenever they conduct searches, write user reviews, print coupons, or download the SuperPages.com toolbar. There was a weekly prize of $500 awarded to 25 users, and a grand prize of $25,000 in cash or a combination of prizes valued the same, including a beach vacation, a personal chef for a week, maid service for a year, or a one-year gym membership. The campaign began in mid-November, and is slated to run until Dec 31.

Thus far, the campaign has drawn 7 million users of the promoted services after roughly a month. SuperPages.com's average monthly traffic is between 17 and 18 million users, said Alisa Brown, SuperPages.com's manager for consumer traffic. "We're very pleased with what we've seen as far as traffic goes, as well as post-click activities that we've seen on the site."

To promote the contest, SuperPages purchased ads on sites including American Greetings, AOL, Daily Candy, Discovery, E! Online, IBS, IMDB, Integrent, MSN Remnant, MSN Targeted, Real/Rolling Stone, Scripps' FoodTV, HGTV and DIY, The Onion, Weather, and WeatherBug--and for the first time, purchased rich media ad units. The sweepstakes was also promoted via radio ads in nine markets, including Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, and Philadelphia.

Next story loading loading..