• by Tanya Gazdik , March 21, 2011

State Farm will be launching a promotion starting March 31 on its Facebook page, where consumers can enter to win a Ford Fusion Hybrid.

In order to be eligible to win, consumers must "like" the State Farm Facebook page. State Farm is already promoting the contest on various Facebook pages, including State Farm Nation, alerting people to the contest and encouraging them to "like" the State Farm page. "The front seat sounds great when you shout Shotgun. But our friends at State Farm want you to call Shotgun to earn a chance to win a Ford hybrid or a $20 gift card. Lucky dog!"

The objective of the promotion is to engage people in a fun and unique way with State Farm, says State Farm Marketing Director Tim Van Hoof.

"We want people to interact with us to know the full 'good neighbor' experience," Van Hoof tells Marketing Daily. "When you think about your best neighborhoods you lived in, your neighbors were there to help, but they also were there to have fun, to hang out with, to provide tips and thoughts on things relevant to your life. That's what our brand stands for, and what our social presence is about."

State Farm will post a photo/announcement five times a day between March 31 and April 9 on its Facebook page. The first people to tag themselves in each photo, thus calling "shotgun," will be entered to win a Ford Fusion Hybrid. Consumers who aren't the first to tag will have a chance to win a $20 Visa gift card.

The promotion is unique in that instead of just getting consumers to the page once in order to "like" it, it gets them to visit the page often during the 10-day contest in order to try to tag the photo. As of 2 p.m. March 21, more than 65,000 consumers had "liked" the page.

The insurer is already promoting the game on its Twitter feed. The contest is also being promoted virally on sweepstakes-oriented Web sites such as slickdeals.net, sweepstakestoday.com and freesamplesite. com.

Chicago-based Proximity created the promotion, while Fanscape, a Los Angeles-based social media marketing company, is handling the social media outreach.