• by Larissa Faw , October 23, 2015

The Schwan Food Company, parent to Red Baron, Freschetta and Tony’s, and digital agency HelloWorld have launched a redesigned TailGateAtYourPlace.com campaign focused on college football. The campaign includes sweepstakes, radio and digital initiatives.  

The initiative has been revised to heighten what worked with last year’s effort and forego what didn't meet expectations.

Gone are the on-site sponsorships with 15 college stadiums in order to focus more on Web site content and home tailgating. 

This year, the food marketer wanted to concentrate "how Tony's, Red Baron and Freshetta Pizzas tie into that [tailgating] occasion versus focusing on the teams," says Marcie Anderson, integrated marketing manager, Schwan’s Consumer Brands. "In addition, this year we concentrated on activities on the site that require a deeper level of engagement from the consumer. Consumers are doing things like submitting recipes or tips, taking a personality test or answering polls in order to be rewarded.

"Last year, it was more about consuming content. This year each brand also has individual ownership over specific engagement areas that align most with their brand identity," she adds.

The campaign remains in place through February 7, 2016 with prizes including $8,000 in cash, a $2,000 Best Buy gift card and six months of free pizza.  

The changes appear to be working to some extent — Web site and online visits are up sharply so far this year versus last year.  The average opt-in rate is 50% in 2015, up from 43%. Similarly, time spent on the site has increased year-over-year. 

Not all metrics have surpassed last year, however.  Average log-in registrations are down as are average sweepstake registrations. Plus, registration conversion rates have decreased from 45.5% in 2014 to 42.7% in 2015. That said, it is still early and engagement is "on another level" due to the added options to win additional entries through games, quizzes, and recipe submissions.

"Last year, we learned that consumers weren't as interested in the college team content as much as they were the games and the home tailgating content on the site," says Anderson. "We also learned that some of our chosen media wasn’t driving the traffic and conversion we'd expected."