• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, September 5, 2017

Lucktastic, an increasingly popular entertainment app, created a campaign that would tap into the total solar eclipse that occurred in August to bring awareness to the brand and build a larger following.

The "Total Eclipse Showdown" event began the Friday prior to the eclipse. Players were asked to choose a team, Sun or Moon. The event ran through the day of the eclipse, ending with a Facebook Live event streaming from a New York City rooftop where Lucktastic announced the winning team.

The goal was to create an engaging in-app experience, said Alex Tarrand, VP of marketing at Jump Ramp, parent of Lucktastic, the mobile gaming app. But it also demonstrated the importance of tying interactive features and a current event into a campaign to create buzz.

Streaming live content has been the key. In the past eight months, Lucktastic's use of Facebook Live continues to grow, streaming 40 Facebook live shows that drove 680,000 engagements on its app. The 117% lift in reach and a 590% lift in views since January continues to help build reach on an average of about 300,000; views, 51,000; comments, 7,000; likes, 4,000; and shares, 2,000 for each live event. 

Tarrand said the company promoted the campaign through email, digital ads and mobile content. "Email was very effective in getting consumers into the app," he said. "The live streaming channel was effective in getting people back into the application to claim the awards after the event streamed." 

The winning side -- team moon -- won by a significant landslide and received 100 free tokens, he said. Those who chose team sun got a consolation prize, about 50 token.

Consumers can redeem those tokens for gift cards, magazine subscriptions, and even a Kitchen Aid mixer.

Lucktastic focuses on gaming, such as scratch cards, which give people the ability to win trips and cash prizes, for example.

Although the celestial phenomenon was based on the moon blocking out the sun, making it a solar eclipse, more people voted for the moon. Tarrand said more people may have voted for team moon based on the placement of the button on the website page, which appeared closest to the players' thumb on a mobile device or smartphone.

Tarrand said Lucktastic is considering running brand-sponsored events, something he did many times while at Disney.  

For instance, Disney also has the luxury of having a channel. One show did a large Clorox sponsorship. "We created a Muppet named Angelo, a chef," he said. In the show that taught children how to cook, the Muppet would mention Clorox many times, similar to product placement.  

Lucktastic's show, which airs twice weekly on some channels and more often on others, streams from Facebook Live,  YouTube, but also ties in the content to Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter.