Facebook: Foster Farms 'Say No to Plumping' Sweepstakes ends at 100,000 fans

[ladywaterwind]

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The news: Foster Farms has just launched a Facebook sweepstakes (Say No To Plumping Sweepstakes | Facebook). It will reward one lucky winner with a year’s supply of free groceries with chances to win cash prizes for five other winners.

A sweepstakes with meaning: Foster Farms has led the way in raising consumer awareness of fresh chicken injected, or “plumped,” with saltwater. It can carry the “natural” label, a practice many are outraged to learn is still permitted by the USDA. The Foster Farms Facebook “Say No to Plumping” Sweepstakes is designed to encourage consumer action toward making sure that only truly natural, never plumped chicken is labeled “natural.” As the cause’s fan base grows, the value of the sweepstakes prizes will increase. The “Say No To Plumping” campaign has generated tremendous interest and 50,000 consumers have signed a petition urging the USDA to stop allowing “plumped” chicken to use the “natural” label.

How it works: To enter the sweepstakes, consumers become fans of the ‘Say No to Plumping’ Facebook page (Say No To Plumping | Facebook), then enter their email addresses. In the first of two stages, Foster Farms randomly selects three fans to receive prizes of $1,000, $500 and $250 once the Facebook page receives a total of 50,000 fans. The prizes increase once the page reaches 100,000 fans in total during the second stage, with one lucky person winning a year’s supply of groceries (a $5,000 value) and two others receiving prizes of $2,000 and $1,000.

Why it’s different: Foster Farms is a 71 year old agricultural company based on the West Coast, but is very much a contemporary organization. Most consumer companies are still relying on couponing and give-aways—rather than sweepstakes—to boost brand impressions. And many such efforts don’t carry a loftier consumer-awareness goal. Foster Farms is one of few companies creating new social marketing best practices by pioneering trends such as fan-gating and running a tiered sweepstakes. Fan-gating offers incentives to consumers for joining Facebook organizations and groups and a tiered sweepstakes creates incentive for fans to engage their friends around a campaign.