In time for the PGA Masters, Nike ran a daily Facebook promotion for their 20XI golf balls. Nike Golf's 450,000 Facebook fans could win one of 25 sleeves of their exclusive Masters edition 20XI golf balls. The first 25 fans to click through Nike's newsfeed post won. I am not writing this to gloat of my winnings (though I am excited), but rather because the contest was done quite well for a few reasons:
1. Nike has run several Facebook promotions aimed at driving immediate engagement around surprise newsfeed activity. Nike Basketball has a promotion around Kobe Bryant where exclusive content is uploaded at 'random' times to Facebook ("the Black Mamba can strike at any time")
2. Not only is the promotion time sensitive, it is timely: doing this around the Masters is relevant, fun and impactful (as it's the most watched golfing event each year).
3. It is actually viral. See the step-by-step example below.
So here's how it worked:
Nike posts to their newsfeed. Time is of the essence: within five minutes, ~50 people have liked the post... but only 25 sleeves of balls are being given away:
I somehow got there fast enough to win the sleeve:
And the 'transaction' occurs entirely on the Facebook fan page. So I've never left Nike Golf:
Once you complete the 'order', you are prompted to share on Facebook:
The feed post describes the balls rather than the promotion (I would probably have changed that to encourage discussion / awareness among friends):
And within seconds of my feed post - 42 seconds to be exact - friends noticed and liked Nike Golf.
Low cost, easy and fun way for Nike to engage fans and drive greater awareness.