Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Online Contests Draw Nearly 750k Entries for Universal
September 15,
2017 by Larry Thomas in Business Strategy, Community / Charitable Support, Industry, Social Media 
Universal Furniture said two recent promotions that featured grand prizes worth $10,000 helped boost spring and summer retail traffic.
The most recent was a $10,000 Living Room Giveaway in August that drew nearly 500,000 online entries in 30 days. The contest was staged in conjunction with a retail promotion.
“The promotional purpose was two-fold,” said Universal Furniture Director of Marketing Neil MacKenzie. “We wanted to increase consumer awareness of the Universal brand and to connect them with a retailer.”
The second promotion featured the new Paula Deen Home collection, Bungalow, that was introduced to retailers at the spring 2017 High Point Furniture Market.
The $10,000 consumer contest was a joint promotion with Craftmaster and Sunvilla, partners in the Paula Deen Home collection providing upholstery and outdoor furniture, respectively.
Consumers entered the contest online at pauladeenhome.com, where close to 250,000 entries were received.
To further leverage exposure, Universal implemented a national digital advertising buy leveraging traditional and non-traditional channels. Other support included social media advertising and collateral materials for retailers.
“A national buy was a big commitment,” said MacKenzie. “It delivered on our promise to support retail partners in building traffic and driving consumer engagement.”