This year was Golden State’s first time in the playoffs since their incredible run in 2006-07. The years between appearances resulted in placing of 3rd and 4th in their division and missing the playoffs. Sean was lucky enough to be in town just as they clinched for the 2013 playoffs. Their absence over the past couple of years has elevated fan excitement and the Golden State Warriors have used this to their advantage and have taken to Social Media to interact and engage with their fans through an exciting competition.
The Playoff Ticket Scavenger Hunt is a contest which the Warriors ran giving away a range of prizes in the ten days leading up to their first home playoff game. The contest revolves around all social media and digital platforms for the Warriors including: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Mobile App, Insider email, Insider mobile and Youtube. Each day there would be clues and challenges published on one of these platforms, which required you to respond to win.
Having a contest which incorporates all digital platforms has given the Warriors an opportunity to develop and improve their reach with their fans. If fans wanted to increase their chances of winning, the best opportunity is to sign up or follow all of the Warriors 8 digital platforms so they don’t miss out on the clues or challenges posted. This in turn possesses as an incredible opportunity for the Warriors to develop their fan base in a digital sense, but more importantly allows the organisation to interact and engage with followers in the future.
Let’s now look at how the Golden State Warriors used their Social Media platforms for the Playoff Scavenger Hunt.
Day 1: Engaging Facebook Fan Base
The Warriors started the scavenger hunt contest with Facebook, which has the most amount of followers at 458,384. Starting with their most popular platform is a great way in informing their largest base of followers of the competitions commencement. It also allows for Facebook users to become aware of other social media platforms the Warriors use regularly throughout the season.
The day 1 challenge started off with an easy assignment for followers which required them to ‘LIKE & SHARE’ the below post. Winners were chosen at random and announced the following day. The post received 6,983 likes and 6,815 shares.
Day 2: Driving a Twitter frenzy
Following Facebook the @Warriors took to Twitter, their second largest following at 219,348, for the hardest challenge in the competition. The Warriors did warn that this challenge was ‘Extra Challenging’ in their first tweet. The challenge required followers to find a clue within their ‘Gameday Photo Galleries’ from the season.
Followers on Facebook who don’t have twitter received a clue via a photo post of Stephen Curry wearing a ‘@warriors – #letsgowarriors’ t-shirt. The picture also featured the twitter logo over the top of the Warriors logo. For followers on Facebook who don’t know what twitter was, hand no idea what the clue was, as comments of “blue jays carrying them over the bridge” and “a mocking jay?” featured throughout the comments section. Other fans where nice enough to direct those lost to twitter to follow the challenges instructions.
This is where the challenge gets tricky. There are 24 galleries per page and 17 pages of gallery photos since the start of the season with numerous amounts photos in each gallery, I guess the Warriors really wanted fans to work for their tickets. I have to be honest I didn't manage to find the clue through the galleries as I gave up after close to an hour of searching, as did many others who didn't have time to search.
Day 3: Driving Fans to Mobile App
Day 4: Everyone loves Bobbleheads
The day 4 challenge was for Oakland residents to head down to a specific Lucky Supermarket and find a Klay Thompson bobble head. Once found you were required to take a photo with the bobble head and post it on Twitter or Instagram with the #FoundKlay hash tag.
This is a simple challenge which incorporated Lucky Supermarkets, who are the official grocery store sponsor of the Warriors and the Oakland Raiders. A great way of using sponsors in the social media competition to increase brand awareness for the grocery store.
Time is running out on Day 4 of the Scavenger Hunt, but some bonus prizes might be on the way later tonight… | twitter.com/warriors/statu…
— Golden St. Warriors (@warriors) April 19, 2013
Day 5: Show some love on Instagram
Instagram was the sole target of the day 5 challenge via their account @officialwarriors. The challenged prompted fans to be as creative as they can while impersonating player Kent Bazemore’s famous three point celebration named ‘Bazemoring’. The photo had to be tagged with #bazemoring hash tag for winners to be picked. Entries featured poses on top of cars, outside Oracle stadium and where ever the opportunity presented itself for fans.
Kent Bazemore is known as the NBA’s number 1 towel-waver and bench hype machine, who continually displays his game long energy celebrating player’s shots. This signature move of celebrating 3’s was used by the Warriors as a Facebook check in competition for fans at a home playoff game to receive a 3 point foam finger, drawing on the ‘Bazemoring’ and ‘Splash Brothers’ hype. This is another impressive opportunity which the Warriors have used to their advantage to engage and interact with their fans. The Winner of the challenge was announced on Twitter and can been seen below
Congrats to Paul L. for winning our Playoff Ticket Scavenger Hunt #Bazemoring Contest! twitter.com/warriors/statu…
— Golden St. Warriors (@warriors) April 21, 2013
Day 6: Mobile promotion using SMS
1/2) Next clues for today's Playoff Ticket Scavenger Hunt. You can find the @gswarriorgirls in front of Emeryville @metropcs & @jambajuice
— Golden St. Warriors (@warriors) April 20, 2013
2/2) @gswarriorgirls will be there from 11:30am to 1:00pm today. Find them, get the secret code word, and text it to 53548 to qualify to win
— Golden St. Warriors (@warriors) April 20, 2013
Day 7: #DubNation pins down Pinterest
The Warriors Pinterest page has the least amount of followers out of all social media avenues used for the Warriors. As a result the scavenger hunt competition stands as a great way of promoting and increasing followers. The challenge was for users to create a ‘board’ labelled ‘#DubNation’ and required you to post 20 things that creatively display your Golden State Warriors pride.
As Pinterest is continually growing and relatively new to sports teams, the ways in which teams interact and engage with fans and supporters is different. Pinterest has a large female following and the inclusion of this platform in the scavenger competition is an excellent way for the Warriors to reach their female fans and supporters. Check out our Sports on Pinterest board.
Day 8: Share and Like the team you love on Facebook
We are back on Facebook with the 8th challenge looking at fans relieving their favourite moments from the season. To officially enter the challenge followers needed to again LIKE & SHARE the post and provide a comment on their favourite moment.
An easy challenge to complete which provides an opportunity for fans to talk about the amazing season the Warriors are having so far and continues the hype and excitement leading into game two of their round 1 matchup against the Denver Nuggets.
I thought i should also provide my favourite moment of the season. I feel sorry for the rookies . . . . .
Day 9: Crowdsourcing fan video on YouTube
The final day of the Scavenger Hunt continued on from the favourite moments challenge from day 8 and fans needed to get the camera out for YouTube. An extra two tickets were up for grabs and fans needed to film a 30sec clip of a re-enactment of their favourite play, people #Bazemoring, the Landry flex, putting up some 3-point goggles or wearing some Warriors merchandise.
This challenge was promoting their YouTube channel and needed fans to submit their videos via the Warrior’s website. Riding their playoff excitement fans really produced some impressive videos in the short time they had. Below are two of my personal favourites
Day 10: Integrating Adidas with Twitter and Instagram
The Warriors weren’t done yet and threw in a BONUS day, giving away a Harrison Barnes jersey. The final challenge used Instagram and Twitter once again getting fans to take a photo of themselves with a mannequin wearing the jersey at the Adidas store in San Francisco. Once again we see an opportunity for a sponsor to be involved in the competition.
Final notes
In summary most of the challenges were fairly easy to follow and complete, the only challenge which maybe and should have been altered was the day 2 challenge. This could of been improved with the inclusion of a clue indicating which date the gallery clue might be from. This could have saved a lot of time for followers and been more engaging and positive, as many people commented that they had given up as it was too hard.
The challenges throughout the scavenger hunt were fair as most challenges were not a race. This made each challenge available to all fans and supporters as everyone who entered had an equal chance of winning. The majority of the challenges were different as some involved appearing at stores and then using Instagram to the basic sharing and liking posts on facebook.
Using their most popular social media platforms as the primarily avenues to inform followers of clues and challenges was a great way of promoting other developing platforms such as Pinterest and their Mobile app. Drawing on key moments through the year such as the #Bazemoring poses, continually keep fans excited leading into the playoffs.
The only question which remains is, how active will these users be if they have only signed up to win playoff tickets, will they be influencers in the future?
What did you think? Let me know in the comments.
“First of all, great post Curtis I like how you followed the promotion from the fan's point of view. Great job by Kevin Cote as his team at the Warriors for executing a campaign like this to engage in midst of a exciting (and very busy) playoff run.”
