PR Case Study: Find Shorn

The Forge Communications and Kingsland Drinks launched the Find Shorn competition to raise awareness of a new product, and to grow a loyal social media following, as well as long-term engagement with the brand. 

Campaign name: Find Shorn
Client: Kingsland Drinks Ltd, Shorn
PR Team: The Forge Communications
Timing: 26 July until 26 August, 2016

Summary:
The Forge Communications devised a social media campaign to raise awareness of Shorn ‘Limited Black Edition’ wine, which is sold in Morrisons. A competition was launched across Facebook and Twitter, increasing Shorn’s social media following and driving people to the Morrisons’ website. The Forge Communications campaign resulted in a 70% uplift in sales during the competition period.

Objectives:
The campaign objectives were to devise a social media campaign to raise awareness of Shorn ‘Limited Black Edition’ wine, and grow the brand’s social media following on Facebook and Twitter.

The KPIs were as follows:

• 5,000 entries into the competition
• Grow number of target audience followers on Facebook and Twitter
• 500-1,000 posts shared across Facebook and Twitter using #findshorn hashtag
• Drive sales from Morrisons.com – a minimum of 25% on the previous month

Strategy and implementation:
With the Find Shorn campaign, The Forge Communications aimed to communicate the personality of the brand to engage with its audience. The outcome would be a loyal social media following.

Shorn Wines launched a month-long competition which utilised Street View on Google Maps to raise awareness of its ‘Limited Black Edition’ Sauvignon Blanc wine, which is sold in Morrisons.

Over 250,000 white and black ‘baaing’ Shorn sheeps were ‘planted’ all over the UK on the maps. Users had to navigate their way around the white Shorns in the hope of bumping into a black Shorn. Those who found three black sheep were entered into a daily competition to win a case of wine, and one in five could also instantly win a black Shorn fridge magnet.

To ramp up the competition, five golden Shorns were also hidden, and regular clues for finding them were published on Twitter. Gold sheep finders won an iPad mini.

A dedicated website was set-up to house the competition, which was enhanced in the following way:

• Twitter ads ran to encourage people to enter the competition
• The Golden Shorns were placed at regular intervals throughout the competition, and cryptic clues were Tweeted with #findshorn
• Clues got progressively harder each day, which encouraged a Shorn-finding frenzy among players (clues were also added to competition forums as everyone helped each other to decipher the riddles)
• People were encouraged to re-tweet the clues in exchange for naming sheep after them
• Daily winners were announced at regular intervals to reassure players the prizes were real
• Influential Twitter handles were partnered with to retweet clues, and further promote the competition eg @winewankers (331k), Nisa Local (20k) and Oddbins (2.5k)
• People were encouraged to tweet that they had found Shorn using #findshorn

Results:
The Forge Communications created a competition that encouraged long-term engagement and brand recollection. Over-delivering on KPIs, the campaign raised awareness of a new product, and drove sales.

KPI: 5,000 entries to competition
Result: 10,623 entries (people finding three black Shorns)

KPI: Increase Facebook & Twitter followers from target audience
Result: Facebook likes increased from 112 on 26.07.16 to 1,581 on 26.08.16 and Twitter followers increased from 2278 to 2795 in a month

KPI: 500-1,000 posts shared across Facebook & twitter using hashtag #findshorn
Result: 602 shares across Facebook and Twitter all using hashtag #findshorn

KPI: Drive people to purchase via Morrisons.com with sales increase of min 25% (on previous month)
Result: 70% uplift in sales during competition period

Additional results:

• 23,195 sessions on the website from 8,832 unique players
• Average dwell time: nine minutes and four seconds, peaking at 16minutes and 40 seconds when people were looking for a Golden Shorn
• 382k tweet impressions; double the amount of the past 23 months combined
• 64k Twitter profile visits

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