Tourism Vancouver has hired Vancouver-based Think Social Media to adapt Think’s SuperBowl social media campaign to drum up excitement around the Grey Cup.
The campaign, called the Grey Cup Chase closely mirrors a campaign Think put together earlier this year for the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau in the run-up to the 2011 Super Bowl. According to Think, that campaign “got 2.4 million people talking.”
The Grey Cup Chase, which Think pitched to Tourism Vancouver, will award one Grey Cup prize package – tickets, airfare if necessary, accommodation, and pub and nightclub access – to one football fan in Vancouver, home of the B.C. Lions, and one in Winnipeg, home of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
The two teams face off at B.C. Place Stadium November 27 for the 99th Grey Cup.
Since yesterday, a “mystery man” has been wandering the streets of each city between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. To win the prize package, fans need to track down the mystery man in their city and tell him a secret phrase – which fans can only obtain by “liking” Tourism Vancouver’s Facebook page.
Clues about the mystery man’s location are being revealed on Twitter (@GreyCupChase) and on various blogs.
“It is a bit of an experiment, so we just wanted to see where it went,” said Candice Gibson, Tourism Vancouver’s manager of consumer marketing.
“If it is successful and we get a lot of likes and new fans to our Facebook page and generate the social media buzz – then it may become a model for similar campaigns coming up in the city.”
Shortly before press time, Gibson said that a Winnipeg fan had just caught that city’s “mystery man.” The hunt continues in Vancouver.
Jenny Wagler
@JennyWagler_BIV