« Return to Resources

Sweepstakes help Rutherford Wines build engagement on Facebook and awareness at retail

In the heart of Napa Valley is the Rutherford Ranch Winery, a family-owned and family farmed winery. They were named ‘Napa Winery of the Year’ at the 2013 New York International Wine Competition. The Rutherford Wine portfolio includes Rutherford Ranch, Scott Family Estate, Predator Wines, Lander-Jenkins Wines, Rhiannon, Silver Buckle, Round Hill and extensive Private Label offerings.

Last year through our sister company, Alliance Sweepstakes Services, we ran a promotion for their Lander-Jenkins Wines called Support the Next Generation of Farmers Sweepstakes. They had partnered up with the National Young Farmers Coalition to help increase awareness that farming is a public service. So for each bottle of Lander-Jenkins wines purchased, they made a donation to help support the next generation of farmers.

For the sweepstakes two grand prize winners received a gardening kit valued at $200 and 100 first prize winners received a t-shirt supporting the cause. They printed neck ringers, case cards and shelf talkers to display at point-of-sale in retail locations and featured the promotion on their Facebook page and website.

This year a promotion for their Rutherford Ranch Two Range Napa Valley Red Wine brand is currently running . The Ride the Range Sweepstakes started in March and continues till May 31. Three Grand Prize winners will each receive a custom-made Ride the Range bicycle by Detroit Bikes which is valued at $900. Plus six First Prize winners will each receive a custom bike helmet and riding jersey.

For this sweepstakes they also printed neck ringers, case cards and shelf talkers to display at point-of-sale in retail locations and featured the promotion on their Facebook page and website. Both of these sweepstakes promotions helped them to engage their fans on Facebook and to gain awareness at point-of-sale.

We set up the sweepstakes entry pages for both of these sweepstakes again using the Shortstack Application. Shortstack first started out as a Facebook application. They have broaden the capabilities of their platform and you can now install the app on a Facebook page and also embed the entry form on any webpage or host online as a separate promotional micro-site which we are doing for Rutherford Wine. Both entry forms are utilizing the same graphics and all entries go into one database. This allows for only one entry per day, per email regardless of what method they entered from.

All of Shortstack’s entry pages are mobile friendly from the start with Shortstack’s “One Campaign for any screen” design philosophy. Recently they have added some new features to the platform that make adding CSS coding very easy for those of us that don’t have much programming experience. If you would like more details on how to set up a promotion utilizing the Shortstack platform, please feel free to contact me. It’s a great tool and it also includes a great team of support people.

I haven’t had a chance to visit Napa Valley yet, but it hopefully will be in my plans sometime during the next couple of years. I will definitely visit the Rutherford Ranch Winery then, but in the meantime I will be sampling some more of their wines. Give them a taste.