The Execution

Ballots are all about participation, so we kept that in mind throughout the entire planning process. First, we created our ballot in two phases – nomination and voting. Multiple phases means multiple times to push participation.

We also took full advantage of the registration form on the ballot. We started by including an email opt-in and Facebook Like Box for Foodlink NY. This was perfect to help them grow their audience before their event.

To collect even more robust data for Foodlink NY, we included custom survey questions about whether they’d attended the event in the past and if they would like to be reminded to buy tickets for the event. Since the ballot ran in August and the Festival of Food was held in late September, we wanted to identify hot leads that were interested in receiving a direct reminder to buy their tickets closer to the event date.

Time and time again, email is the #1 driver of conversions, so we created a strong email campaign for the Food Truck Face Off. To announce the nomination phase of the ballot we timed the launch date to coincide with the local monthly Food Truck Rodeo, also held at the Rochester Public Market. We also enlisted the help of the Rochester Public Market’s publicity channels to drive traffic to their event for viewers to get to know their local food trucks better. We also sent an email on the last day to nominate to make sure no local food truck favorites were missed.

When it came time to kick off the voting phase, we did the same thing. Sent an email announcing voting had started and then sent another email saying there was only one week left to vote.

Finally, we sent an email on the last day to drive urgency. We included the top ten winning food trucks, so users could see where their favorite stood and click to vote for them one last time.

To encourage even more participation, we leveraged every tool in our wheelhouse. We talked about the ballot on our website, we shared it on our social pages, and we also had Foodlink NY share to their page as well.

The Food Truck Face Off ballot was even covered on-air. During the final week of voting, our morning show, Good Day Rochester, hosted some of the competing food trucks in a Food Truck Takeover in the station parking lot.Our anchors also interviewed a representative from Foodlink to discuss the Festival of Food. One of the competing food trucks signed up as a vendor for the event as a result connection.

Despite all our marketing efforts, some of the best came from the food trucks themselves. They really wanted to win. Many of the competing trucks had Vote for Us signs in their windows, and many were encouraging all of their followers on social media to vote for them as well.

While the ballot and our marketing efforts would bring tons of awareness about the Festival of Food event, we knew that Foodlink NY was really interested in directly driving ticket sales. To help them achieve this goal, we sent a thank you email when a person voted containing a unique link for them to buy tickets.

The Results

For being our first ballot of this type, this was a huge win for us, and an even bigger win for our advertiser.

The ballot itself received over 2,600 votes from more than 1,700 people. Foodlink NY had 570+ people opt-in for their emails, and 570+ ask to be reminded about purchasing their Festival of Food tickets. Plus, the ticket link on the thank you email drove TONS of ticket sales for the Food Truck Face Off.