Tag: Crispin Porter & Bogusky

SAS: Up for Grabs on Facebook

To promote a million-seat fare sale, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) and Crispin Porter + Bogusky Stockholm ran a Facebook competition where fans could “grab” a free trip. The ask was visual and dead simple, and it turned participation into the media.

Fans changed their profile picture into a custom “Up For Grabs” image, then posted a matching photo on the SAS Facebook wall where they physically “grabbed” the trip. Every entry looked like an ad, and every ad looked like a friend.

The mechanic that turns fans into distribution

The campaign’s mechanism was a two-step loop. First, replace your profile image with a branded frame that signals you are “in”. Second, publish a playful photo on the brand wall that demonstrates the concept, grabbing the prize. That wall then becomes a live gallery of social proof, with each new post re-selling the fare sale in a more human way than a banner ever could.

In airline marketing, promotions that convert participation into shareable images can outperform price-only fare announcements.

Why it lands

It turns an abstract offer into a physical gesture. “Grab a trip” becomes something you can perform, photograph, and show. The profile-picture switch is a light commitment that broadcasts intent, and the wall post is a public performance that invites imitation. The momentum comes from visibility, because the more entries you see, the more “normal” it feels to join.

Extractable takeaway: When you need scale fast, design one participation artifact that doubles as an ad unit, and make the action easy enough that people will copy it without instructions.

What the shutdown reveals about the strategy

The campaign was reportedly against Facebook promotion terms, and it was shut down. That ending is part of the story, because it highlights the tightrope of social-first promotions. The creative is built on a behavior Facebook historically restricts for contest entry, asking people to publish specific content as a condition of participation, even if the idea is clever and the buzz is real.

The real question is whether the participation mechanic can spread the offer without depending on a platform behavior that can be switched off overnight.

The stronger strategic read is that the creative idea is right, but the distribution mechanic is too dependent on borrowed platform rules.

What to steal for your own launch

  • Make the entry format the message. If the entry itself demonstrates the offer, you get free repetition of the proposition.
  • Use a low-friction first step. Profile-picture frames and templates work because they are fast and socially legible.
  • Design a single visual trope. “Grabbing” is a trope anyone can reproduce, and that consistency creates a recognizable feed.
  • Build compliance in from day one. If the mechanic depends on prohibited platform behaviors, plan a compliant alternative before launch.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the core idea of Up for Grabs?

A Facebook contest where fans change their profile picture to a branded frame and post a “grabbing the trip” photo on the SAS wall to compete for a free flight.

Why does the profile-picture step matter?

It turns participation into persistent visibility. The frame signals “I am in”, and it spreads through everyday browsing without requiring an additional media buy.

What made the campaign travel beyond the SAS page?

Each entry was both participation and promotion. When fans changed their profile picture and posted a matching photo, the fare sale moved into personal networks instead of staying inside brand media.

Why was it shut down?

It was reportedly closed for violating Facebook promotion rules by conditioning entry on specific platform actions, such as posting photos on the wall.

How do you keep the upside without the platform risk?

Keep the visual template and the “grab” trope, but move the submission mechanic to a compliant entry flow, then allow optional sharing that is not required to participate.

Best Buy: Twelpforce on Twitter

Here is a truly new-age way of addressing customer needs in real time by harnessing Twitter. Instead of pushing promotions, Best Buy puts help in the timeline and lets customers pull value when they actually need it.

A help desk that lives in public

Twelpforce is built on a simple premise. Twelpforce is Best Buy’s Twitter-based customer support program, built to connect customer questions with employees who can answer them. The people who know the answers are already inside the company. Put them on Twitter, let them respond directly, and make the answers visible to everyone else with the same question.

It turns customer service into a living knowledge base. Every reply is both a resolution for one person and reassurance for the next hundred who are watching.

How Twelpforce works

The mechanic is straightforward:

  • Customer asks a question on Twitter.
  • Trained employees respond in real time from within their area of expertise.
  • The conversation stays public, so answers become searchable and shareable.
  • Trust compounds, because the brand is seen helping, not just selling.

In consumer electronics retail, service is often the fastest signal of trust and competence.

The real question is whether public, real-time help can build more trust than another stream of promotional posts.

Why it lands: help is a stronger hook than hype

Most brand communication tries to create desire. Twelpforce starts with a different human truth. When something breaks or confuses you, you want a competent person, quickly. The campaign meets that moment and makes the brand useful on demand. This is a stronger brand move than another promotional burst, because visible help makes expertise tangible at the exact moment of need.

Extractable takeaway: If your category creates frequent questions, treat support as a scalable content engine. Public answers reduce repeat effort, improve perceived expertise, and create credibility that paid media struggles to buy.

That publicness is the multiplier because one useful answer reduces uncertainty for the asker and for everyone else who sees it. A private call solves one case. A public answer signals, repeatedly, that the brand shows up when it matters.

Recognition that follows the idea

The campaign is credited to Crispin Porter + Bogusky for Best Buy. It goes on to win a Gold Clio Award in Interactive, under the “Innovative Use of Technology” category.

What to steal for your own social support play

  • Design for repeat questions: build templates and escalation paths so answers stay fast without becoming robotic.
  • Make expertise discoverable: route topics to specialists, not a generic handle that slows everything down.
  • Write for the invisible audience: every reply should help the original asker and anyone who finds it later.
  • Set clear guardrails: define what can be solved publicly and what must move to private channels.
  • Measure more than volume: track time-to-first-response, resolution rate, sentiment shift, and deflection of repeat issues.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Twelpforce in one sentence?

It is a Twitter-based customer help program where employees answer questions publicly in real time, turning support into a visible brand asset.

Why does public support change the marketing equation?

Because every answered question doubles as proof. People trust what they see a brand do for others, especially when the moment is unscripted and timely.

What makes this “interactive” rather than just social posting?

The customer initiates the experience with a question, and the brand responds in a two-way exchange that creates a usable outcome, not just awareness.

What is the biggest operational risk?

Inconsistency. If response times, tone, or accuracy vary widely, the same public visibility that builds trust can also expose gaps.

How do you know if a program like this is working?

Look for faster response times, high resolution rates, fewer repeated questions, improved sentiment, and a growing perception that the brand is genuinely helpful.

Domino’s: Pizza Holdouts

When your friends “rat you out” to a pizza brand

Domino’s campaign against consumers who cannot stand its pizza continues. Crispin Porter + Bogusky is back with a new facet of the “New Pizza” campaign. The brand sets out to harass three poor unsuspecting souls who have been ratted out as not eating Domino’s.

The premise is that “only a handful” of people have not tried the new pizza recipe Domino’s came out with.

The mechanic: turn trial into a social bounty hunt

The mechanism is simple and slightly mean in a way that makes people watch. Identify the “holdout”. Make their resistance a story. Then recruit their friends as the distribution layer, so the campaign spreads through personal networks instead of brand channels alone. Because the invitation comes from someone you know, it carries social proof and mild pressure that paid media cannot.

In US quick-service marketing, “get them to try it once” is often the hardest job, because taste perceptions and jokes about quality can become cultural default settings.

Why it lands: public call-out plus a clear path to redemption

This works because the tension is real. People do have strong opinions about Domino’s. Making the holdout visible creates social pressure, but the campaign balances that pressure by offering an easy way out. Try the new recipe. Join the conversation. Stop being the exception.

Extractable takeaway: When you use public call-out, pair it with a low-friction “redemption” action so people can update their stance without losing face.

The real question is whether your trial problem is a product problem or a permission problem, and which one you can solve fastest.

The business intent: accelerate reappraisal of the product

This is not a love-brand play. It is a credibility reset. Domino’s wants lapsed and sceptical customers to re-test the product, so the “new recipe” can replace the old mental model.

After this, Domino’s reported doubling its profits last quarter to $23.6 million.

Forcing first trial at scale: practical moves

  • Make the barrier explicit. “You have not tried it” is a clearer friction point than “please consider our brand”.
  • Recruit friends, not audiences. Social pressure works best when it comes from someone the holdout knows.
  • Give the story a role people can play. “Bounty hunter” is a participation frame, not just a message.
  • Link the stunt to a measurable behaviour. The only KPI that matters here is trial, not views.

So do you know a pizza holdout? Find out how to become a Taste Bud Bounty Hunter at www.PizzaHoldouts.com. A “Taste Bud Bounty Hunter” is the friend who nominates a holdout and nudges them to try the new recipe.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Domino’s “Pizza Holdouts” in one sentence?

A campaign that targets people who still have not tried the “new” Domino’s recipe, using friends to identify them and turning first-trial into a playful hunt.

What is the core mechanism?

Social recruitment plus a role people can play. Friends “rat out” holdouts, and the brand reframes outreach as a bounty-hunt style participation story.

Why does using friends change the effectiveness?

Because social pressure is more persuasive when it comes from someone you know. The message is carried by relationships, not just media.

What is the real KPI this format is trying to move?

Trial. The stunt is designed to force the first bite, not just generate views or talk.

What is the most transferable takeaway?

If your growth problem is “first experience”, make the barrier explicit, recruit peer influence, and design a participation frame that points to the behaviour you want.