Vector is now Happy Cog

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Wendy’s

With the idea for a photo-upload contest, the Wendy’s account tapped the development team at Vector Media Group based on its proven achievements coding social programs.

Situation Promote the New Bacon Portabella Melt by Engaging Fans

Vector Media Group partnered with Wendy’s to launch their new cheeseburger melt. The brand marketed incentives to their Facebook fans via Facebook stories, Timeline posts and banner media elsewhere, but they wanted to create something readers would want to share. The site would house rich content, and Wendy’s required a level of expertise that ranged from video players and photo galleries to Facebook authentication and Open Graph. Our dev team instantly immersed themselves in the delicious melt project.

Action Encourage Sharing and Return Visits

The real goal was promotion and raising awareness, so our dev team took that into account when building every piece. We coded custom sharing functionality into the app so that each photo entry and video was shareable to social channels including Twitter, Google+, Email, and of course Facebook. During the finalist phase, every entry shared was a vote to send that entrant to NYC. The shares spiked as friends supported the melt makers. To keep track of these views, our team leveraged Facebook Open Graph. They coded each piece of content as a custom object and each share as a custom action to uncover reader behaviors. The precise analytics would inform future Facebook campaigns as well as determine the finalists. When the shares were tallied, five finalists were flown to NYC to cook their melts for a judging panel in the hopes of winning the $5,000 prize.

Task Build a Multi-Phase, User-Generated Facebook Tab

So, how do you like your melt? When the app creative launched, it asked fans to upload a photo of how they make their melt at home. We built a custom CMS to archive each entrant’s melt photo, personalized melt name and a description. Plus, by authenticating each submission through Facebook, the melt-makers’ names and profile pictures were displayed with their entries. The number of initial uploads was remarkable and it only grew – almost doubling every week. Given the volume of entries, the Wendy’s team required a moderation interface to approve or reject each entry. We were able to build an intuitive interface that allowed the moderators at Wendy’s to quickly screen each entry so they could be shared from the gallery. Our dev experts built 3 versions of the app: the entry phase, the finalist phase, and the post-winner gallery. To encourage viral sharing, we knew the entry phase had just as much potential as the finalist phase. So our team coded the app to post “I submitted” messages with custom thumbnails and deep links to their entries on their Timelines upon upload. This garnered more traffic, bringing new visitors to the app to add their photo to the mix.

Result High Engagement and Viral Reach

With sharing as a priority, the development of the site supported the brand’s No. 1 goal of increasing awareness. This is represented by the 18,000 monthly active users, 103,000 Facebook Story impressions and goal-surpassing shares. The fan interaction with the brand due to the seamless build of the app also exceeded expectations. In the end, the number of uploads exceeded client expectations with 90% opting to keep the app and boast about their melt post-contest.

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