##CHALLENGE

Maggiano’s Little Italy, a casual dining restaurant chain specializing in Italian-American cuisine, wanted to drive traffic to their website and promote their 44 nationwide locations across America to newly engaged couples as the ideal venues to host wedding events.

##SOLUTION + STRATEGY

Maggiano’s had couples share their blissful wishes through a photo and an essay, listing the top five things they’d like to experience together during their marriage. The contest ran in early Spring and attracted couples who had celebrated recent New Year’s Eve’s proposals and Valentine’s Day engagements.

With Strutta’s Contest PRO package, Maggiano’s gained:

• a contest template that was easy to transform through CSS
• the ability to customize content throughout the campaign
• a platform that allowed for submission, judging and voting rounds

Maggiano’s used the CSS style kit to keep the site design consistent, and swapped in fresh intro images communicate campaign milestones and highlights. Using simple HTML, Maggiano’s included links and buttons throughout the contest site to direct visitors to their website.

Strutta’s platform handled photo uploads and provided an interface for the contest’s judges to select finalists remotely. Maggiano’s named their winners with confience through a public voting round protected by Strutta’s proprietary Fraud Guard.

Maggiano’s executed a solid communications plan to promote the Bliss List contest. They posted regularly on Facebook and Twitter, issued press releases at contest milestone dates, and updated the contest site to reflect round changes.

During the submission round, Maggiano’s used the intro image to showcase the prizes and outline how to enter. While the judging and voting rounds were open, they highlighted the prizes. Once the contest was closed, they displayed the contest winners.

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##RESULTS

Maggiano’s saw the biggest pushes in traffic on contest milestone dates when communications included press releases, e-blasts and social media posts.

• 874 recently engaged couples submitted their Wish Lists
• 11,920 people across America voted for their favorite entry
• 8,850 people visited the contest the day it opened