Future Shoppers build virtual hockey pads
In a new user-generated promotion, the electronics chain asks users to build their own dream living room with its products - then invite friends over for a virtual playoff party.
Future Shop is asking hockey fans to build their own virtual living room in a new Hockey Playoff Pad contest and promotion for their high def products. Visitors to the microsite choose the décor and furnishings, plus the good stuff like various flat-panel LCD and HD television sets, sub-woofers and floor and wall speakers.
Targeting the web-savvy demo (18-to-35 skewed male), the grand prize winner ($5,000 Sony home theatre system) is not necessarily the best interior designer. Once the pad is built, creators are asked to invite over as many friends as they can through social networking site Facebook, compiling an online guestlist. The pad with the most ‘guests’ wins, and newcomers are tempted to create their own living rooms with the possibility of winning secondary draw prizes.
Future Shop wanted to send the message that they can maximize customers’ playoff experience in HD sight and sound, says Allen Chen, Future Shop senior manager online marketing and customer insight. ‘We could have bought ads to tell that story, but instead we wanted to create this platform that would allow consumers to tell the story for us,’ he tells MiC.
The BC-based electronics chain normally capitalizes on hockey games aired in-store, and saw this as another way to engage fans. The Hockey Playoff Pad contest runs until April 30, and will be promoted with flyers and on screens in store, as well as banner ads on the Future Shop website.
