Anywhere for Christmas: Win 4 Free Airline Tickets Up to $4,000

Campaign Overview

Flights From Home sends cheap flight alerts customized to a subscriber's home airport, out of hubs like Salt Lake City, Las Vegas and Phoenix. In 2019 it ran four giveaways on giveaway.flightsfromhome.com, and the biggest was its Christmas campaign. The headline offered flights from Salt Lake City or Las Vegas "ANYWHERE For Christmas" and promised "4 Free Airline Tickets Up To $4,000." The sub-headline was just as direct: "You pick the destination, you pick the airline," followed by "Join our email list and enter to win!"

The campaign ran from August 20 to December 2, 2019. 50,047 people signed up and 36,887 of them confirmed their email, from 230,971 page views. Entrants also logged 51,794 bonus actions, including 25,703 Instagram follows.

Campaign Strategy

The prize was the product's promise at its most generous. Flights From Home exists to get people cheaper flights, so the giveaway offered free ones: airline tickets up to $4,000 for the winner and up to three friends or family members, to any destination on any airline, valid for travel from December 7, 2019 to January 31, 2020. The page suggested ideas like Hallstatt in Austria, Angkor Wat in Cambodia and Kauai in Hawaii, and framed the giveaway as a celebration of subscribers saving what the brand estimated at more than $2 million on flights over the past year.

Entering was the product sign-up. The form joined the Flights From Home email list, so every entrant started receiving the deal alerts the brand is built on. Confirming earned 10 points, and there were only three bonus actions:

• Follow on Instagram (25 pts).
• Like on Facebook (50 pts).
• Share on Facebook (50 pts).

The short list kept entry quick, which suits a broad travel audience and a campaign that stayed open for fifteen weeks. The travel window opened five days after entries closed, so the winner could take the trip over the holidays the headline promised.

Viral Mechanics & Growth Engine

Referrals were the main lever. Each referred friend earned 50 points, twice the value of an Instagram follow and equal to 40% of all three bonus actions combined (125 points). Three referrals outscored every task on the page. And because the prize covered up to four travelers, the natural people to invite were the friends or family an entrant would take along.

The social tasks were cheap in points but high in volume. 25,703 Instagram follows were logged, roughly one for every two sign-ups, along with 19,377 Facebook likes and 6,714 Facebook shares. Each share put a free Christmas trip in front of the entrant's own friends during the months when people plan holiday travel.

The campaign also built on what came before it. Flights From Home's earlier 2019 giveaways on the domain had no bonus actions at all and paid 10 points per referral. The Christmas campaign added the three social tasks and raised the referral value to 50 points.

Results & Impact

• 50,047 sign-ups, of which 36,887 confirmed their email (74%).
• 230,971 page views over a window of about 15 weeks.
• 51,794 completed bonus actions: 25,703 Instagram follows, 19,377 Facebook likes and 6,714 Facebook shares.
• The largest of four 2019 campaigns on the domain by both confirmed entrants and page views.
• Across the four campaigns, Flights From Home collected 157,643 sign-ups and 102,198 confirmed entrants.

The series used the same idea each time: a specific trip, a clear price cap and entry through the email list. A Disneyland trip for two from Salt Lake City in March 2019 drew 27,520 confirmed entrants, a Hawaii trip for two drew 33,975, and a Las Vegas to Hawaii giveaway marking the launch of Flights From Home Las Vegas drew 3,816 in August. The Christmas campaign widened the prize from two travelers to four and the destination from one place to anywhere.

Why This Strategy Works

For a subscription product, the most efficient prize is the product's result delivered in full. A deals newsletter normally has to convince people that the savings are real; this giveaway skipped that step by handing out the savings outright, and every entrant who confirmed was now receiving the alerts that show how it works. The prize also sold itself on the page, because "anywhere" lets each visitor picture a different trip.

The mechanics then did the spreading. A prize designed for a group turned referrals into a natural conversation with family and friends, and the long window let the campaign keep collecting through the whole holiday-planning season. For any deals newsletter, travel brand or city-by-city subscription service trying to grow its list in a new market, this is the template worth copying.

Key Takeaways

1. Give away the outcome your product promises. Free flights from a cheap-flights newsletter needs no explanation.
2. Make entering the same as subscribing. The form joined the email list, so every one of the 36,887 confirmed entrants was a subscriber to the product itself.
3. Let the winner bring people. A prize for up to four travelers gave entrants an obvious group to invite, and 50-point referrals rewarded inviting them.
4. Keep the task list short for a broad audience. Three social actions still produced 51,794 completions.
5. Iterate across a series. Moving from referral-only campaigns to referrals plus social tasks produced the largest campaign of the year.