Belk Increases Multichannel Engagement Through "125 Days of Prizes" Campaign

PLEASANT RIDGE, MI--(Marketwired - Sep 11, 2013) - Southern retailer Belk, the nation's largest family-owned and operated department store, drew in nearly 220,000 registrants through daily prizes and giveaways in their "Belk's 125 Days of Prizes" campaign. Belk partnered with mobile, social and digital engagement provider ePrize to power the sweepstakes across a microsite, Facebook, and mobile channels. The multichannel campaign, which aimed to promote Belk's 125th anniversary and to increase consumer engagement with the brand, exceeded Belk's expectations for engagement across digital channels.

Specific areas of strength for the campaign included:

• Amount of Registrations: 219,575 consumers registered for the promotion. 79.6% of registrants opted-in to receive updates on future promotions, offers, and other news from Belk, a rate that exceeded ePrize benchmarks.
• Mobile Activity: Increased mobile database for recontact. 13.1% of registrants opted in to receive text messages sharing exclusive offers from Belk. The rate also exceeded ePrize's benchmarks for mobile opt ins.
• Social Engagement: Belk accrued more followers than expected across social media platforms:
  • Pinterest followers more than doubled, increasing from 7,247 pre-launch to 15,275 post-launch.
  • Facebook registrations reached 37,775, with 12,075 of registrants referring friends. There were a total of 61,695 Facebook posts on the campaign.
• Customer Engagement: There were over 2 million sweepstakes entries with an average of 9.6 entries per registrant. Consumers uploaded over 24,000 photos sharing their favorite Belk memories.

"Reaching our 125th year anniversary was a huge milestone for Belk, which is why we worked with ePrize to launch this unique campaign to thank our valued customers with a bevy of prizes," explains Jon Pollack of Belk, executive Vice President of Sales Promotion, Marketing & E-Commerce. "We were blown away with the strong engagement driven throughout the entire campaign, especially the mobile and social success. This success will only help us moving forward, as a way to further integrate multichannel engagement in our marketing efforts."

"Retailers today understand the significant impact successful mobile and social campaigns can have on the bottom line," explains Sara Kowal, Vice President of Innovation at ePrize. "Although it was no surprise that Belk saw increased levels of registrations and interaction throughout the '125 Days of Prizes' sweepstakes, we were impressed with the drastic shift in mobile and social engagement. We look forward to working with Belk to further establish them as mobile and social pioneers in the retail space."

About ePrize, Inc.
ePrize is a global leader in digital engagement. The company's multi-channel solutions enable the world's largest brands to create a dialogue with consumers on web, social, and mobile, and integrated with point of sale systems. All campaigns can be executed from a unified technology platform. Fortune 500 brands and world-class agencies rely on ePrize's creative, technology and legal services. ePrize has created promotional campaigns, CRM programs and loyalty solutions in 44 countries for clients like Coca-Cola, Microsoft, The Gap, Lenovo, NHL, Yahoo!, P&G and AT&T. Headquartered in Detroit, ePrize also has offices in Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, and Seattle. ePrize has acquired five companies in the last two years. See our press page on eprize.com for details or text CRM to 35350 for mobile demos and alerts.

About Belk, Inc.
Charlotte, N.C.-based Belk, Inc. (www.belk.com) is the nation's largest family owned and operated department store company with 301 Belk stores located in 16 Southern states and a growing digital presence. The company was founded in 1888 by William Henry Belk in Monroe, N.C., and is in the third generation of Belk family leadership.