Kohl's Black Friday Sweepstakes Gives Retailer a Boost on Twitter

By Nathalie Tadena 

The Kohl's Black Friday sweepstakes is gaining the retailer lots of much-needed chatter on Twitter.

Consumers who retweet one of Kohl's #Kohlssweepstakes tweets are eligible to win prizes such as tickets to the upcoming Star Wars movie or kitchen appliances. The grand prize for retweeting the product promotions is a shot at winning all 30 featured gifts.

The social sweepstakes campaign has earned Kohl's more than 112,000 mentions on Twitter in the last three days, more than any other brand, according to data from social marketing firm Spredfast. Kohl's has a track record of using Twitter to drum up consumer buzz around the holidays in the past.

Outdoor retailer REI has earned the second-highest number of Twitter mentions -- 48,554 -- in the last three days thanks to its #optoutside campaign, per Spredfast's data. REI's stores are closed this Black Friday to encourage customers to spend the day outside instead of shopping. In the week leading up to Black Friday, REI's #optoutside hashtag had been mentioned more than 290,000 times on Twitter, nearly double the mentions REI received in the same period a year ago, Spredfast found. REI is a Spredfast customer.

Amazon was the third most mentioned brand on Twitter in the past three days, with more than 19,000 mentions. Target, also a Spredfast customer, came in fourth with more than 18,000 mentions. Victoria's Secret came in fifth with more than 16,000 mentions on Twitter.

Marketing has been key this year to get customers shopping online and in stores on Black Friday weekend. Though crowds of consumers are still flocking to malls, Americans are making fewer visits to stores for their holiday shopping and making more purchases online. The National Retail Federation projects total holiday retail sales, including in-store and online, to increase 3.7% this year.

Write to Nathalie Tadena at [e-mail]

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 27, 2015 16:23 ET (21:23 GMT)

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