The Social Path

Our coolest Facebook app turns up the heat for McAlister's.

Here at Luckie, we're getting ready to wind down one of our most fun social media promotions to date, so I wanted to invite each of you to check it out before the big finale.

The promotion is The Quest for Tea Town USA, a summer Facebook contest we launched with McAlister's Deli last year and saw great results. This year, we ramped up the promotion in a lot of ways, making it one of the most engaging contests I've seen on Facebook.

Fans seem to agree. We've had more than 150,000 votes in the contest, and the McAlister's fan base has grown by more than 180% in just five weeks. Best of all, the deli chain is seeing great foot traffic being generated by the promotion, and we haven't even reached the exciting conclusion: Free Tea Day on Thursday, July 28.

Here's how the promotion works:

New work: Tea Town USA Facebook app for McAlister's.

We don't normally plug our client work here on The Social Path (though if you're interested, you can find more of that kind of stuff on Luckie's agency blog, The ReThink Tank). But I wanted you all to get a chance to see our current promotion in real time, since we'll be shutting it down at the end of the month.

Tea Town USA is a Facebook competition among all 236 communities that have a local McAlister's Deli. Each vote for your favorite town is a point, and the town with the most points by the end of July will be crowned Tea Town USA, which comes with $5,000 for new shade trees or park improvements.

The response has been absolutely explosive, with more than 30,000 people casting more than 67,000 votes in the first two weeks. Some communities are really rallying to the cause, as you can see from news coverage in Charlotte, N.C., and Longview, Texas. 

Here's a video update posted today:

Best of all, the McAlister's Deli Tea Freaks Facebook Page has become a bustling hub of activity since the campaign launched, with thousands of fan interactions such as likes, comments and posts.

So if you get a minute to check it out, visit the Tea Town USA Facebook app or TeaTownUSA.com and cast a vote for your favorite McAlister's community. And if you haven't gotten to try McAlister's famous iced tea, you should swing by a location on July 29, Free Tea Day, for a 100% free glass. It's some seriously good stuff.