Podcast audiences are accustomed to ads with calls to action, usually to apply a discount code on a sponsor’s website. Codes save the audience money, but mostly benefit marketers looking to measure ad effectiveness. Pushing a discount code at Reply All listeners didn’t appeal to MailChimp, but we still wanted to experiment with a call to action.

We wanted to help grow the audience’s relationship with our brand in a tangible, genuine, and fun way. Why not host a giveaway?

Our users are obsessed with vinyl action figures we make of our mascot, Freddie. So we decided to design some colorful variations on “classic” Freddie and release limited-edition batches of them to Reply All listeners at 10 random times throughout the year.

We announced each giveaway time exclusively through our sponsorship spot on Reply All. The ad sent listeners to mailchimp.com/replyall, where they could claim their own Freddie—if there were any left.

We built mailchimp.com/replyall to host the giveaway and collect orders. The design of the page was nostalgic and playful, reflecting the personality of the 10 different Freddie designs. We made a short video about each Freddie to tell a fun backstory and increase intrigue.

The first giveaway occurred March 4, 2015 and consisted of 800 classic Freddies. We gave away 1,200 Freddies for each of the next 5 giveaways. For the final 4, we distributed 3,000 each. The last giveaway occurred March 17, 2016.

Reply All’s hosts created a new ad for each giveaway to describe the Freddie’s special features. (Swamp Thing Freddie was green and fuzzy, and Nite Crew Freddie glowed in the dark!) We had no input on the podcast spots—we just wanted them to have fun with it. For weeks where we didn’t have a Freddie giveaway, the hosts read our traditional MailChimp spot.

Reply All’s audience grew from 80,000 to 400,000 downloads per episode. Our 10 ads received 2,800,000 impressions. Mailchimp.com/replyall received 205,000 unique impressions and 435,000 pageviews. More than 1,100 social media posts mentioned the giveaway.

In our first giveaway, listeners claimed 800 Freddies in 1 week. By our final giveaway, listeners claimed 3000 Freddies in 8 minutes. Entrepreneurial listeners now sell Freddies on eBay, sometimes for more than $50 each. Others created an independent trading site. We didn’t anticipate inspiring secondary markets, but that’s the best sign we successfully grew an appetite for MailChimp’s brand.

“The Mailchimp Freddie giveaway was the highest engagement campaign we’ve ever run on Gimlet. Also the weirdest, also the most fun. It’s the only podcast campaign that created its own real life subculture, including a Freddie secondary market and Freddie listening parties.” - Matt Lieber, Gimlet Media President