9 Businesses Using Pinterest Contests to Drive Traffic and Exposure

HuHot's Pinterest Contest made it to number 3 on Social Media Examiner's list!

HuHot is the fastest-growing Mongolian grill concept in the United States. HuHot launched a Pin It to Win It contest during the month of June, 2012. The participants had to create a HuHot recipe and pin it on one of their own pinboards in order to enter the contest.

HuHot created a landing page on their website describing the contest details. A pinboard grill meal contest was also created where all the entries were repinned.

Repinned recipe to grill meal contest pinboard created by HuHot.

An attractive contest teaser was displayed prominently at the HuHot website homepage and shared at their Pinterest account linking to the landing page.

Well-designed teaser for the HuHot Grill Meal contest.

The contest had no complex set of rules and could be executed with ease. The contest helped HuHot gain new followers, collect a variety of recipe and food styling ideas, and generate brand awareness.

Here are the details of the contest:

• Participants pin a photo of a HuHot grill meal.
• Participants write the recipe of their creation in the description and include the word “HuHot” so that HuHot can repin it.

Prize: Five winners are chosen. The grand prize is a $100 gift card, and each of the other four winners receives a $25 gift card.

Best Pinboard Contest

In this type of contest, contestants create a pinboard under the contest rules, and the company selects the best entry.

To read the full article click here.

Press Release

HuHot Contest Ups Pinterest Followers by 30 Percent

During the month of June, HuHot Mongolian Grill tapped into a new social media obsession by inviting Facebook fans to participate in a “Grill Meal” contest on Pinterest.

The HuHot franchise is among the first pioneers to do this in the restaurant industry. During the contest, its followers increased from 119 to 169. That’s a 30 percent increase in a month’s time and can be attributed to HuHot leading the Mongolian Grill community on Pinterest. Continue reading...

Originally published in QSR Online Magazine.