Our new Ray White Lighthouse office have launched a quirky little campaign that is quickly taking flight out on East Auckland’s Pohutukawa Coast. Their weekly duck hunt, a social media campaign, launched by the team on 1 August has seen traffic to the Ray White Lighthouse Facebook Page grow substantially in the first few weeks alone.
Each Friday the team release a weekly clue on their Facebook Page as to their Ray White yellow duck’s whereabouts – enabling local school kids and families to then go on a weekend duck hunt with the first family finding the duck (and returning it to the Ray White Lighthouse office) receiving ice-creams from local business Pepperjacks Restaurant, Cafe & Bar.
The idea, thought up by the Ray White Lighthouse team, has since become a collective effort with clues and ideas being enthusiastically written and submitted now by not only team members, but also partners, friends and family. “We are having a great time with the campaign, and get a kick out of writing and brainstorming the rhymes and riddles” says Karin Gillson from Ray White Lighthouse.
Their first week’s clue: Our Ray White Duck is lost somewhere in Pine Harbour Marina! Find him & post a pic of yourself in the location on our page to win! Return the Duck to our office & we’ll reward you with ice-creams for 4 at Pepperjacks Restaurant, Cafe & Bar! – Here’s a clue to get you started… “in Latin ‘Ros Marinus’ – meaning Dew of the Sea, scratch around in the undergrowth and you’ll be sure to find me!” Was then followed up with the additional clue – sent by private message to those who ‘liked’ and shared the post online: Time to put your culinary skills to the test..Roast duck wouldn’t work with this, lamb would be best… The Ray White duck was later found hidden in a rosemary bush right outside the Ray White Lighthouse office in the marina. – The above photo of week one’s winner with the duck was extremely popular in the local community!
Keith Ashkettle, Ray White New Zealand Head of Technology says “online engagement is showing increased benefits to local businesses and indeed our own Ray White offices – whether it be engaging people socially or via targeted advertising through social platforms. We have seen offices use social media to increase traffic to their own websites and indeed listings – and have seen enquiry rise as a direct result of such campaigns… We certainly commend our offices who continue to learn about, and engage in, this medium.”
Ray White Lighthouse‘s dedicated Facebook campaign has seen the team grow their online audience by approximately 23% (in terms of total page likes) – with the reach of their posts jumping dramatically and recent posts to their page now performing on average 95% better than previous posts by the team. Ray White Lighthouse have also just started advertising the promotion in their local Pohutukawa Coast Times lift-out with the aim of directing traffic to their page and increasing their online audience. “After just the first week, where a young girl from a local school found the duck , our audience grew substantially – as the girl had managed to engage and excite a large number of kids at her school – who were all then looking forward to the next weeks’ clue so that they too could take part” says Rex Bignell, of Ray White Lighthouse “We have long been a part of the Pohutakawa Coast Community, and it really is rewarding to see little campaigns such as this yielding such enthusiasm and support from locals.”
To date the team have only one resident, and much loved, Ray White duck – but with the weekly duck hunt’s popularity growing, and with no end in sight, the team may just have to invest in a body-double duck (just in case).