Christmas was near in 2014 and Cracker Barrel wanted to give their fans and followers an early surprise: exclusive discounts on last-minute gift ideas. The goal? Boost last-minute sales while making customers jolly.

Our collaborative solution was simple. To convey a sense of exclusivity and urgency, the 10-Day Country Christmas Countdown was born. Ten deals focusing on ten product categories would be revealed daily on various social channels within the ten days leading up to Christmas Eve.

With a limited media budget, every post needed to propel engagement through organic sharing. We studied fans’ historical behavior to develop 10 themes we knew would resonate. For example, Cracker Barrel fans happen to love handmade, DIY projects. Gift cards were a category we wanted to highlight, and with their history as an impersonal gift, we knew a gift card DIY could make the idea feel extra special, making it more gift-worthy for both givers and receivers. To further enhance shareability of each post, we pushed the art direction to be sure that, as we shrank the promotional message in each graphic to occupy only 20% of the space (a Facebook standard), we were still showing off the products in a unique way that would both communicate the deal and spark enough visual interest to earn the share. We let the products become our eye-catching, artful focal point—and it worked.

On Facebook alone, our Country Countdown posts garnered 141% more visible engagement than previous posts, and the custom campaign cover photo pulled in 2.3 times the visible engagement earned by cover photos past. With some posts gaining up to 10,000 interactions, this campaign truly amplified Cracker Barrel’s seasonal social presence—all while creating a desirable, cross-channel customer experience. And we like to believe it helped fill many-a-stocking with that perfect little something on Christmas Day.