Esurance To Give Away $1.5 Million On Twitter

Using the #EsuranceSave30 hashtag after the Super Bowl will count as an entry to potentially win $1.5 million. It's the biggest sum of money ever given away on the social network.

Actor John Krasinski announcing Esurance's Twitter giveaway.

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Running the first TV commercial after the Super Bowl is 30% — or $1.5 million — cheaper than buying one during the big game, according to Esurance. So the auto-insurer is giving that sum away to one random person who uses its #EsuranceSave30 hashtag on Twitter tonight in the social network's biggest-ever monetary giveaway.

John Krasinski, who's done voiceovers for Esurance commercials since 2011, will appear for the first time in one of the company's ads tonight to announce the sweepstakes, Esurance told BuzzFeed. The pitch is that Esurance literally passes savings on to its customers, whether it's through a contest or its auto insurance.

Anyone who uses the hashtag between 4 p.m. EST today and 4 a.m. Tuesday will be entered, regardless of what they actually say in the tweet, the company said. Every tweet counts as a separate submission, and there isn't a cap for how many times a person can enter, but they have to have a public account. Automated tweets will be ineligible.

Twitter has been working with marketers for months on Super Bowl campaigns, even offering them free consulting to lock down advertising dollars in the future, the Wall Street Journal reported last week. The newly-public company is aiming to show investors it's more than just a free vehicle for advertisers to promote their brands.

The auto insurer, which paid for sponsored tweets tied to the contest, said that it chose to run the sweepstakes on Twitter because it's the "the simplest, most modern means available," citing the millions of users on the network.

Esurance's contest would indicate a 30-second Super Bowl ad costs $5 million, though it's been reported the average commercial slot has gone for ("just") a record $4 million this year.

The winner will be announced Wednesday on Jimmy Kimmel Live. It's only open to U.S. Twitter users, excluding Alaska and Hawaii, based on sweepstakes laws. Esurance said it anticipates millions of tweets.

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