Online insurance firm Esurance is leveraging mobile social to make it easy for attendees at the Bite of Seattle festival to share their favorite foods for a chance to win a prize.

As a sponsor of this month?s food festival, Esurance decided to leverage Twitter for a sweepstakes designed to create a fun and interactive experience for attendees. To enter the Tweet What You Eat Sweepstakes, attendees can tweet their favorite dishes from festival and include either @esurance or #tweetwhatyoueat.

?It makes sense to leverage Twitter for sweepstakes because it is very mobile-friendly and easy for people to use on the go, which is the goal at Bite of Seattle,? said Christina Curas, public relations specialist at Esurance, San Francisco.

?We want people to share photos and tweet what they eat, while mentioning our brand and the brand of the vendor, using hash tags,? she said. ?Twitter?s platform makes the most sense for this type of promotion.?

Interactive experiences
Everyone who tweets is eligible to pick up a prize at the Esurance booth at the festival.

There are also two random drawings each day for prizes ranging from a Chocolate Indulgence Food Tour for four to gift cards from Sur La Table, RN74 and Dean & DeLuca.

The grand prize is a private food tour for 12 people in Seattle.

Attendees are also encouraged to include the restaurant or food vendor's official name or Twitter handle in their tweet to help their favorite vendor win a $4,000 cash prize at the end of the weekend. The restaurant with the most tweets will win the cash.

?The goal is to provide a fun and interactive experience for the attendees,? Ms. Curas said.

?With any sponsorship we do, we want to provide something for the attendees and in this case the vendors that will make their experience more enjoyable or offer something useful,? she said.

?We incorporate technology into everything we do to enhance peoples experience at festivals or sporting events since Esurance?s philosophy is based on the approach of providing innovative technology that empowers consumers and makes experiences better.?

Esurance is also supporting the festival?s bigger focus on recycling and composting by providing ten sorting stations.

Mobile friendly
Mobile is playing an important role for insurance companies such as Esurance to help them connect with users on the go. For example, Esurance offers mobile apps enabling users to file a claim or pay a bill as well as a mobile Web site.

The online insurance firm is among the growing number of companies leveraging Twitter sweepstakes as a way to boost their mobile strategies (see story).

?Basically everything we do is meant to be mobile-friendly,? Ms. Curas said.

?We are a company born online and continue to offer a wealth of easy-to-use online tools as well as expert 24/7 service to make car insurance smarter from quote to claim,? she said. ?Everything we do, including our mobile features, are designed to save customers time, hassle and money.?

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor at Mobile Marketer, New York