And the Winner of Esurance’s $1.5 Million Twitter Sweepstakes Is…

The winner of the Esurance $1.5 million Twitter sweepstakes was revealed last night on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC.

Aunt Chippy from Jimmy Kimmel Live! interviewed the winner to get his reaction to the news that his Tweet beat the estimated 3.3 million to 1 odds of becoming the winning entry.

The winner was a 29-year old man named John in northern California who was sporting a San Francisco 49ers cap. He said he and his wife are expecting a baby. His full name and location were kept secret for safety reasons.

View last night’s winner reveal on YouTube here: http://youtu.be/mcVmasEVWDc

Esurance announced the 36-hour sweepstakes in a television commercial that aired following the conclusion of Sunday’s Super Bowl. Entrants simply had to tweet the hashtag #EsuranceSave30 to enter for a chance to win $1.5 million.

The sweepstakes resulted in huge visibility for Esurance. Media firm Nielsen said that Esurance was the most-tweeted about brand during Super Bowl festivities, surpassing global brands like Coca-Cola, Budweiser and T-Mobile.

“Leveraging Twitter for the sweepstakes was a great way for us to connect with people in a fast, modern, and efficient way that reflects the Esurance brand,” said Esurance Vice President of Marketing Darren Howard.

Sweepstakes data from Esurance measured the buzz that the 36-hour sweepstakes generated on Twitter and across the Internet:

• 5.4 million uses of the #EsuranceSave30 hashtag
• More than 200,000 entries within the first minute of the Esurance commercial airing
• 1.4 million hashtag uses in the first hour and 4.5 million in the first 24 hours
• 2.6 billion social impressions on Twitter
• 332,000 views of the Esurance commercial on YouTube
• 261,000 new followers on the official Esurance Twitter account – an increase of nearly 3,000 percent
• A 12x spike in visits to the Esurance website in the first hours of the sweepstakes