Delta Sonic Ran 99 Gleam Giveaways in Five Years

Delta Sonic has been Kissing Cars Clean since 1967. Over the last five years it has run 99 Gleam Competitions, and one of them, Bills Win, We All Win, drew 1,746 Entrants.

Delta Sonic runs car washes, detailing, oil changes, gas stations and convenience stores at 32 locations across Western and Central New York, Chicago and Erie, Pennsylvania. Its Unlimited Wash Club is a monthly membership.

Three Giveaway Formats

Delta Sonic runs three kinds of giveaway at once. One follows the calendar, one runs every week and one waits for something to happen in town.

Together they add up to more than one and a half giveaways a month.

Format One: The Seasonal Calendar

The first kind covers holidays, local occasions and seasonal events Delta Sonic’s customers already pay attention to.

Valentine’s Day. St. Patrick’s Day. 716 Day, a celebration of Buffalo’s own area code. National Dog Day. National Car Wash Day. The 12 Days of Super Kissmas ran from December 8 to 19 with a new prize each day, from unlimited washes and oil changes to gift cards and detailing.

Each one is themed for the occasion, designed in Delta Sonic’s visual style and entered with an email address.

The St. Patrick’s Day giveaway offered a month of Unlimited Super Kiss Plus Washes, a $50 Gas & Convenience Store Gift Card and a Super Interior Cleaning with Steam, a $132 value. There were 2 winners.

Format Two: Ticket Tuesday

Every Tuesday in season, Delta Sonic gives away tickets to a local game. The one pictured here offered 2 Rochester Americans tickets for Friday, January 9, 2026, against the Laval Rockets.

Delta Sonic holds official partnerships with local sports teams across its markets, including the Rochester Americans, Syracuse Crunch and Buffalo Bandits. Ticket Tuesday is how it activates those partnerships week after week.

The content changes by city. A customer in Buffalo gets Bills and Bandits content, Rochester gets Americans content and Syracuse gets Crunch content.

It also builds a habit. A customer who knows Delta Sonic gives away local tickets every Tuesday has a reason to check in every week, and not only when a holiday is coming up.

Format Three: Community Moments

The third kind is reactive, built around local moments as they happen.

Bills Win, We All Win runs when the Bills win. It drew 1,746 Entrants, more than twice the 754 of the Valentine’s Day giveaway, and it went live right after a Bills win.

Two more ran the same way. The NLL Finals Ticket Giveaway went live when the Buffalo Bandits reached the finals, co-branded with the team and promoted to both audiences. A photo contest asked customers to send in pictures of their limited-edition Buffalo Bills player pint glasses, so a merchandise purchase became user-generated content.

None of these can be planned months ahead. Delta Sonic can launch them quickly because the pieces are already in place: the Gleam account, the email list, the sports partnerships and the visual templates.

One Action per Entrant

The Valentine’s Day giveaway had a single Action, and it converted about 61% of its 1,227 Impressions.

Entries peaked on the first day and tapered off across the following week.

Tagged by City and Region

Delta Sonic collects an email address and location with every entry and tags each Entrant in Mailchimp by city and region.

Some Delta Sonic services are only available in specific locations. Some promotions are tied to local sports teams that only matter to customers in that market. When Delta Sonic ran a baseball promotion with teams in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Erie, each city got its own team’s offer.

David Cervi, Senior Designer at SM&B Advertising, explains how it works:

“Customers are tagged in our Mailchimp list, allowing us to properly segment everyone. While we do not take our campaigns down to specific locations, we do target customers based on city and region. Being able to take the information we receive in Gleam and break this out into campaigns is vital for our marketing.”

Existing Customers Coming Back

Most of the contacts Gleam sent to Mailchimp were already on Delta Sonic’s list. Its Gleam Integrations report shows 538 existing contacts and only 174 new.

For those customers, a Valentine’s Day entry is a reminder of Delta Sonic and of offers like the Unlimited Wash Club.

Giving Away Oil Changes and Interior Details

Almost every campaign gives away a Delta Sonic service: unlimited washes, oil changes, interior cleaning or an in-store gift card.

A winner who gets a month of unlimited washes is a strong candidate for the Unlimited Wash Club once the prize runs out.

While we are known for our great car wash services, we have a wide range of services that customers may not be aware of. Giving away oil changes or interior detail services allows us to educate customers and also, to get them to try a service they may not have known about. Our goal with all of these services is to impress customers so they will want to come back for more.

David Cervi, Senior Designer at SM&B Advertising

Key Growth Takeaways

So what can a local service business take from Delta Sonic’s three formats?

• Run three formats on separate schedules. A seasonal calendar, Ticket Tuesday and game-day giveaways add up to 99 campaigns in five years for Delta Sonic. Plan one holiday giveaway, one weekly slot and one local moment you can react to.

• Give away your own services. The St. Patrick’s Day prize bundled washes, a $50 gift card and an interior cleaning, a $132 value. Offer the service you most want customers to try,.

• Launch the day the team wins. Bills Win, We All Win runs only when the Bills win. Keep your templates, list and partner logos ready so you can launch the same day.

• Make the email the only Action. The Valentine’s Day giveaway asked for one Action and converted well over half its Impressions. Collect a city with each email so you can tag Entrants by region in Mailchimp.

• Send giveaways to existing customers. Most contacts in one Integrations report were already on the list. Email your current customers about each giveaway as a reminder of offers like the Unlimited Wash Club.