Costcutter has heralded what it says has proved one of its most successful campaigns to date, with retailers selling £320,000 worth of campaign-specific products eight weeks in to the 12-week bonanza.

The Summer Free campaign, launched on 22 June, has reached a record number of consumers, boosted social media engagement, and achieved a record number of competition entries and increased sales for the companies’ retailers.

The campaign offers 68,000 prizes including products in-store, tickets to festivals and sporting events, barbecues, FitBits and a star prize of a luxury Caribbean holiday worth up to £10,000.

The in-store prizes range from ice lollies to summer picnic essentials, and change throughout the campaign to maintain shopper interest and encourage more participation.

Michael Hooley, head of promotional marketing, Costcutter Supermarkets Group, said: “This is evolving into one of our most successful campaigns to date, in terms of driving shoppers into store and generating interest and positive engagement through social media.”

“Over 25,000 customers engaged with our Set Summer Free social content and we added nearly 4,000 new followers. The campaign has already achieved total reach on Twitter of almost one million and on Facebook fast approaching 400,000.”

Hooley said summer was a key trading period and with fewer sporting events taking place this year, Costcutter wanted to help retailers drive footfall and increase their sales opportunities.

Danni Cullen, manager of Costcutter’s Bromsgrove store, in Worcestershire, said shoppers were responding “really well to the simple device of taking promotional leaflets into store to check if their code matches the winning number displayed on our in-store POS”.

It was bringing new shoppers into the store and increasing the number of visits from regular customers, she said.