Ahold Delhaize's Food Lion ran a wide variety of promotions during college basketball season.The chain kicked off activity in January by teaming up with Coca-Cola Co. for an essay contest activating their joint sponsorship of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association's Women's Basketball Tournament. Students at the conference's schools entered from Jan. 4-27 via ciaatournament.org by submitting a 500- to 700-word essay answering the question "As a student at a CIAA school, how could you have a positive impact on relationships within the community?" Four grand-prize winners received a $5,000 scholarship and a trip to attend the tournament in Charlotte, NC, from Feb. 25-26. Fifteen runners-up received a $1,000 scholarship.Food Lion also sponsored the Miss CIAA scholarship pageant, deploying a home page carousel ad and social media updates soliciting votes. The chain donated $2,000 to food banks in the hometowns of both the winner and runner-up, who were announced at the tournament. A series of social media posts touted the retailer's 23-year sponsorship of the CIAA and its pledge to donate five meals to local food banks for every post made using the hashtag #BallinOnHunger.Food Lion continued tying hunger relief to basketball during the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I Men's Basketball tournament with a "Food Lion Feeds Meal Madness" food drive running in stores from March 26 to April 8. The chain also positioned 30 food banks within its operating area against each other on social media in a bracket-style competition running from March 21 to April 3. Consumers voted on Facebook or Twitter for which charity would advance in each round. Food Lion donated 500 meals to all contestants and upped the contribution for every round they won.Food Lion also worked with tournament sponsor Coca-Cola on a sweepstakes awarding seven winners a $500 store gift card for a "home viewing party" and 200 runners-up a $25 card. MVP loyalty cardholders entered from March 22-28 by purchasing five qualifying SKUs of Coca-Cola or Powerade. A feature in the digital version of the chain's March 22 circular introduced the sweeps.Tournament sponsor Mondelez International also received special attention with a March 29 circular feature offering loyalty cardholders $5 off the purchase of five eligible SKUs from March 29 to April 4. In stores, products from the manufacturer were grouped alongside items from Anheuser-Busch InBev's Bud Light and PepsiCo's Tostitos in floorstands employing a "Shoot for Savings" message.Food Lion additionally offered $1 off a future receipt to cardholders who purchased four private label SKUs from March 22 to April 11, capping the savings at $10. Radio spots, run-of-press ads in newspapers such as The Charlotte Post, display ads on websites including tasteofhome.com, circular features, email ads and a home page carousel ad on foodlion.com used a basketball theme to promote the incentive.