Case Study: San Diego Union Tribune achieves $250K in revenue growth with Second Street Lab

Best of San Diego Ballot Captures $250K for Union Tribune

San Diego Union Tribune, formerly U-T San Diego, wanted to turn its long-running Best of San Diego Readers’ Poll into a fully digital promotion that could replace labor-intensive paper ballot processing and generate more revenue. The challenge was to modernize nominations and voting while still engaging local businesses and readers across more than 1,500 businesses in 177 categories.

Second Street Lab implemented a digital ballot platform with separate nomination and voting phases, supported by print and online advertising packages, landing pages, and promotional assets for advertisers. The campaign generated more than $250,000 in revenue, a 52% year-over-year increase, and drove strong engagement with 47,405 registered users, 550,526 votes, and more than 720,000 pageviews.

San Diego Union Tribune

Brian Murphy

Interactive Ad Operations Manager