“I can’t believe I still have this carpet.” That was the name of a contest Luna Carpet and Blinds, a Chicago shop-at-home retailer, promoted with Comcast Spotlight to lure viewers to vie for $2,500 worth of new carpet.

Through on-air spots running for two weeks, viewers were directed to Comcast’s QuickClicks.tv Web site to register by submitting photos of their “very ugly” carpet and an essay about why they needed to replace it.

“We received 150 essays and photos through the Web site that demonstrated why they wanted new carpet,” said Peter Heisinger, VP and general manager of Comcast Spotlight, Chicago. “That response was better than expected.” Another 50 viewers entered by mail, and entry forms also surveyed consumers with two carpet-related questions such as how soon do they expect to replace their carpet.

“We collected their info and followed up with an e-mail campaign. Now Luna has 149 qualified leads of people who are in the market for a carpet,” Mr. Heisinger said. “We are not just helping Luna brand their name, we are also bringing qualified customers to them.”

Luna independently ran a similar campaign last year, but it existed only on the Luna Web site and consumers voted for the winner online. In the cable version, all information could be found on Quickclicks.tv, there was no presence on lunacarpet.com and an independent vendor selected the winner.

“If I were to do something differently,” said Steve Dezara, VP of sales and marketing for Luna, who said he was very pleased with the Comcast results, “I would house it on my Web site and do a combination of online and third-party voting.” He would let the vendor narrow down the 200 to a top three or five, and let Web site visitors choose the winner from there based on the photo and “heartfelt responses.”