Many artists and bands on now on their summer concert tours hitting local venues across the country. One of our clients who is a Boston-based local company has decided to take advantage of this and invest some of their marketing budget towards reaching these fans. They decided to become a sponsor of all the Live Nation concerts taking place in the Boston area this summer season.

BusyDog-Live-NationBusydog1Basement Technologies is that company. They have been providing basement waterproofing and foundation repairs for over 45 years. They go by the name of 1-800-Busy-Dog and promote their toll free number at all the events that they attend. You could find them in the past at Red Sox Games at Fenway Park or Celtic Games at the TD Garden. This summer music season you can find at the the Xfinity Center (formerly Comcast Center) in Mansfield, MA and the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion in Boston, MA at various concerts happening up till early September.

BusyDog-Text-to-WinThey wanted to make their Live Nation sponsorship really pay off, so we are assisting them with running a mobile marketing campaign. The 1-800-Busy-Dog Summer Souvenir Sweepstakes invites attendees of these events to text the keyword, BusyDog, to a shortcode for a chance to win a prize package consisting of merchandise item(s) related to that Event’s performing artist(s) or venue. There is also a mobile optimized entry form that they can enter instead if they choose not to use the text entry method.

We are working again with our mobile partner, Signal Engage,  and utilizing their platform to run each of these sweepstakes promotions. The platform is scheduled to start a new sweepstakes on each day of an Event and end it by 8:30 pm that evening. It automatically draws a winner at that time and notifies the winner by sending them a text message back to the mobile phone number they used to enter. The winner at that event then needs to visit the 1-800-Busy-Dog tent in the venue by 9 pm, show their winner message on their phone, and receive their prize.

All of the people that enter each of the sweepstakes are also being opted in to a 1-800 Busy Dog SMS list in which they agree to receive up to 2 text messages maximum per month from Busy Dog. All entrants can unsubscribe at any time. Busy Dog would like to send out messages to them during times of heavy rain to remind people of the services they offer.

signal_engage_logo_blackThe platform we are using from Signal Engage not only allows for text and online entry, but also may include a Sponsor’s Facebook page as well. We’ve run some other promotions for clients with this platform that have included all three methods of entry. The company Signal recently was acquired by another Chicago-based firm call BrightTag. They just recently announced that BrightTag is adopting the Signal name and the Signal product is now called Signal Engage.

We’re glad to have been one of the early customers of Signal and have helped them get their business to this stage. I look forward to our continued business relationship and introducing many more of our clients to their products. So far the folks at 1-800-Busy Dog have been happy with the results of the program and by the end of the summer they should be able to communicate via text message with a good number of local homeowners.

World Cup BrazilEverywhere you look right now it seems you see and read something related to the 2014 World Cup. I recently came across some stats that compared the number of people worldwide that watched the 2014 Super Bowl vs. the final match of the last World Cup in 2010 and it was 111.5 million vs. 909.6 million. This did surprise me on how big a difference there really is. So since I normally dedicate quite a few weeks of blog posts to the Super Bowl, I thought I should at least write one on the World Cup.

It’s not just TV viewers that are bigger either. According to Adobe Social they came up with this interesting infographic and claim that the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil will be the most social sporting event ever. It will most likey tally more social media mentions than the 2014 Winter Olympic Games or Super Bowl XLVIII. Adobe Social studied more than 69 million social mentions from Facebook, Google Plus, Reddit, Twitter, Dailymotion, Flickr, Instagram, Tumblr, vKontakte, Disqus, Foursquare, Metacafe, WordPress, YouTube, and blogs to determine this.

Twitter has published an entire article explaining how to follow the #WorldCup action online. It also created this short video posted on YouTube called #WorldCup on Twitter: Love every second.

eMarketer just released these stats in which Facebook tied with SMS for the top way US smartphone users following the FIFA World Cup planned to communicate with others about the games while watching.

The major World Cup Sponsors appear to all be big into hashtags this year. Visa is a worldwide partner or the World Cup Brazil. They have launched a huge integrated campaign which includes television, print, digital, social, mobile and local tournament elements. Kevin Burke, global chief marketing officer for Visa says. “It underscores our brand platform of ‘Everywhere you want to be. We know people want to be at the World Cup, and we want to help them get there.”

Visa has created a portal, www.worldcup.visa.com, where fans can engage in various content. The site shows off 90-second sharable films (which employ the same format and soundtrack) created by 32 filmmakers showing off how their country celebrates the World Cup. It also includes a “tele-transporter” through which fans can insert their faces into a series of World Cup-themed videos that can then be shared across social networks.

Mondelez, maker of snacks including Oreo cookies and Ritz crackers, set up a the #PassTheLove website. It includes an instant win game for chances for fans to win 1,500 prizes that consist of “Soccer in Box” kits containing commemorative soccer balls, goals, and Mondelēz Snacks. After a fan plays the Instant Win Game, they can follow the links and instructions to participate in the Pass the Love Contest. Fans were invited to submit a photo and an essay (not to exceed 140 characters) that describe what they love about soccer. The photo could be uploaded from Facebook, Flickr, Instagram or directly from a computer desktop, or submitted through Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #passthelove.

The contest submission period has ended and the judges are now determining the top 10 finalists. Once determined, those finalists will be contacted and each will be sent a camcorder Finalist prize. Each Finalist will then be required to use the camcorder to create a short video that describes how he/she experiences the sport of soccer.

Beginning on July 16 through July 31, the public will be invited to vote for their favorite video. The Finalist whose video receives the most votes will be deemed the Grand Prize winner and receive a soccer game experience hosted in their community. The Grand Prize winner will be the MVP at that event which includes transportation, an autographed jersey, $10,00 in spending cash and $5,500 to cover taxes. Total value of the prize is $24,000. The nine other Finalists will each receive a $10,000 cash prize.

Now that team USA has won it’s first match against Guana, the US fans appear to be very excited about the games. This should help to make sure this is the most social sporting event ever. John Brooks has become a star overnight and his #daretodream has become a reality. Go U-S-A!

If you want to drive people to enter your sweepstakes or contest promotion then if helps if you offer a good prize. As a promotion’s sponsor you should always have a prize that is relevant to your target audience and enhances your brand. Cash prizes are relevant to all types of people and still ranked as the number one prize that draws the most participants.

KrazyGlueHeaderThe Krazy Glue “Krazy Big Fix” Sweepstakes is offering a chance for one lucky grand prize winner to receive $40,000! We’ll be drawing the name of this winner around January 5,2015. Here’s how it works:

Krazy Glue is inviting participants to submit a photo or a description of something they fixed using Krazy Glue. There are three ways to enter:

KrazyGlue-Instagram1. Online at www.krazybigfix.com by completing and submitting the entry form. Participants need to describe their fix in writing and choose which Krazy Glue product they used from a drop-down menu. They then have the option of uploading a photo of their fix or including a link to their video posted on YouTube.

2. On Twitter by posting a tweet of their fix and using the hashtag #crazybigfix.

3. On Instagram by uploading a photo of their fix and using the hashtag #crazybigfix.

All eligible and approved submissions are being displayed on the promotion’s website. There is a counter on the website that currently claims there are 237,315 submitted fixes since the sweepstakes launched on April 2. You can sort the fixes by type on the website. Currently there appears to be a good mix of submissions fKrazyGlue-Twitter-Entryrom all the different ways to enter. However, I don’t see any videos submitted as of yet. Here’s one of my favorite that was posted on Twitter with a photo of “cat” boot stuffers.

Besides the $40,000 grand prize, there are also monthly prizes being awarded. Each month is a different prize. The current June prize is a Galaxy Tablet. Last month we awarded a GoPro Camera and the previous month a Bose Speaker System.

Monthly drawings are done around the 5th of the month from all eligible entries from the preceding month. The grand prize drawing will include all eligible entries received from the start to the end date which is December 31, 2014. Participants can enter one time per method of entry. So if they enter by all three ways, they can have up to three entries total during the entire promotion period.

From the looks of how many great entries we’ve received so far, we should have many more by the end of the year. This promotion not only gives Krazy Glue a great database of customer names and contact info. It also provides valuable insights into how consumers are using their products and what social media platforms they are utilizing. Well worth the $40,000 plus in prizes I would say!

Dad-approvedJune is the month known as the time for “Dads, Grads, and Brides”.  I do love this month. The days are long, the gardens are all in bloom and we still have the whole summer to look forward to. However, this June I am not invited to any weddings (went to one in early April that was really fun). I also am not attending any high school graduation parties…most of the kids we know are now college grads. But I can still celebrate dads!

I was born in the Bronx and lived there the first five years on my life. My dad would take me to ball games at Yankee Stadium as I was his first child. My dad loves the sport of baseball, but he never was a Yankee fan. In fact he hates the Yankees and instead has always been a Boston Red Sox fan. So like father like daughter, I was raised as a Red Sox fan from the Bronx!

Now the guys I work with are both Yankee fans which causes some banter in the office about the games. So when one of our clients, Brookstone, came to us with this Father’s Day promotion they wanted our assistance with, my colleague Matt said that I just had to write about this on the blog. So here it is.

brookstone-headerBrookstone-RedSoxIn case you weren’t aware, Brookstone is the “Official Father’s Day Store of the Boston Red Sox”. They are currently running a Father’s Day Sweepstakes offering a chance to win the ultimate Father’s Day gift: A Brookstone massage chair and four Green Monster seats at the Red Sox June 15th Father’s Day game.  Unfortunately for me though the sweepstakes is only open to fans in New England! They can enter at www.redsox.com/Brookstone up until June 11. Brookstone is also promoting it on their Facebook page. The online entry form has an optional field to enter your mobile phone number to receive text messages & updates from redsox.com and MLB.com.

I have been lucky enough to sit in Green Monster seats at Fenway Park a couple of seasons back. Another client of our was a sponsor of the games that year and gave me a couple of tickets. Sitting up there I said to my husband, Do they really hit the ball up here? Of course as soon as I said that David Ortiz hit one just a couple of seats to our right.

My dad now lives down south in the Myrtle Beach area, so we haven’t been to a game together in awhile. I keep trying to get him to visit “Up North” by offering to get us a couple of tickets, but he hasn’t taken me up the offer yet. Instead we talk on the phone each weekend and we discuss how good or how bad those Red Sox are doing. Last year they came from last place to end up in first place. This year is looking like they may end up back in last place again. But we’ll see. The season is still young.

Happy Father’s day to my dad, my husband and to all the dads out there this year. Don’t forget to wish them a special day on June 15th!