Month: July 2014

Consumers who live in the state of Texas have a chance to win a couple of grills and a lot of charcoal from the National Pork Board. We recently launched their Grill and Charcoal Giveaway Sweepstakes on July 11 which goes to October 4. They are utilizing text messaging as a method of entry into this sweepstakes.

Text messaging is the most popular mobile behavior across user demographics. In fact, 96% of people aged 18-50 years old send text messages, making it an excellent way to opt-in participants to a sweepstakes campaign. It requires very little effort from participants to enter and can be done from where ever they are on their devices. So this year we are finding that more and more of our clients are considering text messaging when running their sweepstakes.

For this Grill and Charcoal Giveaway Sweepstakes we are again utilizing the Signal Engage Platform. This allows us to create a sweepstakes promotion with multiple methods of entry that get collected into one database. In this case consumers are instructed to text the world “Pork” to the shortcode 50101. They then receive a response message that provides a link to the mobile Sweepstakes entry form. The entry form enables the National Pork Board to collect additional information from them other then just their mobile phone number such as their name, mailing address, phone number and e-mail address. This way they we confirm that the entrant came from the state of Texas.

However, you can still collect additional data about the participate just using text messaging. I wrote earlier about the Summer Souvenir Sweepstakes series tied into Live Nation concerts.  We’re also using the Signal Engage Platform for this promotion and in this case the sponsor wanted to collect the Entrants’ full name. So after the participant sends their initial message they receive a message back that asks them to provide their first and last name to complete their entry. We have other sweepstakes running which ask the participants to provide their date of birth before they can enter which is a great feature for alcohol beverage brands.

Utilizing text messaging in a sweepstakes promotion can also provide a connection to a more long lasting relationship with customers after the sweepstakes has ended. When utilizing text messages sweepstakes entrants can be opted in to the sponsor’s list by agreeing to receive a set number of text messages per month from the Sponsor. All entrants can unsubscribe at any time. This allows the sponsor to communicate with them on their mobile devices throughout the year.

In the Grill and Charcoal Giveaway sweepstakes we will conduct two random drawings; one halfway through the promotion on or about August 7 and another at the conclusion of the sweeps. Each drawing will pull one grand prize winner who will receive an All Seasons Charcoal Grill worth $700. We will also draw 30 first prize winners for a total of 60 who will each receive six bags of charcoal.

Sweepstakes today still remain a powerful and simple way to achieve high participation, excitement and buzz for your brand and company. Mobile opportunities now expand this promotional tactic as a way to further the communication touch points with customers and gain a higher return on the investment. If you would like more information on how you can integrate mobile into your marketing plans please feel free to contact us.

Summer is a time for vacations, holidays and travel throughout the world. Many Americans flock to Europe during this time to join the Europeans and experience the beauty and cultures of this part of the world. Our client, Rail Europe, just launched this week the first round of their Scenic Train Trivia Contest which aims to share with people the attractiveness and benefits of European train travel.

Each round of the contest will focus on a different scenic train route in Europe. The plan is to have 8 rounds to start off.  Here’s how it works. Rail Europe will publish a post in their Scenic Train Blog Series on their blog. Each post will include information on the featured train route along with quotes from people that run the route and birds-eye views of the stunning vistas you can see while traveling on the route.

Once you read the post then you are invited to hop on over to the Rail Europe Facebook page and click on the contest tab to enter and answer the trivia question relative to that round.  Each round will be open for entries for a week once the post is published. A random drawing will be held at the end of each round from all those that entered and answered the question correctly. One lucky winner of each round will receive an iPod Touch. The contest is scheduled to launch a new round approximately every two weeks.

The first round features the Swiss beauty of the Bernina Express which makes its way through the valley of Albulatal. The blog post includes an interview with Hans Amacker, Director of Rhaetian Railways’ Bernina Express. Rail Europe asked him to provide a description of his train route which he answered “The line links extremes of climate, along with various cultures and languages and never fails to impress. It includes winding switchback tunnels, the towering viaducts of the valley of Albulatal and, as you cross the Alps via the Bernina Pass, glaciers that look almost close enough to touch”.

You can read more here to find the answer to this round’s trivia question which is ‘How many meters above sea level is the train station of Ospizio Bernina?” It looks like most of our entrants have correctly answered the question so far. It’s not too difficult.

I personally am very excited about this contest because I will be experiencing train travel in Europe in a couple of weeks. My husband and I are taking a two-week vacation and will be using a Rail Europe pass to travel around to various destinations. The Eurail Select Pass we purchased gives us 8 days of rail travel throughout the countries that we will be visiting.

We are starting in Munich, Germany, and then will be traveling on some very scenic routes to Geneva, Switzerland. France is once again included in the pass after pulling out about a year ago, so our next train route will take us to Paris. From there we are flying to Dublin and will be using the Ireland train routes to take us across the county to the west side and flying home from Shannon. I invite you to come back and read my post once I return and see some of my photos. And don’t forget to try your luck at this contest!

Reading is a great summer pastime for both adults and kids. So our clients at Reading Is Fundamental have teamed up with Macy’s to kick off the 11th Annual Be Book Smart campaign to help spark kids’ imaginations this summer with books.

A survey of more than 1,000 parents was conducted by Harris Poll back in April and found that children ages 5-11 spend nearly three times as many hours weekly watching TV or playing video games as they do reading in the summer. Only 17% of these parents say reading is a top summer priority.

This year’s Be Book Smart campaign started on June 18 and runs till the end of this week, July 13. Part of the campaign includes the “Book Smart Summer Photo” Sweepstakes which invites people to submit their #BookSmartSummer photos for a chance to win a $500 Macy’s gift card each week. The photo must includes these three components: 1) The cover of the book 2) A favorite summer spot to read the book, 3) A summer style. The photo can be expressed through a composite image or a single photo with all components.

Participants can submit as many photos as they wish during the sweepstakes period and use these three different methods of entry. First is via Facebook from a Sweepstakes promotion tab off the Reading is Fundamental  Facebook page.  Participants must first “Like” the page in order to access the submission form. Or they have the option of submitting their photos on Twitter and Instagram and including the hashtag, #BookSmartSummer. Upon posting the photo, the participant will receive a notification with a link to the Sweepstakes submission form.

One winner has been randomly selected each week to receive the $500 Macy’s gift card. Only one more weekly drawing is left in the campaign. Here is a photo that was submitted by week #2 winner, Lynn S., from Morristown, NJ. All the entries can be viewed here on the RIF Facebook Sweepstakes page. Currently it looks like over a hundred great photos have been submitted.

The Be Book Smart campaign also is inviting customers nationwide to give $3 at any Macy’s register in-store to help provide a book for a child and in return get $10 off a purchase of $30 or more. Macy’s will donate 100 percent of every $3 to RIF.

“We are committed to RIF’s mission of empowering children through literacy and inspiring them to embrace the joy of reading during the summer,” said Martine Reardon, chief marketing officer, Macy’s. “Be Book Smart offers our customers the opportunity to give back to their local community, and thanks to the collective generosity of our customers and associates, we’ve given 10 million books to kids since 2004.”

So only 5 days left! The more people that get involved, the more books that can be given to kids all over the country. So start snapping and shopping!

Here’s a new summertime promotion that we helped kick off  yesterday for Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt who has partnered with Hershey on the Hershey’s Experience Sweepstakes. They are offering a chance to win a family vacation to Hershey’s Chocolate World and Hershey Park Attractions.

Menchie’s is hoping to gain new customers to sign up for their loyalty rewards program, My Smileage. During the Sweepstakes Menchie’s customers will automatically receive an entry into the sweepstakes when they purchase any item at a Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt store and use their registered Menchie’s loyalty card. Participants can also enter online by visiting the Sponsor’s website at www.Menchies.com or by visiting the Menchie’s Facebook page and linking to the Sweepstakes Tab page. Both  are optimized for mobile devices. People are invited to enter once a day by any method of entry.

We set up the Sweepstakes for Menchie’s and again are using the Shortstack Application which we have used for many promotions that we’ve run for clients on their Facebook page. But Shortstack is not just for Facebook anymore. A while ago they introduced a new feature where you can not only install the app on a Facebook tab page, but you can also embed the entry form on any webpage. So in this case we are hosting a separate page online for Menchie’s which they link to from the homepage of their website. Both entry forms are utilizing the same graphics and all entries go into one database, so it allows for only one entry per day per person’s email address regardless of what method they entered from.

Back on June 10, Shortstack announced that they made some huge updates to their platform which they now refer to as their Campaign Builder. ShortStack’s Campaign Builder is platform agnostic which means you can publish Campaigns directly to the web and link to them from anywhere. These campaigns no longer have to be publish on Facebook first. Each Campaign has its own URL, which means that Campaigns can be used as standalone websites, which ShortStack can host. You still have the option to embed them into a website like we are doing with the Menchie’s Sweepstakes and install them to your Facebook Page as well.

Shortstack has stated that these three trends prompted the switch from Facebook-centric apps to web-friendly Campaigns:

1. The continued success of Pinterest, Twitter, Google Plus, etc. Our users’ customers are increasingly using additional social media platforms.

2. A Facebook “Like” isn’t as valuable as it once was. A Cliff Notes version of the old strategy would go something like this: get more Fans because the more you have, the more exposure your brand gets. However, changes to Facebook’s algorithms mean this is no longer the case.

3. The recognition that leads and user data are more valuable than Likes and other similar engagement. The inherent flaw in social media marketing and advertising is that these interactions are, for the most part, anonymous, and provide little to no opportunity for brands to follow up. Leads provide the opportunity to stay in touch with users.

All campaigns are mobile friendly from the start with a “One Campaign for any screen” design philosophy.

So if you want some more details on how to set up a promotion utilizing the Shortstack platform, please feel free to contact me. It’s a great tool and it also includes a great team of support people.

While we have some great summer weather, stop by a Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt store by you and try out their new Chocolate Glazed Toffee Bar flavor!