September 2014 - American Sweepstakes

Instagram Sweepstakes Celebrates the return of Scandal

Some of our favorite shows are back this week with the new fall TV season. I stayed up to watch the Good Wife on Sunday which was pushed back as usual because of the earlier football game. Then Monday James Spader, Red, from the Blacklist kept me up again. Last night I watched the sad season premiere of Chicago Fire (no spoiler). Next on the list is tonight’s season premier episode of SUV (love Mariska Hargitay who plays Olivia Benson) and then on Thursday Kerrie Washington and the cast of Scandal is back!

I’ve seen Kerrie Washington on quite a few talk shows this week promoting the new Scandal season. She looks amazing as usual, but especially after recently having a baby! She is always so stylish and she spoke of some of the people who help make her style. The folks at Platinum Guild Jewelry are launching a new promotion this week to help celebrate the return of Kerrie (Olivia Pope) and Scandal. They have teamed up with Lyn Paolo who is the Costume Designer for Scandal and a two time Emmy Award winner for Costume Design.

The Show Us Your Platinum Style Instagram Sweepstakes invites fans to upload a photo on Instagram showing your favorite platinum look. Participants must first follow @platinum_jewelry on Instagram and use the hashtag #BePlatinumSweeps. We will randomly draw one lucky winner at the end of the sweepstakes who will win a pair of platinum diamond earrings by Simon G. Jewelry valued at $1,650.

Lyn Paola is quoted in the promotional materials as saying “I love all things Platinum: from my own personal jewelry, from the pieces I chose for my private clientele, films and television shows that I design. Platinum for me is about glamour, style and enduring quality. You really can’t beat those three qualities in one amazing product.”

This is the second promotion we have assisted with the sweepstakes administration services for the Platinum Jewelry Guild. The first was a Pinterest promotion earlier this year. We have been working with their agency, The Shand Group. They asked our advice about what hashtag to use and we suggested adding “Sweeps” to it in light of the FTC endorsement guidelines. The FTC recently came out with some new guidelines that I wrote about here that were sparked by a Pinterest promotion.

So the big question that hopefully will be answered Thursday night is “Where on earth is Olivia Pope?”.

Rules, Guidelines and Etiquette of Business Social Media

I was in New York City last week attending the 3rd Annual Summit on Digital Advertising Compliance for Social Media, Sweepstakes & Promotions hosted by the American Conference Institute. I was in a room mostly filled with legal counsel from many of the top brands as well as those from law firms who specialize in advertising and promotion.

What I mostly came away with is that there are so many grey areas when it comes to social media. Yes, there are laws regarding sweepstakes and contests that we follow. But when it comes to the various guidelines from all the social media platforms as well as the FTC, there are many cases when it is open to interpretation. Recently Facebook updated it’s promotion guidelines that I wrote about here. Also the FTC came out with new endorsement guidelines that was sparked by a Pinterest promotion that I posted here. It is hard to keep up with them all.

In my last post I wrote about the issues businesses face when trying to include a NFL team or the Super Bowl in their promotions without having an official sponsorship. At the conference we discussed this as well as the use of celebrities and sports figures in tweets, photos, status updates, etc. without their permission. We just had a client come to us with a sweepstakes where they are giving away as the grand prize tickets to a concert. They wanted to use not only the artist’s name in the official name of the sweepstakes, but also wanted participants to retweet the promotion with the artist’s name in the tweet. This is not a good idea to,first off, use the artist’s name without their permission, and then go broadcast it on Twitter that you’re using it.

While at the conference I came across this article on SmartBlog for Social Media written by Ivan Serrano which is titled “How to Mind Your Manners on Social Media”. Ivan created this infographic that I think is perfect so I wanted to share it here. It doesn’t include any laws or guidelines, just the simple etiquette that we businesses sometimes forget when posting on our social media sites. I think it’s mainly because we’re not face-to-face with our audience. Thanks Ivan for sharing this. Yes, I totally agree about the too many hashtags!

attending the 3rd Annual Summit on Digital Advertising Compliance for Social Media, Sweepstakes & Promotions hosted by the American Conference Institute. I was in a room mostly filled with legal counsel from many of the top brands as well as those from law firms who specialize in advertising and promotion.

New NFL Season kicks off this week along with new promotions

The return of a new NFL season start tomorrow. The Green Bay Packers will kick it off in Seattle against the Seahawks at 8:30 pm ET. NBC will be covering the Thursday night game this week, however it returns to CBS the following Thursday for a seven week run with some games also on the NFL Network. Thursday night football has become a big television event over the past few years and it seems strange that the different networks have partnered up like this. But that doesn’t stop all us fans from anticipating a new season, even when you team is up for sale!

We still get many inquiries from companies that want to run a sweepstakes around an NFL team or the Super Bowl and we try to explain that you have to be a sponsor of the team or the NFL in order to legally do this. The NFL and the individual teams have been getting tougher on enforcing this and if they find a promotion from a non-sponsor they can enforce a cease and dismiss order which states you must end the promotion immediately or you run the risk of being taken to court. Recently a client came to us wanting to launch a sweepstakes that offers a chance to win tickets to a specific NFL game this season. Even though they are not not planning to use the teams’ names in any of the communications, it still runs the risk of copyright infringement.

Anheuser-Busch is one of the NFL’s largest sponsors who pay big money for their Bud Light brand to be the Official Beer of the NFL. They recently launched their Ultimate NFL Weekend Sweepstakes where each week one winner along with three friends wins a trip to any NFL game they choose for the following week. The Sweepstakes started on Sept. 1 and already the Week 1 entry period is over and today is the start of Week 2. Just visit the Bud Light website and click on NFL Sweepstakes tab to find the entry form. I picked the game I would like to attend, the Minnesota Vikings at the New Orleans Saints on Sept. 21 and entered. Participants can enter the sweepstakes each week which goes till the end of the year.

The prize consists of the 4 tickets to the game of the winner’s choice along with round-trip coach air transportation, hotel accommodations for two nights in two rooms, ground transportation to/from airport, hotel, and to game, a $400.00 gift card to the NFL Team’s Pro Shop at the stadium, $400.00 in Stadium Cash, and $1,000.00 spending money. Total value of the prize is $15,000. The value of the total prize pool for the sweepstakes is over a million dollars.

After I submitted my entry I was invited to play the “Uprights for Whatever” game for a second chance entry. It allows you to try and kick the ball through the uprights, which I was really bad at and didn’t get even one. I guess the more you play the better you get at it. But I did get my second chance entry and had to finish this post, so perhaps next week I’ll try again.

For now I wish everyone a great NFL season and let the best teams win. I’m not betting on the Bills this year to finally make the playoffs, but you never know!