Graduation season is now upon us. It’s that annual time of year when you’ll notice many people posting photos of their family members and friends posing in a graduation cap & gown. It’s is an important time for marketers to target this specific audience. I recently came across an interesting Twitter-based promotion that Wells-Fargo ran to celebrate high school graduation season.
The Wells Fargo Road to College Contest ran for a maximum of 8 hours on Twitter from 11:00 am to 7:00:00 p.m. CT on May 19. The object of this Contest was to tweet a car along a conveyor belt that would “drive” the car along milestones necessary to prepare for and attend college. There were five milestones and 20 prizes assigned to each milestone. Participants could tweet repeatably, but each tweet needed to contain the hashtags #GetCollegeReady and #Contest. Each Tweet drove the car forward on the conveyor belt and when the car completed a milestone the participant would hear a sound effect and see lights. They could continue to Tweet and move the car along the belt until all five milestones were completed.
A total of 100 prizes were available to be won that included tablets, smart watches, fitness trackers, gift cards and some mystery prizes. The number of Tweets required to win a prize was different for each milestone and was based on a pre-determined, computer-generated random program which was subject to change depending upon the number of participant Tweets received for each milestone. Some participants, after the completion of a milestone, received a Tweet from @Wells Fargo that they had won a prize. But not all winners knew if they won at the time their car completed a milestone. Instead they may have been notified within 5 days.
Wells Fargo partnered with a Dallas agency, Moroch Partners, along with Gratuitous Sets to build the program. Here’s a link to a video that shows the behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the Twitter-powered set:
The contest was aimed at high school graduates, age 17 or older. But any adult could have played. Congratulations to the class of 2016!
From time to time we get the opportunity to be involved in a promotion that is offering a really unique prize. The Hawaii Villa Escape Sweepstakes is one of those promotions.
The main sponsor is Exotic Estates, a luxury vacation rental and real estate agency dealing mostly with properties throughout the US including Hawaii and Alaska, the Caribbean and Mexico. They have partnered with both Alaska Airlines and Paradise Helicopters to provide parts of the prize package to offer this unique $25,000 Hawaii villa vacation experience.
The Grand Prize winner and 3 of their guests will fly from the US mainland to the Big Island of Hawaii on Alaska Airlines. Then the winner and up to 5 guests will check into the the Rainbow Falls Villa on the Big Island for 4 nights. This Villa is perched on a cliff along the Hamakua Coast in Ninole, Hawaii, which not only has a stunning ocean view, but also a postcard-perfect double Hawaiian waterfall that cascades down to the Pacific Ocean below. It also includes a Olympic-sized Pool, a 2-story water slide, a 21 ft. diving platform, tennis court, basketball court, golf course, elevator and rooftop helipad. The winner and their guests will be picked up on the villa’s rooftop helipad by Paradise Helicopters who is providing a custom tour of the Big Island.
The sweepstakes just launched on Monday, May 16, and already they received over a 1,000 entries in two days. Exotic Estates has three goals for the sweeps: increasing brand awareness, growing their email database and increasing their social fan base. They have created a exciting entry page that makes sharing the sweepstakes extremely easy.
“We’re excited about the Hawaii Villa Escape Sweeps” stated John Di Rienzo, Director of Marketing & Business Development for Exotic Estates. “The prize is incredible and a great example of successful brand partnering. Also, our timing is taking advantage of the pre-summer vacation period, when people are thinking about their summer getaways.”
In conjunction with the sweepstakes, Exotic Estates is also running online campaigns that target their client demographic. Di Rienzo stated “It’s our hope that when it’s over, we’ll have grown our fan base and email database with new leads that will ultimately convert to future clients and new revenue.”
The winner and their guests will need to agree to two potential filming and/or photo shoot requests which may include one at the vacation rental property and another on the helicopter tour. The sweepstakes runs till July 5. So check it out along some of the amazing luxury vacation properties that Exotic Estates offers.
I was asked a question yesterday that I get quite often so I thought I would write about it here again. The question does vary a little on how it’s stated. One of our clients asked the following “We are doing a quick giveaway via social media and want to check…are we covered from a legal aspect?” My question back was, do you have official rules? Their answer was no, they did not think they needed them for these small giveaways.
My answer is always yes, you do need Official Rules. Giveaways are just another word for sweepstakes which are a game of chance where the winners are normally randomly chosen. Contests on the other hand are a game of skill and participants usually are invited to submit some content (photo, video, essay, etc.). A panel of judges then chooses the winners based on criteria that are defined in the official rules. So whether you are planning to run a sweepstakes or a contest, or whether the size of the prize, small or large, there are rules and regulations that you must follow in order to be compliant.
Therefore, you need to have a set of Official Rules that outlines the promotion. A promotion that contains all of these three elements: Prize, Chance (random selection) and Consideration (Purchase, Payment or Time) is an “Illegal Lottery”. The Time element is the grayest area. If you are planing to run a promotion that does include Consideration, then you must allow an alternate means of entry (AMOE).
Most social media entry requirements do not usually require consideration. However, writing about a product or a destination or taking a photo or video of the product/destination to enter may be consideration. For example, if the participant can take a photo of themselves with a product in a store, then a purchase would not be required. Or if you’re asking them to take a photo of themselves with a pair of shoes “out and about the town” that would most likely require purchasing the shoes and therefore, Consideration. There is a fine line between the two.
Another example is asking participants to take a photo while taking a bite of a doughnut or sipping a drink. They can’t return the doughnut or the drink then, so wouldn’t that require purchase? You need to ask if the participant can effectively compete without actually making a purchase.
Also a very popular trend on social media is inviting participants to earn extra entries by performing different tasks and challenges on various platforms. Not only do you need to follow the guidelines of each social media platform, you also need to keep in mind the degree of effort that you are asking participants to perform to gain an entry. So how much time is too much and what can you really require? The Supreme Court did rule that watching a 30 minute TV show wasn’t too much time, so that’s a guideline to follow. But keep in mind that while awarding bonus entries for sharing/referring may not likely fall under consideration, it may be against Federal CAN/SPAM regulations.
Another thing to keep in mind is the FTC’s Endorsement and Testimonial Guidelines. They recently published a list of Q&A’s that state that when it comes to sweepstakes and contests, any incentive, no matter how minimal, such as an entry for making a post on social media sites, may be an endorsement. Thus it requires a disclosure. The use of the promotion title alone is not adequate, and they are encouraging including #Contest or #Sweepstakes or #Entry or a similar designation in a hashtag. The recent updated Q&A’s now states that using #sweeps as the hashtag is not enough and instead it should be #sweepstakes.
A rising trend today on social media is running a sweepstakes or contest utilizing only a hashtag with no entry form. Entrants may be invited to post a tweet on Twitter or upload a photo on Twitter or Instagram utilizing a promotional hashtag. Many marketers like these types of promotions since it creates buzz and makes it easy for entrants. However, hashtag entries do not collect data on the entrants since there is no entry form to fill out. Data collection is the number one reason why marketers run sweepstakes and contests. Without collecting data this also can make it more difficult to contact winners. There are however, applications that you can utilize that include both such as what was discussed in this post.
So it all comes back to what your main objectives are for running a promotion. You need to consider what the risks may be and also be realistic in what you are asking participants to do. Most of all, be sure to cover yourself and your company by running a successful and legally compliant promotion that includes a set of Official Rules.
This Sunday we will again be celebrating Mother’s Day. If you’ve been online or watched any TV this week you have been reminded many times with gift suggestions for mom. Retailers, brands and restaurants all have been promoting on how best to celebrate the moms in our lives. Whether with a card, flowers, dinner, jewelry or clothing, we all have many options.
We have been working with one retail chain, Lane Bryant, for many years and have done several Mother’s Day promotions for them. I wrote about their Makeover My Mom Contest that they ran two years ago. This year they are not running a sweepstakes promotion with a Mother’s Day theme. However they have been running the “THIS BODY” campaign which included the “THIS BODY” Sweepstakes that we helped them with which ran in April.
THIS BODY features a series of plus-size models wearing everything from fashionable outfits to nothing at all, each celebrating the female form in all its unadulterated glory. Plus-size Models Tara Lynn, Denise Bidot and Georgia Pratt along with Ashley Graham and Precious Lee star in the campaign’s video. Precious Lee was also recently featured in this year’s historic Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue.
In the video each woman shares what aspects of her body make her proud with the formulaic phrase, “This body”. The result is this 30-second commercial that puts the focus on celebrating both the body-positive and diversity in an unapologetic way. However, the major TV networks refused to run it as is because the ad didn’t “comply with broadcast indecency guidelines.” So Lane Bryant has just been featuring the ad online.
The THIS BODY Sweepstakes allowed participants to enter on the Lane Bryant Facebook page and on the THIS BODY website. Participants were asked to upload a self-image that was true to the THIS BODY theme. The photos were not judged, but they were a mandatory part of the entry process. One Grand Prize winner was awarded a trip for two to NYC Fashion Week that will take place the week of Sep. 8. The prize package includes two round-trip airfare tickets and 2-night hotel accommodations. Three First Prize winners also each won a $100 Lane Bryant Gift Card.
We are now running a sweepstakes for Catherines, which is also a clothing store for plus size women and part of the Lane Bryant family. The “Live. Love. Summer.” Sweepstakes kicked off on April 25 and runs till June 30. Participants are invited to enter in-store by completing an entry form found in participating Catherines stores, online at the Sponsor’s promotional webpage and by mail. One Grand Prize winner will receive a 7-day Caribbean cruise from Princess Cruises onboard their ship, the Regal Princess. A quad occupancy balcony stateroom that accommodates up to 4 people is included plus round-trip airfare to Ft Lauderdale, FL, which is valued at over $4,000.
So I wish all moms a very happy Mother’s Day. I will be visiting my Mother’s home were my dad now lives without her since she passed away just over six years ago. I will also get to see my two sisters along with one of my daughters who will be meeting me there. So we will all get to celebrate together…the best Mother’s Day gift I could wish for.
Graduation season is now upon us. It’s that annual time of year when you’ll notice many people posting photos of their family members and friends posing in a graduation cap & gown. It’s is an important time for marketers to target this specific audience. I recently came across an interesting Twitter-based promotion that Wells-Fargo ran to celebrate high school graduation season.
assigned to each milestone. Participants could tweet repeatably, but each tweet needed to contain the hashtags #GetCollegeReady and #Contest. Each Tweet drove the car forward on the conveyor belt and when the car completed a milestone the participant would hear a sound effect and see lights. They could continue to Tweet and move the car along the belt until all five milestones were completed.
A total of 100 prizes were available to be won that included tablets, smart watches, fitness trackers, gift cards and some mystery prizes. The number of Tweets required to win a prize was different for each milestone and was based on a pre-determined, computer-generated random program which was subject to change depending upon the number of participant Tweets received for each milestone. Some participants, after the completion of a milestone, received a Tweet from @Wells Fargo that they had won a prize. But not all winners knew if they won at the time their car completed a milestone. Instead they may have been notified within 5 days.
