Month: July 2016
Shonda Rhimes has recently partnered with Pilot Pen to promote their G2 pen. Shonda is the writer and producer of such famous TV shows such as Scandal, Gray’s Anatomy, How to Get Away with Murder and The Catch. She has also been described as a role model, a game changer and in one word, an overachiever. She is now helping Pilot Pen celebrate the ultimate overachievers with the G2 Overachievers Grant Contest.
To help these overachievers reach their full potential, a $50,000 grant will be awarded to help enhance the reach of ordinary heroes who give back to their community in unique and impactful ways along with additional G2 overachievers prizes. The grant will recognize and celebrate an everyday overachiever who is changing the world through selfless purpose and through acts that go above and beyond their everyday nine-to-five duties, truly to help make the world a better place.
Entrants need to submit a handwritten story describing what they or someone they know did to be a difference maker. They should share where it happened, how it worked, who it impacted and why it mattered. There is a 1000 word maximum for each entry and entrants can submit their story by scanning or taking a picture and uploading to the entry page, or they can mail it to an address that’s included on the website in the Official rules.
“At Pilot we believe that, a pen is not just a writing instrument, it’s a powerful tool of self expression. Our G2 is not only America’s # selling pen, it is the pen that overachievers like Shonda Rhimes naturally gravitate toward,” said Ariann Langsam Director of Marketing at Pilot Pen. “When we discovered Shonda actually uses a G2 to edit her scripts—a blue G2 to be exact— we knew this was a perfect partnership. Together we created the G2 Overachievers Grant, which will help overachievers to do even more extraordinary things to better the lives of others.”
Story submissions will be accepted up until October 31. After that a panel of judges chosen by Pilot pen will review all the stories and select 21 Finalists based on the following criteria: 1) Specific action that improved other’s lives; 2) Measurable difference, based on the magnitude of people impacted; 3) Attained a measurable difference; 4) Resourced (by the individual); the nominee should have played a major role in starting the initiative that made the change; 5) Time – the over achievement must have taken place in the last 24 months.
Using the same judging criteria, Shonda will then review all the confirmed Finalists to determine the Grand Prize winner of the $50,000 grant. The 20 Contest Finalists not selected as the Grand Prize Winner will receive a G2 Overachiever Kit valued at $100. ”
The Pilot G2 Overachievers Grant is the perfect opportunity to celebrate those hardworking individuals striving to make a real difference in other’s lives,” said Shonda Rhimes. “I use the G2 almost every day to help craft stories that bring happiness to fans, so it gives me joy to be part of rewarding those who are positively impacting their communities through the Overachievers program!” You can view a short video of Shonda describing her partnership with Pilot began by clicking on this “Change the World” image.
Pilot pen is promoting this on their Facebook page and with the hashtag #DoYouG2.
I was recently contacted by an previous client that told me he was now working for a company called Banded and wanted to run a huge sweepstakes. I’m not at all what you would call an “outdoorsman”, so I had no idea who the company was. They wanted to give away a truck and a boat, along with a bunch of gear, to not several different winners, but one big prize to one winner! “The Greatest Outdoor Giveaway” Sweepstakes was just launched this week.
So I educated myself a little on what Banded is all about. They currently offer over 600 items representing 19 diverse product categories on their website. Some of the product categories include outerwear, waders, boot, hunting accessories, blinds, decoys and calls. BANDED was originally formed by a group of avid outdoorsmen, innovators, and product designers that joined forces after years of working in the outdoor industry. Their goal in the beginning was to create superior products to enhance the outdoor experience and that remains to be the foundation of BANDED today.
I’ve written about previous sweepstakes that 
have given away a great big prize before, like the Exotic Estates Hawaii Villa Escape Sweepstakes, but this prize tops that one by quite a bit in just its value, which totals over $83,000! The winner takes all…a 2016 Banded-Edition Ford F-150 FX4, a Banded-Edition War Eagle 754 LDV Boat in Mossy Oak® Camo complete with a 50hp Yamaha motor, Banded Axe Blind, GHG Pro-Grade decoys and a bunch of other gear! Besides Banded the other prize providers that are part of this great outdoor giveaway are Crain Automotive Team, War Eagle Boats, Mossy Oak and Mack’s Prairie Wings.
The objective it to raise awareness of all the products that not only Banded offers online and through their retail partners, but also what the other prize providers offer as well. Banded will be promoting the sweepstakes to their Banded Nation community. These are subscribers to the Banded enewsletter, their blog and emails that are part of this dedicated community that relies on Banded as a great resource of information from everything from hunting tips, to how to train your retriever, to recipes and cooking ideas, and gear tips as well.
The sweepstakes runs till November 14. So pass along this sweepstakes to any of the outdoorsmen in your life. They can then get ready for both the duck and turkey hunting seasons.
Montana’s the Sky’s the Limit Sweepstakes was initially launched back in April by the The Montana Office of Tourism and Business Development in which I wrote this post about. This was the beginning of a new tourism campaign that is focused on telling Montana Big Sky Country stories to draw in visitors. Their short film series features ordinary people who are chasing their own brand of adventure.
Open Road, was the first episode in the Sky’s The Limit series, which was used to launch the Sky’s the Limit Open Road Sweepstakes. That sweepstakes has now ended and The Sky’s the Limit Picnic Sweepstakes is now currently running. This coincides with the second episode in the Sky’s The Limit Series, Picnic, that follows David Gonzales and his friends as they conquer a bike ride, an alpine lake swim, and hike to the top of a mountain all in one day.
Jenny Pelej, Montana Office of Tourism marketing chief, described the Sky’s the Limit Campaign stating “This campaign is all about personal connection, connection with the environment, connection with others and connection with our magical state”.
Day 1 of the adventure has the group arriving in Butte, MT where they pick up a rental from Hertz and grab some lunch at Uptown Cafe before exploring Butte. They visit Front Street Market to pick up some camping needs including snacks and groceries and then check into the Copper King Mansion, a historic B&B, and prepare for dinner.
Day 2 starts with breakfast and coffee at the Hummingbird Cafe. The group then stops by Our Lady of the Rockies and then on the way to their campsite they stop for lunch at Two Bit Saloon in Whitehall. Once at the Hilltop Campground they take a quick swim on Cliff Lake before settling down for a homemade, fireside dinner.
After a light camp breakfast and coffee to start Day 3, the group packs their backpacks for an early morning hike along the nearby scenic trails to Wade Lake. There they rent a motorboat and paddle boards at Wade Lake Cabins where they spend the afternoon on the lake. After they head over to The Grizzly Bar & Grill for dinner and a brew before heading back to the campsite for the night.
On Day 4 they pack up their campsite before heading back to Butte. They stop for brunch in Ennis and enjoy pancakes at Yesterday’s Soda Fountain. Their last night in Montana is spent with dinner at Casagranda’s Steakhouse and Guido’s Bar and then on to The Miner’s Hotel before their morning flight out the next day.
The sweepstakes grand prize consists of vouchers and certificates for all the activities mentioned in this story and more. It has a total value of $3,000 that the winner can use at their own leisure. This sweepstakes runs till July 27. There are also 5 instant winners who will each receive smaller prizes such as a Montana Mule Kit, a Craft Beer Kit and an Adventure Kit.
There were almost 18,000 entries for the first sweepstakes, Open Road, in which the grand prize was awarded to a Susan Masterson from Winterhaven, Florida. So we’ll soon see who is the lucky person to win this adventure. The next film in the series is called Painting Glacier which is scheduled to launch the end of July. The forth and last film in the series is scheduled for launch in September.