I had questioned in my first post about Super Bowl LI what NFC team was going to make it to play against the New England Patriots. That question was answered this past weekend with a dominate win by the Atlanta Falcons against the Green bay Packers. The Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t give us much of a game either against the Patriots. So now as the Big Game in Houston on Feb. 5 approaches there are still promos out there with a way to win tickets.

Lady Gaga is headlining this year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show. She and Pepsi have teamed up to offer the Pepsi Halftime Fan-ifesto with Lady Gaga, a special contest for her fans. Lady Gaga has offered to bring along a few special fans as her personal guests at the Halftime Show. As she said, “…because it’s not just going to be my moment — it’s going to be our moment.” This video showcases some of the winners. To find out how to be one of Lady Gaga’s lucky guests, read more here.

Yellow Tail, an Australian wine brand, will be an advertiser during this year’s Super Bowl broadcast. They are currently running their Yellow Tail Guy Sweepstakes which isn’t offering a trip to the Super Bowl, but instead one lucky Grand Prize winner will receive a trip for two to Sydney. To enter participants must find the Yellow Tail Guy online, on screen or in person and post on Twitter or on Instagram that may include a screenshot/photo/video indicating that they “found the Yellow Tail Guy” and use the hashtags #yellowtailguy and #Sweepstakes. Five First Prize winners will also each receive one TV, issued in the form of a $750 gift card.

This sweepstakes from Igloo is still open for a chance to win tickets to this year’s Super Bowl Game. But it ends tomorrow, Jan. 26. Their Big Game Giveaway has a prize package that is pretty sweet. It includes two tickets to the game, 3-night hotel accommodations, airfare & ground transportation. $1,000 worth of Igloo® products, a Houston guided ORU kayak tour, a private Houston helicopter tour, dinner for two at Houston restaurant with acclaimed chef and a $500 Gift card from Academy Sports and Outdoors. To gain an entry participants just need to fill out and submit the entry form. However, they can also gain up to 24 additional entries by completing other tasks such as following some of the sweeps partners on social media.

The Patriots are now advancing to their ninth Super Bowl in franchise history, a total that is the most in the NFL. This will be the Falcons second time in the Super Bowl. In their first-ever Super Bowl appearance, they lost 34–19 to the defending champion Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXXIII. The road to Super Bowl LI now continues, but we have to wait a little while to see who will take home the trophy. Let’s just hope its a good game. Stay tuned for more on Super Bowl LI next week.

Super Bowl LIFour NFL teams got one step closer to the Super Bowl LI this past weekend. The New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers, Atlanta Falcons, and Green Bay Packers are all still in it to win it. Coming up, it’s Patriots v Steelers and Falcons v Packers to determine who goes to the big game which will be decided this weekend. Here’s the playoff picture.Super Bowl 51

Super Bowl LI is still a few weeks away, but commercials for the big game have started to arrive. You can stay updated and view them here.

Wix.com is airing a Super Bowl commercial for the third year in a row! They made history by launching their 2017 Super Bowl ad campaign on Facebook Live on January 17. This is the first time a brand ever released an ad using Facebook or YouTube Live. The action-packed ad features duo Gal Gadot and Jason Statham, with a nice guy named Felix playing the hero (and website builder).

In addition to the ad, Wix also announced the WE ARE ALL LIKE FELIX GIVEAWAY offering a chance to win up to $50K. First you have to Felixdownload this photo of Felix and then make it your Facebook Profile photo. Once that is done you fill out an entry form that includes your Facebook account URL. The Giveaway will award 11 winners, 1 winner for each “Shuffle” period, which the first one starts of Jan. 22 and ends on Jan. 23. Each Shuffle period winner will receive $10,000. The “Game Day” Shuffle will take place on Feb. 5 and that winner will receive $50,000. So Wix is awarding $150K total. That’s a nice prize pool!

Mars, which is the parent company of both Skittles and Snickers, has kicked off a pre-Super Bowl promotion called “The Candy Bowl” Game and Sweepstakes. They are asking people to choose whether they’re on Team Snickers or Team Skittles. People can participate by sending a text message using several different keywords or by texting a photo of one of their specific brands. They will receive a text message back telling them whether they are a winner in the game or to try again. People can also visit candybowl.mars.com and select either the TEAM SNICKERS or TEAM SKITTLES button to play the game to see if they are a winner. SnickersEach time someone plays the game they also get an entry into the sweepstakes.

The sweepstakes grand prize will include a pair of tickets to a 2017 season home game of an NFL team of the winner’s choice. The game includes 500 first prizes of t-shirts and 25,000 second prizes of coupons for select Mars candy products. Total prize pool is $94,500.

Mars is also running several TV spots during the Super Bowl. Skittles will be back for the third year in a row. However, Steven Tyler won’t be back. Instead Skittles will focus on the “Taste the Rainbow” tagline without enlisting help from any celebrities. Mars will also be promoting Snickers with a new Super Bowl ad that will star Adam Driver of Star Wars. They will be sticking to their “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” theme.

So good luck to the four teams that will be playing this weekend. I’m routing for the Packers! Please stay tuned for more coverage as the road to the Super Bowl LI continues.

Super Bowl LIWe’re already into our second week of January, so I’m now going to focus on the NFL playoff season and the Super Bowl, which has been my blogging tradition. I will be covering some of the ads and promotional campaigns associated with Super Bowl LI which will be hosted on February 5, in the NRG Stadium in Houston. This year it’s Fox’s turn to broadcast the game and reportedly they’re charging between $5 million to $5.5 million for a 30 second ad slot, which is more expensive again.

Here’s what the playoff picture looks like:

NFL playoffsMost bets are on the New England Patriots to win the championship this year. But who will play with them from the NFC is still a toss up. Some are betting on the Packers, others the Falcons, but many would like to see the Cowboys make it there. We’ll see who’s still in it after this weekend.

Pepsi is again the sponsor of the Super Bowl LI Halftime Show. The Pepsi Zero Sugar Super Bowl LI Halftime Show will include Lady Gaga this year. She belted out the National Anthem at Super Bowl 50 last February which really impressed both her fans and her critics.

Doritos, which is part of PepsiCo, ended their 10 year long run of its Crash The Super Bowl Contest which I’ve been covering here for many years. Back in 2006 when it began, the contest invited consumers for the first time to create and submit 30-second homemade ads to promote the Doritos brand. It appears that this year Doritos will be taking a year off and not be running any ads during Super Bowl LI, although the parent company is promoting some of its other brands.

TostitosPepsi and Tostitos have parented up this year with a big NFL promotion that gives fans the chance to win unreal NFL Experiences. This started back in August and the chance to win the last of 17 different sweepstakes just ended. Fans were invited to submit codes found on specially-marked packages of TOSTITOS chips and dip products and PEPSI 12oz 12 packs for entries. They could also use these codes to collect points good towards NFL Team Merchandise. A few of the sweepstakes included Super Bowl LI Experiences that each awarded 2 fans a trip to Super Bowl LI along with attending team warm ups from the sidelines and exclusive access to return to the field for the post-game trophy presentation with the Super Bowl Champs. Other experiences awarded included a Drew Brees Experience to meet the quarterback in New Orleans, an International Experience to attend the pre-season game at Wembley Stadium in London from 50-yard line seats and the last sweepstakes, the 2017 NFL Kickoff Experience, which includes two tickets to the attend that game, as well as the first Sunday night game of the season. You can find more information about the experiences at the promotional website.

Bud Light Golden CanAnother big NFL sponsor is also awarding tickets to the Super Bowl. The Bud Light Super Bowl Tickets for Life Sweepstakes is giving a chance to attend the game not just once, but every year for the next 51 years. The yearly prize includes a pair of Super Bowl tickets plus $1,000 in cash and is worth about $166,000. Participants have to look for a Bud Light Super Bowl LI Gold Can inside specially marked packages of Bud Light or they could visit the promotional website to obtain a Bud Light Gold Super Bowl LI Can Wrap to wrap around any can or glass. Then they need to take a photo of themselves with the can and upload it to either the Bud Light website, post it on the Bud Light Facebook page as a comment in response to the sweepstakes post or post on Twitter or on Instagram all using the hashtags #SBTix4Life and #Sweeps. This sweepstakes is closing soon, 1/13, and the grand prize drawing will be held on 1/16.

The Super Bowl has been one of the most watched sporting events and continues to have much advertising and marketing associated with it. CBS’s broadcast of last year’s Broncos, Panthers Super Bowl game came close, but couldn’t top Super Bowl XLIX which was the most watched program in American television history. So we’ll see if we break that record this year. Stay tuned for more coverage as the road to the Super Bowl continues.

Happy New Year 2017Happy New Year. Usually I will post my end of year review a day or so before the end of the year. But this year I got busy and stayed away from the computer for a few days. So I’m posting it now. Here are 10 posts of what I thought reflected what was happening at the time and a few that were kinda cool for us. Happy New Year and here’s to wishing a happy, healthy and prosperous year for us all.

Last year for the Doritos annual Crash the Super Bowl Video Contest

Doritos ContestMy January posts always cover the Super Bowl along with all the marketing, advertising and promotions that go with it. Super Bowl 50 saw Payton Manning going out on top with the Denver Broncos defeating the Carolina Panthers.  PepsiCo, the parent company of Doritos, was back again for their 10th and last season of their Annual Crash the Super Bowl Video Contest. Who will be in this year’s Super Bowl LI 2017?

Wrestlemania Reading ChallengeSweepstakes encourages participation in the WrestleMania Reading Challenge!

New for 2016 was this sweepstakes, a partnership between WWE and First Book that we got to host and administer. The sweepstakes encouraged families to read together for 15 minutes every day, then record what they did for a chance to win a trip to WrestleMania 32!

FacebookFacebook’s F8 Conference reveals new tools for businesses to connect with consumers

The social giant hosted their annual conference for developers known as F8 back in April. Here they rolled out more updates for their Messenger platform and launched a few bots on the platform as well. Facebook Messenger continued to roll out more updates as the year went on copying many of SnapChat’s features. Facebook ended the year struggling to deal with fake news on it’s platform which will continue to be an issue into 2017.

Social SweepsGiveaways, Sweepstakes & Contests…best practices for keeping them legal

I was encouraged to again write this legal review when I was asked the following question which varies a little from time to time, ”We are doing a quick giveaway via social media and want to check, are we covered from a legal aspect?” My question back is, do you have official rules? This post covers the rules should always include.

AC Moore Costal WeddingWe’re celebrating brides this month with the launch of the A.C. Moore Crystal Coast Wedding Contest

It was the month of June, which is known as the “dads, grads, and brides” month. So I wrote a post on a Father’s Day promotion the week before and the week before that I wrote about a Twitter promotion for grads. So this post was focused on brides. A.C. Moore Arts & Crafts launched  a chance to win a wedding with their Craft Me a Crystal Coast Wedding Contest. The grand prize wedding consisted of a trip for the bride and groom to the Crystal Coast, North Carolina, to get married on October 22, 2016.

G2 ContestPilot Pen and Shonda Rhimes announce the $50,000 Overachievers Grant Contest

This was probably the biggest promotion that we worked on in 2016 and the one that has received the most comments from our post back in July. In fact I just received another one today asking about the winners. While we don’t have any part of the judging of this contest, the period for the judges to review all the submissions was till December 30, 2016. So we expect that they will announce the finalists on their web page very soon. So we’ll be watching for the announcement.

TideRaising an Olympian: Simone Biles and the Final Five at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games

I wrote a few posts back in August covering the Summer 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. This surely was one of the greatest highlights of the year in sports for the USA. Simone Biles and Aly Raisman picked up the gold and silver medals respectively in the Women’s Floor final. Then the Final Five went on to win gymnastics team gold. Procter & Gamble’s “Thank You, Mom” ad campaign was back, featuring real Olympic athletes and their moms. Part of this campaign featured the “Raising an Olympian: Simone Biles – Rio 2016 Olympic Games” ad. P&G was smart enough to realize at the time that Simone was going to be a new star. See again this heartbreaking ad of Simone and her Mom for Tide.

Orioles HandoutTonight’s the final game for the Dream Fan Experience Sweepstakes at Camden Yards

This was one of the last games of the regular season for MLB, with my team, the Boston Red Sox playing against the Baltimore Orioles. They ended up beating the Orioles for their sixth straight victory. They would go on to the post season only to get swept by the Cleveland Indians were we got to see David Ortiz’s (Big Papi) career come to an end. I was so glad that I made a trip to Toronto that season to see him play with the Red Sox against the Toronto Blue Jays. I had hoped to see a World Series with the Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs, which didn’t happen. But the Cubs and their fans were finally awarded their first World Series title in 108 years!

Marketing Law ConferenceHighlights from the 2016 BAA Marketing Law Conference in Chicago

I headed back to Chicago in November to attend the BAA’s 2016 38th Annual Marketing Law Conference. The BAA had another great year with over 750 professionals in attendance ranging from regulators, legislators, corporate counsel, marketers and technology innovators who gathered again at the Marriott Hotel on Michigan Ave. This is a great conference to keep up to date with the latest on regulations and rules in our industry. This year’s conference began the day after the election. So there were many discussions going on during the breaks and cocktail receptions about it. It will be an interesting 2017 to see what will now change.

Her Great Home GiveawayWinner awarded $250,000 in the Great Home Giveaway during Ohio State Football Game

This sweepstakes we saw are largest prize to date awarded which happened during one of the intermissions of this football game between Ohio State and Michigan. Congratulations went to Kathy Lowery from Columbus. She got to choose between the following options: 1) A $250,000 Trinity Home in an existing Trinity Home subdivision; 2) A $165,000 credit towards building a Trinity Home in a Trinity Home subdivision throughout Central Ohio; 3) $100,000 cash option. Last we heard Kathy choose to take the $250,000 home. The Ohio State Buckeyes ended up defeating the Michigan Wolverines 30 to 27 in double overtime in what was reported to be the most exciting college football game of the season!

Happy New Year! Thanks again for being a reader of our blog, Promo Talk, and I hope you’ll continue with us in 2017.