Month: September 2017

Alcohol beverage brands utilize text-to-win sweepstakes to help gain in-store presence

We have been getting more and more interest in running text-to-win sweepstakes this year. Here’s a new one that started running September 1 and will end this month. We’ve been working with Republic National Distributing Company who is the second largest alcohol beverage distributor in the U.S. They are assisting Pernod Ricard, the sponsor, who has several very popular spirit brands. Pernord Ricard is utilizing in-store POS for both their Absolut Vodka and Martell Cognac brands to get the message out about the sweepstakes.

People in the Maryland and Washington DC area are invited to text the word WIN1 (Absolut) or WIN2 (Martell) to the shortcode 65047 to be entered into the sweepstakes. One Grand Prize winner from the Win1 keyword drawing will receive two VIP tickets to a Washington Capitals’ NHL home game and a Zamboni ride and One Grand Prize winner from the Win2 keyword drawing will receive two VIP tickets to a Washington Wizards’ NBA home game and a pregame shoot experience. Both prizes total $899 in value.

Since this sweepstakes is for alcohol beverage brands we needed to make sure that entrants were 21 years of age or older. So when they text in each entrants receives a message back with a link to a very brief mobile form in which they have to enter their date of birth. Once completed they receive another message confirming their entry with a link to the official rules. Pernod Ricard is collecting mobile phone numbers and all entrants are automatically subscribed to a text messaging list in which they can receive future text messages from the sponsor. An opt-out option always needs to be included. Other marketers that we have been working with use the form to collect additional data on the entrants such as their name and email address. It depends on the marketer’s objectives and how easy they want to make it for the entrants.

The main objective of these text-to-win sweepstakes is for the brands to receive extra awareness at retail locations. Many alcohol beverage brands are now utilizing text to win and other types of sweepstakes promotions in order to gain the extra display and point of sale that promote the sweepstakes. Here is another text-to-win sweepstakes that we are running for Infinium Spirits for their Tequila Corralejo brand. This is the third and final text-to-win sweepstakes that we’ve been assisting them with this year. The other two which I wrote about were for their Seagrams Vodka brand and for their Templeton Rye Whisky brand.

The Ultimate Fiesta Sweepstakes is open to all of the U.S. and invites people to text Tequila to 65047 for a chance to win one of four $250 gift cards that they can use to host the ultimate fiesta. Point of sale materials such as case cards and neck ringers have been created to get the word out in stores. This sweepstakes also started on September 1 and runs till the end of October. With all three of their sweepstakes they have been utilizing the mobile form to collect additional data on the entrants which include their name, email and date of birth.

We’ve been partnering with the Sweeppea mobile platform on most all of our text to win sweepstakes this year. Based on some initial 2018 planning that some of our clients have shared with us I believe that we’ll be doing many more of these text-to-win sweepstakes next year.

Toyota invites people to share a photo of their favorite running spot in their Rock Your Run Sweepstakes

Another promotion that I worked on right before I left on my trip to Italy was the Toyota Rock Your Run Sweepstakes. We’ve been working through REACH, one of Toyota’s experiential marketing agencies, for about the past five years. Earlier this year they came to us for assistance for the Toyota Rock ‘N Roll Marathon Sweepstakes which is a year-long promotion which started in March and runs till the end of March, 2018. This is in conjunction with 21 Rock ‘N Roll Marathon Expos that are taking place across the country.

This is Toyota’s 3rd year as the official vehicle sponsor of the Rock ’N’ Roll Marathon Series. Inspired by the pulse of music and the energy of the run, Toyota’s theme this year is ROCK YOUR RUN. Runners and their supporters can find Toyota’s footprint at the indoor, 2-day Health & Fitness EXPO and again at the Finish Line Festival. During the 3 days, Toyota offers fun games and plays upbeat music, giving out complimentary gifts like a USB fan that attaches to your phone to cool you off and cinch bags with race course that are silkscreened live on-site. Plenty to offer all those involved in the Rock ’N’ Roll Marathon Series.

Toyota will also have various vehicles on display at these Expos and attendees will be invited to perform at least three different activities with one of the vehicles to gain an entry. Each Expo awards one winner a prize package valued at $300 which includes a pair of Brooks shoes along with some Toyota and Rock N’ Roll Marathon brand swag.

The next Expo is taking place in San Jose, CA, Oct. 6-9 and all are free to attend and open to the public. Each Expo is associated with the Rock ‘N Roll Marathon Series races taking place in the same city. These races started in 1998 as a marathon with bands along the course celebrating each participant. The entertainment has made it a music festival weekend that define the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series experience. However, the fact that runners have raised more than $310 million for participating charities demonstrates how it has become so much more.  This year the series is celebrating 20 Years Running. Toyota is just one of the many partners such as United Airlines, Michelob, Garmin and others.

The Rock Your Run Sweepstakes is just running in the month of September. Hilary Van Messel, Senior Project Manager at REACH stated “The goal for this promotion was simple: develop a purpose driven contest surrounding a relatable question in order to spark a response from and encourage the Rock ’N’ Roll Marathon Facebook community.” The sweepstakes is being promoted on various online social channels. Thursday afternoon the official Rock ‘N Roll Marathon Facebook page posted this on their page which helped to boost entries:

TIME IS RUNNING OUT, ENTER HERE https://rockyourruncontest.pgtb.me/QdhSst FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN. Where is your favorite place to run? Toyota USA invites you to submit a photo of your favorite running destination, trail or path for your chance to win a Toyota Rock Your Run Prize Pack! One photo will be randomly chosen at the end of the month! Good luck and Rock Your Run!

For this sweepstakes we are again utilizing the Shortstack application in which we build the entry form and collect all the entrant’s data along with their photos.  I was able to give the Reach team direct access so that they could view the entries and photos in real time. All of Shortstack’s entry pages are mobile friendly from the start with Shortstack’s “One Campaign for any screen” design philosophy. Recently they have added some new features to the platform that make adding CSS coding very easy for those of us that don’t have much programming experience. If you would like 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.

There are some great photos that people have shared with their entries and we’re hoping to get many more before the month is out. The prize pack is worth $450. So please check out the sweeps and if you like to run, share your photo.

Football season is finally here & so is the PAC-12 Football Championship Sweepstakes

After being out of the country on vacation for the last two weeks I’m now trying to catch up which is why I haven’t written any posts on this blog for awhile. We visited Italy on a trip I’ve been planning for the past year. We started in Rome, then on to an island called Ponsa that’s halfway between Rome & Naples out in what is called the Tyrrhenian Sea. Here is where the Italians go for holiday and where we found ourselves the only “Americanos”. The photo on right was the view outside of our hotel room for 2 nights.

We then headed down to Naples, visited Pompai and Mt. Vesuvius and from there traveled down to the Amalfi Coast where we first stayed a night in Sorrento, 3 nights in Positano and 1 night on the island of Capri. This area is one the most beautiful places we’ve ever been. The photo on the left is from our balcony in Positano. Truly an amazing time. But now I’m playing catch up since arriving back home late Monday night.

Right before I left I just finished up this new promotion for the PAC-12 for their Football Championship Sweepstakes that we did through our sister company, Alliance Sweepstakes. This is the first time I started working with the PAC-12 group. They are an organization that operates in the Western United States, participating in 22 sports at the NCAA Division I level. PAC-12 Football includes teams from California, Oregon, Washington State, Arizona and more. They have now completed week 2 of this season’s schedule with week 3 starting with a game on Friday night.

The sweepstakes is offering five grand prize winners a prize package to attend the 2017 Pac-12 Football Championship Game presented by 76 with two tickets taking place on Friday, December 1 in Santa Clara, CA. Also included are tickets to the Tailgate Event outside Levi’s Stadium, one night hotel accommodations, one $76 gas card and a photo opportunity with the Football Championship Game trophy. Total value of each Grand Prize is $1,576.

Besides the grand prizes there will be 500 monthly winners each month for those that entered in September, October and November. The September monthly winners will each receive a $10 76 Gas Card, the October monthly winners will each receive a Pac-12 Football Championship embroidered fleece blanket and November monthly winners will each receive a Pac-12 Football Championship hat. Total value of all prizes is $22,800.

Residents of the states of California, Oregon and Washington are invited to enter the sweepstakes by visiting a participating 76® gas station and purchasing a minimum of eight gallons of gas in a single transaction beginning September 1 through November 15, 2017. The participant will need to show a receipt as proof of purchase to a gas station attendant who will then give the participant a voucher with a unique code number and the sweepstakes website address which is www.FanFueled76.com. The participant will then need to visit the website and fill out the required fields along with their unique code number. They need to complete all the fields on the entry page to receive an entry. Each unique code number may only be used once. We have also provided an alternate means of entry without purchase through a mail-in option that is provided in the official rules.

We actually built this custom website for them in which we needed to add all 5 million unique codes into the back-end of the database in order to verify that a correct code number is being submitted and that it only can be submitted once. This feature along with collecting all the participant’s contact information needed to be coded into the database. I just checked and there are almost 2300 entries into the sweepstakes so far. We’ll be doing the first drawing at the end of this month.

I hope to maybe visit the northwestern part of the U.S. on our next big trip which is one area of our own country that we haven’t been to yet. So the planning will soon begin. Ciao for now.