Month: July 2018

For about the past five years we’ve been working with REACH, an experiential marketing and event management agency. Over the last year they have come to us for assistance for several promotions for their client, Toyota Motor North America, that are tied to Toyota’s sponsorship of the Rock ‘N Roll Marathon Series. We’ve been working with REACH on a new promotion that just launched last week called the Toyota What’s Your Sign Contest which will now be running till the late November.

Toyota became the official vehicle sponsor of the Rock ’N’ Roll Marathon Series back in 2015, and is one of several sponsors. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series has made running over 20 years now. The Series infuses each event with live bands, cheer teams and more. For 2018 the Series organizers, IRONMAN, are now promising to bring more music, better runner support, improved technology, and more community engagement to every event.

This year Toyota is continuing with their ROCK YOUR RUN theme. Runners and their supporters can find Toyota’s footprint at each event including at the finish line. During each festival in the 19 cities throughout the U.S., Toyota will have various vehicles on display and will offer fun games and also give out complimentary gifts. This new Contest was launched to coincide with the 2018 Humana Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicago race which was held this past weekend. The next event will take place in Dublin, Ireland, and then it comes back to the states on September 1st in Virginia Beach.

The Toyota What’s Your Sign Contest invites people to show off their best sign – motivational, inspirational or just plain funny. They are directed to the online contest page where they need to fill out the required fields on the entry form and upload a photo of their sign. The contest page includes photos of three different signs to help depict what the message photo should contain.

The one Grand Prize winner will receive a trip for themselves and a guest to attend an upcoming U.S. Rock ‘n’ Roll race that is scheduled to take place on or before November 30, 2019. The prize package includes the round-trip airfare for two to the race city, hotel accommodations for two nights and a $250 BROOKS gift certificate which is valued at $2,700.

The Contest submission period is open till November 12, 2018. Once that period has ended a panel of judges will review all eligible photos that were submitted and will choose five finalists based on the following judging criteria: 30% inspiration, 35% design, 35% originality and creativity. The photos from the five finalists will then be showcased in an online photo gallery and people will be invited to visit the gallery and vote for the photo they believe is the best. The voting period will be open from November 15 – 25. The photo that receives the most votes will be deemed the Grand Prize winner.

For this Contest we are again utilizing the Shortstack application in which we have built the entry form and are collecting all the entrant’s data along with their photos. I have given the REACH team direct access to the campaign as well as a separate, private, online page that was created so that they could view all the photos that are submitted in real time. Once it is time to judge all the photos, REACH will be able to share this page with the judges so they can chose the five finalists. At that time we will then update the photo gallery to display only the five finalists, add the voting capability and open it up for all  to view and vote. One vote per day, per person will be allowed.

All of Shortstack’s entry pages are mobile friendly from the start with Shortstack’s “One Campaign for any screen” design philosophy. Each campaign created is assigned a URL address which can be customized by adding text to the beginning of the address, but keeping the characters that where originally assigned. In this case Toyota wanted a fully customized URL address so we purchased www.Toyotawhatsyoursign.com and am hosting the page. We took the embed code from the Shortstack campaign and added that to the new online page. 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.

Hilary Van Messel, Producer at REACH stated “Similar to previous contests, this Contest goal is to develop a following and spark action in the Rock ’N’ Roll Marathon community. Differently, this Contest runs for an extended period of time, so we’re promoting it in fun and different ways, including a cyclist in each of the cities who passes out little business cards that explain the Contest to the supporters on the sidelines of the race courses. We hope that people get excited to enter, whether that is through our promo work or the trip for two Grand Prize.” Currently there have been a few photos submitted to the Contest. The Contest is also being promoted on various online social channels as well as it will be featured throughout the year on the official Rock ‘N Roll Marathon Facebook page. 

The Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) a couple of months ago launched their new Join Me In Jamaica digital marketing campaign. The campaign includes several 90-second videos featuring local Jamaican celebrities and friends of Jamaica sharing unique stories about the love for their profession, and their homeland and what makes it a great place to visit.

“The Join Me in Jamaica campaign was created with today’s savvy traveler in mind as purchasing decisions as to where one will vacation are often made after a series of online searches. These short videos will serve to entice visitors to come experience our destination and our greatest asset, our people,” noted Donovan White, Jamaica’s Director of Tourism in a press release.

We have now just started working with their agency, Finn Partners, to assist with the launch of the Join Me In Jamaica Sweepstakes. The sweepstakes, along with the campaign videos, will be targeted to those in the continental U.S. and Canada. It will be promoted through JTB’s social media channels including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, as well as through a digital ad campaign aimed at reaching consumers where they look for inspiration while making travel decisions.

The sweepstakes just launched and people can enter by visiting www.joinmeinjamica.com and filling out an online registration form. At the end of the sweepstakes period, which ends on August 17, we will draw two Grand Prize Winners, one from the U.S. and one from Canada. Each grand prize winner will receive a trip to Jamaica that includes two round-trip economy air tickets along with a 4-night stay for two people in Jamaica, two nights at the Round Hill Hotel and Villas and two nights at Terra Nova All Suite Hotel. Also included are round trip transfers to and from the airport and the hotel. The prize is valued at $3,000 each.

A total of eight videos for the campaign were produced covering a variety of interests and passion points highlighting Jamaica’s music, cuisine and attractions. Each video was created through the eyes of local celebrities and personalities that share their stories about why they love their beautiful island. Here is one that features Chef Martin Maginley of Round Hill Resort and Villas, one of the hotels that’s included in the prize package.

You can see all eight videos of the campaign that feature the other local celebrities from Jamaica here at JoinMeInJamaica. Definitely makes we want to visit soon!

As we get close to the World Cup final game the excitement is building this week so I thought I’d write about a big promotion that I read about that is currently going on.

Coca-Cola brands and 7-Eleven have teamed up for the second time for the convenience store chain’s largest-ever in-store promotion around the World Cup tournament. More than 61,000 7-Eleven stores in 14 countries are participating, including 9,100 stores in the U.S. This time, the promotion features a “Predict A Score” game and sweepstakes requiring use of the retailer’s 7Rewards customer loyalty mobile app.

While the promotion is global, it has a local flavor in each country with unique products and promotions. The participating countries include Canada, Mexico, Japan, Thailand, China, Hong Kong, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Denmark and Sweden. In the United States, specially marked “Share a Coke” cans at participating 7-Elevens have unique codes under their tabs that can be used to play the “Predict and Score” game in the retailer’s loyalty app. These include exclusive 16-ounce soda cans featuring a QR code that shoppers can scan to access exclusive content such as mobile wallpapers for smartphones, a 2014 FIFA World Cup mobile game and a link to the 7-Eleven mobile application. Also available on 7-Eleven shelves in the United States during July are size-5 commemorative soccer balls featuring the 2014 FIFA World Cup and Coca-Cola trademarks.

“The QR code brings an added-value experience to our guests,” said Margaret Chabris, director of corporate communications at 7-Eleven Inc., Dallas, TX. “The customer scanning the QR code not only gets the exclusive 2014 FIFA World Cup wallpaper, but also access to a mobile FIFA World Cup Game on the Coca-Cola Ahh.com Web site, and instructions on how to download the 7-Eleven app for lots of fun and exciting offers.”

Players can also earn 7Rewards points redeemable for select items at participating 7-Elevens, plus chances to win prizes and a sweepstakes grand prize of $50,000. For Coca-Cola, which has been sponsoring the FIFA games since 1978, the promotion is one of a score of sales-boosting efforts tied to the tournament. Each week through July 15, a bracket featuring upcoming games and teams appears in the 7-Eleven app. Each time 7Rewards members choose their picks to win in a given week, they earn 10 points, plus five points for each correct prediction. Only one game code may be entered per week.

Players who predict correctly can also move up the leaderboard after each week’s winning soccer teams are determined. The four players at the top of the leader board when the championship game concludes on July 15 will win prizes that include a $2,000 Delta Vacations gift card, $1,000 and $600 Best Buy gift cards, and a year-long sports streaming package. The next five players in the ranking will receive 10,000 7Rewards points. Thousands of 7Rewards points will be awarded to the balance of the top 300 players. All game winners and eligible entrants will be entered into the sweepstakes which continues through Aug. 31 for a chance to win the $50,000 grand prize.