We haven’t had many Halloween themed sweepstakes this year. However, here’s a small Halloween Giveaway that the folks at Salon Perfect ran to help promote their Halloween Collection. Just take a look at their Instagram page, @salonperfect, which I’ve grabbed a screen shot here, to see what they’ve been promoting.

Three lucky winners won Salon Perfect’s entire Halloween collection which includes all 6 nail sets and all 8 different Halloween nail polishes!! All people needed to do was first follow @salonperfect on Instagram, find the promotional post on their page, like it and then add the Halloween emoji ? in the comment section. The winners were announced on October 20.

Salon Perfect is one of the brands that is part of a company called American International Industries (AII Beauty). They are mostly known by their over 60 different beauty and skin care brands. Some of their other brands include Ardell Beauty, Body Drench, China Glaze, CLUBMAN Pinaud, EzFlow, GiGi, Hollywood Fashion Secrets and ibd Beauty to name a few. They run mostly Instagram givewaways which we’ve now been assisting them with for the last two years.

I thought I’d share a photo of my dog Izzie in her rocker costume! She isn’t too excited about it though! Happy Halloween! Hope you enjoy the day!

Last evening the 2018 World Series got under way at Fenway Park with the Boston Red Sox hosting the LA Dodgers. I wrote this post last year about the opening game which was held in Dodger Stadium and was the hottest game ever played in the World Series reaching a 103 degrees. It was not that way last night with 40 degree temperatures and damp from some earlier showers. The Dodger’s ace pitcher, Clayton Kershaw, pitched in both opening games, this year going up against Boston’s ace, Chris Sale. It turned out not to be a great night for either pitcher with the bull pen for both teams being pulled in earlier then expected, but Boston defeated Los Angeles, 8-4, in Game One.

Taco Bell is again running their “Steal a Base, Steal a Taco” campaign for their seventh year. They are offering a free Doritos Locos Taco to all in the U.S. if a player steals a base in any World Series game this year. “Every year, we’re overwhelmed with the excitement from our fans when combining America’s favorite pastime with America’s favorite tacos,” said Marisa Thalberg, Global Chief Brand Officer at Taco Bell Corp.

Mookie Betts lead off for the Red Sox in the bottom of the first inning, singled into center and successfully stole second base shortly after. So that happened much quicker in the series than ever before. “We said be aggressive early, trying to get a run across, and on top of that I just wanted some tacos,” Betts told the FOX postgame show after Game 1.

People can get their free Doritos Locos Taco at Taco Bell on Thursday, Nov. 1 between 2-6pm. If for some reason they can’t make it that afternoon they still can get a taco voucher online and grab one any time during the day. If a Game 7 is needed to be played it would be on Halloween evening, October 31, so the day after that free tacos may help to celebrate the winning team and the end of another great baseball season.

This is the seventh time a baseball player has given the country free tacos during the World Series. Betts joins Cameron Maybin (2017), Francisco Lindor (2016), Lorenzo Cain (2015), Ángel Pagán (2012), Jason Bartlett (2008), and Jacoby Ellsbury (2007) in accomplishing the feat.

Go Red Sox!!! They will be remembered as the greatest Red Sox team in MLB history!

Next month I will be heading back to Chicago next month to attend the 40th Annual ANA/BAA Marketing Law Conference which is taking place this year November 7-9 at the Downtown Chicago Marriott. I’ve attended this conference more then ten times over the past 20 or so years. I attend to help keep up with new information regarding the legal and regulatory issues facing the industry as well as to assist with promoting and covering the event for the association. Plus it still is the greatest networking event in the industry and is known as THE conference for marketing, advertising, and privacy law.

This year’s conference is titled “Upping Your Game: Pragmatic Business and Compliance Strategies” and features another full agenda with more than 135 speakers, 65 sessions, and 15 roundtables. Key topics this year will cover the role of data in marketing post-GDPR, all aspects of privacy, and real-time and in-store marketing, presented from top brands including Microsoft, Facebook, Snap, Google, Whole Foods, Uber, Buzzfeed, Verizon, Twitter, Pinterest, and Spotify. Some of the other major topics that will be addressed are again influencer marketing, native advertising, the right of publicity, expanded regulatory coverage (FTC, FCC, FDA, NAD, CARU), state AGs, ASRC and as always, the best learning on sweepstakes, skill contests, gaming, and loyalty programs.

Last year they had another great attendance record with over 750 attendees and they expect another high number this year. I summarized last year’s conference with this post. Two years ago the conference started the day after the presidential election and this year the start date has been moved back up and will be day after the midterm elections. So there should be quite a bit of discussion about the outcome of these elections as it was during the breaks and cocktail receptions two years ago. So please remember to vote this year!

I decided to book an early flight to Chicago on the first day of the conference in which they have several breakout sessions. In the past I have missed the first sessions that start at 1pm which includes one that they hold each year titled “The Basics of Promotion, Sweepstakes, Contests and Gaming”. This year it again is on the agenda and I plan to attend even though I do know the basics by now, but curious as what will be covered. The second breakout session of the day will be on the marketing of alcoholic beverages and this year marketing of marijuana will also be covered. In fact today is the first official day that recreational marijuana is legal in the entire country of Canada.

Ed Kabak, SVP, Law for ANA  is again a Co-Chair of the event and will kick off the first official day of the general sessions on Thursday morning. He had stated that “Ours is an industry of rapid evolution. Since we deal with best practices and the state of the art in Marketing and Advertising Law and Digital Media; IP and Privacy, FTC, State A.G. and state-regulation, Lanham Act, Class Actions, and other areas, this forum is invaluable for marketers to move responsibly forward.” When I spoke to Ed recently it was the day of the deadline for the early-bird conference rate and he was pretty happy with the number of attendees that had already registered which was keeping him quite busy as well.

One of the highlights of the conference will again come from Linda Goldstein, Chair, Advertising Marketing & Digital Media Practice Baker Hostetler LLP in New York who will deliver her annual industry review on Sweepstakes, Contests, Privacy, Digital and Social Media. Last year she opened up stating that “mobile now has become the glue to our digital world” and she associated the phone to an adult pacifier. Linda stated that there were, at that time, 4.1 billion users of mobile messaging apps and that by 2020 there will be 10x’s the number of devices as there are people in the world.

Linda’s presentation is always entertaining and last year she included video clips that showcased how a brand might soon be able to change their marketing in real time. Her presentation included a male consumer who was making an in-store purchasing decision on perfume for his girlfriend’s birthday present and he was trying to recall the right brand. The marketers where able to make changes to the packaging in store in order to help him remember and persuaded his purchase. We’re not there yet, but maybe soon.

Friday is the final day of the conference and we’ll get to hear Ron Urbach, Chairman & Co-Chair of Advertising, Marketing & Promotions Practice Davis & Gilbert LLP, who is known to always provide a highly entertaining presentation. This year’s title, “PURSUIT OF “TRUTH” IN ADVERTISING”, is described as: “rapid evolution, transformation and radicalization of social media has made it more and more difficult to distinguish fact from fiction – and real news from fake news” a term we’ve heard many times over the past two years. During Ron’s presentation last year he brought up the term “Fake News” which he referred to as the “dark underbelly of social media” referencing the ads that were bought by so called Russian companies and not properly disclosed as such. Influcencer Marketing was also a huge topic of discussion last year and Ron cited that it is one of the most cost-effective marketing tactics and that working with influencers on a multi-channel campaign can drive up to 16 times more engagement than paid or owned media.

If you’re interested in attending you can register here. I’ll be at the Marriott on Michigan Ave., so please say hello if you’re there. This year I am staying till Saturday so I can meet up with my daughter, Alex, who  lives in a Chicago suburb and is a veterinarian at Golf Rose Animal Hospital. She and I will get a chance to see each other and have dinner together.  So looking forward to visiting Chicago again!

We have been working with Sandals Resorts now for many years assisting them with sweepstakes. Most of their sweepstakes have been targeted to consumers giving away stays to both couples and families at their various resorts. However, right now they just recently launched their biggest ever sweepstakes targeted to travel agents called the Million Dollar Multiplier Sweepstakes.

During the next twelve months eligible travel agents can enter the Sweepstakes by completing a booking with a client to any Sandals or Beaches Resort. Travel Agents have to visit the Sandals online TA Portal to first register for the sweepstakes and then every eligible booking that the agent makes will earn them an entry into that month’s drawing. Each booking must be a minimum of a three-night stay.

There are a total of 50-$1,500 Grand Prizes, 100-$1,000 First Prizes, and 1,450-$50 Second Prizes that will be awarded throughout the Sweepstakes Period totaling $900,000 in prizes! Each month either 133 or 134 winners will be drawn from all the eligible entries.

They are also running a similar sweepstakes just for travel agents in Canada which is awarding $100,000 in prizes. So the total of both sweepstakes equals One Million Dollars to the travel agent community!