Donna, Author at American Sweepstakes

Tweet #VolvoContest During a Super Bowl Car Commercial

Tweet #VolvoContest during a Super Bowl Car Commercial and you could put someone in a new Volvo!

If you want to enjoy some chicken wings on Super Bowl Sunday you’d better stock up on them now! The National Chicken Council says it estimates that Americans will eat 1.25 billion wings this Sunday to celebrate the Big Game. We in western New York love our chicken wings. In fact the Buffalo Bills treated the Detroit Lions to Buffalo wings to thank them for letting the Bills play a Monday night game in their stadium when Ralph Wilson Stadium was buried in snow!

The National Retail Federation says it expects 184 million fans to tune in to Super Bowl XLIX, and that the average viewer will spend $77.88 to celebrate. That adds up to $14.3 billion! That’s shows how powerful the NFL is for this economy. Let’s not have any more of this Deflate-Gate nonsense!

Volvo just announced something interesting that they’re doing this year to tap into those 184 million fans! There are many automotive brands that are running an ad during the Super Bowl 49 broadcast, but not Volvo. Instead it wants viewers to Tweet when one of their competitor’s ad is running. This promotion “The Greatest Interception Ever,” invites fans to tweet its hashtag, #VolvoContest, during other car brands’ Super Bowl commercials. This contest asks fans to nominate someone they feel deserves to win a new Volvo XC60. Volvo says it wants to focus on real people rather than its own marketing message. Check out their promotional video here:

The Who Would You Put in a Volvo? Contest details are on their promotional website www.volvointerception.com. The contest starts when the game starts, at 6:30 pm on Sunday. Once the participate see another car commercial they have to tweet using the #volvocontest hashtag and state who they would put in a brand new Volvo.

After the required Tweet is sent, Volvo will send a Tweet back to that participant with a link to the contest’s entry form. Participant then needs to fill out and submit the entry form and include a statement identifying who their nominee is and why they are nominating this person. Nominee statement must be no more than 75 words and nominee must be a living person in the U.S. who has a valid driver’s license and 18 years of age of older. Each participant can nominate only one person and should have that person’s permission before they nominate them.

At the end of the contest period, which is 11:59 pm ET, a panel of judges will choose 5 potential winners based on the following criteria: (a) extent to which the Nominee demonstrates passion for the Volvo brand (10%); (b) extent to which the Nominee demonstrates generosity of spirit (30%); (c) extent to which the Nominee demonstrates how they inspire (30%) and (d) overall impression(30%).

Once the winners are verified 5 prizes will be awarded to the nominees, not the winners. Each nominee will receive a Volvo XC60 along with a $5,000 check. Total prize value is $46,205. The nominee will be responsible for all taxes, registration, insurance and title.

Now Volvo isn’t a sponsor of the NFL or Super Bowl, so they have been very careful in all their promotional communications, including the Contest Official Rules, not to mention the Super Bowl. Instead they refer to it as the “professional football championship game taking place on February 1, 2015, at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona”. I would think that the other car brands that have paid big money to run their ads (BMW, Kia, Lexus, Nissan and Mercedes-Benz) are not happy with this promotion either. You can view some of the ads that will be running here on YouTube’s AdBlitz.

I’m looking forward to watching “The Big Game” this Sunday and eating some chicken wings. Hope it’s at least a good one, not like last year’s blowout! Don’t forget to vote for your favorite ad here on AdBlitz.

Doritos’ Crash The Super Bowl Video Contest is back along with some familiar NFL playoff teams

I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays. Happy New Year and here’s to a great 2015!

Now that the holidays are behind us it means that we’re in football playoff season and the Super Bowl is quickly approaching. Each January I continue to cover the ads and promotional campaigns associated with this event that seems to gets bigger and bigger each year. This year Super Bowl XLIX will be played in the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona on February 1. Here’s what the Playoff picture looks like this year:

Now the NFL has had a tough year to say the least. Today the headlines state that the league reportedly told the Lions on Tuesday that the Dallas Cowboys benefited from a second crucial call that went uncalled in their victory over Detroit in the wild-card round this past weekend (and it wasn’t the controversial pick up the flag call). If you’re a lions fan, hearing this doesn’t really matter. The Cowboys are moving on (and Christie is happy!).

This all still doesn’t stop the Super Bowl from being one of the most watched sporting events along with all the marketing that is associated with it. Last year most of the advertisers released their TV spots prior to the actual broadcast of the game. So we expect to see much more of that this year. The game last year was played outside in MetLife Stadium in the New Jersey and New York celebrated with weeklong events leading up to the game.

PepsiCo, the parent company of Doritos, is back again for their Annual Crash the Super Bowl Video Contest. They just announced the 10 finalist videos which were chosen from among nearly 4,900 submissions. This number is up from 3,500 entries last year. Two videos will air during the Super Bowl XLIX broadcast; one will be chosen by accumulating the most worldwide votes from the contest site and the other by a panel of judges chosen by Doritos. The public is invited to vote once per day, per device up till Jan. 28.

This year’s contest Official Rules list legal residents of 31 countries who were eligible to enter, as long as they have a valid YouTube account. Each of the 10 finalists, including the two winning finalists, will receive a Game Trip for themselves and a guest which includes airfare and hotel. Each finalist will receive a ticket to watch the game from the Doritos suite and their guest will watch the Game at a private party hosted by Doritos. The finalist that accumulates the most votes will be the Grand Prize winner who, besides the Game Trip and the airing of their video during the Super Bowl broadcast, will receive $1,000,000 and the opportunity for a “Dream Job” at Universal Pictures! Of the remaining 9 Finalists the Doritos’ judges will choose the First Prize Winner who receives only a mere $50,000. The remaining 8 Finalists also will each receive $25,000. That is one huge prize pool!

So who’s teams will make it to this year’s Super Bowl? Will we see a return of the Seattle Seahawks who heavily defeated the Denver Broncos last year? Most are saying it’s going to be the New England Patriots returning against Seattle. But the Patriots have to win over the Baltimore Ravens this weekend, who are pretty hot right now! I would love to see Green Bay beat Seattle for the spot, even though I was not a fan of Green Bay when Buffalo beat them a few weeks ago. Yes, us Buffalo fans are in the mist of quite a soap opera right now during our 14th constitutive year of not making the playoffs. Looking for a new head coach and couple of quarterbacks to help break the curse!

I’ll be covering more NFL Super Bowl news next week, so please stay tuned.

2014 Review. Happy New Year 2015.

I hope 2014 was good to you and that you’ve been enjoying this holiday season. I’ve established a end-of-the-year tradition which is to write my last post of the year as a review of what I’ve written about during the past year. I feel it’s a nice way for us all to reflect on the past year before we look forward to what the new year will bring.

So here’s a look back at some of the top posts from this blog that I felt reflected either a major shift in the promotional marketing industry, a new trend or a personal or business highlight. I have written 47 blog posts this past year, including this one, which is almost one a week, published mostly on Wednesdays.

January – Intuit’s Small Business Big Game Contest winner is one Super Bowl Ad we haven’t seen yet – My January posts mostly cover the Super Bowl and all the marketing, advertising and promotions that go with it. Super Bowl 48 was the first in a cold-weather outdoor stadium that most of us could ever recall while we also were experiencing some really COLD winter temperatures. Most of the advertisers decided this past year to post their spots online before the game, except for Intuit. The small business contest winner’s ad was broadcast during the game for the first time and the winner was Goldie Blox. Check out their ad here.

February – Thank You Mom Campaign from P&G Scores Gold at the Olympic Games – Sochi hosted the Winter Olympic Games and Team USA had an amazing year. What was so special about the games was hearing some of the personal stories of the athletes. P&G’s “Pick Them Back Up” TV spot hit the emotional nail on the head. As of today it has over 20 million views here on YouTube.

March – Video contest from Experience Kissimmee Utilizes Instagram – Instagram had an amazing year and this was one of the first posts of the year I wrote highlighting a video contest we worked on for Kissimmee Florida. Instagram recently announced that they hit 300 million monthly users, up from 200 million from March, and have now surpassed Twitter.

April – Tourism Australia offers 52 chances to visit now, not Someday – I worked with Australia Tourism and their agency to help launch the Someday campaign. It was in partnership with Virgin Australia and Delta Airlines, their first joint U.S. marketing campaign, which gave away 52 amazing trips to Australia. Each trip was valued at $7,800 totaling over $400K in prizes. Many of the lucky winners will be taking their trip well into 2015.

May – FTC publically addresses compliance violation with Pinterest contest – the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) updated its Endorsement Guidelines after it completed an investigation into a Pinterest-based contest conducted by Cole Haan. The ruling impacts all social media promotions, particularly those that encourage user-generated content to be created and shared, and not just on Pinterest, but all other social media platforms.

June – Contests, Games, Hashtags and Videos promote the 2014 Word Cup – Once team USA won it’s first match against Guana US fans got very excited about the games and helped to make it the most social sporting event ever. John Brooks became a star overnight and his #daretodream posts. However, it was the Germans that walked away with the final trophy. We’ll see what we can do in Russia in 2018.

July – Hershey’s Experience Sweepstakes from Menchie’s launches and Shortstack introduces their new Campaign Builder – With this summer promotion I was able to use my favorite Facebook app to create a sweepstakes campaign that not only was installed to a Facebook page, but existed online as well. This sweepstakes campaign collected entries from both methods all going into one database.

August – Facebook no longer Likes a Like-Gate – Facebook announced in early August that it would no longer allow apps that make it mandatory to like the page in order to enter a promotion. They gave developers 90 days to adapt to the change that officially went into effect on November 5. Most recently they have also announced that they will restrict Facebook status updates from pages that strictly promote entering a promotion.

September – Rules, Guidelines and Etiquette of Business Social Media – After attending the 3rd Annual Summit on Digital Advertising Compliance for Social Media, Sweepstakes & Promotion in NYC in early September, I came away with the fact that there are so many grey areas when it comes to social media. So I included a infographic in this post titled “How to Mind Your Manners on Social Media” and still feel that it rings so true.

October -#CheckYourself, new music video from Avon honoring Breast Cancer Awareness month Each October in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month I write a least one post promoting the cause. This year it was about a powerful PSA from the Avon Foundation for Women which featured a new music video created with and by Paula Abdul along with Alex Cairo, a young and up and coming copywriter who wrote the lyrics and is the daughter of Gene Cairo, the President of American Sweepstakes Company.

November – Sweepstakes, Contests, Disclosure & Digital/Social Media Updates from the Annual Marketing Law Conference – I was back again in Chicago for the 36th Annual Marketing Law Conference hosted by the BAA/PMA. This post includes a summary of what Linda Goldstein from Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, aka the Sweepstakes Diva, shared with us.

December – Cheddar’s Cafes Home for the Holidays Contest invites Brand Advocates to vote – During the month of December I wrote about several Holiday promotions that we were working on for clients. This one from Cheddar Cafes involved a essay contest that included voting. They received 1,350 entries and the winner, Ross Kelly, has her story posted on their Facebook page.

I hope you enjoyed the review. Thanks again for reading! I wish you a very Happy New Year and here’s to a wonderful, healthy and prosperous 2015.

Happy Holidays

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree is the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.

From our family to yours we wish you a very Happy Holiday!

Ancestry launches their Ten Days of Holiday Giving Sweepstakes

Being together with family and friends is what makes the holidays so special. Our sister company, Alliance Sweepstakes, worked with the team over at Ancestry to kick off their annual “10 Days of Holiday Giving”. The Sweepstakes, which runs December 15-24, is a way for Ancestry to give back to their community.

To enter the sweepstakes participants are invited to visit the Ancestry Facebook page facebook.com/AncestryUS each day during the promotion. Ancestry will ask a question and participates need to answer the question or submit a photo, which will be considered their entry into the daily giveaway.

For Day Two of their “Ten Days of Holiday Giving” Ancestry asked fans to share what their favorite carol or song that puts you in the holiday spirit! Several comments included Perry Como’s “No Place Like Home for the Holidays” and “White Christmas” by Elvis Presley. Mine favorite is “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” by John Lennon.

A random drawing will be done after each day from all those that entered to determine the daily winners. Each daily winner will receive an Ancestry prize package for themselves and another to give to a family member of friend. Day One prize included a 3-month World Deluxe Membership to Ancestry.com.

Ancestry is the world’s leading resource for online family history & genealogy. You can start building your family tree at their website, ancestry.com. Visit their Facebook page today and each day to find out what question they are asking and to enter for a chance to win. This is a great example of a simple, but fun way to engage with your fans right on your Facebook page without even using an application. And what better time of year then to review your family history. Happy Holidays to all.

Annual Holiday #12DaysofSandals Giveaway Kicks Off

The most popular time of year for people to get engaged to be married is Christmas time. Giving that special ring as a gift to the one your love as well as couples starting their wedding plans are pretty common occurrences during the holiday season. We’ve been assisting Sandals resorts for the last few years in helping to make couple’s dreams come true with their annual 12 Days of Sandals Giveaway Sweepstakes.

This year the promotion begins Friday, December 12 and runs for 12 days to Christmas Eve. Each day Sandals will offer one lucky person a chance to win that day’s prize with the Grand Prize being offered on the last day. Participants can enter this year’s Sweepstakes by first either following Sandals on Twitter or Instagram. Sandals will post daily on both social media platforms during the Sweepstakes Period. Participants can obtain one Sweepstakes entry for that day by either tweeting or commenting a correct or proper response to that day’s post or question from Sandals. All posts must include the hashtag, “#12DaysofSandals”.

The Grand Prize will be a Sandals Wedding Moon Package which includes a 6 day/5 night wedding and honeymoon at a Sandals resort of the winner’s choice. The Grand Prize winner can choose a package that includes a Wedding Ceremony or a Renewal of Vows Ceremony. The total package is valued between $8,500 – $9,000.

The other daily prizes range from a selection of bridal gowns to choose from along with gift certificates good toward the purchase of wedding stationary and other towards jewelry. The chatter on Twitter has already begun with many waiting to enter this year’s #12DaysofSandles daily giveaway. Sandals posted this photo of last year’s winner on their Twitter page. Good luck to all who enter this year.

Cheddar’s Cafes Home for the Holidays Contest invites Brand Advocates to vote

It wasn’t a big surprise this year that Black Friday and Cyber Monday were not what they used to be. From the stats that I have read it appears that we now shop whenever we want, however we want, thanks to online and mobile. So even though some stores were open on Thanksgiving day, most people still shopped at home on the holiday. I admit that I contributed to the economy over the weekend and got my holiday shopping started, both online and in stores. The only day I ventured out was on Saturday and I did shop at one of the Small Business Saturday stores using my Amex Card, in which I will now receive a $10 credit.

To continue on with my coverage of some of this year’s holiday promotions, here’s another one that we are working on for a client, Cheddars Casual Cafes. They are running a “Home for the Holidays” Contest inviting people to tell them who they would like to spend their holidays with and why. Cheddars is known for it’s scratch kitchen and homemade food that they prepare in a casual restaurant atmosphere. So part of the contest requirements is to include a description of a great holiday meal that they shared with this special person who they unfortunately won’t be with this holiday season.

Participants need to describe in 150 words or less what was in this great holiday meal and where it was shared, along with what this special person means to them. A photo is also required to be submitted with their essay to complete their entry. Submissions are now being accepted up till December 7. After that a panel of judges will review all the submissions and choose 10 finalists based on the following criteria: Adherence to theme, Holiday Reunions 33%, Incorporation of a meal into the entry, 34%, Creativity: 33%.

The 10 finalists will then be voted on to determine the winners. But Cheddars decided to open up the voting segment not to the general public as in many user-generated content contests, but instead to customers who they have determined to be “Brand Advocates”. There are 424 of these “Brand Advocates” who each may cast 3 votes. They may cast these 3 votes any way they choose; all 3 votes for one Finalist, one vote to 3 different Finalists or 2 votes to one Finalist and one vote to another.

Three Grand Prize winners will be announced on or about December 19. They will each receive a $1,000 VISA Gift Card and a $250 Cheddar’s Gift Card. This will hopefully help them to connect with that special someone before the holiday season is over.

Our two daughters will both be home for Christmas and my husband and I are looking forward to it very much. We missed them at Thanksgiving and haven’t seen them since August when they were both home for a few days together. They have already put in their special menu requests. Their dad is the one who cooks most of the homemade meals in this kitchen.

#GiveMerry Instagram Sweeps uses photos to promote holiday gift ideas

The 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry report found that 42% of marketers were planning to increase their use of Instagram this year, compared to 38% in 2013. Instagram has grown and it doesn’t appear that it’s going to slow down in the coming new year. They currently have 200 million monthly users, and have become the network when it comes to image-based social media marketing. So what does 2015 have in store for Instagram?

Our clients over at Things Remembered are utilizing Instagram for their big Holiday promotion this year. Their #GiveMerry Sweepstakes is offering participants a chance to win a daily giveaway and to “personalize every moment with those you love”. Each day during the Sweepstakes period, Things Remembered is posting a close-up image on Instagram (@thingsremembered) of one of their products. Participants can get one entry into that day’s daily drawing by commenting on the Instagram post and correctly guessing what the product is that’s shown in the daily photo. Comments are being accepted from the moment each post goes live until 3:59 pm on the following day which is when our team then draws the daily winner.

There will be a total of 48 winners, one winner per day, who will each win the product that was featured in that day’s Instagram post. The promotion is live up until Christmas Eve. Here’s a couple of examples of before and after photos that have been posted this week.

Each winner is contacted via Instagram from Things Remembered and asked to Direct Message them back with their contact info and what they’d like the engraving to say on their #GiveMerry gift! All the prizes are featured in the Things Remembered Holiday Look Book. Personalizing a Holiday gift for someone is a great was to thank them and share warm memories.

So on that note, I would like to thank all our clients and readers for your continued support and wish you and your family a very Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy the day.

Sweepstakes help marketers gather user data during holiday season

Many marketers are already in full force now that this holiday season is upon. Not only can I tell by watching TV, but my email box has been filling up with messages about holiday recipes, black Friday sales and various gift ideas. According to a recent poll by Experian Marketing Services, email marketing will be the most-used advertising channel this holiday selling season. So even with all the social media choices, 90% of these marketers say they’re sticking with the tried and true email message!

Sweepstakes are one of the most efficient ways to gather customer/user information and build a database with email addresses as well as mobile phone numbers for SMS messages. Running a sweepstakes during the Holiday season offers prospective customers the chance to win great prizes and also helps to build excitement and awareness of your brand.

We’ve been assisting the team at Experience Kissimmee in promoting their destination as a place to celebrate the holiday season with their Snowy Holiday Sweepstakes. The sweepstakes offers weekly chances to win a holiday getaway package to Kissimmee that includes 2-day/3-night hotel accommodations plus tickets to area attractions such as Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, Now Snowing in downtown Celebration, FL, and to ICE! featuring the Nutcracker at Gaylord Palms Resort.

People are invited to enter the Sweepstakes by submitting an entry form on the promotional website, www.snowyholiday.com, or via text message by texting the keyword “snow” to a shortcode. Experience Kissimmee is currently promoting the sweepstakes only through channels targeting residents that live in areas within driving distance to Kissimmee. This is because the getaway prize package doesn’t include airfare along with the fact that the trip needs to be taken within a short time period. This market also happens to be one of Experience Kissimmee’s prime target audiences since it is a group that would most likely visit the destination on a yearly basis, if not several times a year.

“Our holiday sweepstakes is a key component of our seasonal campaign to encourage visitation to Kissimmee and highlight our variety of holiday events and special offers” states Megan Heron, Product Manager for Experience Kissimmee. “Consumers who enter for a chance to win may opt-in to learn more about what Kissimmee has to offer. We are excited to use this data to re-market to them during key travel planning periods throughout the year. Our direct marketing efforts have included email marketing and now can also include text messaging with last minute deals, e-newsletters and information about our ongoing campaigns and promotions.”

So far I’ve awarded two weekly winners with the getaway prize package and both are extremely excited and can’t wait to book their reservations and visit Kissimmee. One winner told me they are originally from the northeast and are looking forward to experiencing snow again, but this time in Florida!

Sweepstakes, Contests, Disclosure & Digital/Social Media Updates from the Annual Marketing Law Conference

The BAA/PMA 36th Annual Marketing Law Conference opened up last Thursday morning, November 6, to what we were told was another record turn-out for attendance. Linda Goldstein from Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, started us off that morning with this statement “Digital is the conduit of consumer touch points. It has become the sand on how we connect with consumers. Consumers have become the marketing media. Devices make it possible, but they still need the personal connection to make it happen.”

Linda spoke to us for about 90 minutes on the subject titled “Key Legal Developments in Marketing/Advertising Law Affecting Sweepstakes, Contests, Privacy, Disclosure & Digital/Social Media”. As usual her talk was extremely informative and entertaining. Linda is widely recognized as one of the leading lawyers on this subject and what she shares with us each year at this conference is thought of as the bible that we in the industry follow.

We first reviewed what is an “Illegal Lottery”, a promotion that contains all 3 of these elements: Prize, Chance (random selection) and Consideration (Purchase, Payment or Time). The Time element of Consideration is still the most gray area. Most social media entry requirements do not usually have consideration. However, writing about a product or taking a photo or video of the product to enter may be consideration.

For example, if you can take a photo of yourself with the product in the store then a purchase would not be required. But, if you’re asked to take a photo of yourself with the product (in this example shoes) and be “out and about the town” that would most likely require purchasing the shoes and therefore, consideration. Fine line between the two, huh? Another example is when Dunkin Donuts asked participants to take a photo of themselves taking a bite of a donut. They can’t return the donut then, so wouldn’t that require purchase as well? You need to ask if the consumer can effectively compete without actually purchasing the product.

The degree of effort by consumers that is being required to enter is currently a big trend in social media sweeps. Participants can earn extra entries from performing different tasks and challenges. So how much is too much time and how much effort can you really require? The Supreme Court did rule that watching a 30 minute show isn’t too much time, so that’s a guideline. But keep in mind that while awarding bonus entries for sharing/referring may not likely to be deemed consideration, it may be against CAN/SPAM regulations or the FTC’s endorsement guidelines.

I was waiting to hear what Linda would say this year regarding whether text and data charges still constitute consideration. And similar to last year, she shared that there is still no definitive answer on this. There has been no regulatory action or challenges to date. Only case still is the class action lawyers who have challenged the premium text promotions. Linda stated that 75% of entries are now being done through mobile, but still recommends an AMOE (alternate method of entry) when offering text entries. No legal basis however can really be enforced since Wi-Fi is regularly available, however when offering text as a method of entry you should still state that data rates may apply and participants should consult their mobile providers.

Linda, along with some other great speakers we heard from throughout the conference, shared with us many more insights on various topics . It was noted many times that Facebook’s no like-gating policy that I wrote about in August finally went into effect on Nov. 5. Also there was more discussion on the FTC’s updated Endorsement and Testimonial Guidelines that I wrote about when the FTC investigated the Cole Hann Pinterest Contest back in April. The take-away is that if the act of pinning, tweeting, or any use of videos, photos, etc. may constitute an endorsement, then the use of the sweepstakes/contest title alone in the hashtag is not adequate. You must also include #Contest or #Sweepstakes or a similar designation.

I’d like to wrap up this post with some quotes from both Linda and Ron Urbach from Davis & Gilbert LLP who spoke to us on the last morning of the conference. Ron stressed the challenge today of being an effective marketing lawyer in an era of rapid change. “Real-Time Marketing needs Real-Time Lawyering… a balance between practical insight and business sensitivity.” Today all of us in this marketing industry need to consider the risk, but also be realistic. Linda ended her presentation with this thought “The currency today is not money; it is consumer engagement and their content. But it is full of risks, and we must guard the waters.”

I will hopefully be headed back to next year’s 37th Annual Marketing Law Conference to meet up with everyone again at the Downtown Chicago Marriott in November, 2016. The BAA/PMA did a great job again this year and I’m sure next year will follow the same high standards. Yes, if anyone is curious, I did purchase some new boots this year from Nordstrom.