Donna, Author at American Sweepstakes

Music contest from Song Silo invites musicians and music lovers

Requesting user-generated content to be submitted in contests is an extremely popular way for brands and companies to engage with consumers. Social media enables them to help spread the word, gain new followers, and hopefully customers, while at the same time creating buzz for their business. By inviting people to upload a photo, a video, a recipe, a design, or a written essay they also can gain great insights into how consumers use and/or feel about their product and services. This new contest from Song Silo invites people to create and share music on their new platform.

SongSilo.com is a social collaboration website that launched late last year with the objective of becoming a universal community of artists, bands, writers, musicians and music lovers. It is the brainchild of three brothers, Michael, David, and Bernard Edwards, Jr, who have a passion for music which they inherited from their father, disco icon Bernard Edwards. SongSilo came to us for assistance in launching their first contest with an objective to drive people to the site to create, collaborate and listen to music.

On March 1 they launched the SongSilo Original Works Contest. They decided to open up their first contest to all U.S. and Canadian residents and are allowing anyone 13 years or older to participate. Submissions must include a track which is original material, the work of the person who entered and at least two and a half minutes long. Participants have to visit the Contest Profile on the site to publish their track. They can publish as many tracks as they wish during the Submission period which is open till March 31.

A panel of judges will review all submissions and select the top five Finalists based on the following criteria: Originality and Creativity, 25%, Quality of Submission 25%, Uniqueness & Style 35% Use of collaboration 15%. These five Finalists will then have their tracks displayed in the Contest Gallery on the SongSilo website. Starting on April 5 the public will be invited to vote on their favorite. Only one vote per person per track will be allowed during the voting phase which will end on April 26.

So instead of leaving the determination of the winners totally up to public vote, the judging phase helps to prevent a submission from becoming a winner that really does not meet the high standards of what SongSilo is all about.

“We wanted to give everybody who wants to be involved in music, an opportunity to create and enjoy the artistry of song,” said Michael Edwards. “Not everyone has the tools it takes to create or compose — whether that is a specific skill or piece of equipment. Song Silo changes all that.”

The Finalist with the highest number of votes will be determined as the Grand Prize winner who will receive a $1,000 cash prize plus a SongSilo premium account for a year. Also one First Prize winner will receive $250 along with a SongSilo premium account as well.

The Edward brothers are hoping to carry on the family tradition of making music fun. Their father, Bernard Edwards, along with Nile Rogers, was a founding member of Chic. Together they created such hits as ‘Dance, Dance, Dance,’ ‘Everybody Dance,’ ‘I Want Your Love,’ and ‘Le Freak’. The brothers are hoping to leave their own mark through the creation of SongSilo. Already the contest has gotten some good, quality submissions. Check it out here, sign-up for free, take a listen and if you’re a musician, get your track created and submitted soon.

Video Contest from Experience Kissimmee utilizes Instagram

Instagram added a video sharing feature to its application last June which allows users to capture a 15-second video and upload to various social networking platforms. This video feature also comes with some filters, similar to Instagram’s photo filters, that can help improve the video. It was reported that 5 million Instagram videos were shared in its initial 24 hours. I was writing about video contests at the time and predicted that Instagram video contests would be the next big hit. Here is one Instagram video contest that we are currently involved in.

Experience Kissimmee launched their “Rock Your Vacation” Instagram Video Contest on February 3. The contest invites participants to create and post an original 15 second video demonstrating how they would “Rock Their Vacation in Kissimmee” and to use the #RockYourVacation hashtag. The @ExperienceKissimmee Instagram account is approving the videos by commenting on each one. Once approved, the entrant must then visit RockYourVacation.com, click on their video to “verify it” and submit their contact information to receive one complete entry. Each participant may post as many videos as they like up till the end of the contest submission period which is March 16.

A panel of judges will review all the eligible videos on the following criteria: 50% relevance to the Rock your Vacation in Kissimmee theme, 30% originality and creativity and 20% uniqueness. The top eight videos will be determined as the Finalists and be displayed in a gallery at RockYourVacation.com. Visitors to the site will be invited to register and vote per a bracket system for the video they believe best meets the judging criteria. Only one vote per bracket, per day will be allowed. The voting phase starts on March 31 and ends on April 20.

The Grand Prize winner will be determined by who has received the most votes. They will receive a VIP Vacation Package to Kissimmee, FL, for themselves and up to five guests that includes airfare, 5-night/6-day accommodations in a 7-bedroom house provided by All Star Vacation Homes, a car rental and a variety of tickets to area attractions. Total value of the vacation package is over $9,000.

At the end of the contest period we will randomly draw five winners who submitted a video as well as seven winners who just voted. The video winners will each receive a Samsung GALAXY Wi-Fi Camera. The voting winners will each receive a pair of Beats by Dre Solo headphones.

This concept for this contest came from our friends over at Sparkloft Media, the sponsor’s agency, who specializes in social media campaigns. They have introduced me to Seen, a platform that helps brands and agencies launch, promote and measure both Instagram and Twitter campaigns. I’m hoping to possibly engaging Seen if and when a client needs may fit.

Instagram celebrated just their 3rd birthday this past October. Their website states that they have 150 million active monthly users, but that figure hasn’t been updated since September. Facebook reports show that it now is over 180 million. According to this recent study from L2, a digital think tank, Instagram users are overwhelmingly young, wealthy and female. About 58% use the service every day and it is growing faster than any other major mobile app or social network, including Twitter and YouTube.

So I believe a pretty safe prediction to make is that we will be seeing many more Instagram video contests this year. If you’re interested in learning more or like to share a contest that you are working on please contact me.

Seven years a blogger and Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty turns ten

I wrote my first blog post on my personal blog, Donna’s Promo Talk, on February 27, 2007. With today’s blog post, I am celebrating my 7th year of being a blogger. I have developed a few traditions over the years in my blog postings, such as covering the Olympic Games and the Super Bowl which I just completed. Another tradition I follow is to celebrate my blog’s birthday by writing about the same brand that I devoted my first blog post about, and one brand that I truly admire, which is Dove.

In 2004, Dove launched their “Campaign For Real Beauty”. Now, ten years later, Dove has teamed up with an emerging female filmmaker to create Selfie, the latest Dove documentary that still seeks to widen the definition of beauty. Selfie features a group of real women as they celebrate refreshing revelations of their unique beauty. Here’s a look at the short version:

Dove is now inviting everyone to join the conversation and share what beauty means to you at #beautyis and at www.dovebeautyis.com. Participants can just share their thoughts with 140 characters or less or they have the option to upload a photo or video. Dove’s most recent research study, The Real Truth About Beauty, reveled the following:

Only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful (up from 2% in 2004)
Only 11% of girls globally are comfortable describing themselves as ‘beautiful’
72% of girls feel tremendous pressure to be beautiful
80% of women agree that every woman has something about her that is beautiful but do not see their own beauty
More than half (54%) of women globally agree that when it comes to how they look, they are their own worst beauty critic

Dove has created self-esteem building educational programs and activities that encourage, inspire and motivate girls around the world to reach their full potential. They claim to have reached more than 9 million girls so far with this programming and have set a global goal of reaching 15 million girls by 2015. If you’re interested in getting involved you can check out these tools and resources Dove has pulled together.

I am a member of Dove Insider and receive email updates from them that include special offers, new product information and exclusive savings and promotions. Right now Dove is featuring their new Dove Advanced Hair Series products and inviting members to write a review, or simply state why they would like to try one of these new products, for a chance to instantly win a $25 Amazon Gift Card. They have up to 200 electronic gift cards to be given away up till March 31. At that time they will conduct a second chance drawing to award any remaining gift cards.

Looking back on the previous blog posts I’ve written about Dove I noticed that two years ago I was at my computer and clicked over to the Dove Facebook page to see what they were up to. To my surprise I found that Dove had just converted to the new Facebook Timeline. Dove was one of the first brands that Facebook partnered with to roll out their new Timeline for business pages. It’s hard to believe that was just two years ago. Today Dove is using the social media platform to further invite fans to share what they feel Beauty Is.

I’m very happy to still be blogging after seven years. My birthday celebration wouldn’t be complete without thanking my good friend and founder of the Lipsticking blog and BlogPaws, Yvonne DiVita, along with her business partner and now husband, Tom Collins, for helping me get started. Thanks again and thanks to all my readers for sticking with me.

Thank You Mom Campaign from P&G scores gold at the Olympic Games

The Winter Olympic Games in Sochi are now way into their second week and Team USA has been amazing as well as many of the other athletes. What I love about the Games the most is hearing some of the personal stories about the athletes. Like Meryl Davis and Charlie White who just claimed the first ice dancing gold medal for USA. They have grown up together and skating since they were three years old. So I can’t let these Games go by without writing about Procter & Gamble’s “Thank You, Mom” campaign which by all accounts has scored gold.

P&G’s “Pick Them Back Up” TV spot taps into such a universal emotion that every time I watch it, I still tear up! Jodi Allen, Procter & Gamble’s VP of North American marketing and brand operations best summarized this as follows: “Mom’s contributions to their kids’ lives are full of incredible sacrifices. We’re so moved by these moms and the way they help their children overcome obstacles to achieve their dreams. We celebrate the person that helped get each athlete there and who picked them up each time they fell — mom!”

Bounty paper towels, one of P&G’s many brands, launched a contest as part of their “Bring It” campaign. where they invited sports moms to share how they encourage their aspiring athlete to practice in the home “despite the mess”! Moms posted on Twitter using the hashtag #BringIt to share their messy stories. Bounty received thousands of tweets and had to chose one mom to receive the grand prize which was an ultimate Olympic Games at-home celebration and a year’s supply of Bounty.

Molly Woll from Minneapolis, MN, and her story about her 7-year old aspiring athlete daughter won the grand prize. Both were treated to an Ultimate Olympic Winter Games Viewing Party on February 16 in their home. Molly’s story described taking her daughter to early morning (and evening) practices, foregoing family vacations to pay for hockey fees and taking on a second job, and even letting her practice inside their home!

For each Tweet, Bounty donated $1 to the P&G Team USA Youth Sports Fund which ended up as a $10,000 total donation to help encourage new Olympians. As part of the “Thank You, Mom” campaign, P&G offered their “Thanks” to all 357 moms of US Olympians & Paralympians with a gift of a $1,000 VISA gift card to help them on their journey to Sochi. Thank you to P&G and all the moms.

As I write this I’m thinking of my own two daughters, and while not Olympic athletes, we are celebrating today the 24th birthday of my first child, Kelsey, who has grown into a beautiful young lady. I believe that I contributed to her being accepted into NYU’s Tisch School of Drama and continue in helping to make her dream a reality. Also I am so proud of my other daughter, Alex, who is in her second semester at Veterinary School. We wish you a very happy birthday Kelsey.

PinSanity Game from Team USA helps to kick off the Sochie 2014 Winter Olympic Games

The Sochie 2014 Winter Olympic Games are now in full swing and will run through February 23, 2014. I became hooked right away when I started watching the first prime time program which aired the night before the Opening Ceremony and introduced us all to Slopestyle snowboarding. We were immediately disappointed to learn that Shaun White decided to drop out of this competition at the last minute, but our disappointment didn’t last long once we met the other athletes and saw both the US men and women sweep the gold here.

6,000 athletes and team members from 85 countries are taking part in these Olympic Winter Games. 98 sets of medals are being contested in 7 Olympic sports, which is 12 more than at the Vancouver Games in 2010, and 14 more than the Turin Games in 2006. Much of the same Worldwide Olympic Sponsors are back, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Visa, Samsung, General Electric, Procter & Gamble, Omega, Panasonic, Dow and Atos. NBC Sports again has the rights to broadcast the games in the United States and has extended their contract through till 2020. NBC is featuring all of the events live online and will also broadcast events live and taped on their various channels.

Facebook is also a great way to follow all that is going in with the games, the athletes, the sponsors and NBC. NBC’s Facebook page has exclusive coverage, video interviews with athletes and extra content from Sochi and is integrating Instagram photos as well. Most athletes have their own official Facebook pages, where you can follow their journeys in Sochi.

The U.S.Olympic Committee has launched a Facebook page that includes a social-media and mobile game around pin trading. It’s called Team USA Pinsanity. Pin trading first became popular in the 1980s and involves the buying, selling and trading of commemorative pins at Olympic Games. It has since been called the No. 1 spectator sport during the Olympic Games.To get started “Lisa”, the game’s guide, takes you through a brief intro and provides you with a welcome pin that you can display on your pin board. Participants in this virtual pin trading game can enter for a chance to convert online pins into real-life prizes through the PinSanity Pin of the Week Sweepstakes.

The Sweepstakes is divided up into 10 weekly entry periods which began on December, 23 and ends on February 23. Any Pinsanity player who collects the Pin of the Week will be entered in a random drawing to win the weekly prize. This week it’s the Sochi Opening Ceremony pin and the prize is a pair of Team USA gloves. Four other randomly selected winners will also receive discount codes good towards purchases at teamusashop.com. Players can collect the pin via various methods which include winning it through Daily Spin. trading for it in the Daily Trade, answering correctly the Daily Trivia, purchasing it through the Pinsanity Shop, redeeming codes, finding it in a Pin Pack, or getting it as a gift from a friend.
The Official Rules also include an alternate means of entry which is by sending an email with their name and address to [email protected].

The Games so far have been receiving lots of social media buzz. I received an interesting Infographic today that the team at UberVU and Hootsuite released that have been tracking social conversations around the 2014 Sochi Olympics in the various platforms. From the opening ceremonies to the closing ceremonies and every event in between, they are analyzing what topics social cares about most and awarding those making the biggest splash with its very own gold medal. Unfortunately not all the topics have been positive. Take a look at the image below. Enjoy the rest of the Games.

Best Super Bowl Campaign is the Esurance Twitter Sweepstakes

Many had feared and predicted on how the weather was going to be a big factor during Super Bowl 48 and it wasn’t. What we didn’t predict is that the Denver Broncos weren’t going to be a factor either! The Seattle Seahawks dominated the entire game and won their first Super Bowl in their franchise history with a 43-8 win over the Broncos. Congrats Seahawks.

All the brands were there though with their millions of dollars worth of TV ads. Fox reported that the actual Super Bowl had attracted 112.2 million viewers. The major difference this year is that is wasn’t all about the TV broadcast. Most of the marketing folks joined the social media world in a big way. They learned that if they were going to spend that kind of money, then they better not waste it just on 30 seconds of airtime. As most everyone is now aware, the majority of ads could be viewed before the game on either the brands’ social media sites and on YouTube’s Ad Blitz Channel. More than half of all ads (57%) that aired during the game this year included a hashtag, such as Chevy’s #SilveradoStrong and Coke’s #AmericaIsBeautiful,. That’s up from 50% last year and 7% the year before when Audi was the first by including the hashtag #ProgressIs at the end of it’s 60 second spot.

As Facebook turns 10 years old this week, they are also celebrating that they got five specific mentions in Super Bowl ads, compared to Twitter’s four. Twitter however reported that during Sunday’s telecast more than 24.9 million Tweets about the game and halftime show were sent. I have to admit that I started following the Tweets on Twitter, but found there was no way to keep up with them and watch the game and the ads at the same time. I found many Tweets that were not even related to the game or the ads, but used a relevant hashtag anyhow.

A brand new Twitter sweepstakes was announced during the first ad after the game ended by the folks at Esurance, the online insurance company. They stated that it cost them $1.5 million less, (about 30%) to run the ad after the game then during it, so instead they are awarding one lucky winner that money. To participate you had to tweet the hashtag #EsuranceSave30 and post the Tweet by 1 pm PT on Tuesday in order to be eligible for the random drawing. I posted it and I haven’t been notified yet that I won. They are planning to announce the winner on Jimmy Kimmel Live! later today.

This campaign is now being called the best ever in Super Bowl history. There were 1 billion impressions that Esurance received online in less than 48 hours following the SuperBowl, which made it the most viewed and talked about event of the year. 200,000 Esurance tweets were sent out in the one minute after the game. Here’s
mine:

Danny Miller from Esurance stated that as of yesterday they had more than 2.9 million #EsuranceSave30 tweets and they were the #1 Twitter trend in the U.S. for most of the day. They also saw a big spike in traffic to the Esurance website as well as had 50 articles written about them, not including this post. He stated that Esurance has run many contests and sweepstakes on social media in the past, and they will continue to do so.

So will this promotion now result in many other brands running a similar campaign that integrates TV with social media? We would love to see more promotions advertised on TV, but not all have to have a $1.5 million dollar prize to be a success. The big question as always is, will Esurance also see a spike in their sales? Oreo did after their Tweet last year during the Super Bowl, so we’ll have to wait and see if Esurance shares that information.

I also wanted to mention who the winners were in a couple of the other contests that were integrated with the Super Bowl telecast. I picked the winners correctly in the Doritos Crash the Super Bowl Contest that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. “Time Machine” by Ryan Andersen got my vote and his ad ran in the first quarter of the game and was the $1 million dollar First Place winner. “The Cowboy Kid” by Amber Gill I felt would have great public appeal and that ad ran towards the end of the fourth quarter as was the Second Place winner who received $50,000. Congrats to both winners.

The other winner I want to congratulate is from the Intuit Small Business, Big Game Contest. The judges here had narrowed it down to four Finalists and would run an ad during the game for the grand prize winner that the brand’s agency created specifically for that small business. The votes came in and GoldieBlox, a small business that makes construction toys for girls to encourage more female engineers is the winner. This was one of the few commercials we did not see until it ran during game. Congratulations Debbie, the CEO, and to the entire team at GoldieBlox.

That’s a wrap for Super Bowl 48. Check back next week as we provide some promotional marketing insights into the Sochi Winter Olympic Games.

Intuit’s Small Business Big Game Contest winner is one Super Bowl Ad we haven’t seen yet

Super Bowl 48 will finally be taking place this Sunday, the first in a cold-weather outdoor stadium that most of us can ever recall. It seems like the only thing we can all talk about this week, other than the Super Bowl, is the winter weather. It’s a whole 3 degrees right now in Western New York as I write this. However, today is supposed to be the last of this Arctic Blast for now and we should be back up to normal winter temperatures by tomorrow. That’s a good thing for those attending the Super Bowl game at MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands and visiting the sights in NYC.

It should be a great game with the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks, the two teams that ended up with the best records from each conference. Of course we have all the Super Bowl ads to watch as well. However, I feel like I’ve already seen the majority of them. Can you believe that there are now ads that promote the Super Bowl ads? Jaguar is now running ads on a dozen subway trains in New York City with wraps inside and out reminding consumers to be on the lookout for their TV commercial airing Super Bowl Sunday. Plus, YouTube launched their Ad Blitz channel which gives us a sneak peek of many Super Bowl ad teasers along with the actual ads.

One ad that we haven’t seen yet is from Intuit, you know the company that makes Quicken and TurboTax. Yes, besides the weather and the game, taxes are on most people’s minds these days as well. Intuit ran a contest at the end of the year called “Small Business, Big Game“. The Grand Prize winner of the contest is awarded a professional Super Bowl spot for their business, created and produced by Inuit’s agency RPA, along with the almost $4 million to run it during the broadcast. This is a little different twist from the consumer-generated videos that the Dorito’s brand as been running from their popular Crash the Super Bowl contest.

Over 15,000 small businesses entered the contest and more than a million voted on their favorites. The submission period started back on July 31 and ended close to the end of September. To enter participants needed to submit a story of their small business in 600 characters or less along with an optional photo. All submissions were posted in an online gallery and the public was invited to vote on the submission they felt had the most public appeal. At the end of this Round 1, a panel of judges chose the top 250 small businesses based on the following criteria: The small business has a compelling story and submission demonstrates passion for the business (40%); can appropriately represent the Sponsor as a brand ambassador (40%); and Public Appeal, the votes (20%).

Those 250 small businesses were then invited to participate in Round 2 by submitting a video that was a response to a question that the Sponsor posed. Again, all the video submission were posted in an online gallery and the pubic was invited to vote. The judges then narrowed it down to the top 20 semi-finalists based on a more detailed judging criteria that only involved Pubic Appeal (the votes) at 10% of the final decision.

The 20 semi-finalists were contacted and had to agree to have a confidential background check done and a full day of interviews with the Sponsor. They also had to agree that if selected they would be available in December for the production of a TV spot as well as to come to NYC during Super Bowl Week. From there the Sponsor determined the top four finalists based on the judges’ scores in combination with the results of the background check.

So it is now down to the top four finalists which you can learn more about on the contest website. One company is actually called “Poop” that makes compost for lawns and gardens from the manure of dairy cows. Then you have “Locally Laid,” a husband and wife team who’s company sells pasture-raised eggs from their hens, who graze and exercise on green fields. “Barley Labs” is another husband and wife team who make dog treats out of the barley that’s left over from their home beer-brewing. The fourth company is called “Goldie Blox” that makes construction toys for girls to encourage more female engineers. So there you have it. Appears that there is a little hippie-style entrepreneurial spirit in each of these companies.

So as we’re watching the game this Sunday and drinking our Bud Light and Pepsi while eating Doritos, don’t be surprised if a little Poop sneaks its way in. Go Payton and the Denver Bronco’s!

Super Bowl promotions and ads from Bud Light help fans Get in the Game

The two teams who will compete against each other in Super Bowl XLVIII on February 2 at MetLife Stadium have now been set…the AFC champion Broncos and the NFC champion Seahawks. This will be Denver’s seventh Super Bowl appearance (2-4) while Seattle is in its second title game (0-1). As I was hoping, we have Payton Manning coming off the greatest regular season ever as the Bronco’s Quarterback now trying to become the first Quarterback to win Super Bowl titles with two different teams. Go Denver!

All the commercial time during the broadcast of the game has been sold out for months now at an estimated cost of $4 million for each 30-second spot. The list of this year’s Super Bowl advertisers includes many of the same brands that have been there each year with a few new additions. YouTube launched last week their Ad Blitz channel which gives fans a sneak peek of this year’s Super Bowl XLVIII ads and lets them share and vote on their favorites. This pre-game gallery now features teasers from some of the advertisers.

If you’re still looking to try and win some tickets to this year’s Super Bowl 48, Bud Light has been running an instant-win sweepstakes promotion that offers a chance to win game tickets for two plus hotel accommodations in NYC at the Bud Light Hotel along with round-trip airfare via a mobile application. The Bud Light website invites fans to download their Fan Zone Mobile app to play which is available for free at either the Apple App Store or Google Play. Once fans have the app, they then have to create a Fan Zone account and play by scanning a Bud Light logo with their smart phone or tablet camera. Each fan can “play” up to three times per day under their account.

Fans can also play by going to the Bud Light Hotel website, log-in with their Facebook account and follow the instructions to click on one of the three doors to see if it unlocks a trip to the Super Bowl. I of course just picked the wrong door and was invited instead to explore the Bud Light Hotel.

This promotion is divided into two separate play periods. Period One just ended on January 17 and Period Two runs till February 3. Bud Light only gave away the nine Grand Prize trips to the Super Bowl during Period One, so we’re too late for that prize.. They also gave away 60 First Prizes and have another 30 First Prizes for Period 2 which include Bud Light and NFL branded gear. All winners have been being notified instantly at the time of play. Randomly-selected times were chosen at the start of the promotion and the first participant who completed a Play on or immediately after one of these times during the Sweepstakes Period won a prize.

So either way that a person plays, they can do this multiple times a day through their mobile device. Just another great example of giving people the chance to interact with a brand where ever they are.

Being a Buffalo Bills fan who lives in western New York, I wanted to share what I learned from our local news yesterday. Former Bills Pro-Bowl player, and all-time NFL sack leader, Bruce Smith, will be featured in a public service ad for Bud Light that will urge viewers not to drink and drive on Super Bowl Sunday. Bruce was convicted of drunken driving back in 2009. He hopes to get this message out to fan. “To pull a scab off an old wound is not something anyone likes to do,” Bruce says. “If this helps one person make a wise decision, it’s worth it. Bud Light’s ending message in the ad is to “Stay in the Game” by drinking responsibly.

Everyone please have a safe and fun Super Bowl Sunday and try and stay warm!

Ads from Doritos Crash the Super Bowl Contest are back again

Super Bowl XLIII is now just a little over two weeks away which will be played on Sunday, February 2 in the New Jersey Meadowlands. The conference championship games are this weekend, which most of the time are considered the two best games of the season. We have the San Fransisco 49’s going into Seattle to play the Seahawks for the NFC title and the New England Patriots headed to Denver to play the Broncos for the AFC win. Now San Fran and Seattle play each other all season, so it should be interesting. SF knows what it’s getting into playing in Seattle’s stadium which keeps breaking noise records. It’s the Denver/NE game that I’m really interested in. With two top quarterbacks that both have Super Bowl wins to their name, it should be a very good game. Since I’m still a diehard Buffalo fan, I would love to see the Broncos beat the Patriots!

Last week I started my coverage of SuperBowl 48 with this post and mentioned that the Doritos Crash the Super Bowl Contest is back for it’s 8th year in a row. To back track, at the end of 2006 more than 1,000 videos were submitted to the first Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl” online contest. From these entries two :30 spots were chosen to actually run during commercial breaks of the Super Bowl and the “Live the Flavor” spot was awarded the grand prize. Back then this promotion really brought user-generated content contest up to a mass scale. Most of us marketers had been following this trend since then and this particular promotion has been featured in just about every presentation and article on the subject since then.

Each year the Contest has gotten bigger and bigger and new twists have been added. Last year Frito-Lay announced that they had over 3,500 entries submitted which they ran on Facebook as a contest app. This year they are back online and for the first time the Crash the Super Bowl contest has accepted international entries. Basically anyone who lives in a country where Doritos are sold could participate. The Official Rules are written in six different languages and 35 different countries are listed as eligible to enter. All submissions must be in English however if they do include any printed or spoken words.

Here are the five 2014 Finalists that have been selected and who were posted to the contest site back on January 4 when the voting started: “Time Machine” by Ryan Andersen of Scottsdale, Arizona, “Office Thief” by Chris Capel of Valencia, California, “The Cowboy Kid” by Amber Gill of Ladera Ranch, California, “Breakroom Ostrich” by Eric Haviv of Atlanta, Georgia and “Finger Cleaner” by Thomas Noakes of Sydney, Australia.

Votes will be accepted up until January 29. At that time the submission with the highest number of votes will be determined as the Grand Prize Winner and of the remaining four, the Sponsor will select one submission which will be determined as the Second Prize Winner. These two submissions will be aired sometime during the SuperBowl XLVIII broadcast. The Grand Prize Winner also receives a $1,000,000 prize and the Second Prize Winner receives $50,000.

All five Finalists will receive a game trip for themselves and a guest to attend the Super Bowl Game on Feb. 2 in New Jersey. The trip consists of round-trip air transportation, 5 night hotel accommodations in a hotel in or around New York and tickets to the game. Grand prize and Second Prize Winners also have an optional Avengers Consultant prize opportunity which invites them to join the crew on the set of Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron as a consultant which will take place in London, England.

Now I promised to tell you which Finalist I voted for. Even though I think Cowboy Kid may have a good chance of winning since it includes a cute kid and an animal, I had to vote for Time Machine. Yes, it also has a cute kid and a pet, a Golden Retriever no less! I think it is also very entertaining and memorable. It includes humor and fun, and tugs at our heartstrings by providing us with happy memories of childhood, before the digital age. The “Today” show gave it a real positive review when the Finalists were first announced. So I hope it makes it to the broadcast.

Also I have to agree with many of the comments I have read about the “Finger Cleaner ” which it is disgusting. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth (pun intended) and no way makes me want to eat Doritos. However, there are also many people that appear to think this is hilarious. We’ll see. Cast your vote now! It was just announced that the Red Hot Chili Peppers will join Bruno Mars in the Pepsi Super Bowl Half Time Show.

Super Bowl XLVIII is almost here! Are you ready? These Brands are.

It’s now a new year and even though I’ve been blogging for almost 7 years, I’m now incorporating my posts directly into this new American Sweepstakes & Promotions Company blog. So Welcome to all those who may be new to our blog.

A new Super Bowl is also just around the corner. Each year I like to cover the ads and promotional campaigns associated with this event that gets bigger and bigger each year. So I’m continuing my tradition here as well. This year Super Bowl XLVIII will be played outside in MetLife Stadium, home of the NY Giants and the NY Jets, in the Meadowlands. Or, what is also referred to as the swamps of New Jersey, located across the Hudson River in the shadows on NYC.

This images shows what the playoff picture looks like as of today. By the time the game is played on February 2 these eight teams will be narrowed down to just two. There is quite a bit of speculation now on who these two teams will be. But the big debate this year is all about the weather. If it’s anything like what we just experienced this week, especially in Green Bay, the Frozen Tundra, we’ll be setting some more records.

Super Bowl 48 is not just a one day event this year. It’s turned into Super Bowl Week. Super Bowl Boulevard “Engineered” by GMC will span 13 blocks on Broadway between 34th and 47th streets. Many free events will take place here Wednesday, Jan. 29 – Saturday, Feb. 1. People can register online here which allows them to pick-up their badge at Super Bowl Boulevard where they can then take a photo with the Vince Lombardi Trophy, receive autographs from NFL players, kick a field goal through NFL uprights, visit the broadcast sets of NFL Network, ESPN and FOX and ride the 60-foot toboggan ($5 per ride donated to Million Trees NYC). GMC is also sponsoring a sweepstakes for a chance to win 2 tickets to the Super Bowl Game. The potential winner will be drawn on January 31, so they won’t have much time to prepare to get there.

Last year Pepsi began sponsoring the Super Bowl halftime show which featured Beyonce. Pepsi is again this year’s halftime sponsor which will feature Bruno Mars and his band. Pepsi has already launched a marketing campaign that includes a TV ad promoting the halftime show along with a Sweepstakes giveaway for tickets to the show. Pepsi has been a Super Bowl advertiser nearly every year since 1986. This year the game is being broadcast on FOX. All the spots during the game have sold out at an estimated cost of $4 million for each 30-second spot.

Pepsi has also partnered up with “LIVE with Kelly and Michael”, one of my favorite talk shows. Their Web Trivia Game has been giving away chances each day to win 1 of 5 trips for 2 to NYC to be on the field for the Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show. Participants just needed to watch “LIVE with Kelly and Michael” each weekday. Then visit either LIVE’s website or their Facebook page to answer the daily trivia question. As of today, they have now given out all the prizes.

PepsiCo is also the parent company of Doritos which is back again for their Annual Crash the Super Bowl Video Contest. They recently announced the 5 finalists, so take a look and vote. I won’t let you know yet which one I voted for. Check back here next week and we’ll review this contest and some others related to Super Bowl 48!