Author: Donna DeClemente

We’re all hoping that the cost of gas remains holding pretty steady for the rest of this year. But who wouldn’t want to win free gas for a year? We’re working again with the team at CITGO to assist with their Club CITGO Free Gas for a Year Sweepstakes. This promotion will be running all year with one lucky winner per quarter. They way it works is through the Club CITGO App.

Participants in 26 eastern states, plus D.C., are invited to download the app and set up a personal Club CITGO account. They will each receive a Free Gas for a Year Sweepstakes notification altering them each quarter that the sweepstakes is open for entries. Those users can obtain daily entries via the app Check-Ins. A Check- In is measured by the entrant’s mobile device being within 400ft of the tracking hardware installed at a participating CITGO location.The tracking hardware uses GPS and the entrant must have GPS/Location Services enabled. If an entrant is within the 400ft distance, they can obtain one entry by clicking the ‘Check-In’ button in the app sidebar. The sweepstakes rules do allow for an alternative means of entry by mail for those participants that may not want to use their data or have a mobile phone.

Entrants are allowed to Check-In daily for multiple chances to win. At the end of each quarterly sweepstakes period one lucky grand prize winner will receive $2,500 worth of CITGO gas cards, which should be enough for a year’s worth of driving. Besides the sweepstakes, participants can check-in every day to earn extra perks and rewards to save on in-store items such as their favorite snacks, drinks as well as gasoline.

We’ve also been working with CITGO on various text-to-win sweepstakes that invite participants to enter by just texting a keyword to gain an entry. We recently wrapped up the Win a Hockey Game Night Experience Package Sweepstakes in which participants entered for a chance to win tickets to a Chicago Blackhawks hockey game. Two winners received four 100 level seat tickets and two winners received four penthouse suite tickets. All winners also received a ride on the ice resurfacer.

So we are seeing more and more sweepstakes using mobile as a means of entry. Most lawyers will still tell you that using data to enter a sweepstakes may be construed as consideration (purchase) and you should include another method of entry without purchase. However, no claims or lawsuits have yet to be filed. So it is all according to what level of risk that your company is comfortable with. As more and more mobile providers offer unlimited data plans we’ll see if that will change anytime soon.

We will soon see the end to this year’s March Madness. It’s now down to the Final Four, South Carolina and Gonzaga will meet in the first game and then Oregon and North Carolina will play each other to take place at the University of Phoenix on April 1. Then the championship game will be on April 3.

So will it include the two Carolinas? North Carolina is looking to make their second consecutive appearance in the national title game, while South Carolina and Gonzaga will make their first Final Four ever. Oregon hasn’t made the national semifinal since the first Final Four in 1939.

The 2017 Women’s Final Four will begin Friday, March 31, in Dallas as the South Carolina Gamecocks face the Stanford Cardinal and the UConn Huskies take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs. The winners of the two national semifinal match ups will meet in the national championship game on Sunday. UConn currently has an amazing 111-game win streak, as in consecutive games.

Many people’s men’s brackets were shot by some early upsets and a few Cinderella stories. As always there are many promotions going on from those brands that are official sponsors of the NCAA. Capital One is the official bank and credit card of the NCAA and each year they run their March Madness Bracket Challenge. I’ve participated in this in previous years, but didn’t get around to it this year. They also have the March Madness Tournament Run which let’s you make individual picks at any time throughout the tournament.

Through our sister company, Alliance Sweepstakes, we’ve been working with a client who is not an official sponsor of the NCAA, but has come up with a very clever and  legitimate way to get involved with the excitement. Bar-S Foods, a maker of hot dogs, lunch meat, bacon, corn dogs and sausages, is running the Bar-S Bracket Challenge on their Facebook page.

We kicked this promotion off on February 28 and it runs until April 9. The team has been posting on the page at various times throughout the promotion offering chances to win a prize by leaving a comment on that post. Each post asks participants to pick one of the two hot dogs that they like the best.

In this post it presents the Texas Hot Dog vs. the Coney Island Hot Dogs. Five of these posts are each offering a chance to win a package of Bar-S brand swag. Seven of these posts are offering one grand prize winner $5,000! So all the comments made on all seven posts will be included in the random drawing for the grand prize which will take place next week.

The participation has been great with anywhere from 700 to over a 1,000 comments on each post. There will be one more post for a chance at the grand prize and there are two more posts that will offer the brand swag package. So you still have time to check it out and play.

As far as the Final Four, Vegas is giving the men’s tournament to North Carolina and the women’s they are also with the UConn Huskies. We’ll see if each team can pull it off.

Since it’s now February, many of us would like to get away this time of year to enjoy a warmer spot. Here are a couple of new sweepstakes that we’re administering that are offering a chance to win just that.

Joffery’s Coffee To Castle Sweepstakes just started today which offers a chance to win a Walt Disney World® vacation. Joffrey’s is the Official Specialty Coffee of Walt Disney World® Resort, Disneyland® Resort and Disney Vacation Club. They are again offering this trip which includes a 5-day/4-night grand prize vacation package to the Walt Disney World® Resort including hotel, airfare, theme park tickets, plus a $50 Joffrey’s Beverage Card to use for coffee and treats at Joffrey’s kiosks throughout the Walt Disney World® Resort!

We’ve been working with the team from Lane Bryant for several years now which also includes their retail store, Catherine’s. They specialize in plus size clothing and accessories for women. They are currently running the Destination Cancun Sweepstakes offering a chance to win a trip to Cancun, Mexico, courtesy of Apple Vacations and Riu Palace Peninsula. The trip includes 7-night hotel accommodations, round-trip air transportation, ground transfers to and from airport and hotel, plus all meals and drinks in the resort. This sweepstakes is open to March 27 and people can enter online as well as in any Catherine’s stores.

I’ll be heading to Mexico myself in three weeks for a week on the beach and I can’t wait. It’s an island off of Cancun called Isla Mujeres which we visited last March and loved it so much we’re going back. It’s a much quieter destination than Cancun or Disney World, but as prize packages go, they are both pretty nice.

 

The New England Patriots pulled off a serious comeback last Sunday. They beat the Atlanta Falcons 34-28 to win the Super Bowl. The Patriots took the Super Bowl into OT for the first time ever. Patriots QB Tom Brady now has more Super Bowl rings than any QB in history, but his game jersey was stolen! I’m not a Patriots or Tom Brady fan, but you just got love this photo of him with his daughter taken by Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports.

Falcons QB Matt Ryan has the NFL MVP title as a consolation prize and you can bet his team will be a contender again next season. Lady Gaga pulled off an amazing half-time show all by herself and made sure again that everyone knows that she can really sing. She didn’t get political and did a mic drop at the end of her performance and then caught a football in the air! The next day she announced her new world tour.

So what about the ads? This year we got to see most of them online before the game. So there wasn’t as much hype for them during the actual game.

Budweiser’s “Born the Hard Way” pro-immigration ad that I featured here my last post not only was the most watched Super Bowl ad on YouTube, it also had the most social shares among Super Bowl spots according to data from video analytics firm Unruly. This is the fourth time in five years Budweiser has ranked No. 1 on Unruly’s list of the top ten most shared Super Bowl ads. The last time it ranked No. 1 was in 2015 with its “Lost Dog” Super Bowl spot, which I still love.

This Bud ad earned 435,892 shares across Facebook and the blogosphere – nearly twice as many as the No. 2 most shared Super Bowl ad, “Cleaner of Your Dreams” from Mr. Clean who got to show off some moves which generated 226,767 shares.

“Socially conscious videos make up half of the top ads list,” says Devra Prywes, Unruly’s SVP of marketing and insights. In addition to Budweiser’s immigration story, Airbnb, Audi, 84 Lumber, Coca-Cola and Hyundai were other brands that had a social and diversity message. Airbnb had the third most shared ad and Audi was Number 5 on the list. 84 Lumber was the seventh most shared in which they directed people to their website to watch the second half of the story and their site crashed from too much traffic.

Unruly reported that there was a drastic drop in shares among this year’s Super Bowl ads compared to last year. As of yesterday, the combined number of shares for the top ten Super Bowl ads totaled 1,456,023 – this time last year, the top ten most shared Super Bowl 50 ads had earned 2,889,156 shares.In 2015, share numbers were even higher, reaching a record-breaking total of 4.4 million for the top ten most popular Super Bowl ads.

On the lighter side, Honda’s “The Power of Dreams” ad featured celebrities talking from their high school yearbook photo that came to life. Gronk was off the field but in two ads; one “Unlimted Moves” for T-Mobile featuring Justin Beiber and another, “Gronk Kinda Gets it Out” for Tide.  And Netflix got us excited for the next season of “Stranger Things” which will start streaming on Halloween.

So that’s my wrap-up of Super Bowl 51 and some of the ads and promotions that were associated with it. I hope you enjoyed my posts. We’ll now start to go through football withdrawal and hope that maybe our team will make it to the playoffs next season!

The New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons both arrived in Houston earlier this week and the level of hype for Super Bowl LI has been increasing. Will the Patriots win their 5th Super Bowl trophy, or will the Atlanta Falcons win their first? Well have a chance to watch and find out this Sunday.

Either way we will again have some great ads to watch. This year nearly 75% of the spots are being revealed before the game, many of them you can now see. I’ve been writing about some of the promotions that have been running that are tied to Super Bowl LI. In my first post about this year’s Road to Super Bowl LI I wrote about the Bud Light Super Bowl Tickets for Life Sweepstakes.

Just this week I read that Lyle Randa from Kansas found out that he had become the sole winner of Super Bowl tickets for life thanks to a gold Bud Light can. In every case of Bud Light beers, consumers had a chance to find a gold-colored can. By posting a photo of it to social media, they were entered for a chance to win two tickets to the Super Bowl for the rest of their life.

This sweepstakes was just part of a new campaign that will include the brand’s TV commercial airing during the game which centers on a  “Famous Among Friends” theme they’ve created for this year’s Super Bowl. The brand is planning to do quite a bit on social media this year to bring this theme to life. “One of the best parts about leaning into friendships is the natural connection to social media,” said Victoria Vaynberg, senior director of digital marketing at Bud Light’s parent company Anheuser-Busch, in an email, “Social media is where you share the moments we’re celebrating.” Here’s their ad:

Bud Light’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch, is known for including their famous Clydesdales in their Super Bowl ads. They are scheduled to make their annual appearance again this year, but only a brief one. A-B’s 60-second spot this year is a pro-immigration story that features a young Adolphus Busch and his journey to America and, ultimately, St. Louis, where he would meet his former business partner, Eberhard Anheuser. A-B claims the ad’s immigration message wasn’t intentionally timed to coincide with the recent political issues, but it is definitely relevant right now. Here’s the ad:

Lexus has pre-released this spot titled “Man and Machine” which features a VO by actress Minnie Driver, recording artist Sia and movement artist Lil Buck who all encourage viewers to “Experience Amazing.”

Intel released their ad a few weeks ago, “Everyday Brady” that features the one and only Tom Brady, and a cute dog!. I guess their bet that the Patriots would make it all the way to the Super Bowl paid off.

During the 2016 Super Bowl broadcast CBS was getting $5 million per 30-second spot. 2017 host Fox Sports is reportedly asking for more than $5 million. According to ADWEEK, they have a few spots remaining for this year which will probably go for even more than that.

So let’s hope we enjoy these ads, since they are costly. But most of all I hope it’s a good game.

I had questioned in my first post about Super Bowl LI what NFC team was going to make it to play against the New England Patriots. That question was answered this past weekend with a dominate win by the Atlanta Falcons against the Green bay Packers. The Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t give us much of a game either against the Patriots. So now as the Big Game in Houston on Feb. 5 approaches there are still promos out there with a way to win tickets.

Lady Gaga is headlining this year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show. She and Pepsi have teamed up to offer the Pepsi Halftime Fan-ifesto with Lady Gaga, a special contest for her fans. Lady Gaga has offered to bring along a few special fans as her personal guests at the Halftime Show. As she said, “…because it’s not just going to be my moment — it’s going to be our moment.” This video showcases some of the winners. To find out how to be one of Lady Gaga’s lucky guests, read more here.

Yellow Tail, an Australian wine brand, will be an advertiser during this year’s Super Bowl broadcast. They are currently running their Yellow Tail Guy Sweepstakes which isn’t offering a trip to the Super Bowl, but instead one lucky Grand Prize winner will receive a trip for two to Sydney. To enter participants must find the Yellow Tail Guy online, on screen or in person and post on Twitter or on Instagram that may include a screenshot/photo/video indicating that they “found the Yellow Tail Guy” and use the hashtags #yellowtailguy and #Sweepstakes. Five First Prize winners will also each receive one TV, issued in the form of a $750 gift card.

Wanna win a trip for 2 to Australia? Share this post using #yellowtailguy and #sweepstakes to enter. ? Rules in bio. pic.twitter.com/XQaVQIzS7a

— Yellow Tail Guy (@yellowtailwine) January 22, 2017

This sweepstakes from Igloo is still open for a chance to win tickets to this year’s Super Bowl Game. But it ends tomorrow, Jan. 26. Their Big Game Giveaway has a prize package that is pretty sweet. It includes two tickets to the game, 3-night hotel accommodations, airfare & ground transportation. $1,000 worth of Igloo® products, a Houston guided ORU kayak tour, a private Houston helicopter tour, dinner for two at Houston restaurant with acclaimed chef and a $500 Gift card from Academy Sports and Outdoors. To gain an entry participants just need to fill out and submit the entry form. However, they can also gain up to 24 additional entries by completing other tasks such as following some of the sweeps partners on social media.

The Patriots are now advancing to their ninth Super Bowl in franchise history, a total that is the most in the NFL. This will be the Falcons second time in the Super Bowl. In their first-ever Super Bowl appearance, they lost 34–19 to the defending champion Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXXIII. The road to Super Bowl LI now continues, but we have to wait a little while to see who will take home the trophy. Let’s just hope its a good game. Stay tuned for more on Super Bowl LI next week.