Author: Donna DeClemente

Another blast of arctic cold is supposed to swoop down on us this week and bring sub-zero temperatures back along with more snow! It’s been hitting a good portion of this country this month, but those of us in New York and New England have seen the worst of it with Boston breaking historical records. Enough is enough already!

So the only thing to do is get on a plane and head south. The team we’re working with at Experience Kissimmee is taking full advantage of this cold winter weather. They’re running the “Kiss the Cold Good-bye” Sweepstakes for chances to win a Sunny Florida Getaway. The sweepstakes is specifically targeting those in Boston and New York.

Participants can easily enter by texting the keyword “Warm” to the shortcode 82257 which prompts them to enter their email address to complete their entry. Once completed they receive one more message which thanks them for participating and asks them to reply YES to subscribe to future SMS messages from Experience Kissimmee. Utilizing sweepstakes is a great way to grow a database of mobile subscribers.

The Sweepstakes launched on January 12 and runs till April 12. Each week we’re conducting a random drawing for one winner who will receive a “Box of Sunshine” that includes a Kissimmee tote bag packed with flip flops, an alligator plush, sunglasses, orange gum, sunscreen, chapstick, a pool towel, a bluetooth speaker, a drink koozie, a beach ball and a swirl lollipop.

Then four times during the Sweepstakes period a winner will be drawn to receive a Kissimmee getaway for winner and up to 3 guests which includes round trip airfare tickets, 6 day/5 night hotel accommodations, a vehicle rental and a bunch of activities such as park tickets to Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom and Universal Orlando Resort and also tickets to Orlando Tree Trek, Boggy Creek Airboat Rides and a 2-hour guided tour for the Paddling Center. We’ve already awarded one of these trips, so there are 3 more left!

For those that would like more information they can visit online at KissColdAway.com to plan their own getaway and enter the sweepstakes as well. Participants can enter once every 24-hour period for a chance to win. Each week, as the weather gets worse and worse, the entries keep growing. Last week was another record breaking week with 28,770 entries.

Experience Kissimmee has been running ads in these select markets to create awareness of the sweepstakes. Here’s a taxi ad that’s running in Boston. Hopefully the taxi’s are helping people get around Boston that can’t get their car shoveled out. A similar ad in also running in New York City.

We just awarded a trip to Florida for another sweepstakes and the winner, who was from Connecticut, wanted to know if she could go next week! That’s how much we all want to get away from this winter right now.  Good news is we’re in the second half of the month of February and more then ready to Kiss it Good-bye! So hang in there!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Football and taxes are both about as American as Uncle Sam. Moving forward from Super Bowl 49, we all in the U.S. now have to focus on tax season. Yeah. it’s that time of the year when we have to file our taxes for the previous year. Those of us on the business side also have to issue W2 forms to all employees and 1099 forms to contractors, vendors as well as those who were lucky enough to win a prize!

Since we’re in the business of awarding prizes we have to send 1099 forms to all winner of a prize valued at $600 or more. It’s our Federal government law. So each year at this time we get many inquiries from winners who don’t remember why they received a 1099, even though they signed an affidavit stating that they accept the prize and understand they’ll receive a 1099. Or those that won a trip and decided to tell us at the last minute.that they can’t travel either because of their schedule or other personal reasons. Then of course there’s those who moved and didn’t forward their mail and wonder why they haven’t received it!

This year our sister company, Alliance Sweepstakes,  helped launch TaxSimple’s All About the Bank Contest. TaxSimple is a new online tax preparation software that is easy, fast, and low-cost. It is part of the Tax & Accounting Division of Thomson Reuters, which is the sponsor. They started running this contest on their Facebook page on Jan. 19th and it runs till April 16, the day after the tax filing deadline.

Participants are invited to visit the Facebook Tax Simple page and submit a photo that depicts what they would like to do with their tax refund this year for a chance at winning $5,000. Since the contest is heavily focused on college students, they also have the option of first posting their photo on Instagram and linking to their Instagram account from the entry form. All approved entries are displayed in the contest photo gallery and the public is invited to vote on their favorite entry.

At the end of the contest a panel of judges will choose a winner based on the following criteria: 45% public appeal (number of votes), 30% creativity and originality and 25% composition and quality. The entries have ranged from those that want to take their family on a vacation, to those who need it to pay for college as well putting the money towards a home.

This recent photo depicts what it’s like right now to live in the northeast part of this country.  Here’s the caption that goes with it: “Wanna trade some snow for some sand , my girls are delirious”. Yeah, we’re all pretty sick of this snow by now!