Just this week we added a new dog to our family so I thought it was appropriate to write about this promotion so that I could share the news with you. Molly is a 2 1/2 year old golden retriever who has lots of energy. She’s been adjusting to her new home this week and getting to know our other dog, Izzie, as well as our cat, Echo.
Here is the photo of her and my husband, Kevin, that I just uploaded to the new Heads and Tails app that Petco recently launched. This new app allows pet parents to have a chance at winning a Petco gift card while Petco also makes a donation to help animals in need. People are invited to download the free app to their mobile device, take a selfie with their pet and then upload it to a specific photo category in the app. Each photo that receives 100 likes in a month will win a $25 gift card from Petco with Petco also giving an additional $25 to the Petco Foundation.
The Heads & Tails app displays all approved selfie submissions in its timeline and users can also share their published selfie via Facebook and Twitter, and soon Instagram. So if anyone wants to download the app, please like Molly’s photo. I included it in the new pet category.
The app runs on a calendar month and a new round begins on the first day of each month and ends on the day of that month. Participants are only allowed to win one prize per month over all the categories.
“We know the internet can’t get enough of pet selfies,” says Brock Weatherup, executive vice president of strategic innovation and digital experience at Petco. “We’re thrilled to continue building the connection between people and animals through technology,” he says in a release.
We are still missing our last dog, Shadow, a male golden retriever who was 13 when we lost him this past March. But we were lucky to find Molly who already has won our hearts. She was with a woman who was breeding her with her male poodle and they had a couple of golden doodle pup litters together. Molly will be seeing our vet next week so we can schedule her to be spayed. No more puppies for her.
We’ll be heading back to Chicago again next month to attend the 39th Annual ANA/BAA Marketing Law Conference which is taking place this year November 13-15 at the Downtown Chicago Marriott. I think this will be my 10th year that I’ve attended this conference and it always provides me with new and updated information as well as a great networking event. It is known as the top conference in marketing, advertising, and privacy law. This year’s conference is titled “BREAK THROUGH: Legal Strategies for Dynamic Businesses”.
The program features another full agenda spanning key topic areas such as digital and social media, internet privacy, self-regulation and class action suits. Some of the cutting-edge topics will be how to measure the efficiency of social media advertising, data security, native advertising, sweepstakes, fantasy sports, virtual reality and influencer marketing. The FCC has recently released more information in their endorsement guidelines and is cracking down on some influencers who have not properly followed these. So I’m sure that will be a topic of discussion. Thomas Pahl, Acting Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection will be a keynote speaker during lunch on Tuesday.
There will be 130 total speakers and over 65 sessions, breakouts and round tables . Some of the legal speakers will be from brands like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Oculus, Snap, BuzzFeed, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Sony, and P&G. Of course it also includes some great networking and two large cocktail parties.
Last year’s conference again broke the attendance record with over 750 attendees and with over 200 major brands present. I summarized last year’s conference with this post. The conference started the day after the presidential election. So there was quite a bit of discussion about the outcome during the breaks and cocktail receptions. Donald Trump had spoken out against the new privacy rules the FCC had imposed along with some changes to the advertising tax laws that are on the table. So we’ll see what, if anything, has changed in those areas since he took office.
Ed Kabak, SVP, ANA and Chief Legal Officer, BAA, kicked off the first official day of the conference last year and he is again heading up this year’s conference. 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 he was very happy with the number of attendees that had already registered for this year’s conference and he’s anticipating breaking another attendance record.
One of the highlights of the conference will again come from Linda Goldstein, a Partner and Head of the Advertising, Marketing and Media practice at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP in New York who will deliver her annual industry review on Sweepstakes, Contests, Privacy, Digital and Social Media. Last year Pokemon Go was a bit hit at the time, so Linda entertained us throughout her talk with videos of a new, imaginary app her team created called PizzaMon Go!
Then on the final day Ron Urbach, Chairman/Davis & Gilbert LLP, will be back again to give another highly entertaining presentation. This year it is titled “The Current and Future History of Advertising, Media and Production Companies in an Ever-Shifting Legal Compliance Landscape”. Last year Ron ended his talk with a video that asked people on the street “If you were a hashtag, what would you be?” Ron’s was #WhatIDoForClients.
If you’re interested in attending you can register here. I’ll be at the Marriott from Michigan Ave. Mon. Nov. 13 till Thurs., Nov. 16 so please say hello if you’re there. This year I am staying an extra day since I now have a daughter, Alex, that lives in a Chicago suburb. She and I will get a chance to see each other and have dinner and do some shopping and sightseeing. So I will definitely have time go next door for my annual visit to Nordstrom’s shoe dept!
We have been getting more and more interest in running text-to-win sweepstakes this year. Here’s a new one that started running September 1 and will end this month. We’ve been working with Republic National Distributing Company who is the second largest alcohol beverage distributor in the U.S. They are assisting Pernod Ricard, the sponsor, who has several very popular spirit brands. Pernord Ricard is utilizing in-store POS for both their Absolut Vodka and Martell Cognac brands to get the message out about the sweepstakes.
People in the Maryland and Washington DC area are invited to text the word WIN1 (Absolut) or WIN2 (Martell) to the shortcode 65047 to be entered into the sweepstakes. One Grand Prize winner from the Win1 keyword drawing will receive two VIP tickets to a Washington Capitals’ NHL home game and a Zamboni ride and One Grand Prize winner from the Win2 keyword drawing will receive two VIP tickets to a Washington Wizards’ NBA home game and a pregame shoot experience. Both prizes total $899 in value.
Since this sweepstakes is for alcohol beverage brands we needed to make sure that entrants were 21 years of age or older. So when they text in each entrants receives a message back with a link to a very brief mobile form in which they have to enter their date of birth. Once completed they receive another message confirming their entry with a link to the official rules. Pernod Ricard is collecting mobile phone numbers and all entrants are automatically subscribed to a text messaging list in which they can receive future text messages from the sponsor. An opt-out option always needs to be included. Other marketers that we have been working with use the form to collect additional data on the entrants such as their name and email address. It depends on the marketer’s objectives and how easy they want to make it for the entrants.
The main objective of these text-to-win sweepstakes is for the brands to receive extra awareness at retail locations. Many alcohol beverage brands are now utilizing text to win and other types of sweepstakes promotions in order to gain the extra display and point of sale that promote the sweepstakes. Here is another text-to-win sweepstakes that we are running for Infinium Spirits for their Tequila Corralejo brand. This is the third and final text-to-win sweepstakes that we’ve been assisting them with this year. The other two which I wrote about were for their Seagrams Vodka brand and for their Templeton Rye Whisky brand.
The Ultimate Fiesta Sweepstakes is open to all of the U.S. and invites people to text Tequila to 65047 for a chance to win one of four $250 gift cards that they can use to host the ultimate fiesta. Point of sale materials such as case cards and neck ringers have been created to get the word out in stores. This sweepstakes also started on September 1 and runs till the end of October. With all three of their sweepstakes they have been utilizing the mobile form to collect additional data on the entrants which include their name, email and date of birth.
We’ve been partnering with the Sweeppea mobile platform on most all of our text to win sweepstakes this year. Based on some initial 2018 planning that some of our clients have shared with us I believe that we’ll be doing many more of these text-to-win sweepstakes next year.
Another promotion that I worked on right before I left on my trip to Italy was the Toyota Rock Your Run Sweepstakes. We’ve been working through REACH, one of Toyota’s experiential marketing agencies, for about the past five years. Earlier this year they came to us for assistance for the Toyota Rock ‘N Roll Marathon Sweepstakes which is a year-long promotion which started in March and runs till the end of March, 2018. This is in conjunction with 21 Rock ‘N Roll Marathon Expos that are taking place across the country.
This is Toyota’s 3rd year as the official vehicle sponsor of the Rock ’N’ Roll Marathon Series. Inspired by the pulse of music and the energy of the run, Toyota’s theme this year is ROCK YOUR RUN. Runners and their supporters can find Toyota’s footprint at the indoor, 2-day Health & Fitness EXPO and again at the Finish Line Festival. During the 3 days, Toyota offers fun games and plays upbeat music, giving out complimentary gifts like a USB fan that attaches to your phone to cool you off and cinch bags with race course that are silkscreened live on-site. Plenty to offer all those involved in the Rock ’N’ Roll Marathon Series.
Toyota will also have various vehicles on display at these Expos and attendees will be invited to perform at least three different activities with one of the vehicles to gain an entry. Each Expo awards one winner a prize package valued at $300 which includes a pair of Brooks shoes along with some Toyota and Rock N’ Roll Marathon brand swag.
The next Expo is taking place in San Jose, CA, Oct. 6-9 and all are free to attend and open to the public. Each Expo is associated with the Rock ‘N Roll Marathon Series races taking place in the same city. These races started in 1998 as a marathon with bands along the course celebrating each participant. The entertainment has made it a music festival weekend that define the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series experience. However, the fact that runners have raised more than $310 million for participating charities demonstrates how it has become so much more. This year the series is celebrating 20 Years Running. Toyota is just one of the many partners such as United Airlines, Michelob, Garmin and others.
The Rock Your Run Sweepstakes is just running in the month of September. Hilary Van Messel, Senior Project Manager at REACH stated “The goal for this promotion was simple: develop a purpose driven contest surrounding a relatable question in order to spark a response from and encourage the Rock ’N’ Roll Marathon Facebook community.” The sweepstakes is being promoted on various online social channels. Thursday afternoon the official Rock ‘N Roll Marathon Facebook page posted this on their page which helped to boost entries:
TIME IS RUNNING OUT, ENTER HERE https://rockyourruncontest.pgtb.me/QdhSst FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN. Where is your favorite place to run? Toyota USA invites you to submit a photo of your favorite running destination, trail or path for your chance to win a Toyota Rock Your Run Prize Pack! One photo will be randomly chosen at the end of the month! Good luck and Rock Your Run!
For this sweepstakes we are again utilizing the Shortstack application in which we build the entry form and collect all the entrant’s data along with their photos. I was able to give the Reach team direct access so that they could view the entries and photos in real time. All of Shortstack’s entry pages are mobile friendly from the start with Shortstack’s “One Campaign for any screen” design philosophy. Recently they have added some new features to the platform that make adding CSS coding very easy for those of us that don’t have much programming experience. If you would like more details on how to set up a promotion utilizing the Shortstack platform, please feel free to contact me. It’s a great tool and it also includes a great team of support people.
There are some great photos that people have shared with their entries and we’re hoping to get many more before the month is out. The prize pack is worth $450. So please check out the sweeps and if you like to run, share your photo.
After being out of the country on vacation for the last two weeks I’m now trying to catch up which is why I haven’t written any posts on this blog for awhile. We visited Italy on a trip I’ve been planning for the past year. We started in Rome, then on to an island called Ponsa that’s halfway between Rome & Naples out in what is called the Tyrrhenian Sea. Here is where the Italians go for holiday and where we found ourselves the only “Americanos”. The photo on right was the view outside of our hotel room for 2 nights.
We then headed down to Naples, visited Pompai and Mt. Vesuvius and from there traveled down to the Amalfi Coast where we first stayed a night in Sorrento, 3 nights in Positano and 1 night on the island of Capri. This area is one the most beautiful places we’ve ever been. The photo on the left is from our balcony in Positano. Truly an amazing time. But now I’m playing catch up since arriving back home late Monday night.
Right before I left I just finished up this new promotion for the PAC-12 for their Football Championship Sweepstakes that we did through our sister company, Alliance Sweepstakes. This is the first time I started working with the PAC-12 group. They are an organization that operates in the Western United States, participating in 22 sports at the NCAA Division I level. PAC-12 Football includes teams from California, Oregon, Washington State, Arizona and more. They have now completed week 2 of this season’s schedule with week 3 starting with a game on Friday night.
The sweepstakes is offering five grand prize winners a prize package to attend the 2017 Pac-12 Football Championship Game presented by 76 with two tickets taking place on Friday, December 1 in Santa Clara, CA. Also included are tickets to the Tailgate Event outside Levi’s Stadium, one night hotel accommodations, one $76 gas card and a photo opportunity with the Football Championship Game trophy. Total value of each Grand Prize is $1,576.
Besides the grand prizes there will be 500 monthly winners each month for those that entered in September, October and November. The September monthly winners will each receive a $10 76 Gas Card, the October monthly winners will each receive a Pac-12 Football Championship embroidered fleece blanket and November monthly winners will each receive a Pac-12 Football Championship hat. Total value of all prizes is $22,800.
Residents of the states of California, Oregon and Washington are invited to enter the sweepstakes by visiting a participating 76® gas station and purchasing a minimum of eight gallons of gas in a single transaction beginning September 1 through November 15, 2017. The participant will need to show a receipt as proof of purchase to a gas station attendant who will then give the participant a voucher with a unique code number and the sweepstakes website address which is www.FanFueled76.com. The participant will then need to visit the website and fill out the required fields along with their unique code number. They need to complete all the fields on the entry page to receive an entry. Each unique code number may only be used once. We have also provided an alternate means of entry without purchase through a mail-in option that is provided in the official rules.
We actually built this custom website for them in which we needed to add all 5 million unique codes into the back-end of the database in order to verify that a correct code number is being submitted and that it only can be submitted once. This feature along with collecting all the participant’s contact information needed to be coded into the database. I just checked and there are almost 2300 entries into the sweepstakes so far. We’ll be doing the first drawing at the end of this month.
I hope to maybe visit the northwestern part of the U.S. on our next big trip which is one area of our own country that we haven’t been to yet. So the planning will soon begin. Ciao for now.
We’re helping the team at Banded give away another very unique and rare prize package ….a hunting trip of a lifetime. We’ve been involved with sweepstakes that have awarded firearms as prizes, but this is the first one that actually involves the hunt as well.
The Mallard Ducks and Big Bucks – Super Hunt Classic Sweepstakes launched on August 15 and runs till November 28. To enter people just visit the promotional website at http://superhuntclassic.com and fill out the entry form. One grand prize winner will be randomly chosen to receive a hunting experience for themselves and a guest. The experience includes six days on a hunt of a lifetime that will take place in Louisiana sometime in early 2018.
Winner and guest will spend two days with the Simmons’ Sporting Goods team, two days at the Honey Brake Hunting Lodge and then two days with Bill Jordan and Realtree Outdoors. The prize package also includes round trip airfare for winner and their guest to Alexandria, LA, two shotguns for bird hunting, two rifles for deer hunting and $5,000 in Banded gear. Total prize is valued at $15,000.
Now I’m not much of a hunter, but when I told my husband about this package he said that many of the guys he works with would die to win this trip. They have now become part of the Banded Community. BANDED was originally formed by a group of avid outdoorsmen, innovators, and product designers that joined forces after years of working in the outdoor industry. Their goal has been to create superior products to enhance the outdoor experience with a special focus on duck hunters.
Banded.com offers over 600 items representing a diverse line of product categories which include outerwear, waders, boots, hunting accessories, blinds, decoys, calls and more. It not only includes outdoor merchandise for sale, but also some informative content targeted specifically for the Banded community. Users can find hunting tips, recent news items along with a couple of video series.
This is the third sweepstakes this year we have worked with Banded in handling the administration. The other sweepstakes that Banded launched with a very unique prize package was giving away Avery, a hunting dog, that I wrote about a few months ago in this post, The Bring Avery Home Sweepstakes. They also are running the The Waterfowlers Dream Boat Giveaway which is unique as well because one grand prize winner wins it all, a prize package valued at almost $19,000. Last year, our first sweepstakes working with the Banded team, they offered another big prize package which included not only the boat and trailer, but also the truck to tow it with in their Greatest Outdoor Giveaway Sweepstakes.
Banded has several partners that help to provide such big prize packages. These sweepstakes help to grow the Banded Community by gaining participants’ data and adding them to their email list. Banded has some great content that they develop to help keep their community engaged. So hopefully we’ll continue to work with them throughout 2018. In the meantime I’ll have some very lucky winners to contact.
This time of the summer kids will soon be heading back to school. Mid-August is when retailers will see a second round of back-to-school shopping which normally amounts to the largest volume. Parents and kids will sometimes wait to the last minute to see what mark-downs retailers have made or they may just have put it off to the last minute, which is human nature.
We’ve been running one back-to-school promotoin for a long-time client, RushCard. They offer the RushCard Pre-Paid Visa card which is offered throughout the U.S. to anyone with a social security number. The RushCard Back To School Sweepstakes started back on July 5 and has been awarding weekly winners and well as five grand prize winners who will each receive $5,000 for back to school shopping. RushCard’s objective is to help everyone get ready for the new school year and to apply and activate a new RushCard. Anyone who does within the sweepstakes period and direct deposits at least $500 into the card earns a chance to win.
Each week until September 9/12 we are giving away backpacks filled with school supplies. Ninety first prize weekly winners receive their backpack filled with notebooks, crayons, pencils, folders, a calculator and more. Ten other first prize winners will receive a golden backpack with the same supplies but it will also include a Samsung Chromebook with a total prize value of $580 each.
We’ve already drawn winners for five of the weeks and we have five more weeks to go. At the end of the sweepstakes we’ll draw the five grand prize winners from everyone who has entered. We are offering a alternate means of entry for those that don’t have a RushCard which is a mail-in option. If the five grand prize winners all have RushCards, their prize will be deposited on their RushCard and if they don’t they will receive a check instead.
This is also one of those sweepstakes where we are assisting with fulfilling the prizes. We have a local supplier who is embroidering the backpacks with the RushCard brand and filling them with all the supplies and the Chomebook. We actually sourced a “golden” backpack to use for the 10 lucky weekly winners who receive the Chromebook. The total sweepstakes prize value is $41,600. So best of luck to all entrants. Hope everyone gets their school shopping done soon.
Eggland’s Best, one of our clients, teamed up with Air Bud Entertainment last summer to help promote Air Bud Entertainment’s newest family film, PUP STAR. Eggland’s Best launched the ‘Ultimate EB PUP STAR’ sweepstakes which was a success for both parties, so they’re at it again this summer to help promote this year’s musical sequel, PUP STAR 2: BETTER 2GETHER.
Last year’s movie followed Tiny, an adorable Yorkie pup, who found herself on an cross-country journey to compete in a singing competition for dogs, Pup Star. Tiny won the Pup Star competition and became an international pup sensation. So now her story continues in this year’s musical sequel which includes a huge cast of talking and singing dogs! What’s not to love here?
Now through September 17th participants can enter the “We’re Better Together” Sweepstakes by visiting Eggland Best’s promotional web page and registering for a chance to win numerous prizes that human and pet members of their family can enjoy together. Participant’s can also earn extra entries by completing several different tasks. Some of these tasks include watching the EB/Pup Star YouTube video, subscribing to Air Bud TV, visiting Air Bud’s website, signing up for the EB newsletter, visiting Eggland’s Best on their Instagram, Facebook and/or Twitter page and visiting the Visit St. Pete/Clearwater website and/or their Facebook page. Entrants can receive up to 38 additional entries which will increase their chances of winning a prize.
One Grand Prize winner will win a pet-friendly family vacation for up to four people to St. Pete Clearwater, Florida, that includes round-trip airfare, hotel accommodations and a $250 gift card. Two First Prize Winners will receive a Kurgo Summer Travel Package for their dog, ten Second Prize Winners will receive a Schwinn SmartStart bicycle, six Third Prize Winners will receive a St. Pete Clearwater Tote Bag that includes beach bag, visor, beach towel, dolphin plush toy, water proof bag, sun screen, lip balm screen, koozie, rubber bracelet and 50 Fourth Prize Winners will receive an Eggland’s Best & Pup Star Goodie Bag that includes a EB plush egg, a EB spatula, a EB phone pillow, EB egg coupons, a EB eco bag, a bag of OMH Dog Treats, a Fandango Gift Card for a free Pup Star rental and a Pup Star T-Shirt. Total Prize Pool is worth $7,250.
Check out this video and Tiny will tell you all about the sweepstakes. The movie is out on digital HD August 29th.
Remember your favorite classic arcade game, PAC-MAN, and the countless hours & quarters spent avoiding pesky ghosts while chompin’ on dots. Well PAC-MAN has returned for your consoles, PC, iPhone & mobile devices and we recently started working with their mobile marketing team. They just introduced a partnership with Hello Kitty and for a limited time, until August 20, you can play exclusive Hello Kitty mazes and specially designed tournaments in PAC-MAN mobile.
To help celebrate this partnership they also just launched the Hello Kitty and Pac-MAN Sweepstakes offering chances to win a swag-pack full of fun stuff. Now until August 13 participants can enter the sweepstakes on either the PAC-MAN Facebook page or on Twitter @officialpacman. They need to comment to the sweepstakes post on either page and post a photo that illustrates how Hello Kitty and/or PAC-MAN are a part of their daily life. On Twitter they need to also follow @officialpacman.
Here’s a photo recently posted from Mindy showing off her Hello Kitty tattoo. A random drawing will take place at the end of the sweepstakes from all the eligible entries to award five winners. Here’s a list of what’s in each Hello Kitty and PAC-MAN swag pack: a Hello Kitty Petite Mascot Plush: Soft Mame (Pink), a Hello Kitty x PAC-MAN Keychain, a Hello Kitty Short Sleeved Ringer Tee (Red), a Hello Kitty Ballpoint Pen (Slider), a Hello Kitty Canvas Tote Bag (Cuddly), a Paladone Pac-Man 4″ Plush with Sound, a Funko POP Games: Pac-Man Action Figure and a Pac-Man Heat Change Mug.
PAC-MAN is just one of the many games that is owned by BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment America, Inc., which is based out of Japan. The US group is who we are working with and the official sponsor of this sweepstakes. They have many other games that you might also recognize such as Dark Souls, DragonBall, Tekken and Naruto.
So if you haven’t played PAC-MAN in awhile here’s your chance to start again.
Paul Stuart is a men’s and women’s clothing brand which we recently started working with. It was founded in 1938 in New York City by Ralph Ostrove, who named the company after his son, Paul Stuart Ostrove. The original New York City store is still located at the corner of Madison Avenue and 45th Street. It has grown to 60,000 square feet and remains the company’s largest store. However, this summer it is undergoing a major renovation. So the team there thought that while the store was getting an upgrade that it was a great opportunity to run a contest and invite people to get an upgrade as well.
The Paul Stuart Upgrade Contest invites participants to visit their NYC store on Madison Avenue and chose their favorite clothing, footwear and/or accessories that best depicts what their “upgrade” would consist of. They need to take a photo of their product selection and may elect to try it on for their photo. Once done they should post it to their Instagram account using the promotional hashtags #PaulStuartUpgrade and #Contest and also tag @paulstuartny to receive an entry.
The Upgrade Contest runs from now till August 9. One Grand Prize winner will receive a $2,000 Paul Stuart gift card. Once the contest has ended a panel of judges will choose the winner based on the following criteria; 50% Look Cohesiveness; How well the selected products go together according to Paul Stuart style as showcased in the Sponsor’s catalogs, windows, and in their website; 50% quality of the composition of the photo, lighting and visibility of the featured products. Here are a couple of photos that have already appeared on Instagram.
This is the first time we’re working with Paul Stuart. They have a few other locations, two in Chicago, one in Washington D.C. and one in Clarksburg, Maryland. So hopefully this contest will be a success and their other locations may give it a try.
Just this week we added a new dog to our family so I thought it was appropriate to write about this promotion so that I could share the news with you. Molly is a 2 1/2 year old golden retriever who has lots of energy. She’s been adjusting to her new home this week and getting to know our other dog, Izzie, as well as our cat, Echo.
The Heads & Tails app displays all approved selfie submissions in its timeline and users can also share their published selfie via Facebook and Twitter, and soon Instagram. So if anyone wants to download the app, please like Molly’s photo. I included it in the new pet category.
