Blog Archives - Page 16 of 28 - American Sweepstakes

#DoingGood campaign from Minute Maid celebrates parents with Missy Franklin. Utilizes an emotional ad, contest and sweepstakes.

The Rio Summer Olympic Games are now into the middle of their first week and Team USA has been amazing. Last night the U.S. women’s Olympic gymnastics team had already clinched the team gold medal by the time three-time world champion Simone Biles performed her floor exercises during the final event. The U.S. posted a score of 184.897, more than eight points more then silver medalist Russia and nearly nine more than bronze medalist China! The “Final Five” Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, Madison Kocian and Laurie Hernandez saluted their coach Martha Karolyi, who will be retiring after 15 years in the program.

While in the pool, Micheal Phelps made up for one of the rare losses in his amazing career by winning the Gold Medal in 200-meter butterfly that sent him climbing into the stands to kiss his 3-month-old son, Boomer. An hour later, he returned to participate in the final lap of the 4×200 freestyle relay, earning the team a Gold Medal and his 21st! Katie Ledecky, the 19-year-old superstar, won a Gold Medal in the women’s 200-meter freestyle. Ledecky won in 1:53.73, just beating Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden, who finished in 1:54.08.

Last week I started writing about some of the sponsors of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in which I highlighted Proctor & Gamble and their Olympic ad campaigns which have been trending online. This week I’m highlighting Coca-Cola, who is again a worldwide sponsor of the games. They have been promoting their Minute Maid brand and this ad, #doingood I See What U.S. Olympian Missy Franklin Has To Say, has been the #2 ad trending on YouTube for Olympic Sponsors.

Missy Franklin teamed up with Minute Maid to deliver a moving letter to her parents, Dick and D.A., in which she thanked them for the role they have played in her success and for their dedication to their only child. In 2012, Missy won four gold medals and broke world records in the pool in London. Unfortunately, in Rio Missy failed to advance in the 200-meter freestyle at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium. She’s scheduled to swim again today in the 4×200 relay, so we hope Monday’s disappointing bad swim doesn’t last.

The objective of Minute Maid’s #doingood campaign is to remind parents of all the wonderful things they do to make a positive difference in their children’s lives every day. “I wouldn’t be where I am today without the love and support from my parents,” Franklin said. “They continue to make sacrifices to help me achieve my dream. It is a tremendous gift that I can only hope to repay one day. Minute Maid’s #doingood campaign is a remarkable opportunity for me to not only thank my own parents but recognize and honor all parents who truly have the most difficult job there is – raising great children.”

Minute Maid ran the “Breakfast with Missy” Contest inviting fans to share a positive message with a parent they know who may struggle with self-doubt. Up until May 31, fans could post a photo or video that captured how a parent in their life is #doingood at MinuteMaid.com/doingood, or on Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #doingoodcontest. Franklin selected five winners and a guest of their choice to join her for a private breakfast event following the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. I have not seen an announcement of who those winners are.

Right now they are running the Medals of Goodness Sweepstakes inviting fans to create and submit a meme to give their parents the shout out they deserve. Participants need to upload a receipt from any Minute Maid purchase then the sweepstakes generator to create a meme to tell a parent how they’re #doingood.* Each receipt and meme that is approved earns a sweepstakes entry for the chance to win $10,000!

So good luck to Missy, the entire USA Swim team and the women USA gymnastics “Final Five”. Stay tuned next week for another update on the Olympics and a sponsor. Enjoy the games!

The Rio 2016 Olympics with #LikeAGirl, Alex Morgan and Thanking Moms from Always and P&G

Rio de Janeiro will finally kick off the 2016 Olympic Games this Friday, Aug. 5, which willl take place till Aug. 21, marking the first Olympic Games to be held in South America. The Opening Ceremony will be held at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio and it was just announced that Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, was selected as Team USA’s flag bearer! NBC is the official broadcaster of the games where you can watch it all live.

While there has been a great amount of negative news about the Rio Olympics, it hasn’t stopped the sponsors of the Olympic Games to fully launch their marketing campaigns. One in particular I’d like to highlight in today’s post is the Always #LikeAGirl campaign from parent company, P&G, who is a Worldwide Partner of the Games. They first introduced this campaign in June, 2014, which attracted a huge amount of press and public interest, taking home a Glass Lion in Cannes, while the video had more than 62 million views on YouTube.

Their new ad “Keep playing” from Leo Burnett was released four weeks before the 2016 Olympic Games and it is now currently topping the chart on YouTube of all the ads from this year’s Olympic sponsors. This ad addresses the fact that half of young women quit the sports they’re passionate about due to outside pressures associated with their gender. The ads interview real girls who recount numerous stories where they’ve been told they aren’t as aggressive as boys, or they simply can’t do a particular sport.

The brand stated that a recent NHCS study found that women aged 18 to 24 are twice as likely to be confident if they play sports regularly.The campaign features US soccer player and Olympic gold medalist Alex Morgan, who shares how playing sports when she was young helped build her confidence.

Alex recalls here a time that she was discouraged from playing a sport “around the age of 14 I was very discouraged from a coach. It was my first youth club team while playing soccer. She told me at the time that I wasn’t good enough to play on the team, that I would never get into the game.” Alex is proud to be part of #LikeAGirl “My goal is to show girls that I‘m fighting so they have to.”

The #2 spot on the YouTube Olympic Sponsors chart is the P&G Thank You Mom Campaign that has also been revived. Their new spot, Thank You, Mom – Strong has been released just in time for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. I wrote about this campaign when it originally launched in this post for the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games. This spot continues to pull on the emotional heartstrings, especially for us moms.

Next week I’ll review another marketing campaign associated with the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. So stay tuned and enjoy the games.

Shonda Rhimes partners with Pilot Pen on the $50,000 Overachievers Grant Contest

Shonda Rhimes has recently partnered with Pilot Pen to promote their G2 pen. Shonda is the writer and producer of such famous TV shows such as Scandal, Gray’s Anatomy, How to Get Away with Murder and The Catch. She has also been described as a role model, a game changer and in one word, an overachiever. She is now helping Pilot Pen celebrate the ultimate overachievers with the G2 Overachievers Grant Contest.

To help these overachievers reach their full potential, a $50,000 grant will be awarded to help enhance the reach of ordinary heroes who give back to their community in unique and impactful ways along with additional G2 overachievers prizes. The grant will recognize and celebrate an everyday overachiever who is changing the world through selfless purpose and through acts that go above and beyond their everyday nine-to-five duties, truly to help make the world a better place.

Entrants need to submit a handwritten story describing what they or someone they know did to be a difference maker. They should share where it happened, how it worked, who it impacted and why it mattered. There is a 1000 word maximum for each entry and entrants can submit their story by scanning or taking a picture and uploading to the entry page, or they can mail it to an address that’s included on the website in the Official rules.

“At Pilot we believe that, a pen is not just a writing instrument, it’s a powerful tool of self expression. Our G2 is not only America’s # selling pen, it is the pen that overachievers like Shonda Rhimes naturally gravitate toward,” said Ariann Langsam Director of Marketing at Pilot Pen. “When we discovered Shonda actually uses a G2 to edit her scripts—a blue G2 to be exact— we knew this was a perfect partnership. Together we created the G2 Overachievers Grant, which will help overachievers to do even more extraordinary things to better the lives of others.”

Story submissions will be accepted up until October 31. After that a panel of judges chosen by Pilot pen will review all the stories and select 21 Finalists based on the following criteria: 1) Specific action that improved other’s lives; 2) Measurable difference, based on the magnitude of people impacted; 3) Attained a measurable difference; 4) Resourced (by the individual); the nominee should have played a major role in starting the initiative that made the change; 5) Time – the over achievement must have taken place in the last 24 months.

Using the same judging criteria, Shonda will then review all the confirmed Finalists to determine the Grand Prize winner of the $50,000 grant. The 20 Contest Finalists not selected as the Grand Prize Winner will receive a G2 Overachiever Kit valued at $100. ”

The Pilot G2 Overachievers Grant is the perfect opportunity to celebrate those hardworking individuals striving to make a real difference in other’s lives,” said Shonda Rhimes. “I use the G2 almost every day to help craft stories that bring happiness to fans, so it gives me joy to be part of rewarding those who are positively impacting their communities through the Overachievers program!” You can view a short video of Shonda describing her partnership with Pilot began by clicking on this “Change the World” image.

Pilot pen is promoting this on their Facebook page and with the hashtag #DoYouG2.

Banded launches The Greatest Outdoor Giveaway Sweepstakes

I was recently contacted by an previous client that told me he was now working for a company called Banded and wanted to run a huge sweepstakes. I’m not at all what you would call an “outdoorsman”, so I had no idea who the company was. They wanted to give away a truck and a boat, along with a bunch of gear, to not several different winners, but one big prize to one winner! “The Greatest Outdoor Giveaway” Sweepstakes was just launched this week.

So I educated myself a little on what Banded is all about. They currently offer over 600 items representing 19 diverse product categories on their website. Some of the product categories include outerwear, waders, boot, hunting accessories, blinds, decoys and calls. 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 in the beginning was to create superior products to enhance the outdoor experience and that remains to be the foundation of BANDED today.

I’ve written about previous sweepstakes that have given away a great big prize before, like the Exotic Estates Hawaii Villa Escape Sweepstakes, but this prize tops that one by quite a bit in just its value, which totals over $83,000! The winner takes all…a 2016 Banded-Edition Ford F-150 FX4, a Banded-Edition War Eagle 754 LDV Boat in Mossy Oak® Camo complete with a 50hp Yamaha motor, Banded Axe Blind, GHG Pro-Grade decoys and a bunch of other gear! Besides Banded the other prize providers that are part of this great outdoor giveaway are Crain Automotive Team, War Eagle Boats, Mossy Oak and Mack’s Prairie Wings.

The objective it to raise awareness of all the products that not only Banded offers online and through their retail partners, but also what the other prize providers offer as well. Banded will be promoting the sweepstakes to their Banded Nation community. These are subscribers to the Banded enewsletter, their blog and emails that are part of this dedicated community that relies on Banded as a great resource of information from everything from hunting tips, to how to train your retriever, to recipes and cooking ideas, and gear tips as well.

The sweepstakes runs till November 14. So pass along this sweepstakes to any of the outdoorsmen in your life. They can then get ready for both the duck and turkey hunting seasons.

Next episode of Montana’s Sky’s The Limit Adventure Series launches that includes a new Sweepstakes

Montana’s the Sky’s the Limit Sweepstakes was initially launched back in April by the The Montana Office of Tourism and Business Development in which I wrote this post about. This was the beginning of a new tourism campaign that is focused on telling Montana Big Sky Country stories to draw in visitors. Their short film series features ordinary people who are chasing their own brand of adventure.

Open Road, was the first episode in the Sky’s The Limit series, which was used to launch the Sky’s the Limit Open Road Sweepstakes. That sweepstakes has now ended and The Sky’s the Limit Picnic Sweepstakes is now currently running. This coincides with the second episode in the Sky’s The Limit Series, Picnic, that follows David Gonzales and his friends as they conquer a bike ride, an alpine lake swim, and hike to the top of a mountain all in one day.

Jenny Pelej, Montana Office of Tourism marketing chief, described the Sky’s the Limit Campaign stating “This campaign is all about personal connection, connection with the environment, connection with others and connection with our magical state”.

Day 1 of the adventure has the group arriving in Butte, MT where they pick up a rental from Hertz and grab some lunch at Uptown Cafe before exploring Butte. They visit Front Street Market to pick up some camping needs including snacks and groceries and then check into the Copper King Mansion, a historic B&B, and prepare for dinner.

Day 2 starts with breakfast and coffee at the Hummingbird Cafe. The group then stops by Our Lady of the Rockies and then on the way to their campsite they stop for lunch at Two Bit Saloon in Whitehall. Once at the Hilltop Campground they take a quick swim on Cliff Lake before settling down for a homemade, fireside dinner.

After a light camp breakfast and coffee to start Day 3, the group packs their backpacks for an early morning hike along the nearby scenic trails to Wade Lake. There they rent a motorboat and paddle boards at Wade Lake Cabins where they spend the afternoon on the lake. After they head over to The Grizzly Bar & Grill for dinner and a brew before heading back to the campsite for the night.

On Day 4 they pack up their campsite before heading back to Butte. They stop for brunch in Ennis and enjoy pancakes at Yesterday’s Soda Fountain. Their last night in Montana is spent with dinner at Casagranda’s Steakhouse and Guido’s Bar and then on to The Miner’s Hotel before their morning flight out the next day.

The sweepstakes grand prize consists of vouchers and certificates for all the activities mentioned in this story and more. It has a total value of $3,000 that the winner can use at their own leisure. This sweepstakes runs till July 27. There are also 5 instant winners who will each receive smaller prizes such as a Montana Mule Kit, a Craft Beer Kit and an Adventure Kit.

There were almost 18,000 entries for the first sweepstakes, Open Road, in which the grand prize was awarded to a Susan Masterson from Winterhaven, Florida. So we’ll soon see who is the lucky person to win this adventure. The next film in the series is called Painting Glacier which is scheduled to launch the end of July. The forth and last film in the series is scheduled for launch in September.

Fans of Game of Thrones have their knowledge tested in HBO’s Instagram Contest

The Game of Thrones Season 6 finale was this past Sunday night and I am still talking about it. Yes, I am what you call a hard-core fan of Game of Thrones. I’ve been reading every article that I come across to gain insights of what others saw in the final episode, the Winds of Winter, and to learn more about what theories others think will come true in Season 7. At least now we have a pretty good idea of who Jon Snow’s true parents really are. But no one else knows this, not even Jon Snow.

I came across this Adweek article about this new campaign that HBO launched recently that involves an Instagram Contest for us hard-core fans of Game of Thrones as well as fans of Silicon Valley and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. The “Deep Instagram Challenge” tests fan’s knowledge on their Instagram page by having them answer trivia questions to solve clues leading to prizes.

All three challenges are now officially over. The Game of Thrones (GOT) Challenge came first, which launched on June 10. The object of each Challenge was to get to the winning video post by successfully completing multiple levels of word string-type games beginning at the “image of the iconic HBO static” found on HBO’s Instagram page. The first person to successfully complete all the game levels, which led to the winning post, and then make a comment on the winning post, was the Grand Prize winner. There were many dead ends which featured original videos from the show’s stars and fans had to go back and try again.

In the GOT challenge fans knowledge of the seven kingdoms was tested for a chance to win a trip to San Diego Comic-Con and other prizes “worthy of a king or queen”. The Silicon Valley Challenge was launched next on June 13 which offered a chance to win a real-life replica of Erlich’s Aviato car and other prizes “Gilfoyle could only dream of receiving from tech companies vying for his attention”.

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver was the last challenge which launched on June 15 and ended June 20. The Grand Prize winner received a trip for two people to New York City sometime this Summer to attend a live taping of John Oliver’s show which includes round-trip airfare, 2-night hotel accommodations and ground transportation. Runner-up prizes included 50 “Make Donald Drumpf Again” hats along with some bonus prizes.

“When the iconic HBO static intro lights up their screens, our fans know they’re about to experience something extraordinary,” adds Chris Spadaccini, evp of brand and product marketing at HBO. We think they’ll be excited by this innovative opportunity to go even deeper inside the static intro and engage with the brand on the Instagram platform.”

Here are a couple of the dead-end videos from the GOT Challenges. Stay tuned and follow HBO on Instagram for the next two challenges they have planned. And for us GOT fans, we just have to wait another year for our show to return.

Eight O’Clock Coffee launches the Chill in Italy Sweepstakes

The first official day of the Summer of 2016 occurred this week. The days are long and the nights are warm. What will be the major trends, events, happenings and songs of this summer? We have been blessed with some beautiful, sunny days here in western New York, but the heat is on across the county, especially in the southwest.

So it’s the perfect time for Eight O’Clock Coffee to launch their Chill in Italy Sweepstakes to promote their home brewed iced coffee. We’re administering this new sweepstakes and working through The S3 Agency, the same agency that we helped launched OCM’s “Room Goals Instant Giveaway” that I wrote about last week.

Eight O’Clock Coffee is giving away a total of 20 instant prizes which are available to be won from now till the end of the sweepstakes which is July 13. These instant prizes consist of an iced coffee package that includes two iced coffee tumblers, one cold brew coffee maker, one silicone ice cube tray, one coupon good for a free Eight O’Clock coffee, one Eight O’Clock mini-tote bag and some recipes for cold coffee.

The Grand Prize drawing will be conducted at the end of the sweepstakes to award a trip to “Chill in Italy” for the winner and guest. This prize includes round trip airfare and 7 day/6 night hotel accommodations in Italy. To enter the Chill in Italy Sweepstakes participants are invited to the Eight-Clock Coffee Facebook page and then directed to the promotion page by clicking on either the Facebook profile photo at the top of the page, the sweepstakes post at the top of their timeline, or the “Chill in Italy Sweepstakes” tab. They need to fill out the required fields on the entry form. Once submitted they will gain one entry into the sweepstakes and immediately be informed if they are an instant winner or not.

Participants can enter and play for a chance to win one of the 20 instant prizes once every 24 hours. Those that do not win an instant prize are encouraged to “Chill Out” and come back tomorrow to try again. In the meantime they are given this recipe for Tiramisu iced coffee made with Eight O’Clock Dark Italian Espresso Coffee. This looks delicious, so I’m going to give it a try…ice cream and dark coffee, two of my favorites! Stay tuned here to learn about some more fun, sweepstakes and contests that will be running this summer.

OCM’s Room Goals Instant Giveaway helps kick off the back-to-school shopping season

We’ve been celebrating, Grads, Dads and Brides during this month of June. But even though the graduation ceremonies and parties are still going on, the back-to-school shopping season has also kicked-off. This year, back-to-school retail sales will reach $828.81 billion, based on a recent report from eMarketer who also predicts a higher share than ever is already occurring online. While most back-to-school shopping occurs over the month of August, 52% begin before then—including around one in four who are already shopping by the end of June.

We’re administering a new sweepstakes for OCM.com (On Campus Marketing) called the “Room Goals Instant Giveaway” that just launched off this week. We’ve been working with OCM’s agency, The S3 Agency. Participants are invited to visit the OCM Facebook page and click the link to open the Sweepstakes page where they can enter once a day up till July 31.

OCM is giving away eight complete dorm room make overs each valued at $575. One instant prize per week is available to be won. All they need to do enter their email address and name and instantly find out if they are a winner.

I tried to win and of course got the “Sorry” message. The “Winning” Instant Win play will be awarded based on the number of entries and the timing of the play each week. Prize winners will be contacted by email on each Friday.

So let the BTS shopping season begin!

A.C. Moore’s Crystal Coast Wedding Contest celebrates brides

June is known as the “dads, grads, and brides” month. So I wrote a post last week on a Father’s Day promotion, and the week before about a Twitter promotion for grads, so this week’s post is focused on brides. We’ve working on this promotion for A.C. Moore Arts & Crafts which just launched offering a chance to win a wedding through their Craft Me a Crystal Coast Wedding Contest.

The grand prize wedding consists of a trip for the bride and groom to the Crystal Coast, North Carolina, to get married on October 22, 2016. They will receive round-trip airfare, accommodations for 3 nights in a water-front mansion, a wedding ceremony and a reception accommodating up to 100 guests which will be crafted by celebrity wedding planner David Tutera along with a wedding gown and tuxedo from Mon Cheri Bridals. The total value of this wedding prize is $28,300.

Participants are invited to enter by creating a short video (up to 1 minute) that expresses their love story and why they deserve to have A.C. Moore craft their free, dream wedding at Crystal Coast. They can submit their video from now till August 6 by either posting it to their Instagram account or posting a link to their video on Twitter and use the promotional hashtag #WeddingCrafters. They can also enter on Facebook by visiting the A.C. Moore Facebook page , clicking on the link to the contest page and filling out an entry form that includes a link to their video. The Facebook contest page also includes a gallery where the videos submitted on Facebook will be displayed.

A panel of judges will review all the video submissions and choose a winner based on the following criteria: Originality of the Video 34%, Creativity 33% and Effort 33%. The winner will be contacted on August 9.

So anyone that is available to get married on October 22, get your video submission in soon.

Grillin’ with Dad Sweepstakes helps celebrate Father’s Day

The calendar says it’s June 1 today and the summer season is officially here. It’s a month known in the marketing world as “Dads, Grads and Brides” when we will be celebrating Father’s Day, school graduations, weddings and also the flag. It’s the month where our backyards really come to life again. All the flowers and plants are in full bloom and we have our outdoor living space back again, at least those of us in the northern part of the country.

The month of June provides great opportunities for small businesses to reach out to customers with an incentive to visit their stores, restaurants or websites. According to a National Retail Federation survey, the average person will spend $117 on a gift for Dad which amounts to $12.7 billion in total spending. Wives, moms, children are all starting to think about gift giving and doing something special on June 19 for the fathers in their lives.

Taking dad out for lunch or dinner is a very popular way to celebrate. We’re working with this restaurant chain from Texas to assist them with their “Grillin’ with Dad” Sweepstakes. The Cotton Patch Cafe is inviting people from now till Father’s Day to visit one of their restaurants, located across Texas and in Oklahoma and New Mexico, with the father figure in their life. Once there, they need to take a photo of themselves with their dad and post it on Instagram or Twitter or upload to the CottonPatch Cafe Facebook page and use the hashtags #CottonPatch and #Grill4DadSweepstakes. They also have the option of including a comment explaining their dad’s/father figure’s best grilling tip.

One Grand Prize winner will receive a Weber Performer® 22” Grill valued at $400 and four First Prize winners will each receive a grilling essentials kit. We are again utilizing the SEEN hashtag campaign management platform for this sweepstakes since it has a hashtag only as a means of entry on Instagram and Twitter. The platform pulls in all the posts from Twitter and Instagram that use the promotion-specific hashtags and allows for those posts to be shown in the gallery page as you see here. This platform allows the sponsor the option to moderate the posts so that they may approve or disapprove them before they are posted to the gallery. Since the sweepstakes just started, we don’t see any posts on the gallery page as of yet. This ease of entry method is one of the biggest benefits of using a hashtag only entry and it also provides additional social sharing that can help increase the reach of the promotion.

This is just a good example of how a business can tie in their marketing to the current season with a promotion and social media as well. If you would like to share any promotions that you are doing related to the summer, I would be glad to feature them here as well.

So enjoy the summer and happy Father’s Day to all you dads.