Blog Archives - Page 17 of 28 - American Sweepstakes

Wells Fargo Road To College Twitter Promotion

Graduation season is now upon us. It’s that annual time of year when you’ll notice many people posting photos of their family members and friends posing in a graduation cap & gown. It’s is an important time for marketers to target this specific audience. I recently came across an interesting Twitter-based promotion that Wells-Fargo ran to celebrate high school graduation season.

The Wells Fargo Road to College Contest ran for a maximum of 8 hours on Twitter from 11:00 am to 7:00:00 p.m. CT on May 19. The object of this Contest was to tweet a car along a conveyor belt that would “drive” the car along milestones necessary to prepare for and attend college. There were five milestones and 20 prizes assigned to each milestone. Participants could tweet repeatably, but each tweet needed to contain the hashtags #GetCollegeReady and #Contest. Each Tweet drove the car forward on the conveyor belt and when the car completed a milestone the participant would hear a sound effect and see lights. They could continue to Tweet and move the car along the belt until all five milestones were completed.

A total of 100 prizes were available to be won that included tablets, smart watches, fitness trackers, gift cards and some mystery prizes. The number of Tweets required to win a prize was different for each milestone and was based on a pre-determined, computer-generated random program which was subject to change depending upon the number of participant Tweets received for each milestone. Some participants, after the completion of a milestone, received a Tweet from @Wells Fargo that they had won a prize. But not all winners knew if they won at the time their car completed a milestone. Instead they may have been notified within 5 days.

Wells Fargo partnered with a Dallas agency, Moroch Partners, along with Gratuitous Sets to build the program. Here’s a link to a video that shows the behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the Twitter-powered set:

The contest was aimed at high school graduates, age 17 or older. But any adult could have played. Congratulations to the class of 2016!

Hawaii Villa Escape Sweepstakes offers a $25,000 Luxury Vacation from Exotic Estates

From time to time we get the opportunity to be involved in a promotion that is offering a really unique prize. The Hawaii Villa Escape Sweepstakes is one of those promotions.

The main sponsor is Exotic Estates, a luxury vacation rental and real estate agency dealing mostly with properties throughout the US including Hawaii and Alaska, the Caribbean and Mexico. They have partnered with both Alaska Airlines and Paradise Helicopters to provide parts of the prize package to offer this unique $25,000 Hawaii villa vacation experience.

The Grand Prize winner and 3 of their guests will fly from the US mainland to the Big Island of Hawaii on Alaska Airlines. Then the winner and up to 5 guests will check into the the Rainbow Falls Villa on the Big Island for 4 nights. This Villa is perched on a cliff along the Hamakua Coast in Ninole, Hawaii, which not only has a stunning ocean view, but also a postcard-perfect double Hawaiian waterfall that cascades down to the Pacific Ocean below. It also includes a Olympic-sized Pool, a 2-story water slide, a 21 ft. diving platform, tennis court, basketball court, golf course, elevator and rooftop helipad. The winner and their guests will be picked up on the villa’s rooftop helipad by Paradise Helicopters who is providing a custom tour of the Big Island.

The sweepstakes just launched on Monday, May 16, and already they received over a 1,000 entries in two days. Exotic Estates has three goals for the sweeps: increasing brand awareness, growing their email database and increasing their social fan base. They have created a exciting entry page that makes sharing the sweepstakes extremely easy.

“We’re excited about the Hawaii Villa Escape Sweeps” stated John Di Rienzo, Director of Marketing & Business Development for Exotic Estates. “The prize is incredible and a great example of successful brand partnering. Also, our timing is taking advantage of the pre-summer vacation period, when people are thinking about their summer getaways.”

In conjunction with the sweepstakes, Exotic Estates is also running online campaigns that target their client demographic. Di Rienzo stated “It’s our hope that when it’s over, we’ll have grown our fan base and email database with new leads that will ultimately convert to future clients and new revenue.”

The winner and their guests will need to agree to two potential filming and/or photo shoot requests which may include one at the vacation rental property and another on the helicopter tour. The sweepstakes runs till July 5. So check it out along some of the amazing luxury vacation properties that Exotic Estates offers.

Best practices for keeping giveaways, sweepstakes & contests legal

I was asked a question yesterday that I get quite often so I thought I would write about it here again. The question does vary a little on how it’s stated. One of our clients asked the following “We are doing a quick giveaway via social media and want to check…are we covered from a legal aspect?” My question back was, do you have official rules? Their answer was no, they did not think they needed them for these small giveaways.

My answer is always yes, you do need Official Rules. Giveaways are just another word for sweepstakes which are a game of chance where the winners are normally randomly chosen. Contests on the other hand are a game of skill and participants usually are invited to submit some content (photo, video, essay, etc.). A panel of judges then chooses the winners based on criteria that are defined in the official rules. So whether you are planning to run a sweepstakes or a contest, or whether the size of the prize, small or large, there are rules and regulations that you must follow in order to be compliant.

Therefore, you need to have a set of Official Rules that outlines the promotion. A promotion that contains all of these three elements: Prize, Chance (random selection) and Consideration (Purchase, Payment or Time) is an “Illegal Lottery”. The Time element is the grayest area. If you are planing to run a promotion that does include Consideration, then you must allow an alternate means of entry (AMOE).

Most social media entry requirements do not usually require consideration. However, writing about a product or a destination or taking a photo or video of the product/destination to enter may be consideration. For example, if the participant can take a photo of themselves with a product in a store, then a purchase would not be required. Or if you’re asking them to take a photo of themselves with a pair of shoes “out and about the town” that would most likely require purchasing the shoes and therefore, Consideration. There is a fine line between the two.

Another example is asking participants to take a photo while taking a bite of a doughnut or sipping a drink. They can’t return the doughnut or the drink then, so wouldn’t that require purchase? You need to ask if the participant can effectively compete without actually making a purchase.

Also a very popular trend on social media is inviting participants to earn extra entries by performing different tasks and challenges on various platforms. Not only do you need to follow the guidelines of each social media platform, you also need to keep in mind the degree of effort that you are asking participants to perform to gain an entry. So how much time is too much and what can you really require? The Supreme Court did rule that watching a 30 minute TV show wasn’t too much time, so that’s a guideline to follow. But keep in mind that while awarding bonus entries for sharing/referring may not likely fall under consideration, it may be against Federal CAN/SPAM regulations.

Another thing to keep in mind is the FTC’s Endorsement and Testimonial Guidelines. They recently published a list of Q&A’s that state that when it comes to sweepstakes and contests, any incentive, no matter how minimal, such as an entry for making a post on social media sites, may be an endorsement. Thus it requires a disclosure. The use of the promotion title alone is not adequate, and they are encouraging including #Contest or #Sweepstakes or #Entry or a similar designation in a hashtag. The recent updated Q&A’s now states that using #sweeps as the hashtag is not enough and instead it should be #sweepstakes.

A rising trend today on social media is running a sweepstakes or contest utilizing only a hashtag with no entry form. Entrants may be invited to post a tweet on Twitter or upload a photo on Twitter or Instagram utilizing a promotional hashtag. Many marketers like these types of promotions since it creates buzz and makes it easy for entrants. However, hashtag entries do not collect data on the entrants since there is no entry form to fill out. Data collection is the number one reason why marketers run sweepstakes and contests. Without collecting data this also can make it more difficult to contact winners. There are however, applications that you can utilize that include both such as what was discussed in this post.

So it all comes back to what your main objectives are for running a promotion. You need to consider what the risks may be and also be realistic in what you are asking participants to do. Most of all, be sure to cover yourself and your company by running a successful and legally compliant promotion that includes a set of Official Rules.

THIS BODY campaign from Lane Bryant celebrates women of all types

This Sunday we will again be celebrating Mother’s Day. If you’ve been online or watched any TV this week you have been reminded many times with gift suggestions for mom. Retailers, brands and restaurants all have been promoting on how best to celebrate the moms in our lives. Whether with a card, flowers, dinner, jewelry or clothing, we all have many options.

We have been working with one retail chain, Lane Bryant, for many years and have done several Mother’s Day promotions for them. I wrote about their Makeover My Mom Contest that they ran two years ago. This year they are not running a sweepstakes promotion with a Mother’s Day theme. However they have been running the “THIS BODY” campaign which included the “THIS BODY” Sweepstakes that we helped them with which ran in April.

THIS BODY features a series of plus-size models wearing everything from fashionable outfits to nothing at all, each celebrating the female form in all its unadulterated glory. Plus-size Models Tara Lynn, Denise Bidot and Georgia Pratt along with Ashley Graham and Precious Lee star in the campaign’s video. Precious Lee was also recently featured in this year’s historic Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue.

In the video each woman shares what aspects of her body make her proud with the formulaic phrase, “This body”. The result is this 30-second commercial that puts the focus on celebrating both the body-positive and diversity in an unapologetic way. However, the major TV networks refused to run it as is because the ad didn’t “comply with broadcast indecency guidelines.” So Lane Bryant has just been featuring the ad online.

The THIS BODY Sweepstakes allowed participants to enter on the Lane Bryant Facebook page and on the THIS BODY website. Participants were asked to upload a self-image that was true to the THIS BODY theme. The photos were not judged, but they were a mandatory part of the entry process. One Grand Prize winner was awarded a trip for two to NYC Fashion Week that will take place the week of Sep. 8. The prize package includes two round-trip airfare tickets and 2-night hotel accommodations. Three First Prize winners also each won a $100 Lane Bryant Gift Card.

We are now running a sweepstakes for Catherines, which is also a clothing store for plus size women and part of the Lane Bryant family. The “Live. Love. Summer.” Sweepstakes kicked off on April 25 and runs till June 30. Participants are invited to enter in-store by completing an entry form found in participating Catherines stores, online at the Sponsor’s promotional webpage and by mail. One Grand Prize winner will receive a 7-day Caribbean cruise from Princess Cruises onboard their ship, the Regal Princess. A quad occupancy balcony stateroom that accommodates up to 4 people is included plus round-trip airfare to Ft Lauderdale, FL, which is valued at over $4,000.

So I wish all moms a very happy Mother’s Day. I will be visiting my Mother’s home were my dad now lives without her since she passed away just over six years ago. I will also get to see my two sisters along with one of my daughters who will be meeting me there. So we will all get to celebrate together…the best Mother’s Day gift I could wish for.

The Sky’s the Limit Open Road Sweepstakes from Montana

A new tourism campaign recently launched by The Montana Office of Tourism and Business Development focuses 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, the first episode in the Sky’s The Limit series, was used to launch the Sky’s the Limit Open Road Sweepstakes.

Visitors are invited to follow adventure-seeking twin sisters Gale and Laura Straub as they road trip through Montana, making pit stops to explore hidden treasures along the way. Gale and Laura had been dreaming of a Montana road trip since skirting the state on a cross-country journey when they were 16 years old. “We always had it in the back of our heads to go back to Montana, but, as the story always goes, life got in the way,” says Gale.

Their journey begins with hot springs in mind, as Laura had never seen one (or swam in any natural body of water, for that matter). But the pair soon found themselves immersed in the richness and variety of Montana’s less-traveled roads and charming small towns.

“We hiked, swam, soaked in hot springs, camped, sat by the fire. We relaxed. We drove down empty roads and kicked up dust. I rolled a fragrant hop growing wild on the side of the road in my hands until it fell apart. We saw wild animals, mountain ranges, families of flowers, dozens of landscapes at every time of day. We talked. We were together,” said Laura.

The sweepstakes offers a chance to win a similar Open Road adventure as the twins experienced. A four-day suggested itinerary includes the following:

Day 1
Arrive in Bozeman, MT where you will pick up your rental car to start off your Hot Springs Roadtrip. Before you head to your first location, stop and grab a bite to eat at Western Cafe in downtown Bozeman. Then make your way to Chico Hot Springs Resort and Day Spa, just a short drive from Bozeman. Check in, relax and take a dip in one of Chico’s natural hot spring pools and then finish the day with dinner in the resort dining room.

Day 2
Wake up feeling refreshed and renewed with a bed and breakfast meal. Head over to The Chico Horse Barn and take part in a half day horseback ride along the Yellowstone River. Arrive back at Chico ready to relax again and enjoy a filling dinner.

Day 3
Check out of Chico Hot Springs Resort and Day Spa because it’s time to move out to your next spot. Your drive to Fairmont Hot Springs Resort will take you back through Bozeman where you can stop for lunch and browse around shopping downtown. After a scenic drive, arrive at Fairmont Hot Springs Resort where you can relax on property and enjoy dinner at the Mile High Dining Room.

Day 4
Prepare to be pampered on your last full day in Montana at Fairmont’s Whispering Willow Spa.Spend the rest of the day relaxing and exploring Fairmont’s property and one of a kind amenities.

The sweepstakes grand prize consists of vouchers and certificates with a total value of $3,000 that the winner can use at their own leisure. The sweepstakes runs till May 18. There are also 5 instant winners who will each receive a Mystery Ranch brand backpacking backpack.

The Picnic is the next film in the series which chronicles a group of adventurers who hike, swim, and bike their way up a mountain and back in a single day outside Bozeman, Montana. Other episodes spanning the state and all four seasons will follow, and all can be found at VisitMT.com.

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”.

New tools to help businesses connect with consumers revealed at Facebook’s F8 Conference

Last week Facebook hosted their annual conference for developers known as F8. This is where the social giant previews their newest and latest products and tools for developers. This 2-day event took place again in San Fransisco. So as I did last year, I registered to attend the conference via their live streaming site. Mark Zuckerberg kicked of the conference with a full 30-minute keynote presentation in which he revealed the company’s 10 year plan.

I wrote this blog post summarizing what was presented at last year’s F8 conference in which Facebook unveiled major plans for it’s Messenger app. Now the company claims that 900 million people and 50 million businesses are using it. It’s the second most popular app on iOS, and was the fastest growing app in the US in 2015. This video helped to kick off all the announcements for Messenger Platform at F8.

This year the big announcements where about Messenger bots. Bots became official and a few actually launched on Tuesday. Brands that develop them can now automate customer service support, guide e-commerce, and provide interactive experiences to users. CNN is already providing news, and Spring is sending personalized clothing recommendations with buy buttons. A video posted on the Facebook News page video shows how someone might interact with a 1-800-Flowers bot, which helps the user select a gift bouquet of roses and asks for details about the order.

Developers and businesses are now able to access documents to build bots for Messenger, which can be submitted to Facebook for review and gradual approval. So far other partners besides 1-800-Flowers.com and CNN include Expedia, Fandango, Philz Coffee and Shopify. The success of bots will likely depend on developers’ ability to make them useful for users, as well as brands’ ability to control them. Facebook also announced that within Messenger, users can now share Dropbox files and talk to friends using a small round window (so the rest of your screen can be used to message others–or if you have an Android phone, use apps).

Facebook is welcoming the business community to Messenger with a new set of business-friendly tools meant to help synergize communication with customers. First, Twitter handle-like usernames derived from the page’s vanity URL will soon appear directly on a brand’s page. Going forward, these usernames will be placed directly on a business’s Facebook Page, directly underneath the Page title with the @ symbol in front of it. Those Pages who don’t have a unique username will want to create one, and of course those who haven’t paid much attention to their vanity URL before may want to make some changes before this feature goes live.

Facebook will also introduce new ways for users to start conversations with businesses. The first, Messenger Links, will enable consumers to quickly open a chat with the desired business by clicking a link in the form of short URLs with the format “m.me/username”. Codes will serve the same purpose, but come in the form of unique, Snapchat-like codes that users can scan in Messenger using their phone’s camera. The same codes can be used by businesses in ads, websites and other marketing materials. Messenger for business is about to get serious.

Of course Facebook is already looking for ways to use its new bots to monetize the platform, currently testing Sponsored Messages. They serve as a way for businesses to re-engage consumers who have previously started communications with them. Another ad type, Click To Message, would appear in a user’s News Feed and act as a call to action to start a conversation with a brand in Messenger. Here, the brand could personalize its offering based on the user’s bot interactions on a platform the customer is already familiar with, rather than sending the user to an unfamiliar e-commerce site where he or she might find difficulty navigating.

So we’ll see if brands start to integrate Facebook Messenger, and well as Messenger bots, for promotional marketing in the coming year. Will we be able to enter a sweepstakes or contest by a bot instead of an entry form? Any thoughts or plans you may have about this please share.

The major goal Mr. Zuckerberg revealed in this ten year plan is that he wants to bring the Internet, and increasingly cheaper and more functional devices and data centers, to the entire planet, making the world flatter and enlisting more people to become members of the Facebook society. That would be very nice.

Here’s a few sweepstakes for guitar lovers

Guitar players will really appreciate these three sweepstakes that are currently running from a company that calls themselves, Two Old Hippies. Our sister company, Alliance Sweepstakes Services, is the administrator on all these promotions. The Take The Bedell Challenge just recently launched on April 1st where they’re giving away a Bedell Wildfire Guitar.

They are inviting people to visit any Bedell dealer now through July 31st and snap a photo or take a video of themselves with a Bedell Guitar. Then they need to upload it to Twitter or Instagram and include the hashtag #BedellChallengeEntry. One grand prize winner will be drawn at the end of the sweepstakes who will win a Bedell Wildfire which retails for $3,990!

We are again utilizing the SEEN hashtag campaign management platform for this of promotion since it just uses a hashtag as a means of entry. I wrote about this platform in last week’s post about the Yes You Cran Sweepstakes. Ease of entry is the biggest benefit of using a hashtag only entry, plus it provides additional social sharing that can help increase the reach of the promotion. The platform pulls in all the posts from Twitter and Instagram that use the promotion-specific hashtag and shows these posts in the gallery page as you see here.

The Weber Custom Sweepstakes is giving people a chance to design and win a custom instrument. Participants are invited to fill out a brief survey that would describe the custom instrument that they would dream of. One lucky musician will be selected to receive up to a $5,000 credit towards their dream acoustic instrument.

“I have always been inspired by players of all styles and experience levels,” explains Bruce Weber Jr. “We love building one-of-a-kind, heirloom instruments, that let the player show off their individuality!”

The Exotic King Koa Giveaway Sweepstakes is offering the chance for one winner to receive an Exotic King Koa Guitar that is valued at $8,000. Participants automatically receive one entry into the Sweepstakes when they purchase a Pursuit Concert Koa Guitar and complete and submit the warranty registration form to Breedlove Stringed Instruments. A mail-in option without purchase is also included.

Both of these last two sweepstakes run till May 31. So any guitar lovers out there, here are three different and unique chances to win.

Cranberry Marketing Committee kicks of the #YesYouCranSweepstakes to promote the SuperFood of the month

For those of us in the northeastern part of the country you wouldn’t know it’s now Spring. I came back this weekend from a vacation at the beach in Mexico and woke up to snow on Monday morning. The vacation was very great though and the reason I haven’t written here for a couple of weeks.

One of our new spring promotions is the Yes, You Cran! Sweepstakes sponsored by the Cranberry Marketing Committee. They have partnered with the Compass Group to feature cranberries as the super food of the month in April 2016. The Compass Group is one of the world’s largest foodservice management companies and will feature cranberries in many of its U.S. facilities, which include school and university dining centers, business cafés, healthcare facilities and more.

Accompanying the superfood promotion is the Yes, You Cran! Sweepstakes. During the month of April participating Compass Group foodservice locations will be displaying promotional signage and serving recipes within their facilities. People who visit one of these institutions are invited to enter the Sweepstakes by taking a photo of one of these cranberry promotions that may include cranberry posters, signs, recipe cards, sampling events, demonstrations or dishes, and then posting it on Twitter or Instagram. Participants must also include the promotion hashtag, #YesYouCranSweepstakes and must follow the Sponsor on Instagram @USCranberries or Twitter @USCranberries.

A total of 20 weekly prize winners will each receive a $100 gift card. One of the winners from week four will be randomly selected and win a prize for the facility that they took their photo from who will win a catered cranberry celebration.

“We love that Compass is able to shine a spotlight on cranberries during what some may consider the off season. Cranberries are a versatile fruit that can provide unique health benefits to consumers all year long,” said CMC Executive Director Michelle Hogan. “And we’re particularly eager to reinforce this message across school cafeterias, since cranberries count toward the school foodservice fruit servings required for the National School Lunch Program.”

We are utilizing the SEEN hashtag campaign management platform for these types of promotions that just use a hashtag as a means of entry. This ease of entry is one of the biggest benefits of using a hashtag only entry, plus it provides additional social sharing that can help increase the reach of the promotion. The platform pulls in all the posts from Twitter and Instagram that use the promotion-specific hashtag and allows for those posts to be shown in the gallery page as you see here. It allows you to moderate the posts so that you may approve or disapprove them before they are posted to the gallery. You can read more about the benefits and drawbacks on this entry method by reading the post Alex Ditty from Seen wrote on this blog here.

It appears that they’re off to a good start with participation on the page. One additional benefit of using the hashtag management tool that I almost forgot to mention is that it provides a place to post the official rules that you need for any sweepstakes or contest. That should not be overlooked.

Welcome to March Madness – better get your brackets done

Every March college basketball takes over, so welcome to March Madness. You’ll be hearing much about the women’s tournament at the same time as the men’s tournament. The women’s madness starts with 64 teams and for the past three years has ended with UConn players taking home the championship. The men’s madness starts with 68 teams with 32 teams making it by winning their conference tournaments. The other 36 teams are chosen by the NCAA on Selection Sunday (last Sunday) based on their record and strength of schedule.

The first game of the men’s tournament is tomorrow, March 15, and the National Championship game will take place on April 4th in Houston. In between there’s the Sweet 16 the Elite Eight, and the Final Four. So if you want to play along, you need to get your bracket picks in by noon tomorrow, March 17.

So last year I got involved and joined the madness. My daily morning email from #theSkimm gave me a pretty good overview of the tournament and this year invited me to join the ESPN Tournament Challenge.

Once I joined I was invited to enter the Allstate Tourney Sweepstakes for a chance to win a trip to the 2016 Final Four in Houston and $50,000 in prize money. I just had to fill out a online entry form. Allstate is an official corporate sponsor of NCAA March Madness. I was also invited to enter the Acura Precision Crafted Performance Tourney Challenge Sweepstakes. One winner and their guest could win an exclusive trip to tour of the ESPN Studios. All I had to do was click an opt-in box to enter.

There are so many different bracket challenges that invite people to participate, not just this one. There is the Capital One March Madness Bracket Challenge which is the official bracket game of the NCAA. By creating a bracket you have a chance to win one of 16 prizes, including the grand prize, which is a trip to the 2017 Final Four as a VIP guest. Other prizes include $50 gift cards to Fanatics.com. You can also join groups and ask friends to join your group. As of now they are posting the top picks on the site of the teams that bracket players have picked to win. The Kansas Jayhawks are currently number 1 with 23.9% of players choosing them.

Reese’s is the official candy partner of NCAA March Madness and they are sponsoring the Official NCAA Bracket. They have created the hashtag #MarchMood and encouraging people to join the brackets on their Facebook page. Last year One of our client’s, Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt, teamed up with Reece’s on The Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Slam Dunk Sweepstakes which offered a chance to win tickets to this year’s Final Four games. Menchie’s was promoting the new flavor made with real Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. So we have on lucky winner attending the game this year.

Yahoo is also back at it this year with the Fantasy Sports Tourney Pick’em brackets. Here you have a chance at a $50,000 prize if you pick’em well. There are many more brackets you can join.

Once again, CBS Sports and Turner Sports will air every game across four national television networks — TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV — and you can watch every game on NCAA March Madness Live.

We are lucky to see our Syracuse Orange team back in the tournament this year. They are again playing the same team they played in the tourney two years ago, Dayton. We also will be seeing the Buffalo Bulls back for a second time. Go Orange and Bulls. We’ll see if either can get buy the first round. Good luck to all teams.

Here’s a couple of new sweepstakes that target Millennials

Playing games is not one of my favorite pastimes, but it is big with some of my younger friends and family members, and they’re part of a huge market. The global gaming market is predicted to hit $93 billion by 2019 and should continue growing at least for the rest of the decade. That’s the latest assessment from PricewaterhouseCoopers from in it’s Global and Entertainment Media Outlook 2015-2019 report.

I mention this because we recently signed a 6-month contract to handle the administration of some sweepstakes giveaways and contests for BANDI NAMCO Entertainment America for their Anime Games. BANDI NAMCO Entertainment specializes in the production and sales of home and portable video games on all platforms. They also offer free games across the web and social media as well as mobile.

The promotions that we will be administering will be promoted on the company’s Play Anime Games Facebook page. The first sweepstakes started on Monday and will be running till end of Sunday, March 13. The giveaway is for a chance to win the ULTIMATE Digimon DVD box set Giveaway which features 4 seasons of Digital Monsters, 32 DVD’s! The agency that we are working with is utilizing the Woobox platform to collect the entries. So may the best Digi-Fan win. There will be more to come!

A client from our sister company, Alliance Sweepstakes, that they are continuing to work with on 2016 promotions is Deschutes Brewery, a craft beer company located in Oregon. They again are running another text-to-win sweepstakes promotion and just kicked off a new one in February. To enter the DrinkTanks Juggernaut Sweepstakes consumers are first invited to text the keyword “Juggernaut” to the shortcode 65047. They will then receive a text message back with a link to the sweepstakes entry page located on the Sponsor’s website.

People are allowed to enter once a day. There will be 10 monthly winners drawn each month for 5 months who will each win a Deschutes Brewery Juggernaut growler. The mobile provider is Momares that is utilizing their Solark platform that enables us to offer this service to our clients. I featured this post that Marcos Menendez , one of the co-founders of Momares, wrote that speaks to the benefits of utilizing text messaging.

Both of these promotions that I featured today are a great example of how to market to Millennials, those 18-34. They prefer to use text messaging over emails and they like games. Millennials are now the largest population in the U.S. at 77 million. So we marketers should all be planning on how to best reach them, not just beer and game companies!