Blog Archives - Page 18 of 28 - American Sweepstakes

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!

It’s a win, win with Laura’s Lean Beef 60 Day Challenge

The Laura’s Lean Beef 60 Day Challenge is offering a win, win for all who decide to participate. We’re assisting the Laura’s Lean Beef (LLB) team with the administration of this unique promotion that just launched yesterday, March 1, and is running till April 29. LLB is motivating people to hop on the fitness bandwagon with the goal of a healthier you with the incentive to win some great prizes.

The timing of the promotion ties nicely into their new website that LLB recently launched. They are promoting this 60 Day Challenge on their home page as well as their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. Here’s how it works:

First, participants need to create an account. They can use their Facebook profile or email address, assign a username and password and upload an optional profile photo. They can also connect the account to their Fitbit which will record their daily activity from there if they choose.

Once the account is created, they then need to start a challenge by clicking on the “Start a Challenge Button” and choosing one of the four challenges: water, nutrition, sleep or steps. Participants can interact with others who have joined the 60 Day Challenge community. They can publish updates on how they are doing by uploading photos, videos, text or use their Fitbit.

Participants are encouraged to log-in once a day to receive another entry into the sweepstakes part of the challenge. They have a chance to win one of the weekly prizes, which is a $10 LLB voucher, and several other prizes that will be awarded at the end of the challenge by a random drawing from all entries.

Two Grand Prize winners will each receive a large Big Green Egg® barbecue cooker that includes an EGG® Nest®, EGG Mate®, a 10# bag of charcoal, a box of charcoal starters, a grill gripper and an ash tool along with a LLB branded grill kit and a $50 LLB voucher. Two Second Place winners will each receive a fitness package that includes a Fit Bit Charge, a gym bag, a water bottle, a pair of socks, headphones and a $25 LLB voucher. Three Third Place winners will each receive a similar fitness package, without the Fit Bit Charge and only a $10 LLB voucher. 100 Fourth Place winners get a $10 LLB voucher. Total prize pool value is over $4,600.

After day one there are already many participants who have created accounts and logged in with their updates. The team at Laura’s Lean Beef understand that people have a tough time making smart decisions about their health and wellness. Uncertainty about what to eat and how much to exercise can create obstacles that can delay a person’s health and wellness goals before they even get started. So they felt it was important to support consumers along their health and wellness journey with this fun and motivating challenge.

So it’s not too late to join the challenge yourself and follow along with others. Remember the LLB promotion slogan which is #FoodLoveBalance.

Still blogging about the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty after 9 years!

I am celebrating my 9th birthday as a blogger this week. I published my first post on my blog, Donna’s Promo Talk, on February 27, 2007, which entered me into the new world of social media. At that time Facebook was in it’s infancy and had mostly just college users along with a few businesses that only existed as group pages. Twitter was just launched less then a year prior to this. More platforms have followed and the rest is now history,

This blog was originally started to appeal to other marketers, like myself, to help keep us up on the latest promotions, trends and legal issues affecting the industry. As we know, social media grew and so did the number of posts I have written on the integration of promotional and social media marketing. Now after 737 posts, the main focus of my original blog, as well as this one, still remain the same.

The first two posts I wrote were about one of my favorite brands, Dove. The Dove Energy Glow Contest was featured in the first and the next one was about a consumer-generated contest for Dove’s Cream Oil Body Wash. This contest invited participants to create and submit a video promoting the product which Dove would then run the winning video during the broadcast of that year’s Oscars. With the Oscars coming up this Monday, we’ll see if Dove is involved again.

Both of those contests were part of Dove’s “Campaign For Real Beauty” which they first launched in 2004 which now makes the campaign over 12 years old Each year Dove has kept the campaign new and fresh and they continue to promote the campaign’s original mission which is to widen the definition of beauty and nurture the self-esteem of young girls and women throughout the world. Dove claims that they’ve made progress, but still have a way to go.

Dove has now been running the Dove #Beauty stories campaign which encourages women to honor the women in their lives that have taught them how to live beautifully. In celebration of the iconic Dove Beauty Bar, a product that has been passed down among women for nearly 60 years, the campaign is set to inspire the next generation with the lessons, tips and advice they have learned through the power of storytelling. Here is the video they created to help kick off this campaign:

Dove has always had a certain way of tugging at our heart strings while giving us a new perspective on how we view ourselves with each of their viral campaigns. So I thank Dove for keeping this great campaign going after 12 years.

I also would like to thank all of you that have been readers and supporters over the years. You know who you are. I hope to continue blogging for sometime, so please keep reading and feel feel to comment and share your thoughts at any time.

WrestleMania Reading Challenge offers sweepstakes to encourage participation

First Book has partnered with the WWE on this year’s the WrestleMania Reading Challenge. New for 2016 is the WrestleMania Reading Challenge Sweepstakes that we are administrating and hosting on their behalf. We’ve been working directly this year with First Book, a nonprofit social enterprise that has distributed more than 135 million books and educational resources to programs and schools serving children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.

The sweepstakes encourages families to read together for 15 minutes every day, then visit the promotional website, wrestlemaniareadingchallenge.com, and submit the number of minutes they read that day to receive an entry. Once submitted the site then plays the video of the week that features a WWE Superstar thanking and inviting them to share on social media that they’ve taken the WrestleMania Reading Challenge. This one features Sasha Banks who says to “read like a “Boss” and join the WrestleMania Reading Challenge for a chance to win a trip to WrestleMania 32!”.

Two grand prize winners will each receive a trip for two to WrestleMania 32 which is scheduled to be held at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, TX, on April 3. The prize package includes round trip airfare, 3-night hotel accommodations in Dallas, two tickets to the event, ground transportation and $300 in spending cash. Four first prize winners will have 1,000 books donated from the First Book National Book Bank to each of the winner’s designated beneficiary school or program and 10 second prize winners will receive a replica WWE World Heavyweight Championship Title belt.

The WrestleMania Reading Challenge is ending this Friday, Feb. 19. As of this morning there are over 40,000 entries and thousands of minutes have been pledged. A huge social media campaign was also added this year to help get the word out. First Book and WWE have been actively posting on their social media accounts throughout the challenge and have held several Twitter parties using the hastag #WWReads. WWE helped to kick-off the challenge by creating this PSA that has aired during live TV events including Monday Night RAW and SmackDown.

WWE is also taking part in a Local Book Wish campaign in the Dallas area leading up to WrestleMania 32. Educators are encouraged to submit “book wish” requests to First Book to enter to win books from WWE for classrooms and programs from Feb. 1 to 19. One school will be selected to receive a visit from WWE Superstars, a Reading Celebration and a 1,000-book donation to their school!

“WWE is proud to partner with First Book and continue our long-standing commitment to education and literacy initiatives through the WrestleMania Reading Challenge,” said Stephanie McMahon, Chief Brand Officer, WWE. “Together, we are providing a fun and engaging experience to encourage children of all ages to read.”

So hurry up and take the challenge today. You only have a few days left to help increase that total reading pledge!

Here’s our Super Bowl 50 Wrap Up

Super Bowl 50 is now history. The Denver Broncos won. They beat the Carolina Panthers 24-10. Peyton Manning said throughout Super Bowl week that it has been the Broncos’ “bruise-inflicting, quarterback-rattling defense that got us here, let’s just make that clear.” And he was so right. Cam Newton has finally gotten a slice of humility!

Lady Gaga kicked off the event with the National Anthem and proved to everyone that she really can sing! Beyonce won the halftime show were she also announced her new 2016 Formation World Tour. Fans rushed to her website and temporarily crashed it. The end of the show featured a tribute to past halftime performers including Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston which was pretty cool.

So now for the ads. Advertisers this year paid $5 million for a 30 second Super Bowl Ad. Pepsi and Budweiser where again the big sponsors. Payton Manning gave Budweiser what has been calculated to be $14 million in free advertising when he told a sideline reporter that his postgame plan was to “drink a lot of Budweiser.” Then he mentioned the beer again a few minutes later saying, “what’s weighing on my mind is how soon I can get a Bud Light in my mouth.” In other words, don’t ask me again if I’m retiring!

For the last ever Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl” contest Doritos chose to show two ads at Super Bowl 50, rather than picking one winner. “Ultrasound” by Peter Carstairs and “Doritos Dogs” by Jacob Chase were both aired. However “Doritos Dogs” was named the official winner. I stated in a previous post that I wrote about this contest that I am a sucker for any video with dogs! The winner received $1 million and a real jump start to his film making career. Doritos announced that even though this 10 year contest has come to an end it’s only the beginning. Meet the Doritos “Legion of the Bold” campaign. More to come on this.

This was definitely the year that many celebrities got in on the action. Amy Schumer and Seth Rogen for the Bud Light Party, Ryan Reynolds was “what a man” for Hyundai and Steve Harvey, who is now famous for his Miss Universe mistake, apologized again for T-Mobile. Drake and a trio of suits managed to make an overplayed song the center of a very funny joke in T-Mobile’s Super Bowl ad. Aerosmith rocker Steven Tyler commissioned a portrait of himself made entirely of Skittles. Abby Wambach, Serena Williams and professional skateboarder and actor Tony Hawk defied labels for Mini Cooper. Christopher Walken saved a man from a lifetime of beige socks in this Super Bowl ad for Kia. One of my favorite was Helen Mirren promoting the #GiveADamn movement against drunk driving for Budweiser.

Some of my other favorites were Audi’s surprisingly emotional “Commander” that snapped an aging astronaut out of his depression and included the late David Bowie’s “Starman” as the soundtrack. The Heinz “Wiener Stampede” was so cute that included a bunch of wiener dogs in hot dog suits running in slow motion into the arms of people dressed as ketchup and mustard. Again, it’s a dog thing with me. Also, of course, is Subara’s “Dog Approved” ad that featured a golden retriever (I have a golden retriever) who is driving around in her Subaru and checks the rear view mirror where we see a puppy strapped into a car seat in the back. I love dogs doing people things, like the Dorito’s ad as well. But one ad that I laughed out load to was Honda’s new truck ad featuring sheep singing Queen’s “Somebody to Love”. It was something about those sheep and the song together.

I’ve read many different articles about all the Super Bowl ads and there was not a one ad that really stood out, like Budweiser’s lost puppy last year. But I found most entertaining. Mountain Dew’s puppy-monkey-baby that they created for their new Kickstart product I thought was pretty weird. But again, I’m not their target market.

Esurance’s ran a 30-second pregame ad and then a 1st quarter Super Bowl ad that promoted their Pass It On Sweepstakes offering a chance to win up to $1 million in exchange for tweeting #Esurancesweepstakes. This generated huge Twitter chatter. According to data from tech company Spredfast, the brand’s Twitter mentions spiked at 6:35 p.m. when the commercial aired, generating 9,000 tweets per minute. The hashtag also trended nationally on Twitter for roughly 15 minutes. As a whole this year, hashtags were in 45% of Super Bowl 50 ads, slightly down from 50% last year.

So that’s my wrap-up of Super Bowl 50 and all the ads and promotions that were associated with it. I hope you enjoyed my posts. We will now go through football withdrawal and dream that maybe our team will make it next year!

What do you think will be this year’s best Super Bowl ad?

This Sunday the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos will compete in Super Bowl 50 to be held in Santa Clara in Levi’s Stadium. I am eagerly awaiting the game which I’ll be watching from our living room couch. Check out this Panthers vs. Broncos Super Bowl trailer that the NFL recently posted.

The battle over this year’s Super Bowl ads has been heating up, in fact there was even a “Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials” show that was broadcasted on CBS on Tuesday evening. CBS invited people to vote for their favorite, all-time Super Bowl ad. The winner was Budweiser with their ‘Clydesdales Brotherhood’ ad that aired in 2013 as the Ravens beat out the 49ers. The ad also included Stevie Nicks singing Landslide. So that helped to really strike an emotional chord with many of us viewers

Budweiser has already stated that they won’t be airing any puppy ads this year, which was last year’s favorite ad, but that the Clydesdales will definitely be back. The brand’s sister, Bud Light, has been named as this year’s winner so far when it comes to digital chatter ever since they released a Super Bowl teaser ad featuring comedians Amy Schumer and Seth Rogan. The two are getting ready for their Bud Light Party, and just in time for the Iowa Caucuses, “party” apparently is a play on political parties.

Budweiser gets serious in this ad which teams up with Helen Mirren to promote the #GiveADamn movement against drunk driving. Mirren says “People who still drive drunk are, simply put, a utterly useless, oxygen wasting, human form of pollution….so stop it”. She ends with taking a sip of her bottle of bud with her burger and fries.

Avocados From Mexico decided to advertise during the game for the first time last year and they’re back for a second year. “A lot of the stress around ‘Is the Super Bowl right for us?’ That’s gone,” said Jay Russell, chief creative officer of GSD&M, the ad agency behind both commercials for Avocados From Mexico. But, he added, “In a weird way, it’s more stressful because you have to come back.” The brand recently released this year’s ad which is called AVOS in Space and featured here.

eMarketer released some stats this week that shows that viewers still like Super Bowl ads. They stated that according to the National Retail Federation, last year, 77.1% of consumers surveyed considered Super Bowl ads a form of entertainment. A tiny portion, just 4.5%, said the ads bothered them. Even though people are generally not annoyed by these commercials that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily giving them 100% of their attention either. According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2015 survey, 11.2% of respondents said they always use a mobile device while watching TV in general. And 23.7% said they sometimes do so.

Some of this time that people are spending on their phones during the Super Bowl will be spent engaging with social media which they often share comments about the game and the commercials.“The Super Bowl drives an incredible amount of social media commentary and interaction,” says eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson. “Advertisers want to be where their audience is, and that’s in social media. Last year, 65 million people worldwide used Facebook to talk about the game while it was happening, according to the company.”

So are you ready for some football? Between watching these two great teams, with two great quarterbacks, along with the Coldplay and guests halftime show, it should be pretty entertaining. Plus just announced today, Lady Gaga will help kick of the excitement by singing the national anthem. Oh and don’t forget about the ads. I’ll be back next week with a recap to end my annual Super Bowl coverage.

Super Bowl 50: A quick peak at some of this year’s ads

We got to see some great football last Sunday and watch two teams move on to Super Bowl 50. Payton Manning of the Denver Broncos vs. Tom Brady of the New England Patriots played the first game. However, the Patriots offense just didn’t really show up and Brady was sacked over 20 times. The final score was close, but the Broncos defense really dominated the game and ended up with the “W”. Today it was announced that the Patriots fired their offensive line coach, Dave DeGuglielmo. It was also leaked today that Payton Manning at the end of the game hinted to Bill Belichick, Patriots’ head coach, that he may be retiring.

The next game with Cam Newton and the Panthers really wasn’t much of a game. They defeated the Arizona Cardinals 49-15. So now we have the older, more experienced quarterback, Payton Manning, to play against the young and unstoppable quarterback, Cam Newton, in Super Bowl 50. Let’s hope it’s a good game since the hype is already in full swing.

This year, CBS is charging as much as $5 million for a 30 second Super Bowl ad. Last year, NBC celebrated when approximately 114.4 million people tuned into the 2015 Super Bowl to watch the Seattle Seahawks play the Patriots, making the game the most-watched broadcast in the history of U.S. television. So those that shelled out $4.5 million for a 30 second spot had a win as well. Plus, Katy Perry and her dancing costumed sharks pulled in 118.5 million viewers making it the most watched halftime show in the Super Bowl’s 49 year history.

So what will we see with this year’s ads? Budweiser, one of the game’s main sponsors, already stated that they won’t be back this year with another adorable puppy ad. Last year’s Lost Puppy ad was voted the most favorite of all the spots. Animal lovers need not despair, however, because the beautiful Budweiser Clydesdales will still grace our screens on Super Bowl Sunday. According to Jorn Socquet, U.S. VP of Marketing for Anheuser-Busch, “the Clydesdales are icons of the brand and will most certainly make an appearance.” The puppy ads just don’t sell beer!

Bud Light will be airing a spot featuring Amy Schumer and Seth Rogen who will appear as Bud Light bottle buddies. We’ll be seeing many other famous actors and other stars such as comedic actor T.J. Miller who will star in an ad for Shock Top beer–a spot which he’s recently teased to be the “greatest Super Bowl commercial of all time.” Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler will be “walking this way” for Skittles and website creator Squarespace has hired comic duo Key and Peele. Liam Neeson will be supporting LG Electronics while Christopher Walken will be backing up KIA.

My hometown, Rochester native and soccer star Abby Wambach is expected to make a big splash with her appearance in a new BMW, Mini Cooper ad. The commercial, “Defy Labels,” will launch a six-month long campaign and is meant to help the public look past the “small” and “cute” labels with which the Mini is usually associated. Tennis star Serena Williams and professional skateboarder and actor Tony Hawk will also be featured in two other “Defy Labels” spots. Here’s a look at Abby’s teaser ad:

Super Bowl 50’s half-time show is also expected to be a big hit. Some halftime performers who have performed on the stage of the game previously, Beyoncé and Bruno Mars, are both expected to join Coldplay for the halftime show. “Are you kidding me? It’s the greatest moment of our band’s life. We’re going to give it everything we have,” Coldplay frontman Chris Martin promised in a video interview promoting the show.

So stayed tuned next week for some additional coverage of Super Bowl 50 Advertising and Promotions!

PepsiCo is back with their Game Day Grub Match Contest for SuperBowl 50

Last weekend the road to SuperBowl 50 continued with four great playoff games that left us with four teams in the running. All four where the home teams, unlike the weekend before that made history when all four away teams won.

The Green Bay Packers almost got away with an upset when Aaron Rodgers had two Hail Mary’s as the 4th quarter expired to tie the game and send it to overtime. However, the Cardinals got the ball first, even over a coin flip controversy, and ran the ball down the field to score a touchdown and end the game.

So now we have the New England Patriots heading to Denver to play the Bronco’s, the AFC’s #1 seed. This is the game of the quarterbacks with Brady vs. Manning, and many speculating could be the last time they will ever face each other again. On the NFC side we have the Arizona Cardinals heading to Carolina to play the Panthers, the almost undefeated team on the season (16-1). I’m looking forward to watching some good football this Sunday.

Besides the Dorito’s Crash the Super Bowl Contest, the parent company, PepsiCo, is also returning with its Game Day Grub Match for Super Bowl 50. This contest challenges student chefs to cook up the greatest dish for the “Greatest Day In Football”. This unique cooking competition features students from The Culinary Institute of America, right here in New York state, competing to create the ultimate football food. Part of the requirements is that each dish must incorporate PepsiCo food and beverage products as ingredients.

In addition to the student competition, PepsiCo is giving the general public their chance to share their best dish. This contest just started accepting submissions on January 14 and will continue till game day, February 7. Everyone is invited to submit their own game day dish to Instagram, Twitter of Pinterest using the hashtag #gamedaygrubentry. They need to upload an image of their dish along with a copy description or a link to the recipe. A panel of judges will review all the eligible submission and choose winners based on the following criteria: Presentation of dish, Use of at least 2 PepsiCo products in recipe and Creative use of product.

The Grand Prize winner will receive $1,500 plus a PepsiCo party pack that includes a mix of PepsiCo food and beverage products, as well as a signed cookbook from Anne Burrell, and a Wilson Super Bowl 50 Football. Two Runner-up prizes with each receive $500 as well as a PepsiCo party pack the signed cookbook and a Wilson Super Bowl 50 Football.

PepsiCo’s main objective with this promotion is to increase awareness of their entire food and beverage portfolio that includes includes 22 brands such as Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Quaker and Tropicana. A list of all their products in featured here on the contest website.

“Great food and football are captivating millions of fans gearing up for Super Bowl 50 — and Game Day Grub Match brings these two things together in a way only PepsiCo can,” said PepsiCo Executive Chef Jody Denton. “Our snacks and beverages have been staples of Super Bowl parties for five decades, and the student chefs from the Culinary Institute of America took game day food to a whole new level.”

Back to the student’s competition, it came down to three teams and after much deliberation among the judges, Claire, Yejin and Joel were selected as the Game Day Grub Match champions for their Doritos Dim Sum Joh. Each of them earned a trip to the San Francisco Bay Area, tickets to Super Bowl 50 and a $5,000 scholarship. Congrats to all these amazing young chefs.

You can visit the Game Day Grub Match website to see the student recipes that were submitted to help inspire you to create you own game day dish for Super Bowl 50. There are also many photos and recipes on the site that have already been submitted by the general public. The image above is one of the first submissions. They make you hungry just looking at them all.

Doritos Crash the Super Bowl Video Contest Final Edition

We had a bit of NFL history in last weekend’s wild-card round. For the first time all four road teams won in the same playoff weekend. All those hometown fans in Washington D.C., Minneapolis, Cincinnati and Houston were disappointed to see their team’s season end. The fans of the Cincinnati Bengals and the Minnesota Vikings thought they had the game in the bag, but fans of both teams had a heartbreaking loss and Vikings fans sat through a bitter cold, minus degrees, game.

So this weekend the Road to Super Bowl 50 continues with 8 teams moving on. Saturday we have the Chiefs at the Patriots first and then the Packers at the Cardinals. On Sunday we get to watch the Seahawks at the Panthers and then the Steelers at the Broncos. So I highly doubt we’ll see a repeat of all road teams winning in the same weekend.

PepsiCo, the parent company of Doritos, is back again for their Annual Crash the Super Bowl Video Contest which is their 10th season. They announced that this will be the last edition of the contest and now my last time writing about it on this blog which I’ve done since 2008.

This year just three finalists videos were chosen which are now posted on the contest website. The public is invited to vote once per day, per device up till Jan. 28.

This year’s contestants have the chance to win $1 million and the opportunity to work with Zack Snyder, director of 300 and Man of Steel, whose latest film, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, will be released next March. The winner will work with Snyder as well as Warner Brothers and DC Comics on an undisclosed future project.

“We’re giving consumers one last shot to make their mark and see their homemade ads air during the Super Bowl broadcast,” Jeff Klein, vice president of marketing at Frito-Lay, said in a statement. “This is truly last call for all of those who not only want a shot at $1 million—but want a chance to jump-start their career in Hollywood.” The winning ad will air during CBS’ Super Bowl 50 telecast on Feb. 7. One Grand Prize winner and the two First Prize winners will all receive a trip to attend Super Bowl 50 and view the game from the Doritos suite.

May the best ad win. I’m always a sucker for any video with dogs. Here on the contest website you can view all the fan ads that have won and aired during the Super Bowl.