The Renew-It-All-Sweepstakes from the Hallmark Channel is helping to celebrate Season 2 of their Home & Family series. The sweepstakes launched on March 31 and is offering one lucky winner a chance to have their home renewed.
The grand prize consists of $15,000 in cash to fix up a home along with a trip to Los Angeles for winner and guest to appear on the Home & Family set. Ace Hardware is a partner providing a $2,500 gift card in the grand prize package along with Lumber Liquidators who is also a partner providing a $2,500 gift card as well which brings the total value of the grand prize to $21,500!
Hallmark Channel’s Home & Family is a daily, two-hour lifestyle program currently hosted by Mark Steines and Cristina Ferrare. Mark was a long standing co-anchor on “Entertainment Tonight and also was named People Magazine’s “Sexiest Men of 2004”. Chistina started out as a model, has had many TV appearances including co-hosting Good Morning America. She is a NY Times best-selling author and most recently published a cook book titled “A Big Bowl of Love”.
The Home & Family series includes a lineup of celebrity guests, chefs, designers, and even audience members. The Grand Prize winner of the Renew-It-All Sweepstakes is expected to appear as a guest on the show during a taping scheduled to take place between July 14 – 25, 2014.
Yesterday’s episode featured actress Elizabeth Henstridge (“Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”) along with actor Lou Wegner who shared their advice and challenges of owning pet rabbits. Today’s episode features Actor Miguel Ferrer (“NCIS: Los Angeles”), Judge Cristina Perez along with yoga guru and raw food enthusiast Rainbeau Mars.
This is our first time working with the Hallmark Channel which is part of the Crowne Media Group. We were brought on board to be the Sweepstakes Administrators for this promotion through one of their agencies, The Promotional Edge. The Promotional Edge specializes in promotional marketing and they are based in the LA area. So we are hoping this is the first of many more promotions that we can assist them with. Check it out, you can enter the sweepstakes up until May 11.
Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia has been the host of the Masters Tournament since 1934. The 2014 tournament is set to start tomorrow, the first PGA major of the year. This year the biggest talk of the tournament has been that Tiger Woods will not be playing in the Masters for the first time in 20 years because of a back injury. Tiger recently announced he had a successful surgery for a pinched nerve that has been hurting him for several months.
Phil Mickelson, a three-time Masters champion and the reigning Open Championship winner, is playing. He was quoted at the Practice Round on Tuesday that he misses having Tiger Woods in the field at the Masters this week. “He’s been such a mainstay in professional golf and the majors. It’s awkward to not have him here. I hope he gets back soon.” Shown here is a photo of Phil Mickelson hitting a stroke on No. 11 during Tuesday’s Practice Round taken by Charles Laberge/Augusta National.
Rory McIlroy is also a favorite player this year. This is McIlroy’s sixth Masters, and his best finish remains that disappointment from three years ago when he was the third-round leader and shot a final-round 80 and dropped to tie for 15th. However, he bounced back to win the U.S. Open that year and captured the 2012 PGA Championship as part of a player-of-the-year season that saw him go to No. 1 in the world. “It’s been six years since the first time I came here.” McIlroy stated at yesterday’s practice round. “Really looking forward to the week. It’s probably the most anticipated week of the year.”
To help celebrate the Masters this week I wanted to share with you a sweepstakes that we are administrating which is from the makers of Golf Pride, the #1 world leader in golf grip technology, and Golf Galaxy. They are promoting 2014 National Re-Gripping month by offering a chance to win a Stay and Play Golf Package at Brandon Dunes Golf Resort for one lucky winner and three of their friends. Entries are being accepted now up to April 23.
To enter the “Get a Grip on Your Game” Sweepstakes participates are invited to take a photo in any Golf Galaxy Store and share it by either 1)Visiting www.golfgalaxy.com and uploading their photo with their completed online entry form or 2) Sharing the photo on Twitter using the hashtag, #ReGripGolfGalaxy along with including @GolfGalaxy and @GolfGrips in the tweet.
The prize package includes a 3 night/4 day accommodations in a 4-bedroom unit at the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Bandon, Oregon along with golf and cart fees to play on all five of the resort courses, plus meal vouchers good for use at any of the Resort’s restaurants and local transportation vouchers to and from the airport. The courses are famous for their links tradition that overlook the Pacific ocean.
Round One of the Masters starts tomorrow, Thursday, and it’s anyone’s guess who will take the green jacket home this year. My colleague, Matt, is there for today’s practice round. He’s been making an annual trip with a few golf buddies to first play a few rounds in Hilton Head, then head over to Augusta for the Wednesday Practice Round. He’s a big Tiger fan, so was very disappointed when he heard the news that Tiger would not be there. Let’s hope Tiger heals well and can get back to the game soon
G’Day America. Are you one of those people that wish to take a vacation to Australia someday? Well Tourism Australia is hoping that their new Australia Someday promotion will prompt many of us to act on that wish now.
Last week they launched the Someday campaign which is in partnership with Virgin Australia and Delta Airlines, their first joint U.S. marketing campaign, which offers a chance to win one of 52 amazing trips to Australia. “Someday” hopefuls can visit AustraliaSomeday.com to participate in the Australia Someday Challenge Sweepstakes and explore unforgettable experiences throughout Australia.
“I really want to go someday” is something Americans say a lot about Australia. Beyond the major landmarks, few realize the variety an Aussie vacation allows, where to start or truly how close Australia is – only 14 hours from Los Angeles to Sydney on Virgin Australia’s daily direct flights. Once on the promotion’s website, participants can choose from 52 signature week-long trips, one a week for a whole year, that feature the best experiences and events in Australia. Each trip comes complete with a week’s hotel, round-trip airfare for two and the featured Australian experience.
“Someday” participants are invited to go through a visual journey that includes videos and pictures related to each of the 52 experiences which act as clues to where in Australia the experience is located. Georgina from Virgin Australia Airlines provides instructions on how to win the “Someday” that they chose by guessing correctly where it is located. First they select the state from the map of Australia they think this Someday is located and then place a “pin” on the exact location on the map. If their guess is correct, within a 10 mile radius from the actual location, they will be entered into the drawing for a chance to win that “Someday” trip.
Participants can make a guess on each of the 52 experiences, but will only be eligible to win once. If an experience does not receive any correct guesses, then a second-chance drawings will be conducted at the end of the promotion from everyone who participated to award that experience.
Jane Whitehead, Tourism Australia’s Vice President, Americas, said “We created a contest that will test everyone’s Aussie geography, provide some great vacation inspiration and, importantly, show how accessible an Aussie vacation is – and how each of these experiences can be enjoyed within one week-long trip.” Tourism Australia has been working with the agency team at the Clemenger Group, BBDO, who are located in Sydney, to create this campaign. The agency contacted us to assist with the promotion administration and to make sure it complies with all U.S. rules and regulations.
The team tells me that the promotion has gotten off to a great start. Within the first 5 days they had received 114,865 entries with 28,944 unique entries, averaging out to be 3.9 entries per user. The promotion ends on April 21 and then the answers will be revealed for each experience. The website will continue to serve as a tool for Americans to build their ideal Australian trip, using the “Someday” trip itineraries that were created for each experience along with Virgin Australia’s Airpass. Special offers from Delta Vacations and Virgin Australia will be available for those who entered, but did not win and still may want to experience their Aussie “someday” now.
I myself may take them up on one of these offers. I’ve always dreamed of “Someday” snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef! 2015 may be a good year to experience “Down Under”.
If you are planning or even thinking about getting married how would you like to win a contest that awards you with a wedding? Here are a couple of wedding contests that we’re assisting clients with that are targeting two totally different audiences.
The first one is the Bahamas 16 Islands Wedding Invitation. This contest is sponsored by the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism who have been promoting their Islands as a perfect wedding destination. Their website offers 16 different wedding packages from among their 16 islands.
The contest invites participants to enter the contest by visiting the Sponsor’s website, bahamas16islandsweddings.com or their Facebook page. To enter they must first pick their top 3 Bahama Islands in order of their preference and then explain why they should win their dream wedding. The submission may consist of a either a photo with a written essay or a link to a video and convey why they should win a wedding in The Bahamas. Both the photo and the video should include the entrant with their partner. The written essay should be no longer than 250 words and the video should be no longer that one minute.
The contest launched on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14th and submissions are being accepted up till June. 13. All the submissions can be reviewed here on the site which now has about 1,200 submissions. Justin Hancock, Digital Content Manager at the Zimmerman Agency, (Sponsor’s agency) stated that “So far we’ve seen great success in gaining entries through Facebook and our 16 Weddings landing page. From quality video and image content, to creating an email database from the users who have opted in to receive our targeted emails, we’re very excited with the results of the campaign at this point.”
Starting on June 14 through the 30 the public will be invited to vote for their favorite couples. At the end of the Voting Phase a panel of judges will review all the submissions and choose 16 grand prize winners, one winner per island who will each receive a wedding package to take place on one of the 16 different islands in The Bahamas. The judging criteria is based on the following: Public Appeal 30%, Creativity 40% and Quality of Submission 30%. Some stories are very heartwarming, so I invite you to take a read here.
The wedding packages range from The Royal Bliss on Paradise Island which is the most elaborate valued at $5,645, to Colour Me with Love on the Island Nassau with a value of $2,210, to the smallest package such as Seashell Beauty on Crooked Island valued at $1,300. All wedding packages come with a Marriage Officiant, Processing of Legal Documents, Transfers to and from Registrar General’s or Commissioner’s Office, Bridal Bouquet, Groom’s Boutonniere, Ceremony Site and a Wedding Coordinator. Even if you aren’t planning on getting married, may be worth a story to help celebrate your anniversary.
The second contest is sponsored by the folks at VisitDenmark which is called Validate Your Love in Copenhagen. Denmark is celebrating 25 years of same-sex civil unions. They are inviting same-sex couples to enter the contest for a chance to win a trip to Copenhagen to get married during the outrageously fun and extravagant Eurovision Song Contest festivities. Denmark is known for hosting many gay and lesbian events during the year, including the annual Copenhagen Pride Week festival that takes place in August each year.
Participants are invited to the VisitDenmark website and instructed to upload an inspirational and creative photo or video explaining why they want to get married in Copenhagen. Or they can post their video or photo on YouTube, Vine, Vmeo, or Instagram and include the link to it in the designated field on the entry form. If they use Instagram they must provide their Instagram handle.
One grand prize winner will win a trip for two people to Copenhagen to get married on May 9, 2014. The wedding will take place on the cobble stoned square of Højbro Plads which is located on the Eurovision Fan Mile in the city center of Copenhagen in vicinity of the Danish Parliament, Christiansborg, the first place in the world to acknowledge and legalize same-sex civil partnerships. The wedding ceremony will be performed with other aspiring wedding couples from around the world, and is not a personalized wedding ceremony.
Submissions for the Validate Your Love contest will be accepted up till April 6. No voting is is included in this contest. A panel of judges will review all the submissions and choose the winner based on this criteria; Originality and Creativity 35% and Relation to the theme sixty-five 65%.
So there you have it. Two different wedding contests, both with weddings taking place on two different specific dates, in two different places in the world, targeted to two different audiences.
After experiencing the coldest winter that most of in here in the Northeast can recall in our lifetime, we are all finally welcoming Spring which officially arrives tomorrow at 12:57 pm ET. But they say we won’t really feel it since this cold pattern here is expected to last through the end of March. With the arrival of Spring, tomorrow also kicks off this year’s NCAA March Madness tourney. Have you got your brackets done yet? Better hurry.
It happens every year this time. The productivity in the office goes way down as people discuss their bracket choices and who’s in and who’s out as the games go on. This year every game will be streamed live online, so there will be many monitors in the office focused here. NCAA fans will be visiting Buffalo who is host to the tournament through the weekend. Our local favorite team, Syracuse Orange (3rd seed), kick off there tomorrow afternoon against the Western Michigan Bronco’s (14th seed). I have to admit, I still don’t understand the whole seed thing and I’ve read many predictions of who’s going to win based on past seed placement, but really who knows!
LG Electronics USA is in its fifth year as an NCAA corporate sponsor and this year they are inviting fans to “Do Game Day Right.” Fans can explore the LG Locker Room from the LG Facebook page where they can enter the Locker Room Sweepstakes for a chance to win a trip to the 2014 NCAA® Final Four™ tournament happening in Northern Texas. Fans can also enter any where online that they see this ‘Sweeps’ pennant graphic that is located on over 50 different retail websites that carry LG products. Other great prizes include chances to win LG products such as a LG Washer and Dryer pair, a 55″ and a 47″ LG Smart TV, a LG G Pad and a LG Countertop Microwave. Entries are being accepted daily through 3/28/14.
LG is also giving fans another way to win a trip for 2 to the 2015 NCAA® Division 1 Men’s Basketball championship with a contest inviting them to post in Vine and show their game day passion. Fans now have only up till March 21 to create a video showing how they “Do GameDay Right” using the Vine mobile app. Fans must also follow @LGUS on Twitter and tweet their Vine with the hashtag #LGGameday where you can view many of these videos.
Once the Submission period has ended, 50 Semi-Finalists will be randomly selected and from those a panel of judges will choose the top 10 Finalists based on the following judging criteria: Passion and excitement conveyed with relation to the contest theme – 50%; Originality and creativity – 25%; Clarity and quality of video – 25%. The public will then be able to vote on their favorite from the 10 Finalists the judges have picked. The grand prize winner will be determined by the video that receives the most votes.
For those of you still looking for a Brackets challenge to submit, here’s one from Quicken Loans that’s on Yahoo offering a chance to win a Billion Dollars! Good Luck everyone and go CUSE!
Requesting user-generated content to be submitted in contests is an extremely popular way for brands and companies to engage with consumers. Social media enables them to help spread the word, gain new followers, and hopefully customers, while at the same time creating buzz for their business. By inviting people to upload a photo, a video, a recipe, a design, or a written essay they also can gain great insights into how consumers use and/or feel about their product and services. This new contest from Song Silo invites people to create and share music on their new platform.
SongSilo.com is a social collaboration website that launched late last year with the objective of becoming a universal community of artists, bands, writers, musicians and music lovers. It is the brainchild of three brothers, Michael, David, and Bernard Edwards, Jr, who have a passion for music which they inherited from their father, disco icon Bernard Edwards. SongSilo came to us for assistance in launching their first contest with an objective to drive people to the site to create, collaborate and listen to music.
On March 1 they launched the SongSilo Original Works Contest. They decided to open up their first contest to all U.S. and Canadian residents and are allowing anyone 13 years or older to participate. Submissions must include a track which is original material, the work of the person who entered and at least two and a half minutes long. Participants have to visit the Contest Profile on the site to publish their track. They can publish as many tracks as they wish during the Submission period which is open till March 31.
A panel of judges will review all submissions and select the top five Finalists based on the following criteria: Originality and Creativity, 25%, Quality of Submission 25%, Uniqueness & Style 35% Use of collaboration 15%. These five Finalists will then have their tracks displayed in the Contest Gallery on the SongSilo website. Starting on April 5 the public will be invited to vote on their favorite. Only one vote per person per track will be allowed during the voting phase which will end on April 26.
So instead of leaving the determination of the winners totally up to public vote, the judging phase helps to prevent a submission from becoming a winner that really does not meet the high standards of what SongSilo is all about.
“We wanted to give everybody who wants to be involved in music, an opportunity to create and enjoy the artistry of song,” said Michael Edwards. “Not everyone has the tools it takes to create or compose — whether that is a specific skill or piece of equipment. Song Silo changes all that.”
The Finalist with the highest number of votes will be determined as the Grand Prize winner who will receive a $1,000 cash prize plus a SongSilo premium account for a year. Also one First Prize winner will receive $250 along with a SongSilo premium account as well.
The Edward brothers are hoping to carry on the family tradition of making music fun. Their father, Bernard Edwards, along with Nile Rogers, was a founding member of Chic. Together they created such hits as ‘Dance, Dance, Dance,’ ‘Everybody Dance,’ ‘I Want Your Love,’ and ‘Le Freak’. The brothers are hoping to leave their own mark through the creation of SongSilo. Already the contest has gotten some good, quality submissions. Check it out here, sign-up for free, take a listen and if you’re a musician, get your track created and submitted soon.
Instagram added a video sharing feature to its application last June which allows users to capture a 15-second video and upload to various social networking platforms. This video feature also comes with some filters, similar to Instagram’s photo filters, that can help improve the video. It was reported that 5 million Instagram videos were shared in its initial 24 hours. I was writing about video contests at the time and predicted that Instagram video contests would be the next big hit. Here is one Instagram video contest that we are currently involved in.
Experience Kissimmee launched their “Rock Your Vacation” Instagram Video Contest on February 3. The contest invites participants to create and post an original 15 second video demonstrating how they would “Rock Their Vacation in Kissimmee” and to use the #RockYourVacation hashtag. The @ExperienceKissimmee Instagram account is approving the videos by commenting on each one. Once approved, the entrant must then visit RockYourVacation.com, click on their video to “verify it” and submit their contact information to receive one complete entry. Each participant may post as many videos as they like up till the end of the contest submission period which is March 16.
A panel of judges will review all the eligible videos on the following criteria: 50% relevance to the Rock your Vacation in Kissimmee theme, 30% originality and creativity and 20% uniqueness. The top eight videos will be determined as the Finalists and be displayed in a gallery at RockYourVacation.com. Visitors to the site will be invited to register and vote per a bracket system for the video they believe best meets the judging criteria. Only one vote per bracket, per day will be allowed. The voting phase starts on March 31 and ends on April 20.
The Grand Prize winner will be determined by who has received the most votes. They will receive a VIP Vacation Package to Kissimmee, FL, for themselves and up to five guests that includes airfare, 5-night/6-day accommodations in a 7-bedroom house provided by All Star Vacation Homes, a car rental and a variety of tickets to area attractions. Total value of the vacation package is over $9,000.
At the end of the contest period we will randomly draw five winners who submitted a video as well as seven winners who just voted. The video winners will each receive a Samsung GALAXY Wi-Fi Camera. The voting winners will each receive a pair of Beats by Dre Solo headphones.
This concept for this contest came from our friends over at Sparkloft Media, the sponsor’s agency, who specializes in social media campaigns. They have introduced me to Seen, a platform that helps brands and agencies launch, promote and measure both Instagram and Twitter campaigns. I’m hoping to possibly engaging Seen if and when a client needs may fit.
Instagram celebrated just their 3rd birthday this past October. Their website states that they have 150 million active monthly users, but that figure hasn’t been updated since September. Facebook reports show that it now is over 180 million. According to this recent study from L2, a digital think tank, Instagram users are overwhelmingly young, wealthy and female. About 58% use the service every day and it is growing faster than any other major mobile app or social network, including Twitter and YouTube.
So I believe a pretty safe prediction to make is that we will be seeing many more Instagram video contests this year. If you’re interested in learning more or like to share a contest that you are working on please contact me.
I wrote my first blog post on my personal blog, Donna’s Promo Talk, on February 27, 2007. With today’s blog post, I am celebrating my 7th year of being a blogger. I have developed a few traditions over the years in my blog postings, such as covering the Olympic Games and the Super Bowl which I just completed. Another tradition I follow is to celebrate my blog’s birthday by writing about the same brand that I devoted my first blog post about, and one brand that I truly admire, which is Dove.
In 2004, Dove launched their “Campaign For Real Beauty”. Now, ten years later, Dove has teamed up with an emerging female filmmaker to create Selfie, the latest Dove documentary that still seeks to widen the definition of beauty. Selfie features a group of real women as they celebrate refreshing revelations of their unique beauty. Here’s a look at the short version:
Dove is now inviting everyone to join the conversation and share what beauty means to you at #beautyis and at www.dovebeautyis.com. Participants can just share their thoughts with 140 characters or less or they have the option to upload a photo or video. Dove’s most recent research study, The Real Truth About Beauty, reveled the following:
Only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful (up from 2% in 2004)
Only 11% of girls globally are comfortable describing themselves as ‘beautiful’
72% of girls feel tremendous pressure to be beautiful
80% of women agree that every woman has something about her that is beautiful but do not see their own beauty
More than half (54%) of women globally agree that when it comes to how they look, they are their own worst beauty critic
Dove has created self-esteem building educational programs and activities that encourage, inspire and motivate girls around the world to reach their full potential. They claim to have reached more than 9 million girls so far with this programming and have set a global goal of reaching 15 million girls by 2015. If you’re interested in getting involved you can check out these tools and resources Dove has pulled together.
I am a member of Dove Insider and receive email updates from them that include special offers, new product information and exclusive savings and promotions. Right now Dove is featuring their new Dove Advanced Hair Series products and inviting members to write a review, or simply state why they would like to try one of these new products, for a chance to instantly win a $25 Amazon Gift Card. They have up to 200 electronic gift cards to be given away up till March 31. At that time they will conduct a second chance drawing to award any remaining gift cards.
Looking back on the previous blog posts I’ve written about Dove I noticed that two years ago I was at my computer and clicked over to the Dove Facebook page to see what they were up to. To my surprise I found that Dove had just converted to the new Facebook Timeline. Dove was one of the first brands that Facebook partnered with to roll out their new Timeline for business pages. It’s hard to believe that was just two years ago. Today Dove is using the social media platform to further invite fans to share what they feel Beauty Is.
I’m very happy to still be blogging after seven years. My birthday celebration wouldn’t be complete without thanking my good friend and founder of the Lipsticking blog and BlogPaws, Yvonne DiVita, along with her business partner and now husband, Tom Collins, for helping me get started. Thanks again and thanks to all my readers for sticking with me.
The Winter Olympic Games in Sochi are now way into their second week and Team USA has been amazing as well as many of the other athletes. What I love about the Games the most is hearing some of the personal stories about the athletes. Like Meryl Davis and Charlie White who just claimed the first ice dancing gold medal for USA. They have grown up together and skating since they were three years old. So I can’t let these Games go by without writing about Procter & Gamble’s “Thank You, Mom” campaign which by all accounts has scored gold.
P&G’s “Pick Them Back Up” TV spot taps into such a universal emotion that every time I watch it, I still tear up! Jodi Allen, Procter & Gamble’s VP of North American marketing and brand operations best summarized this as follows: “Mom’s contributions to their kids’ lives are full of incredible sacrifices. We’re so moved by these moms and the way they help their children overcome obstacles to achieve their dreams. We celebrate the person that helped get each athlete there and who picked them up each time they fell — mom!”
Bounty paper towels, one of P&G’s many brands, launched a contest as part of their “Bring It” campaign. where they invited sports moms to share how they encourage their aspiring athlete to practice in the home “despite the mess”! Moms posted on Twitter using the hashtag #BringIt to share their messy stories. Bounty received thousands of tweets and had to chose one mom to receive the grand prize which was an ultimate Olympic Games at-home celebration and a year’s supply of Bounty.
Molly Woll from Minneapolis, MN, and her story about her 7-year old aspiring athlete daughter won the grand prize. Both were treated to an Ultimate Olympic Winter Games Viewing Party on February 16 in their home. Molly’s story described taking her daughter to early morning (and evening) practices, foregoing family vacations to pay for hockey fees and taking on a second job, and even letting her practice inside their home!
For each Tweet, Bounty donated $1 to the P&G Team USA Youth Sports Fund which ended up as a $10,000 total donation to help encourage new Olympians. As part of the “Thank You, Mom” campaign, P&G offered their “Thanks” to all 357 moms of US Olympians & Paralympians with a gift of a $1,000 VISA gift card to help them on their journey to Sochi. Thank you to P&G and all the moms.
As I write this I’m thinking of my own two daughters, and while not Olympic athletes, we are celebrating today the 24th birthday of my first child, Kelsey, who has grown into a beautiful young lady. I believe that I contributed to her being accepted into NYU’s Tisch School of Drama and continue in helping to make her dream a reality. Also I am so proud of my other daughter, Alex, who is in her second semester at Veterinary School. We wish you a very happy birthday Kelsey.
The Sochie 2014 Winter Olympic Games are now in full swing and will run through February 23, 2014. I became hooked right away when I started watching the first prime time program which aired the night before the Opening Ceremony and introduced us all to Slopestyle snowboarding. We were immediately disappointed to learn that Shaun White decided to drop out of this competition at the last minute, but our disappointment didn’t last long once we met the other athletes and saw both the US men and women sweep the gold here.
6,000 athletes and team members from 85 countries are taking part in these Olympic Winter Games. 98 sets of medals are being contested in 7 Olympic sports, which is 12 more than at the Vancouver Games in 2010, and 14 more than the Turin Games in 2006. Much of the same Worldwide Olympic Sponsors are back, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Visa, Samsung, General Electric, Procter & Gamble, Omega, Panasonic, Dow and Atos. NBC Sports again has the rights to broadcast the games in the United States and has extended their contract through till 2020. NBC is featuring all of the events live online and will also broadcast events live and taped on their various channels.
Facebook is also a great way to follow all that is going in with the games, the athletes, the sponsors and NBC. NBC’s Facebook page has exclusive coverage, video interviews with athletes and extra content from Sochi and is integrating Instagram photos as well. Most athletes have their own official Facebook pages, where you can follow their journeys in Sochi.
The U.S.Olympic Committee has launched a Facebook page that includes a social-media and mobile game around pin trading. It’s called Team USA Pinsanity. Pin trading first became popular in the 1980s and involves the buying, selling and trading of commemorative pins at Olympic Games. It has since been called the No. 1 spectator sport during the Olympic Games.To get started “Lisa”, the game’s guide, takes you through a brief intro and provides you with a welcome pin that you can display on your pin board. Participants in this virtual pin trading game can enter for a chance to convert online pins into real-life prizes through the PinSanity Pin of the Week Sweepstakes.
The Sweepstakes is divided up into 10 weekly entry periods which began on December, 23 and ends on February 23. Any Pinsanity player who collects the Pin of the Week will be entered in a random drawing to win the weekly prize. This week it’s the Sochi Opening Ceremony pin and the prize is a pair of Team USA gloves. Four other randomly selected winners will also receive discount codes good towards purchases at teamusashop.com. Players can collect the pin via various methods which include winning it through Daily Spin. trading for it in the Daily Trade, answering correctly the Daily Trivia, purchasing it through the Pinsanity Shop, redeeming codes, finding it in a Pin Pack, or getting it as a gift from a friend.
The Official Rules also include an alternate means of entry which is by sending an email with their name and address to [email protected].
The Games so far have been receiving lots of social media buzz. I received an interesting Infographic today that the team at UberVU and Hootsuite released that have been tracking social conversations around the 2014 Sochi Olympics in the various platforms. From the opening ceremonies to the closing ceremonies and every event in between, they are analyzing what topics social cares about most and awarding those making the biggest splash with its very own gold medal. Unfortunately not all the topics have been positive. Take a look at the image below. Enjoy the rest of the Games.
The Renew-It-All-Sweepstakes from the Hallmark Channel is helping to celebrate Season 2 of their Home & Family series. The sweepstakes launched on March 31 and is offering one lucky winner a chance to have their home renewed.
The grand prize consists of $15,000 in cash to fix up a home along with a trip to Los Angeles for winner and guest to appear on the Home & Family set. Ace Hardware is a partner providing a $2,500 gift card in the grand prize package along with Lumber Liquidators who is also a partner providing a $2,500 gift card as well which brings the total value of the grand prize to $21,500!
Hallmark Channel’s Home & Family is a daily, two-hour lifestyle program currently hosted by Mark Steines and Cristina Ferrare. Mark was a long standing co-anchor on “Entertainment Tonight and also was named People Magazine’s “Sexiest Men of 2004”. Chistina started out as a model, has had many TV appearances including co-hosting Good Morning America. She is a NY Times best-selling author and most recently published a cook book titled “A Big Bowl of Love”.
