Category: Blog

Tamed Wild’s The Land of the Pharaohs Sweepstakes is a unique prize much like the products they sell

Popular prizes for Sweepstakes and contests are trips and getaway packages. We have awarded many trips to different destinations to very lucky winners and some are more interesting and exciting than other. Here’s a new sweepstakes that recently launched that we’re assisting with that is offering a chance to win a trip that I would love to take.

The Tamed Wild “Land of the Pharaohs” Sweepstakes is offering one lucky winner and their guest a trip to Cairo, Egypt, for an inclusive tour of one of the worlds most magical and historical places! The managers of Tamed Wild recently came back from their own adventure in Egypt and wanted to spread their love of this amazing country with their customers.

The prize package includes two round trip tickets to Cairo from the U.S., five nights hotel accommodations and all airport, hotel and tour transfers. Also included are these guided tours with a personal Egyptologist to the following sites: Great Pyramids of Giza & the Sphinx, the Egyptian Museum and the Sakkara including the new discovery of the tomb of Wahty. Then there is also a day trip to Alexandria to see the Catacombs of Kom El Shokafa”, “Pompeii’s’ Pillar” and a visit to Bibliotheca Alexandria. A couple of lunch meals and a dinner cruise on the Nile River come with the package as well.

To enter all U.S customers, 18 years of age or older, who place an order on shoptamedwild.com will receive an entry for every $10 spent in that individual order. Orders cannot be combined to gain more entries. As an example a $55 order (not including tax and shipping) will earn that customer five entries into the sweepstakes. The Grand Prize Winner will be chosen at random by us once the sweepstakes ends on December 31st, 2019. The Grand Prize Winner must take the trip between February 1 and September 30, 2020. If they would like to travel on dates outside that time period they would have to pay the difference in the prize package which is valued at $5,000.

As with any sweepstakes NO PURCHASE NECESSARY is a requirement in order for it to be legally compliant. So the Official Rules do include information on how to enter by mail without purchase. This method of entry has already received some entries.

Tamed Wild is a new client of ours whose e-commerce business sells a pretty unique collection of products including crystals, candles, apothecary items, jewelry, clothing, fragrances, books and more. They also offer some of these products as gift sets that can be purchased as well. The company was founded on the belief in ancient herbal remedies to heal not only the body, but the soul. They believe that what is given to us by the earth is all we really need to live happy and healthy lives.

So I think the trip to Egypt does fit nicely in with the Tamed Wild brand image. They are promoting the sweepstakes with email, on their Instagram page and with every order that goes out to encourage repeat purchases.

Text-to-win sweepstakes from Breckenridge Distillery offers chances to win a trip to their distillery and restaurant in Colorado

We are administering another new text-to-win sweepstakes that is for the Breckenridge Distillery, located in Colorado, to help promote their location in the summer months. They are offering the chance for three grand prize winners to each receive a great trip package for two people to visit their Distillery in Breckenridge.

Participants can enter the Breckenridge Distillery Sweepstakes by texting BDWhiskey to the short code 60905 that we provide to them from our mobile provider. Each participant will then receive a response message back that will include a link to an entry form which they must fill out all the required fields to complete their entry. They can also enter by going directly to the entry form that is located at https://go.sweeppea.com/BDWhiskey and filling out the required fields along with their mobile phone number.

The sweepstakes runs till July 31 and once ended we will randomly choose the three winners from all who have entered to receive the trip prize package. The prize includes the following: round trip airline tickets for the Grand Prize Winner and their guest to the Denver International airport, 2-night hotel accommodations in Breckenridge, a Breckenridge Distillery Tour, a meet & greet with Bryan Nolt, the Founder and CEO, and dinner at Breckenridge Distillery Restaurant. Each prize is valued at $1,600.

The Breckenridge Distillery is best known for their whiskey products, but they produce gin and vodka as well. They note that all their products include the water from the Rocky Mountain snowmelt to produce pure, mineral infused perfection.

The restaurant’s menu is currently provided by Chef David Burke who is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and a student at Ecole Lenotre Pastry School in Plaisir, France. He received the ultimate honor, a United States patent, awarded to him for the unique process by which he uses pink Himalayan salt to dry-age his steaks for up to 100 days. He is also is a two time James Beard Best Chef in New York winner.

We have been working with the Republic National Distribution Company, distributors of these products. They have produced in-store point-of-sale materials to promote the sweepstakes in retail locations. The distillery is also promoting the sweepstakes to people taking a distillery tour and at the restaurant as well. Setting up a text-to-win sweepstakes is a great way to encourage in-store displays.

We worked with this same distributor with a Derby Sweepstakes that recently ended to help promote Four Hands Winery, the official sponsor of the 145th Kentucky Derby. This was also a text-to-win sweepstakes in which they awarded a Grand Prize Winner their choice of either a custom hat or bowtie from the House of MacGregor Millinery that is valued at $500. We hope to continue to assist with more of these types of giveaways with them.

Maycation Giveaway from Sandals honors moms, teachers, nurses and military persons who “rock”

This Sunday, May 12, is Mother’s Day just in case you weren’t aware. All forms of media, TV, Social, Internet, have been reminding us with ads and emails full of gift suggestions for moms.  Everyone including retailers, brands, restaurants and other businesses all have provides us with ways on how best to celebrate the moms in our lives.

One of our clients, Sandals Resorts, who we have worked with for several years, has a Mother’s Day promotion this year that is quite unique. They are currently running their “Maycation Giveaway” which not only celebrates Mother’s Day, but also Teacher Appreciation Week, National Nurses’ Day and Military Month. Every day for the month of May one deserving mother, teacher, nurse or military member will be rewarded with a complimentary 7-Day / 6-night luxury vacation for two at any Sandals or Beaches Resort of their choice*, for a grand total of 31 giveaways.

Participants are invited to visit the Sandals website at www.sandals.com/maycation/ and fill out a registration form. They then have to nominate someone they believe that “Rocks” who may be a mother, nurse, a teacher and/or an active or retired military person who they believe is deserving of a #SandalsMaycation. Participants must only nominate someone with whom they are personally acquainted with and must have the nominee’s permission and include their contact information. They may also nominate themselves if they feel that they fall into any of those categories. Part of the nomination process asks entrants to explain why the nominee rocks by writing up to 250 characters and also uploading a photo of the nominee.

Winners will be determined in four separate random drawings during the month of May. The first drawing will be conducted this Friday, May 10, and the last one on May 31. There will be a total of four Grand Prize winners and 27 First Place Winners.

Each Grand Prize Winner will receive a 7-day/6-night Luxury vacation for two in a Butler/Love Nest Suite® at any one of the 16 Sandals Resorts of the winner’s choice located in Jamaica, Antigua, St. Lucia, The Bahamas, Barbados or Grenada. Each Butler suite offers the utmost in privacy and plush elegance, including 24-hour room service with professionally trained butlers. Additional amenities offered at any Sandals are inclusive of all meals, unlimited premium brand beverages, daily & nightly entertainment, all land and water sports, including daily scuba diving, snorkeling and airport transfers. However, airfare is not included in any of these prize packages. Total value of each of these packages is $5,360.

Each First Prize Winne’s package will will receive a 7-day/6-night Luxury vacation for two in a Entry Level Deluxe Category Suite at any one of the 16 Sandals Resorts as indicated above or their Beaches Resorts located in Turks & Caicos or Jamaica. The same additional amenities are also part of the package, not including airfare. Total value of each of these packages is $3,556.

This Mother’s Day unfortunately I won’t be sharing with my two daughters. One just moved into a new apartment last weekend and the other daughter is closing on her first home on Friday. So they’re a little busy. Hope to visit them both soon though. Happy Mother’s day to all moms and hope you have a great day.

Two sweepstakes from Sugarlands Distilling offers fans of Cole Swindell and NASCAR® chances to win

Sugarlands Distilling Company is again working with us on a couple of sweepstakes. They run a distillery in downtown Gatlinburg, Tenn, which is a popular tourist attraction.  Guests are invited to taste free samples of authentic Sugarlands Shine, take a tour and purchase a variety of moonshine flavors, merchandise and apparel. We originally helped them with  their “Meet the Legends” Sweepstakes which offered up to 10 winners, each with a guest, to visit Gatlinburg for a fun-filled weekend to meet with Moonshine Legends, Jim Tom Hedrick, Mark Rogers, Tickle and the Sugarlands Distilling Co. gang.

They are now running two different Sweepstakes. First is the “Both Sides of the Mississippi” Sweepstakes which started April 1 and runs till June 3. This sweeps offers participants a chance to be one of nine weekly winners that each receive  a Cole Swindell and Sugarlands Shine merchandise package valued at $50.

The one Grand Prize winner drawn at the end of the sweepstakes will receive a beach vacation and an evening at the Sunset Repeat Tour with Cole Swindell. The winner will be able to choose from either attending the concert in Orange Beach, Alabama on July 19 or in Mountain View, California on August 24, 2019. The prize package includes round trip airfare for two, hotel accommodations for two nights, tickets to the tour, a meet and greet with Cole Swindell, a $200 food allowance and the Cole Swindell and Sugarlands Shine merchandise package as well. Total value of the trip prize is $1,650.

The second is the Sugarlands “Speed & Shine” Sweepstakes  which started April 19 and runs till August 16. Sugarlands is the official “Moonshine” sponsor of NASCAR®, so this sweeps is offering one Grand Prize winner a VIP experience weekend at the Talladega Superspeedway to help celebrate their 50th anniversary plus a VIP weekend getaway to Gatlinburg, Tenn. Each trip package includes round trip airfare for two, hotel accommodations for two nights at both locations, two tickets to the Fall NASCAR® race taking place at Talladega Superspeedway, a tour of the distillery in Gatlinburg along with tickets to some Gatlinburg attractions. The total grand prize package is valued at $4,199. There will also be 16 weekly first prize winners who will each receive an official licensed NASCAR® and Sugarlands Shine merchandise package.

People can enter either sweepstakes by visiting Sugarlands.com/cole or Sugarlands.com/nascar/speedandshine/and filling out and submitting either sweepstakes entry form. They can earn up to five bonus entries as well for each sweepstakes by performing different actions such as visiting Sugarlands on Facebook and Instagram, by subscribing to their YouTube channel and by referring friends.

Both sweepstakes are great examples of offering experiential prizes that a person could not obtain on their own. Plus, Sugarlands Distilling is doing a great job of utilizing their sponsorship of NASCAR®. I’m sure that there are many fans of both Cole Swindell and NASCAR® that will be signing up for a chance to win and thrilled if they do.

Here’s another sweepstakes from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that continues to promote their NewsSlide App

A new promotion for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette kicked off last week that we are again assisting them with. Last year we helped them run several sweepstakes promotions to coincided with the launch of their NewsSlide app in order to encourage downloads. These were all instant win games in which they awarded a total of $45,500 in prizes. Their new promotion, Where Is NewsSlide Sweepstakes, is to continue the goal of increasing awareness and downloads of the app.

This promotion is a bit different than those that ran last year. They still have to first download the app, which is free. Instead of just filling out an entry form located within the app, participants need to search throughout it to find the photo that was partly pictured in that week’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ad. These will all be images of iconic places around Pittsburgh.

Once they find the photo, they will be taken to the Sweepstakes landing page in the app where they will need to answer a multiple-choice question to correctly identify the physical location of the photo. If the Entrant answers the question correctly, they will receive an entry into that week’s random drawing to determine the week’s winner. Entrants can play the game once per week during the Sweepstakes period which runs till June 9.

Each weekly winner will receive a $500 Amazon ecard for a total of $4,000 for 8 weeks. We’ve been working with PG’s agency, Garrison Hughes, who is also based in Pittsburgh and sends us the files of all the entrants each week so that we can do the weekly drawings.  The PG NewsSlide app contains new technology that attempts to take the daily newspaper audience beyond what is possible with the print edition by providing a deeper, more immersive relationship that includes text, video, animation, photographs and interactive elements including charts, graphs and maps. The platform runs on both iPhone and Android mobile devices including tablets and can be downloaded for free from the iTunes or Google Play Store.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette received just over 600 entries into the Sweepstakes during week one and one lucky winner has been notified. So we’ll see how many new downloads of the app this promotion generates for them.

Denver Nuggets are in the NBA Playoffs and RMHD has 3 signed Jerseys to Giveaway

The first round of the 2019 NBA Playoffs started on Saturday, April 14. Each team from both the Eastern and the Western Conference will play the best out of seven games in order to see who moves on to the semi-finals. Now I’m not a huge NBA fan, but I do know some things about basketball. The Denver Nuggets are one of the teams in the Western Conference that has made the playoffs and we are assisting one of our clients, Real World Marketing, with a sweepstakes for the Rocky Mountain Honda Dealers Association (RMHD) for their Denver Nuggets Signed Jersey Giveaway.

Here’s how this Giveaway works. Fans from Colorado can enter for a chance to win a signed jersey either on the RMHD’s Facebook page or their Instagram page. They then must find the post on either page that refers to the giveaway and comment on the post by answering the following two questions:

Question #1: How many games will this best of seven series with the Denver Nuggets go? Question #2: What will be the total score of the final game in this series? However, If the Denver Nuggets lose a game and are out of the playoffs at any time during the Sweepstakes Periods the two questions that the fans will then need to answer will change to include Denver Nuggets related trivia questions instead. Fans have to enter both questions correctly to be entered into the drawing.

The Denver Nuggets are matched up with the San Antonio Spurs for this first round. They played their first game on Saturday and lost to the Spurs 101-96. However they won their second game on Tuesday, 114 – 105 with quite the comeback. So the series is currently tied 1 – 1. The next game is scheduled for Thursday, April 18, in which the teams will travel to San Antonio.

Now this sweepstakes actually has three entry periods. The first entry period started on April 13 and ends on April 28 to cover Round 1. The next entry period runs May 2-12 to cover the semifinals and the last entry period runs May 14-26 covering the finals. So if the Nuggets stay in it the two questions will remain the same for each period. But if they lose and are out of the playoffs they change to Denver Nuggets trivia questions. Fans that enter both questions correctly during each entry period will receive an entry into the drawing for that entry period. At the end of each entry period a random drawing will be conducted to determine the winner of the jersey. A total of three signed jerseys will be awarded.

Last year we started working with RealWorld Marketing, an advertising and marketing agency firm that focuses solely on Acura and Honda. They currently work with over 20 Honda and Acura associations throughout the U.S. and provide marketing and advertising services exclusively to these association with the goal to help increase Acura and Honda sales. This promotion is a fun way for the RMHD to capitalize on their sponsorship of the Denver Nuggets.

So may be best teams make it to the next round! Enjoy the games and in the meantime I would like to wish everyone a very happy Easter weekend as well.

Game of Thrones ties in with Mountain Dew, Oreo and Bud Light to promote the debut of their final season #ForTheThrone

It has been Game of Thrones mania this past week with the final season premiering Sunday night, 4/14, on HBO. Many of the cast from the show have been appearing on the news and talk shows with even Kit Harrington hosting SNL last Saturday night and a few of his GOT co-stars, including Emilia Clark and Kit’s real-wife, Rose Leslie, who played Ygritte in the show, showing up in his opening monologue.  So I’m super synced for it to finally be here. Us fans have waited over 20 months to find out who will win the throne! I wish I could have been involved in some of the companies that have gotten on the GOT bandwagon, but unfortunately we have not. Here’s a few that have had success.

PepsiCo’s Mountain Dew is riding the GOT’s final-season wave with a sweepstakes promotion featuring a limited-run special-edition can called “A Can Has No Name”. This promotion ties into the Arya Stark character and what she endured from the Faceless Men of Braavos. The cans, when at room temperature, appear to be just be all white, brand less. But when chilled, the cans reveal the names from Arya’s “kill list,” along with the Mtn Dew and GOT logos.

Fans can try to win one of the cans by posting on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter about what they would sacrifice #ForTheThrone, using that hashtag plus #ACanHasNoName and #MTNDEWsweepstakes. 1,000 cans that come in a custom box will be awarded based on a computer-generated formula seeded throughout the Sweepstakes. If chosen as a winner they will receive a winning notification and perhaps a message from the Sponsor depending on what platform they used to enter.

In addition, residents of New York City and Los Angeles have been offered the opportunity to “find the Masters of Coin, state the ancient password, and receive a coin,” then follow instructions to locate Iron Vending Machines that dispense the no-name cans. Mtn Dew promoted the Sweepstakes with this GOT-themed short video and posted it across Mtn Dew’s social channels.

Oreo is another brand who got very creative with a GOT tie-in and has created four limited-edition cookies — three embossed with the sigils (coat of arms images) of the Lannister, Targaryen and Stark houses, respectively, and one embossed with the face of the White Walker Night King. They then recreated the GOT opening all with these GOT Oreo cookies.  Check out the video here.

Lastly, Bud Light released another GOT TV spot with the Mountain that aired during last weekend’s NCAA tournament.

We know what so many of us will be doing Sunday night. Enjoy! #ForTheThrone

Menchie’s and the Missing Link Adventure Sweepstakes launches to help promote film’s release

A new animated adventure film is coming to theaters starting next week, April 12, called the Missing Link. It is written and directed by Chris Butler and produced by Laika and features the voices of Hugh Jackman, Zoe Saldana, Emma Thompson, Stephen Fry, David Walliams, Timothy Olyphant, Matt Lucas, Amrita Acharia, and Zach Galifianakis. The film follows the story of  Mr Link, who is 8 feet tall and covered in fur,  is tired of living a solitary life in the Pacific Northwest. He recruits fearless explorer Sir Lionel Frost to guide him on a journey to find his long-lost relatives in the fabled valley of Shangri-La.

Our client, Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt, has partnered with the production company, Laika Studios, to help celebrate the film. The Menchie’s and Missing Link Adventure Sweepstakes kicked off on April 1 and will run till the end of the month. From now up till April 30 Menchie’s customers will automatically receive one entry into the Sweepstakes when they use their registered Menchie’s loyalty card at any Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt store. Those that don’t have a card are invited to stop into any location and register for their My Smileage club card. Participants can also enter online at the Menchie’s website at www.menchies.com/MissingLinkAdventureSweepstakes.

One lucky Grand Prize winner will win a trip to the Grand Canyon for up to four people. The trip package includes up to four round trip airline tickets and hotel accommodations that includes three standard room nights at the Grand Canyon Railway & Hotel located in Williams, AZ and two standard room nights at the Maswik Lodge North located in the Grand Canyon National Park. Also included are up to four tickets to the train experience which travels daily from the Grand Canyon Railway & Hotel to the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. A check for $250 will also be sent to the Grand Prize Winner to help cover any additional expenses. The total value of the Grand Prize is $4,750.

Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt is an award winning franchise which currently has more than 540 locations around the world including the U.S.A., Canada, Puerto Rico, England and more. They are promoting this sweepstakes within Menchie’s locations located in the U.S. with posters and other point-of-sale and on their social media sites as well. We set up the Sweepstakes entry page for Menchie’s and again are using the Shortstack Application to build the entry form and collect all the entrant’s data. We then gave Menchie’s the code so that they could embed the entry form on a page on their website.   All of Shortstack’s entry pages are mobile friendly and last year they added an easy way to include CSS coding which is great for those of us that don’t have much programming experience. If you would like more details on how to set up a promotion utilizing the Shortstack platform, please feel free to contact me. It’s a great tool and it also includes a great team of support people.

So now that’s it’s officially Springtime, it’s time to get out and enjoy some Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt! You can also download their new app and get $5.00 in Menchie’s money.

Phillies Opening Day Ticket Giveaway

Today is opening day of the 2019 MLB season, the earliest day ever. All 30 teams will be playing today. It’s been five months since we’ve seen a MLB game when my team, the Boston Red Sox, winning the World Series. The best Red Sox team ever! We’ll now see what teams rise to the challenge this year.

To help celebrate this season I wanted to write about a new client that we are assisting with their sweepstakes. Herr Foods which is based in Pennsylvania has a sponsorship with the Philadelphia Phillies. They are running the “Score Ed Herr’s Tickets” Phillies Ticket Giveaway Sweepstakes which will award three Grand Prize Winners each four tickets to a Phillies home game, plus a year’s worth of Herr’s chips. The first sweepstakes period already ended and we have one lucky winner, Stanley Blazejewski from Philadelphia, going to today’s opening day home game against the Atlanta Braves. The Phillies have upgraded their team quite a bit this past off season and are now one of the teams in the NL East to watch.

The next sweepstakes period is scheduled to start on April 8 and run till the end of the month. The prize will include the four tickets to a Phillies home game on May 5 along with the option for the winner to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

The last sweepstakes period is scheduled for later in the season to run mid-August to mid-September. So all you Phillies fans have a couple of more chances to score these tickets. However, only residents of the Philadelphia, PA, DMA are eligible to win since the winners have to get themselves to the stadium.

We are again using the Shortstack Application to build the entry form and collect all the entrant’s data for each of these sweepstakes periods. All of Shortstack’s entry pages are mobile friendly from the start with Shortstack’s “One Campaign for any screen” design philosophy.  Last year they added an easy way to include CSS coding which is great for those of us that don’t have much programming experience. If you would like more details on how to set up a promotion utilizing the Shortstack platform, please feel free to contact me. It’s a great tool and it also includes a great team of support people.

Here’s to a great 2019 MLB season. May the best teams make it to the playoffs!

The Derby Text-to-Win Sweepstakes celebrates the upcoming 145th Kentucky Derby

Here’s a new text-to-win sweepstakes that just launched. It’s called the “Derby” Sweepstakes and it’s to help celebrate the upcoming Kentucky Derby taking place on May 4. Last year’s winner, Justify, went on to win the Preakness Stakes, then won the Belmont Stakes to also win the Triple Crown title. Justify is now enjoying retirement, so we’ll have a new winner this year.

Four Hands Winery is an official sponsor of the 145th Kentucky Derby and their wines are being promoted with this sweepstakes. Their winery is located in Washington state and they claim that 14 Hands wines are inspired by the unbridled spirit of the wild horses that once freely roamed eastern Washington. Measuring just fourteen hands tall — a “hand” equivalent to the width of one’s palm — these tenacious little horses would travel down from the hills every day to drink from the mighty Columbia River and graze along the riverbank, then retreat back to cool off at night.  So it’s a great brand fit for 14 Hands to be sponsors of the Kentucky Derby.

The Derby Sweepstakes is running now till the end of April. To enter participants can text “Derby” to 6507 where they will receive a text message back with a link to a mobile entry form that they need to fill out and submit to earn an entry. At the end of the sweepstakes period we will conduct a random drawing to determine a grand prize winner who will receive a custom hat or bowtie from the House of MacGregor Millinery that is valued at $500.

We have been working with the Republic National Distribution Company, distributors, of these wines. They have produced in-store point-of-sale materials to promote the sweepstakes that consists of a necker that goes on the bottle and display header.  Setting up a text-to-win sweepstakes is a great way to encourage in-store displays.

We worked with the same distributor earlier this year to help promote Botanist Gin with another text-to-win sweepstakes that ran the month of January to help kick off the new year. Here they gave 40 Grand Prize Winners each a healthy Hello Fresh Pre-Packaged Meal Plan valued at $60. They got in return some additional in-store signage as well that you see here.

We hope to continue doing more of these types of mobile friendly promotions as the year goes on!