Articles
12 Reasons to Run a Holiday Promotion — 12 Days of Christmas Style
Thinking of how to sell in the idea of a holiday promotion to your client or manager? Here are 12 reasons why a holiday promotion would help achieve your 4th quarter marketing goals this year – with a little help from the 12 Days of Christmas. Build your brand: Your brand may be new — no followers, no customers, no sales. What better way to start off than to run a holiday sweepstakes for a chance to win something of value so your brand name will stand out amongst the holiday noise. Make your brand stand-out like a partridge … Continue reading
Cyber Monday Promotion Ideas to Bring Customers to Your Online Site
A Cyber Monday promotion could be the difference between someone choosing to shop at your online store or at your competition. Plan early for a Cyber Monday promotion specifically tailored to your brand and audience. If you sell online products and want to increase Cyber Monday sales overall: Run an online instant win game with chances to win high value prizes. An instant win game is a fun way to get people online and engaged in your brand. Your game could offer your own products or store credit as prizes. Run a social sweepstakes for the chance to win … Continue reading
6 Things NOT to Do When Planning a Holiday Promotion
Frequently we give out ideas or strategies for promotions, but sometimes we need to talk about the failures to prevent companies from making the same mistakes. Here is a quick list of what NOT to do when planning your holiday promotion so your brand can outshine the rest. Don’t forget who your customer is. One of my favorite “they did not just actually do that, did they?” moments was when a client decided to run an online sweepstakes but only promoted it to customers who were already in stores on Black Friday. The high number of entrants they were … Continue reading
Customer Loyalty Program Ideas
Many customers spend a lot of money attracting new customers. But what about current customers? Don’t forget about that segment of your business! Here are some customer loyalty program ideas to consider. I used to go to this same nail salon every week. I would bring my children too, and I spent a lot of money in this salon between the pedicures, manicures, massages, and the special designs on my daughter’s nails. One day when I showed up I was in a bit of a hurry, but I knew they would fit me in. After all, wasn’t I a loyal … Continue reading
Name Your Halloween Promotion! Use Our Super Scary Formula….
Use our creepy formula as inspiration for your next Halloween promotion for your brand. Your scary combination of words could be the next spine tingling brand success story! Use the first letter of your first name as your promotion descriptor: A = The Scary B = The Spooky C = The Creepy D = The Terrifying E = The Eerie F = The Spine Tingling G = The Bone Chilling H = The Foggy I = The Haunted J = The Horrifying K = The Bloody L = The Morbid M = The Deadly N = The Bizarre O = … Continue reading
Sweepstakes Rules Generator vs Custom Sweepstakes Rules
The allure of a sweepstakes rules generator is that you can create a set of sweepstakes rules for less money and less time. In fact, back in the day, Marden-Kane had an online sweepstakes rules generator of our own. Clients at that time could easily and cost-effectively create their own sweepstakes rules without legal fees or lengthy review times. The reality, however, was that most of our clients actually needed a custom solution. They would generate the rules and then realize that significant changes would need to be made. And while custom changes are always possible, if you don’t … Continue reading
6 Ways to Have a Sweepstakes Advantage
A sweepstakes is a promotion that involves an element of chance – usually a random drawing or random instant win. So are there ways to have a sweepstakes advantage if the drawing is random? Only if you make your entry count. Here’s how: Enter! Seems simple enough, but we have seen people start the entry form process and then never get to the submission success page. You can’t win if you don’t enter! Read and follow the official rules. If the rules say one entry per day, then don’t enter more than that. Similarly if you don’t live in the … Continue reading
Meet Our New Account Coordinators!
Marden-Kane welcomed two new account coordinators this past month: Daniel Moss and Liz Spencer. They recently completed Marden-Kane training and are hard at work on servicing your promotions. We spoke to them recently to learn more about them…. Meet Daniel What did you do before coming to Marden-Kane? Before Marden-Kane I was a sales associate at Lowe’s for the appliances department. I did this for 3 years while in college but recently left to join the Marden-Kane team and make the best of my Business Degree. What have been some of your biggest accomplishments or proudest moments in life? Graduating … Continue reading
What Promotion Incentives Work Best?
We are constantly asked by our clients what promotion incentives work best. Should they give away a lot of small things, or one big thing? What is the ideal value of an incentive or prize? Do small incentives work? Here is a short summary of what promotion incentives work to entice consumers to register for a promotion such as a sweepstakes or contest or loyalty program. But first, we need to understand who your brand’s customers are and identify the types of marketing that work with those customers. There are two types of marketing that work with … Continue reading
From the MK Promotion Archives: Tigerino – the First Scratch-Off Game Card
Marden-Kane originated the first scratch-off game card with Tigerino. The Tigerino promotion was designed for Humble Oil’s ESSO and ENCO gas stations in 1966, to capitalize on the already popular “Put a Tiger in Your Tank” ad campaign. The idea was simple: if you purchased gas you could get a game card. Every game was a winner, but some game cards awarded big cash prizes depending on the letters revealed. You can read more about how the game worked here. The first Tigerino scratch-off game cards debuted in Buffalo, New York. Gas sales sky-rocketed as a result of the … Continue reading
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