Contests
Trick or Treat with These Halloween Contest Ideas
Fall is almost here and we have heard rumblings about Halloween decorations and pumpkin spice already being in stores! Don’t get left behind; it’s time to start your Halloween contest planning. Here are a few Halloween contest and prize ideas to help celebrate the new season: Pumpkin Carving Contest: Fall is the time to head to the farm for pumpkin picking, hay rides and fresh apple cider donuts – yum! You can challenge your customers to take their freshly picked pumpkins and carve them into something unique and fun. Then ask them to upload a photo of their creation to Instagram or … Continue reading
Contest Laws by State
Before you run a promotion in the United States, you might want to check sweepstakes or contest laws by state. Some states have more vigorous laws regulating sweepstakes and contests and you can’t claim you didn’t know what you didn’t know after the fact – there may be big fines for non-compliance. Here is a sampling of states that have strict laws regarding promotions: Florida: In Florida you must register and bond any sweepstakes where a cumulative total of prizes is over $5,000 and the winners are determined by chance in a random drawing. This must be done at … Continue reading
Teen Trends for Back to School Promotion Planning 2018
Can you hear it? It’s the school bell ringing. Time for your back to school promotion planning! So what trends should you know about as you plan for this back to school season? Here is where it’s at for kids, tweens and teens this year: Snapchat. Snapchat is still a top social app of choice for today’s teens, even though popularity seems to be waning a bit. Why do they keep using it? Maybe it’s because no one wants to break a snap streak, a fire or number emoji next to a friend’s username that shows how many consecutive days you have been … Continue reading
10 Questions to Ask Before Partnering with a Promotion Agency
A contest, sweepstakes, instant win game or other promotion concept may be a great way for your client to increase sales and build their branding efforts, but if you have never done a promotion before don’t try to do it alone. You will need an experienced, knowledgeable promotion marketing agency to partner with you to make sure you run a legal, compliant, successful promotion. But what should you look for when partnering with a promotion agency? Here are ten questions you should be asking before you select a promotion agency to partner with for your next contest or sweepstakes: How well … Continue reading
Red, White and Blue Promotion Ideas
This post on patriotic promotion ideas was contributed by Marden-Kane EVP, Fae Savignano. Don’t use up all of your great patriotic ideas just for a Fourth of July promotion, save some for the rest of the year. That’s right, the calendar is full of patriotic and national holidays where a red, white and blue promotion can be a Star-Spangled hit! Maybe it’s a little too late to run a promotion this 4th of July, so here are some Patriotic and National Holidays coming up for you to consider: Constitution Day, Labor Day, Patriots Day, Columbus Day, Election Day, Veterans Day, … Continue reading
Father’s Day Contest Prize Ideas
Cheryl Thornton contributed this post about the perfect Father’s Day contest prize ideas. So you have decided to launch a promotion just in time for Father’s Day and want to award the perfect contest prize? Great idea! It gives your customers a chance to honor the special person in their lives. You have a theme and worked very hard on your creative assets and social posts, but there is an important piece that you need to firm up to complete your promotion: the prize structure. What will it look like? What do you want to offer? What would be … Continue reading
Promotional Marketing Predictions for 2018
It’s time to see how we fared on our promotional marketing predictions for 2017, and to make our 2018 predictions. For 2017 here is what we predicted for promotional marketing: 1. Social sweepstakes and contests will become the primary method of entry over online web forms. Results: In 2017 we did almost the same number of social sweepstakes and contests as we did traditional web-based sweepstakes and contests. In 2016 we did less than a third the amount of social versus traditional. Social contests and sweepstakes are a cost effective, fast to market alternative that companies on a budget … Continue reading
Top 10 Promotional Marketing Posts of All Time
Each year we track all of our promotional marketing posts and measure them over time. Some posts come up over and over in searches. Some are more time sensitive and only stay popular a year are two. Here are the top promotional marketing posts from 2008 through the end of 2017: Good Criteria for Judging a Contest As you are all probably aware, a contest is a game of skill; whereby entrants are judged on their ability to successfully perform skill-type activities. For example, writing an essay, preparing a recipe, answering trivia questions or solving puzzles would all … Continue reading
The Marden-Kane Most Read Posts of 2017
Here is a list of our top 2017 posts according to the following categories: GOOD TO KNOW: Criteria for Judging a Video Contest Marden-Kane has provided you with information about “Good Criteria for Judging a Contest” and a follow-up article on “Criteria for Judging a Photo Contest”, well what about Video Contests? Read more… What is a Surprise & Delight? A Surprise and Delight is a marketing tactic similar to a sweepstakes or contest, where gifts are given away to fans, but instead of a posted entry period with rules and a set prize, the giveaway itself is completely unannounced … Continue reading
10 Holiday Prize Ideas for Your Next Sweepstakes
This post with thought starters for holiday prize ideas for your next sweepstakes was provided by our new Account Coordinator, Melissa Chernet. Fall has finally arrived, which means the holidays are just around the corner. Haunted houses, turkey, and Santa Claus are on your customers’ minds – make their dreams come true by offering prizes they would want in your upcoming promotion. Here are some holiday prize ideas for your next sweepstakes: For Halloween: 1. Pumpkin Picking/Hay Ride Trip It’s not fall until leaves have fallen and you have a pumpkin on your front porch. The best way to … Continue reading
Our Services
Recent Articles
- Trick or Treat with These Halloween Contest Ideas
- A Tribute to Rosemary
- Contest Laws by State
- Teen Trends for Back to School Promotion Planning 2018
- Taming Your #Sweeps with an Approved Instagram Tracker
