Social Media
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
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
Taming Your #Sweeps with an Approved Instagram Tracker
Once upon a time, Instagram had no need for an Instagram tracker to gather your promotion entries. People did whatever they wanted because there were no promotion guidelines. It was like the wild, wild west in promotion land: no rules applied. Brands did whatever they wanted. Hashtags were untamed and unfiltered, and people wildly tagged anyone and everyone in their posts for fun. Until the law came to town to clean Instagram up. #TheresANewSheriffInTown Instagram quietly formalized their promotion guidelines and their process for allowing you to search and gather posts by hashtag over the past few years. Here is … Continue reading
What is a Sweepstakes?
What is a sweepstakes? A sweepstakes is a chance promotion, where a winner is randomly selected from all eligible entries. Entries into a sweepstakes must either be free for all, or if you want to encourage purchase for entry, then an alternate, free method of entry (AMOE) must also be available. Luck determines a sweepstakes winner rather than any skill or payment. For a sweepstakes you typically collect only the information you need from an entrant to award the prize, but sometimes more information is gathered to generate user content (such as in a qualified entry sweepstakes) or to add an entrant to a mailing … 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
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
10 Holiday Prize Ideas for Your Next Sweepstakes
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 ring in the fall weather is to treat your customers to a day of Pumpkin Picking and Hay Rides. They will be … Continue reading
3 Tips for a Big Football Sweepstakes Score
Football season is back! Time for tailgating and weekend fun watching the pee-wee, high school, college and professional games. You might think that it would be a great time to promote your business by giving away game tickets or running a football sweepstakes. And it is! People love winning free tickets or team merchandise, especially autographed items or trips to big games. However, there are three questions to ask before you run that promotion. Will your promotion violate copyright or trademark laws? You can’t mention the Super Bowl or NFL properties covered by copyright protection as prizes or part … Continue reading
Get Social with a Back to School Sweepstakes for Students
Social is the perfect platform for a back to school sweepstakes as it’s the easiest way to engage high school and college aged students. You don’t need a huge budget to run a social campaign, and as long as you run the promotion on a platform familiar to your target age group, and offer something they want they will find you! It’s a win-win for your brand and for your student audience. So what do kids want to win? They want cash or items they could not afford on their own. They crave experiences like concert tickets or getting … Continue reading
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