Category: Consultation

#Hashtag Contests 101

The buzzword in contests right now are hashtag contests (or hashtag sweepstakes). These types of promotions are easy to run, less expensive than setting up a contest web site, and don’t require a lot of lead time. The simplicity and low cost appeals to a lot of businesses anxious to expand their social channels, but you will still need to follow some best practices to ensure that you don’t run

May 17, 2016

The 7 Deadly Sins of Promotional Marketing

Marketing your products and services with sweepstakes, contests, loyalty programs or coupons is a proven way to get new customers and keep existing ones. How could giving something away or providing incentives go wrong? Trust us, it can. To ensure success, try to avoid any of these 7 deadly sins of promotional marketing. Greed: Asking for money. We know for many companies, the primary goal of promotional marketing is to

May 13, 2016

Skill Testing Question in Canada: Why Is It Required?

Fae Savignano, our SVP, explains why a Skill Testing Question is required if you run a Sweepstakes in Canada. If you are a Canadian resident and enter a Sweepstakes you will be required to correctly answer a mathematical skill testing question in order to be eligible to enter and possibly win a prize. Residents of the United States do not have this prerequisite, as this rule is specific only

May 3, 2016

Social Contest Platforms: Inexpensive, Easy…and Risky

Today I was sent a link to an article touting Platforms for Social Contests that will “launch and track your contest with ease.” The article then went on to list eleven platforms, all relatively cheap – well, really dirt cheap or even free – and all the wonderful features each one had. If I were looking for a way to run a contest and I didn’t know any better

April 19, 2016

How to Prevent Contest Voting Fraud

Eric Grimm, former Senior Programmer, wrote this piece about voting fraud — and how to stop it. Online contests are all the rage with the kids these days. After the initial entries are judged, frequently the finalists’ submissions are opened up for voting by the public at large to determine a final winner. If the prize is tantalizing enough, this creates a rather large target for voter fraud. This

January 19, 2016

Things To Consider When Working With A Celebrity — Risky Or Rewarding?

Rosemary Stein, VP from our Chicago office, wrote this piece for MK on what to consider when you want to run a promotion that involves a celebrity. There are advantages and disadvantages to using celebrities in your promotions. Athletes, actors and musicians can influence purchase especially when they align themselves with a product that is relevant to the brand’s target demographic. Very popular celebs can appeal to a broader

January 15, 2016

Making Holiday Toy Dreams Come True

The Cabbage Patch Kid my grandmother gave me for Christmas when I was a kid was one of those right place, right time stories. It was that Christmas 1983, when you could not find a Cabbage Patch Doll anywhere. It was THE hot item that year – the one everyone wanted and no one could get. And my grandmother happened to be on a cruise in Europe that November

November 24, 2015

Sweepstakes Prizes: Regift or Keep?

When offering prizes in a sweeps, you have to offer what people want. We generally tell clients to keep prizing simple: offer cash, electronics, trips or cars, depending on your prize budget. People want those the most. But we wanted to put this to the test! So we polled people on a short nine item list of potential sweepstakes prizes to see if they would keep or regift the

November 10, 2015

50 Reasons to Run a Sweepstakes or Contest

Looking for a reason to run a sweepstakes, contest, instant win game, rewards program or loyalty campaign? Here are 50 of them! To create an email opt-in list. To create a mobile opt-in list. To give away your products. To build your brand. To encourage brand loyalty. To encourage product try-on. To encourage product usage. To encourage product trial. To reward your loyal customers. To introduce your customers to

November 4, 2015

5 Things That Scare Promotional Marketers

It’s not easy to scare a promotional marketer. We have run contests and sweepstakes all over the world on shoestring budgets and with impossible deadlines. We have assisted our clients in navigating through the freak show that is the world of promotional marketing. However, in the early planning stages with a new client there are a few key phrases that will always make our blood run cold: We want to

October 27, 2015