Category: Prizes

Tips for First Time Sweepstakes Success

Is your company thinking of running a sweepstakes or contest for the first time? Here are some tips for sweepstakes success from the seasoned promotional marketing experts at Marden-Kane! Do one thing well, not ten things poorly… focus on one type of promotion, ensure marketing messages clearly communicate the call to action, create an easy to enter means of entry, and promote participation to meet the established goals. Beth, Account Executive Keep

January 17, 2017

4 Reasons Brands Should Embrace Sweepstakers

Sweepstakers, also known as “sweepers” and even as “compers” in the UK, are the people who put hours each day into entering sweepstakes and contests. Many of them consider it a full-time job. These people take promotions very seriously, and are frequently more well-versed in the ins and outs of sweepstakes industry than some brand marketers. Not all brands like the thought of a bunch of professional sweepstakers entering their

November 4, 2016

Working with Third-Party Brands for a Contest

You should approach working with third-party brands in a contest or sweepstakes with caution. Giving away highly sought after prizes like trips, electronics or gift cards, or running promotions on social platforms, may seem like a great idea to garner interest and new followers for your brand. However, if you are naming a specific brand name other than your own as part of your contest, you may need to

September 8, 2016

Are Promotional Products Still Relevant?

Stacey Novick, former Account Executive, contributed this post on promotional products. The $22 billion promotion industry is constantly changing to keep up with current consumer trends and the types of promotional products, whether premiums, branded merchandise or custom logo apparel, are also changing. Knowing that social media, gaining followers or having a commercial go viral are probably forefront on your mind, we want to provide you with some information on

July 14, 2016

How to Contact Winners in Social Media Contests

Running a promotion on Twitter or Instagram or other social platform is fairly easy. You basically follow the social platform guidelines, post rules, collect entries and select winners from valid posts or tweets or pins. The hard part can be contacting and clearing winners. In a traditional contest where a form is used to collect data you typically collect address and phone or email so contacting winners is easy.

February 23, 2016

Top Valentine’s Day Contest Prizes

Looking to make a big heart-shaped impression with your customers this year? Run a Valentine’s Day Contest and reward the winners with these amazing prizes. Here is a run-down of the best prizes you could offer in your Valentine’s contest this year: For the Winner of the Most Embarrassing Love Gone Wrong Contest A day trip to a spa for some time to get over the embarrassment and recover. The trip

January 26, 2016

3 Reasons to Use Electronic Gift Cards as Prizes

Electronic gift cards are a great option for prizes in your next Sweepstakes or Contest. E-gift cards can be purchased from retailers like Visa and Amazon and consist of a card code and a confirmation code that can be redeemed by a consumer online. The codes and instructions can all be delivered via an email from your brand to your winners. Here’s why e-gift cards make sense: Lower Fulfillment

January 12, 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

6 Tips for Creating a Contest Winning Entry

Creating a winning entry isn’t hard. As a promotional agency, Marden-Kane has helped our clients judge and moderate hundreds of thousands of contest entries over the last 67 years. We have seen great entries. And we have seen terrible ones. Be one of the great ones! Just follow these simple tips: Don’t use, mention or show any copyrighted materials! Thousands of entries are disqualified every year for not following

September 4, 2015