Category: Consultation

The Difference Between Sweepstakes and Contests

Katie Blaney, one of Marden-Kane’s Account Supervisors, explains the difference between sweepstakes and contests. If your company wants more information on either, give us a call at 516-365-3999. The words “promotion,” “sweepstakes,” “contest” and “giveaways” are sometimes used interchangeably. However, there are a few very distinct differences between sweepstakes and contests. To start, the word “promotion” can be used to describe many different marketing tactics including Sweepstakes, Contests, Instant

May 2, 2025 3 Comments

What is “Consideration” in a Sweepstakes?

Account Supervisor Cheryl Thornton contributed this post on consideration. Consideration has many definitions, but when it’s included in a Game of Chance such as a Sweepstakes, the promotion could be violating federal, state and local laws and regulations governing Sweepstakes and Contests. When a promotion combines the elements of (1) prize, (2) chance and (3) consideration, it is a Lottery. All lotteries, except those which are state operated are

April 29, 2025 36 Comments

The Facts About Prizes Revealed

Fae Savignano, SVP, contributed this post about prizes. Research shows that more than half of all adults in the U.S. enter at least one sweepstakes every year, and this amount increases exponentially. Promoting Sweepstakes and Contests are an excellent way to engage and retain your customers and a properly structured prize offering will definitely enhance your endeavor. Let’s face it, the chance of winning an expensive and alluring prize

April 26, 2025 No Comments

COVID-19 Relief and CCV Programs

Throughout 2020 and into 2021, Marden-Kane has helped clients and non-profits work together for COVID-19 relief in their communities with commercial co-venture programs, also called “CCV Programs.” A CCV program is when a business partners with a non-profit organization to make donations of money, goods, events, products or services to benefit the non-profit’s cause. This type of cause-related marketing is regulated in many U.S. states, and may require that the

January 14, 2021 No Comments

6 Ways to Market in a Pandemic: Rewriting the Marketing Playbook

As COVID-19 continues to take a toll on businesses worldwide, the way we market our business has had to evolve. We spent some time in 2020 rewriting the marketing playbook and posted a series of articles about how to market using virtual events, social, and more. These six posts continue to be our go-to recommendations for any business trying to market themselves in a pandemic. If you have advice for

January 7, 2021 No Comments

5 Ideas to Boost Virtual Event Engagement

Since live events have been sidelined for most of 2020, virtual events are having their moment. To keep attendees engaged at virtual events takes lots of preparation and a good plan for virtual event engagement! Here are 5 ways you can boost engagement at your next virtual event: 1. Engagement = Points Towards a Large Sweepstakes Prize Run a Sweepstakes for a chance to win one large prize, like a

October 8, 2020 No Comments

8 Creative Employee Incentive Ideas to Inspire Your Work From Home Staff

COVID-19 has turned many companies upside down in how they approach their work and the engagement of their employees. Here are 8 employee incentive ideas to inspire your work from home staff to work harder than ever, even when the new normal is not so normal. 1. Encourage Self Care How are you encouraging self-care for employees that are working from home? Run a promotion on Facebook asking your

April 10, 2020 No Comments

McMillion$ and the Importance of Instant Win Game Security

If you aren’t sure why instant win game security is that big of a deal, you might want to watch the new HBO docuseries called “McMillion$”. It details the strange, and almost unbelievable, true story of how an employee at a promotional marketing company called Simon Marketing, a former competitor of Marden-Kane’s, committed fraud in the McDonald’s Monopoly games between 1989 and 2001, bilking McDonald’s and their customers out

February 13, 2020 No Comments

The Most Visited Promotional Marketing Posts You Should Consult in 2020

These were the most visited promotional marketing posts by Marden-Kane from 2019. There were quite a few trending topics — like TikTok Contests, tying the Tokyo Olympics into your promotion, content moderation basics, and more! You might want to revisit them for your 2020 promotional marketing planning! 1. How to Run a Legal TikTok Contest or Sweepstakes TikTok does not currently have any posted contest guidelines, but that doesn’t

December 5, 2019 No Comments

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

September 19, 2019 No Comments