Category: Consultation

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

August 17, 2018 No Comments

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?

July 26, 2018 No Comments

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

July 13, 2018 No Comments

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

July 6, 2018 3 Comments

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

June 28, 2018 No Comments

Why Asking Questions as Part of a Qualified Entry Sweepstakes is a Good Idea

Fae Savignano, our own EVP, explains what a qualified entry sweepstakes is, and why they could be a great part of your next brand promotion. A sweepstakes entrant may ask…Why do I need to respond to all of these extra questions just to enter a sweepstakes? Are they really required? Don’t they just need my name or email to process my entry? A sweepstakes sponsor may ask…Is it a

May 4, 2018 No Comments

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

April 6, 2018 3 Comments

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

January 2, 2018 2 Comments

Planning a PyeongChang 2018 Olympics Promotion? Check The Guidelines First.

Update: See our updated guidelines for the Tokyo Summer Olympics. The next Winter Olympic Games will be in PyeongChang, South Korea, from Friday, February 9, 2018 to Sunday, February 25, 2018. This may seem like a great reason to run a promotion, but you might want to think again. The U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC), in tandem with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have already lined up sponsors of the games.

November 27, 2017 No Comments

What is Contest Indemnification?

What is contest indemnification and why do you need it? The dictionary definition of “indemnification” is defined as the noun for form of indemnify, and “indemnify” means that you compensate (someone) for harm or loss or secure (someone) against legal responsibility for their actions. In the contest world, indemnification can take two forms, prize indemnification and general contest indemnification. Prize indemnification is when you offer a large prize in

November 10, 2017 No Comments