Category: Promotion Planning

Good Criteria for Judging a Contest

Fae Savignano, Senior Vice President and expert on all things promotional, weighs in on what good criteria are for judging a contest in her blog post for the month. 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

May 5, 2025 2 Comments

Criteria for Judging a Photo Contest

Fae Savignano, Marden-Kane SVP, follows up on her “Good Criteria for Judging a Contest” blog with this closer look at photo contest criteria. I would like to expand the list of suggested Contest Judging Criteria as it applies specifically to Photo Contests to include updated entry methods, social media trends and promotional knowledge acquired in the past 2 years. Previously suggested Judging Criteria for a Photo Contest: Adherence/Appropriateness to Theme

May 3, 2025 5 Comments

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 Makes a Good Promotional Campaign?

The art of marketing relies heavily on the various ways in which products, services, and even people are advertised and presented to the general public. Promotional campaigns are one of the most fundamental tools used to introduce or reintroduce any given product or service to a large audience over a period of time. There are many factors that must be choreographed in order to pull off an advantageous promotional campaign. Even before execution, a campaign must contain certain vital elements at its foundation so that positive results will be ensured upon completion. The campaign must be formulated to reach an attainable goal, must be presented in a unique way that engages its audience, and must, throughout its course, showcase the item or service which is its focus. At its completion, the promotional campaign must bear results.

May 1, 2025 2 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

5 Things To Know About Running an Instant Win Game

Marden-Kane is your source for custom or pre-built instant win games that can be used for your next promotion. Not sure what an instant win game is? Check out our demo, and read on for 5 things to know about them: What is an instant win game? An instant win game is a game of chance where a player finds out instantly if they have won a prize. The

April 27, 2025 No Comments

Celebrating 20 Years with Marden-Kane Account Director Cheryl Thornton

Happy 20th Anniversary to Marden-Kane Account Director, Cheryl Thornton! Get to know Cheryl below — and make sure you comment with your well wishes in the comments! What was your job title and responsibilities when you were hired? I was hired as an Account Coordinator for Len Bierman, one of the partners of MK at that time. How has your job evolved over the years? The position evolved as I

June 4, 2021 No Comments

Post-Pandemic Prize Considerations

Things are starting to get back to “normal” as vaccination rates rise and offices reopen at full capacity. Businesses want to get “back to normal,” but what will that look like? And what will your customers’ level of tolerance be for a post-pandemic prize that is awarded as part of a sweepstakes or contest? The types of prizes most coveted by winners may not have changed, but the form or

May 13, 2021 No Comments

Create a Successful Loyalty Program

This post on how to create a successful loyalty program was contributed by Account Coordinator, Cassie Alaimo. Have you ever thought about starting your own loyalty program, but you are worried it won’t be successful? Don’t know where to start? Well worry no more, the following is information that will help you get on the way to starting a successful loyalty program. Customer loyalty is hard these days with so

May 12, 2021 No Comments

5 Ways to Run a Flawless Beauty Pageant

Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, making any kind of beauty pageant subjective. It then follows that if you are having a beauty pageant, you must look at it as a contest, and in most parts of the world that means you will also need to have Official Rules for your contest, and predetermined criteria within those rules. If you want to run a beauty pageant here are

May 6, 2021 No Comments