Are You Feeling the Luck of the Irish? – St. Patricks Day Sweepstakes

By: Sync Marketing | In: Contests, Marketing, Sweepstakes

Tis the time of year to once again break out your best Kelly green sweater and join in on the festivities of St. Patrick’s Day.  As the saying goes, everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, but these Ireland-based retailers are showing their Irish pride across the pond by hosting St. Patrick’s Day sweepstakes that offer American consumers the chance to win a trip for two to the Emerald Isle.  Check out these St. Patricks Day sweepstakes below, but only those 21 and older are eligible to enter to win.

Magners Irish Cider’s St. Patrick’s Day Win a Trip to Ireland Sweepstakes

Grand prize winner will win a five day/four night trip for two to Dublin, Ireland and will receive two tickets to the Forbidden Fruit Music Festival!  Winner will also receive $1,000 in spending money.

Jameson® St. Patrick’s Day Sweepstakes

This Facebook sweepstakes will award six grand prize trips for two to Dublin, Ireland for four days/three nights. Trip includes a tour of the Jameson Distillery. Each trip is valued at $5,500!

The Guiness Hooley Ultimate Irish Adventure Sweepstakes

Guiness Hooley is offering one lucky winner the chance to win a trip for two to Ireland valued at over $14,000.  The winner and their guest will visit different cities throughout Ireland, and will take cooking classes and enjoy planned guided tours on this nine day/eight night adventure.  Plus, 50 first-prize winners will receive an Irish cooking gift pack.

If you’re planning to run a holiday-themed sweepstakes or contest, don’t hesitate to reach out to Sync Marketing. Winning a sweepstakes takes a wee bit of luck, but if you don’t enter, you won’t win, and that’s no Blarney. Sláinte!

What is the Difference Between a Sweepstakes and a Contest and Which One Should I Run?

By: Julie Link | In: Best Practices, Contests, Marketing, Sweepstakes, User Generated Content

What is the difference between a sweepstakes and a contest? This is one of the most common questions we’re asked when working with companies or agencies who are planning to run these types of promotions for the first time. Today I am going to break down the differences between sweepstakes and contests as well as discuss which one will work best for your next promotion.

First off, what is a sweepstakes? If you were to look up the actual definition you would find that the word has many different meanings, but the following is Sync Marketing’s definition: A sweepstakes is a game of chance in which consumers are asked to provide basic information about themselves to be entered into a prize drawing. Most importantly, potential winners are selected in a random drawing. After the names are drawn, they are notified and then verified before being announced an official winner. In a sweepstakes, there can be no consideration for entry and winner selection must be completely random.

Now, what is a contest? Sync Marketing’s definition is as follows: A contest is a game of skill, where entrants are asked to complete a measurable task that is judged and scored. For example, this could be anything from a video contest featuring consumers’ pets doing their best trick, an Instagram photo contest asking entrants to submit their favorite wedding planning moment, or a Pinterest contest requiring entrants to create a board of what they think would be their dream vacation.  In a contest, the judging criteria must be clearly defined for the entrants in the Official Rules. About.com also has a nice breakdown of the differences between a sweepstakes and a contests.

So how do you determine when you should run a sweepstakes vs. a contest?

Good question! You should run a sweepstakes when your goal is to reach and engage the masses with the purpose of promoting your product or service, gather email opt-ins, and collect basic consumer data. Of course, the number of entries you receive and the popularity of your promotion will be based on a few factors; how strongly it’s promoted, the ease of entry and the value of your prizes to the consumer. For more information on what types of prizes to give away see my post here. When you run a sweepstakes expect to receive a lot more entries than if you were to run a contest, and if you provide social share it has the possibility to spread like wildfire.

You should run a contest when your goal is to create PR buzz, gather user-generated content, and gain and reward consumers who are truly invested in your brand or service.  If you’re giving away an international trip to a grand opening of a new store, maybe consider running a contest in which entrants are asked to upload a video of why they deserve to be at the grand opening. To further reinforce consumer interaction, have the top 10 judged videos posted online for consumers to vote for their favorite. You can then ask for publicity releases from the top 10 entrants and use those videos on your website and social media accounts to continue to promote your brand. Also, by asking for entrants to take the time to create and submit a video as a condition of entry, you know you’re going to award the prize to someone who truly wants to go on the trip!

Regardless of whether you want to run a sweepstakes or contest, please consider calling Sync Marketing to help you plan and execute your next promotion. You can find a full list of our sweepstakes and contest services here.

Love is in the prizes; Valentine’s Day Sweepstakes

By: Sync Marketing | In: Contests, Marketing, Sweepstakes

It’s the weekend of love. Whether people are out buying a dozen red roses, a box of chocolates or an engagement ring for their sweethearts, everyone seems to get in on the action of this Hallmark-created holiday. And why shouldn’t they? The world celebrates love. This holiday is a marketer’s dream; from the obvious travel sites, jewelry stores and candy shops to the often overlooked but viable options such as home improvement outlets and car dealerships, everyone can put Cupid’s spin on the products they sell and relate them to love. Below are a list of some extra lovey Valentine’s Day Sweepstakes.

Pick The Pick-Up Line Valentine’s Day Sweepstakes

Bahlsen is giving the customers the chance to shine, or should I say, sparkle in their Pick The Pick-Up Line Valentine’s Day Sweepstakes. The winner will receive a pendant adorned with sapphires and diamonds worth nearly $3,700.

Shower Her with Love Sweepstakes

A Macbook Air, a necklace, free flowers, who wouldn’t want that? From You Flowers is giving their consumers the chance to win from an assortment of fun prizes in their Shower Her with Love Sweepstakes.

Check-in to Romance Giveaway Sweepstakes

Want to get away with your Valentine? BedandBreakfast.com is giving their customers the chance to win a romantic vacation for two in the Check-in to Romance Giveaway Sweepstakes. The winner will receive a trip to a bed and breakfast of their choice, a subscription to The Bouqs, and some delicious chocolates to share with their love.

All Hearts on Deck Sweepstakes

All aboard! Onboard is giving away a romantic cruise for two in their All Hearts on Deck Sweepstakes. The grand prize winner will receive a $1500 cruise voucher.

Make sure to enter today because all of these sweepstakes end tomorrow on Valentine’s Day, just in time for you to spend time with the one or ones you love.

Wedding Sweepstakes Are the Key!

By: Jennifer French | In: Advertising, Contests, Marketing, Sweepstakes

It’s the beginning of wedding planning season due in part to a large number of couples that traditionally get engaged over the holidays, not to mention the Valentine’s Day proposals that will soon be on deck.  With their engagement haze still fresh, married couples-to-be are out in force seeking out a multitude of wedding-related services to help them plan their big day.  Retailers and vendors are showcasing everything from bridal registry services and wedding gowns to reception venues and of course, honeymoon destinations. A savvy marketer knows that one must go above and beyond to stand out in the crowd in the hopes of capturing these very enthusiastic and discerning consumers. Do you think running an online wedding sweepstakes or contest is a viable option for getting their attention?  These following marketers say “we do!”

Start Your Planning Engines:

Wedding Party App is running The Ultimate Wedding Starter Kit Sweepstakes.  Entrants will have the chance to win necessities for their big day including wedding stationary and a wedding gown.  This prize is valued at $2,400!

Location is Everything; Select Your Venue:

Are you dreaming of a wine country wedding? Then enter the Madrona Manor Dream Wedding Sweepstakes for your chance to win a dream wedding package valued at over $10,000, and that’s a lot of cannolis!

Oh, Great Another Blender; Definitely Register For Your Gifts:

Want to avoid receiving five blenders on your big day, than enter West Elm’s + Style Me Pretty’s Dream Registry Sweepstakes.  One lucky couple will walk away with a gift pack that includes a $2,000 West Elm shopping spree.

Ahhhh; The Honeymoon:

A very important part of saying “I Do” happens after the wedding.  The goal of a honeymoon is to relax, connect and soak in the happiness after all of the wedding craziness has come to a close.  DK is offering one happy couple just that in their Style Your Perfect Wedding Honeymoon Sweepstakes; a honeymoon trip of their choice, valued at $4,000.

If you are a brand that is considering running a wedding sweepstakes, then be sure that the prize is truly rewarding for these future brides and grooms to be. Perhaps a once in a lifetime honeymoon or a gift card so they can purchase the remaining items on their registry list. If you provide an unforgettable and/or useful prize, you will be sure to attract the perfect couples who will remain loyal to your brand or service. Contact Sync Marketing today at 323-596-7962 or inquiries@syncmarketing.net if you have any questions or want to run a wedding sweepstakes. 

Sync Marketing’s Year in Review – 2014

By: Julie Link | In: Best Practices, Contests, Facebook, Instagram, Marketing, Sweepstakes, Twitter, User Generated Content

2014 was a fantastic year for Sync Marketing that seemed to come and go in a blink of an eye. Not only was it a year of change for Sync Marketing, but a year of growth. Here’s Sync Marketing’s year in review:

A lot of “new” for Sync Marketing

Not only did we design a new logo, we also launched a brand new website which showcases our services, work, and introduces our co-founders, Jennifer French and myself, Julie Link. We were also fortunate to work on some really fun and exciting campaigns for a variety of new clients. Click here to “meet” some of our new clients.

Sync Marketing is now an award-winning agency

We were honored to take home the Silver in the Best Use of Game, Contests and Sweepstakes at the Chief Marketer 2014 PRO Awards. The competition was definitely tough. Jennifer French and myself attended the annual awards last June in New York City, and were able to meet the Senior Editor and Promotions Awards Director of Chief Marketer and other amazing colleagues in the field.

Sync got Social with Claire’s

Social media sweepstakes were huge this year and Sync Marketing ran everything from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest sweepstakes. As CBI’s agency of record, Sync Marketing helped Claire’s stores increase their social media presence in 2014. One of the most notable promotions we ran with them this year was in support of the launch of the Katy Perry’s Prism collection, which you can learn more about here.

We’re excited to see what 2015 has in store and we will continue to share our updates with you throughout the year!

Fly-Away Sweepstakes

By: Jennifer French | In: Marketing, Sweepstakes

The holidays have come and gone and for a majority of people, that leaves the sad thought of having to withstand a few more months of cold winter days without a sunshine-filled beach in sight. For this reason, this is a good time of year to run an online sweepstakes that rewards winners with an exciting fly-away sweepstakes prize. Even better, one that sends them to a warm sunny and/or exotic location. Below are a few examples. Don’t pack your bags quite yet, you need to enter for your chance to win first.

Amazon Amazement

This once-in-a-lifetime sweepstakes prize consists of a trip for two to Peru consisting of a 10-day Amazon Adventure valued at $8,768!  Hurry and enter as the sweepstakes ends on January 9, 2015.

Norwegian’s Prize Ride Sweepstakes

Enter this sweepstakes through January 31, 2015 for the chance to win a 7-day Caribbean cruise for two aboard Norwegian Cruise Line.

Welcome to Whistler Contest

If snow sports are your thing, enter this promotion for a chance to win a ski trip for two to Whistler, Canada valued at $7,424!  Ends March 30, 2015.

If you do choose to run an online sweepstakes that awards a trip, it is very important that your official rules and prize details are very clear to consumers. Entrants must be aware of travel restrictions such as blackout dates, visa and passport requirements (if applicable), and tax implications. Consulting with an agency like Sync Marketing, who specializes in legal and prize fulfillment is recommended as we stay up-to-date on all of the changes in promotion law, and guide you through the process which includes adding all of the necessary language to the official rules, abbreviated rules, affidavit of eligibility for the winners and travel companion forms. If you want to run a fly-away sweepstakes, contact Sync Marketing today!

New Year Sweepstakes to Brighten Up Your 2015!

By: Sync Marketing | In: Contests, Marketing, Sweepstakes

As we prepare to ring in 2015, our minds naturally start thinking about possible New Year’s resolutions and ways to make the year ahead our personal best. Topping the list for the most common resolutions are to eat healthier, work out more (or at all), spend more time with family and friends, and to try to incorporate relaxation into the mix. The following companies are offering their consumers a little help by running New Year sweepstakes that reward entrants with prizes that will hopefully help them start the year off right:

Because Your Healthiest Year Ever Could Start Today Sweepstakes

Spa Finder is inviting consumers to start off the New Year right by taking care of themselves and entering the chance to win great prizes including a Take better care of yourself in the New Year with this chance to win a spa vacation for two!

Fly into the New Year Sweepstakes

FromYouFlowers.com wants to give their consumers a vacation in the New Year.  Prize consists of two free gift cards towards flights on Delta Airlines worth $1,000 total.  They are even allowing the winner to share the travel with a friend, or keep it all for themselves.

Dole® Canned Pineapple Juice “Year of Sunshine Holiday Giveaway” Sweepstakes

Dole is giving consumers the chance to enter to win a trip to Hawaii or one of eight SodaStream soda makers!

Sync Marketing wishes everyone a Happy and Healthy 2015 and good luck to all of you who enter the sweepstakes!

Promoting the Big Game

By: Sync Marketing | In: Contests, Marketing, Sweepstakes, Television, User Generated Content

It may only be November, but consumers are already pinning recipes and creating Facebook events in preparation for the “Big Game” this coming February, 2015. Given the excitement and attention this annual event draws from consumers each year, it’s no surprise that you see hundreds of sweepstakes and contests focused on promoting the Big Game.

There are many reasons why these promotions are so prevalent, but the biggest is that this particular televised sporting event appeals to almost all types of consumers; from the football fanatics, the commercials addicts, to those who love watching the performers during the show. Because of this huge draw, it’s no wonder why sweepstakes and contests are one of the main ways this event is promoted. Most specifically contests, which allow companies to gather user-generated content by asking consumers to come up with and enter their own unique content for the chance to win. Contests range from the somewhat labor intensive, but creativity-invoking yearly make-your-own Doritos commercial, to a more simple approach where companies ask their consumers to prove why they deserve to win a trip to the game in 140 characters or less.  It’s a win for everyone….well, except for the losing team.

One of the most notable promotions each year is the Doritos contest where they ask consumers to create their own commercial that will be played on-air during the game. This is one of the best user-generated content promotions out there. 

If you’re a company considering running a sweepstakes before 2015’s “Big Game,” it’s not too late. Given the popularity of this event, you can run sweepstakes for only a week, even days and generate plenty of entries and opt-ins. Contact Sync Marketing today if you’re looking for an agency to run your Big Game promotion!

Facebook Bans Like Gating for Promotions

By: Jennifer French | In: Best Practices, Contests, Facebook, Legal and Prize Fulfillment, Marketing, Sweepstakes

Planning to run a sweepstakes or contest on Facebook in the near future?  There is an important change that you should be aware of before you proceed.  Today the latest Facebook change and how Facebook bans like gating for promotions, i.e. requiring people to like a page before they can enter the sweepstakes or contest.  Here is Facebook’s reason for the change.

You must not incentivize people to use social plugins or to like a Page. This includes offering rewards, or gating apps or app content based on whether or not a person has liked a Page. It remains acceptable to incentivize people to login to your app, checkin at a place or enter a promotion on your app’s Page. To ensure quality connections and help businesses reach the people who matter to them, we want people to like Pages because they want to connect and hear from the business, not because of artificial incentives. We believe this update will benefit people and advertisers alike.

It’s Facebook’s aim to make sure that the almighty “like” retains its value.  If you are required to like a page for the purpose of entering a sweepstakes rather than being an actual fan of the page, it may tend to water down the user experience, which may equate to the user spending less time on Facebook.

Obviously, increasing your likes is still an important goal, so this just means you will need to think of other ways around the ban.  One idea is to offer a Facebook “like” icon on your entry page and gently invite people to like your page rather than making it a required step.

In addition to this major change, there have been other important changes within Facebook’s promotion policy that were rolled out throughout the year. This is why it’s imperative to hire an agency like Sync Marketing who specializes in promotion law to administer your sweepstakes and contests. At Sync Marketing, we stay up-to-date on all of these important changes and can help you formulate a plan to increase your reach on Facebook (and beyond) despite this new restriction and future changes.

Using an Agency to Handle your Sweepstakes Legal and Prize Fulfillment

By: Sync Marketing | In: Best Practices, Contests, Legal and Prize Fulfillment, Marketing, Sweepstakes

There are many benefits as to why companies, large or small, should consider hiring an outside agency, like Sync Marketing, to be their administrator for their legal and prize fulfillment needs. We’re breaking down our top five reasons as to why your company or agency can benefit from contracting sweepstake fulfillment agency, like Sync Marketing, to oversee all of your sweepstakes legal and prize fulfillment elements for your next campaign.

1. We eat, sleep and breathe promotion law. You may have an internal legal team, but typically they are there to handle a broad scope of legal work for your company. At Sync Marketing, our legal team specializes in promotion law and stays up-to-date on all of the latest legal actions and changes in the field – specific to sweepstakes and contests. They even attend all of the promotion law conferences and are quite frequently speakers at these events. Especially when it comes to running a social media sweepstakes, the sweepstakes rules change monthly, sometimes daily. If you were to hire Sync Marketing to handle your sweepstakes legal and prize fulfillment needs, we handle so much more than official rules and winner release forms, we also review all of your marketing materials and social media posts to make sure they’re legally compliant.

2. Let your legal team do what they do best. They’re there to protect and advise you. If they’re simply reviewing the legal documents for a promotion (official rules, abbreviated rules, affidavit of eligibility and release forms, and travel companion forms) that are created by Sync, they’ll have more time to focus on the promotion’s legal documents and ask questions, rather than spending valuable time creating them from scratch. We even review all of your social media posts and marketing materials to make sure they are legally compliant and are consistent with the promotion.

3. Verifying Potential Winners. This is an extremely important step that often gets overlooked. Sometimes winners are simply selected without being verified for their eligibility or compliance with the official rules. At Sync, our project managers oversee the campaign from start to finish and know the campaign better than anyone, so when it’s time to select potential winners and verify if they’re eligible, you can trust that it’s being done right.

4. Prize Fulfillment. We know that you don’t have time to fulfill hundreds of prizes, so let Sync Marketing help you with that task. We can handle procuring your prize and can fulfill everything from gift cards to booking travel; just let us know what you need and we can help.

5. Sometimes time is of the essence. You’re busy, we know that, and that’s why if you come to us when you’re in a jam and need Official Rules turned around ASAP, we are ready to jump in and start immediately. Plus, we won’t charge you rush fees to do so.

If you need help, or simply have questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us today. You can either call us at 323.596.7962 or email info@syncmarketing.net.