Why hire an administrator to create your sweepstakes Official Rules and Winner Release Forms

By: Julie Link | In: Ask Sync, Ask Sync Marketing, Best Practices, Legal and Prize Fulfillment


In this month’s Ask Sync Marketing, we answer the question, “Why should you hire an administrator to create your sweepstakes Official Rules and Winner Release Forms?”

Why can’t we just use our in-house counsel to draft our rules?

It’s not to say that they can’t, but if your in-house legal counsel does not specifically specialize in promotion law, chances are they are not up-to-date on all of the latest legal actions and changes in the field. Our advice is to keep them focused on what they do best and ask them to review the rules we create for you. Our legal team specializes in promotion law and are the top in the field. We will provide you with a comprehensive set of official rules that include the current promotion laws.

We want to run a promotion on Facebook and they offer Promotion Guidelines, isn’t this enough?

Reviewing Facebook’s latest promotion guidelines is helpful, but it’s definitely not enough to have full insight on all of the required language needed for a fully-compliant set of official rules. There are many eligibility, publicity, and state and local laws that should be considered when running a sweepstakes or contest. Hiring an agency like Sync to create the rules for you will allow you to rest assured that your official rules will meet these laws.

We found a similar promotion that ran last year, can’t we just use those rules for our sweepstakes?

Absolutely not. First, they’re not your rules to take and second you cannot be sure that these are up-to-date or were even legally compliant in the first place. Not to mention, it’s highly unlikely your promotion will be running identically to the rules you see online.

What if we don’t have time to vet out a new agency to handle our rules?

Even more reason to hire an outside agency! There is nothing more time consuming than dealing with legal ramifications when you don’t follow the law when running a promotion. There is so much that is required when running a sweepstakes or contest, which is why hiring an agency like Sync Marketing to take care of all of this for you, will take a ton off of your plate. Not only do we draft legally complaint official rules, we can also provide the following services when we handle legal:

  • Legal counsel
  • Abbreviated rules
  • Legal disclaimers
  • Winner affidavit of eligibility and release forms
  • Travel companion forms
  • Trademark search of campaign title
  • Patent negotiations
  • Partnership negotiations
  • Client indemnification
  • Letter of opinion
  • Fraud mitigation of promotion offers
  • Fraud mitigation of consumer entrants
  • Bond and register campaign per state and federal guidelines
  • Legal compliance review of all promotional materials and social media posts

Do I even need Official Rules?

We are often asked this by our current clients when they are wanting to run a sweepstakes with a shorter entry period or for sweepstakes or contests with a small prize. Our answer is always, yes. If there is a time frame to enter, you’ll be promoting the sweepstakes in any way, or you’re requiring your entrants to complete certain tasks to enter, then you need to have official rules. Keep in mind that Official Rules are your friend – they protect you and your consumers.

If you’re still on the fence about hiring an outside agency to handle your sweepstakes official rules and winner release forms, give us a call. We would be happy to ease any concerns and talk you through the process in more details. Contact us today

Official Rules and Winner Release Forms