Sweepstakes Prizing – What to Give Away
It seems these days that everyone is getting in on the fun by running online sweepstakes and contests. That’s because it’s an extremely effective way of not only gathering consumer data, but rewarding consumers in return. Today, I am going to focus on the best part; the prizing, and the most effective sweepstakes prizing recommendations for your next promotion.
- Money, money, money: Everyone loves cash. If you choose to award cash as your prize, make sure it’s a significant amount, as with all prizing, winners are taxed on anything over $600. If you choose to go the cash route, it is recommended to always relate the cash prizes back to your product. Take Don’t Touch My Dart: The Sweepstakes…Here, Chrysler gave away $10,000 for the winner to use as they wish, but in the creative and official rules they promoted it as money to be used towards the purchase or lease of a new Dodge Dart.
- The once-in-a-lifetime experience prize: Awarding your winners with a prize they cannot buy is the ultimate prize. Whether it’s to a red carpet event or a VIP back stage pass; offering prizing that is not available to the general public will allow you to receive entries from consumers who are truly interested in your prize and the exclusive experience.
- A trip: Pretty much everyone loves to travel, so a trip is a great way to entice consumers to enter. Just be sure to include all of the critical trip elements; airfare, hotel, transportation, and spending money/money for taxes. And, of course, relate it back to your product or service.
- Your product or service; Giving away an iPad is great, but if it doesn’t relate to your product or service, then you might not be getting the type of entrants you want as well as the fact that the promotion will seem disjointed. If you offer a fantastic service, give consumers the chance to win that particular service free for a year. Or, if it’s a product, why not offer gift cards or a prize pack containing your promoted items?
- Many prizes. It’s always important to give one larger grand prize, but if you want entrants to feel like they have a true shot at winning, consider giving away several smaller prizes.
Most importantly, make sure that the prize-winning experience is extremely enjoyable and stress-free for your consumers. By hiring an agency like Sync Marketing to handle your sweepstakes prize fulfillment, you can rest assured that your winners will understand all of the details of their prize and will be taken care of all the way until tax season. For a full list of Sync Marketing’s prize fulfillment offerings, please take a look at our Legal and Prize Fulfillment page, here.