Donna's Promo Talk - Promotional Marketing that Creates Excitement and Gets Results

Women Who Blog: BlogHer 2007 is a Hit

Well I made it back from Chicago where I attended BlogHer 2007 which was my first blogging conference experience and one that happened to be about 80% all women. This was the third annual BlogHer Conference, which was their biggest to date with about 750 attendees who took over the Navy Pier in downtown Chicago on Friday and Saturday.

"A World of Difference" was the theme of this year's conference which comes from the BlogHer Online Community that was founded in early 2005 by three women bloggers, Lisa Stone, Elisa Camahort and Jory Des Jardins. BlogHer's mission is to provide opportunities for women who blog to pursue exposure , education, community  and economic empowerment.  The conference sessions where divided up into five different sub themes; Art of Life, Business of You, Community, Identity and Technical.

I was really inspired by being together with so many women who were sharing their experiences, knowledge and wisdom with each other. All of the sessions had a panel of bloggers who were related to the session topic and each session opened up the room for the participants to ask questions, which is really how you got the most information. Where else can you go and find technology being spoken about and taught to you by women (not men)! That was pretty amazing in itself.

There were many women there that have been blogging for several years and had been to the conference before. So they were reuniting with other women that they had previously met either in person or online. There were also many women like me who are in their first year, or just starting, and did not know any others. I have the advantage of knowing Yvonne Divita who is a pretty well know blogger and author. She was at the conference and was able to introduce me to some of the women in her network. I've mentioned Yvonne before in several of my posts and have credited her and her associate, Tom Collins, in getting me started in the blogoshpere.

The diversity of the group also struck me and being very unique. There were women of all ages, young and old. There were many, many Mommy bloggers, some with their newborn babies strapped to their chests others with toddlers and still other women who were pregnant. The majority of women where white, however the group did have many Asians, Hispanics, African-Americans and even several women from India. There were also many gay women, some participated on panels in which they promoted their blogs which focus on the issues facing this particular online community.

I really had a great time hanging out with Karin Marlett Choi who came with Yvonne and Tom and who I had met back in Rochester briefly before. Karin is a graphic designer and designs the book covers for some of the authors that Yvonne and Tom support through their WME Books division. Karin also maintains several blogs with her most passionate being Garden Variety Family, a blog about trying to raise a family through adoption.

I met Jenny Cisney who actually lives just a couple of blocks from me. She was sitting in back of me in one of the sessions and I overheard her talking about Rochester, so I turned around and introduced myself. Jenny works for Kodak and blogs on Kodak's blog 1000 Words which I have listed in my blog roll. You can visit Jenny's post in which she's got some great photos that she took at the conference, including one taken of her and I.

AskPatty.com is a pretty incredible blog which is written by women automotive experts who give automotive advice to women. Jody DeVere is the President who participated on the panel in the Business of You session entitled Professional Blogging: Ways and Means. This session spoke about blogs that are making money either through advertising or through sponsorships. Jody actually has had to turn down several advertising proposals in order to keep the focus on the content. Tom actually got to interview Jody at BlogHer where she announced CarBlabber a new addition they just launched on the site. Check out the video interview posted on Lipsticking today.

I got to chat with Breanne Boyle who works for Jody as their eMarketing Manager and who's written for many automotive magazines including Motor Trend. Breanne told me that they just are finishing up their first promotion in which they are doing a sweepstakes with an insured prize worth $50,000 in automotive merchandise. They have not gotten the response they had hoped, so I offered up my expertise in the area of online promotions and hopefully I may have the opportunity to work with them on their next one.

A few other fellow business bloggers I got to meet such as  Denise Wakeman from the Blog Squad, where her and her partner Patti offer tools and techniques to grow business online. I had originally come across their website through Yvonne's Lipsticking blog. Also I chatted quite a bit with Susan Getgood who, like me, runs her own marketing consulting business, GetGood Strategic Marketing, and maintains a blog, Marketing Roadmaps. Susan has a client that is interested in assisting some of the Mommy bloggers with doing their own promotions, so she's planning on tapping into some of my online promotions expertise to get this project going. So, I'm really looking forward to working with Susan.

Well, all in all it was a very pleasant and worthwhile learning experience where I also got to network and bond with other women bloggers. I hope to be a better blogger now that I have some of their wisdom as well as a few new tools to try out to help make blogging a little easier. I'm sure I'll have more to write about as it relates to this social networking phenomenon.

Oh by the way, I almost forgot to mention that we were all treated to having Elizabeth Edwards as our closing keynote speaker. What an amazing lady! She's a contributing writer on the blog on her husband's political website and she promotes the fact that her and John don't agree on everything. She came to the cocktail party after the keynote where many women got a chance to speak with her and ask questions.

Speaking of cocktail parties, both nights we were treated quite well. The first night we were on the rooftop of the Navy Pier with a beautiful view of Lake Michigan and downtown Chicago. This event was sponsored by GM and we had free wine courtesy of OOPS, a winery in Chile. On Saturday night we took over the Children's Museum at the Navy Pier which was sponsored by Dove who was promoting their Sleeveless Ready Party with their Ultimate Clear product. We were given free samples of the product as well as a chance to win some more.

Now I've been to many conferences in my time, but I never recall being treated as well as we where at this one. They constantly feed us, the food was good and we had beverages throughout the two days, from coffee to cocktails. Plus, there where many nice take-away gifts, such the laptop computer bag given out by AOL Body, which is a new online community. I believe that these marketers who partnered with BlogHer realize us women who were at this conference, women who blog, are a very influential and important group of consumers.  As the conference theme says, we can definitely make a world of difference, especially when we come together. 

Promotions Have a Cow with The Simpsons Movie

America's first and most dysfunctional family moves to the big screen today with the release of "The Simpsons Movie". It's hard to believe that this animated TV series is celebrating its 18th anniversary. I guess you don't have to worry about kids growing up or actors wanting a bigger salary when you're dealing with animated characters.

I've never been a huge fan of The Simpsons, but entertainment marketers must be because there are more partners and promotions going on for this movie than for any other I've written about so far this summer. The one that has been making the news is the Simpsons Movie Springfield Challenge in which Springfield, VT beat out 13 other Springfields across the U.S. in a contest to host the premiere of the movie on July 21st. 20th Century Fox asked them to create a video showcasing their enthusiasm for The Simpsons. Videos were posted on USA Today's website were 109,582 votes were cast to pick their winner. Vermont got 15,367 with Illinois a close second at 14,634.

"All of these years, the Springfields have supported The Simpsons, and we wanted to do something to give back and get them involved," says Breena Camden, executive vice president of publicity for Fox. The winning entry took two days to film with help from the Vermont Film Commission. It begins much like the opening sequence of the TV show, with the familiar theme song playing as Vermont's Homer chases a giant doughnut (actually an inner tube designed by a local graphic artist) through the town, causing mayhem wherever he goes. The townspeople chase after him until they are beckoned into the movie theater, where they sit down for the premiere of The Simpsons Movie.

In Springfield, VT, streets were closed off, costumed Simpsons lookalikes walked through the crowds and blue-haired fans vied for tickets to one of four showings of the movie at the 212-seat Springfield Theater, the first of which was by invitation only."As Homer would say, 'Woo-hoo!' " Matt Groening, the Simpsons creator shown here posing with the characters, said in a short ceremony before the first showing.

Another brand that has a tie-in with The Simpsons Movie is Ben & Jerry's who created a new ice cream flavor: Duff & D’oh-Nuts. They brought the beer and doughnut flavored creation to Springfield, VT, for the premiere of the movie last weekend. This one-day-only flavor featured a combination of chocolate and cream stout ice cream with glazed chocolate doughnuts.

Burger King has also jumped on The Simpsons bandwagon by creating a promotional microsite called SimpsonizeMe.com that allows consumers to turn digital photos into animated, yellow versions of themselves and has had over 32 million hits since it launched on July 16th. The site will be supported by TV ads as part of Burger King's overall promotion for "The Simpsons Movie," which will also include talking Simpsons figurines with the purchase of a Kids Meal, in-restaurant displays, custom packaging and two other TV spots.

Media Post has posted the TV ads which include "Outtakes" which is a behind-the-scenes look at a commercial shoot starring Homer and a slew of double whoppers. Watch it here. "Krusty" takes on the King in another ad, trying to convince consumers to buy his Krusty burger over the whopper. Krusty takes a cheap shot at the King, who ends up delivering the final blow. Click here to watch. The best ad, "World Domination," features Kang and Kodos on a mission to "Simpsonize" humans. Their leader is the King masquerading as an alien. Watch it here. Each ad drives traffic to SimpsonizeMe.com, where users can morph themselves into their favorite character. Crispin Porter + Bogusky created the ads, and Mindshare handled the media buy.

Since its Subservient Chicken Web site, which drew a million visitors in just its first week online in April 2004, Burger King has tried to focus on innovation to engage consumers. "Historically, what we've done a lot of is borrowing content from our partners, and now we're much more active in developing more of our own proprietary content," said Brian Gies, vp marketing impact at Burger King.

7-Eleven has a month long in-store and online promotion also tied to "The Simpsons Movie." They've create an instant-win game that will award one grand-prize trip to Los Angeles where the winner becomes an animated character to appear on an episode of "The Simpsons" TV show.

The campaign launched on July 1 as 7-Eleven turned a dozen of their stores into Kwik-E-Marts, the fictional  convenience store chain of the Simpsons. All of 7-Eleven stores are selling beverages and snacks that take their names from The Simpsons. For example their Slurpee becomes Squishee which they are selling in collectible cups and souvenir straws are decorated with magnets of Simpsons characters. They are also selling Simpsons products such as Buzz Cola, KrustyO's Cereal, "Radioactive Man" comic book (edition #711) and Homer's favorite, the pink donut.

For the "Get Animated" instant-win game, 102 million game codes on Slurpees, Cool Sandwiches and grill items send consumers to 7-11Simpsons.com to redeem the codes, up to five per day. Smaller prizes range from DVD sets of "The Simpsons" 10 seasons (44 winners) to Kwik-E-Mart uniform smocks (150) and posters from "The Simpsons Movie" (407). The game runs through July 31.

Now after 18 seasons and 400 episodes what fresh ideas did they come up with for the movie? "Well, the original concept ... was Homer falls in love with a pig, and then it just wrote itself," says creator Matt Groening, laughing. Other details have been harder to come by. To keep the plot a surprise, the studio did not screen the movie for the press. Fans attending test screenings were entreated not to leak details. So, we'll just have to see if the movie lives up to all this marketing hype. Either way, there are many interactive promotions that the fans and consumers can just have some fun with.

New Orleans Hosts the AFL ArenaBowl XXI and The Play and Win Sweepstakes

The Arena Football League started off their season this year announcing that their ArenaBowl XXI would be held in New Orleans on July 29th. This announcement coupled with the fact that ESPN got involved financially was all positive news that this 19-team league was going to have a good season. ABC Sports will telecast the game at 3pm EST on Sunday which will be the first time a championship game is held in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina.

The game completely sold out back in June and is the first time the AFL has sold out since moving the championship to a neutral location. Fans coming to the New Orleans Arena to see the game this weekend will notice that the Arena is right across the street from the infamous Superdome where people flocked to during Hurricane Katrina for shelter. The Superdome is still currently undergoing some further repairs as it gets ready to welcome back the Saints for the opening of the NFL 2007 season.

I have been working with the AFL and their agency, The Voice, to develop an interactive promotion for the game which is called The Arena Bowl Play and Win Sweepstakes. The AFL's objective is to get the residents in and around New Orleans excited about the game, even though their home team, the New Orleans VooDoo isn't in the playoffs. The AFL has teamed up with Champ's Sports to sponsor the promotion who, on top of the sweepstakes, are including a coupon good for $15 off a purchase of $50 or more at any of their locations in the U.S. that will be printed on every Arena Bowl Play and Win Game Card.

Everyone attending the game of Sunday will receive one of these game cards when they enter the arena. Additional game cards will also be available the day before and the day of the game at New Orleans area Champs Sports and Aaron's Sales and Lease Ownership stores. There are two versions of the game card available, one for the National Conference Champions, the Columbus Destroyers, and one for the American Conference Champions, the San Jose Saber Cats.

How it works is that there are six events on the game card. As the game progresses, if your team (the card you are holding) wins that event you scratch off the "Trumpet" icon and the points revealed under it are used for your final score. These events include who wins the coin toss, who gets the first touchdown and the first field goal, plus the team with the highest score at the end of the first quarter, the half and of course the final score. All the points are added up and the player is asked to fill in their name and contact information on the back of the game card and hand it to a sweepstakes representative at the arena or mail it to a address that I've provided.

All game cards will come back to my company, DDC Marketing Group, for the final sweepstakes drawing. There will be two levels of drawings. The first will be for those that held the card of the team that actually won the game since the points under this trumpet include those with the highest value. Second, there will also be a set point level that their total points must add up to. The grand prize is a Phillips 42" LCD HDTV and first prize is $500 cash. Everyone, regardless if their team is the winner or what their total points are, is eligible for the second chance drawing that includes $100 Champs Sports gift cards and also a copy of the ArenaBowl XII Official Program.

DDC Marketing will be doing the drawing and contacting the winners. We will also create a database of all those who enter and had checked the opt-in box on the back of the game card. This will enable the AFL and Champs Sports to be able to start a dialog with their fans informing them of future promotions and news about the league.

I applaud the AFL for having their championship game in New Orleans this year. They have created a whole weekend of events that start of Thursday, July 26th and go through Sunday, July 29th."I will tell you that sometimes I am frustrated that the AFL doesn’t get more credit - or our players - for what they do and the model that it is." said AFL Commissioner David Baker. "It makes me proud to be a part of this league and what we have been able to create over twenty-one years out of this incredible game that Jim Foster created and nurtured." I hope the game and the promotion are both a success and that I have the opportunity to work with the AFL again. Tune into the game on Sunday.

Games and Prizes Grow Microsoft's Live Search Share

MSN and Microsoft Live's U.S. search query volume rose 67% from May to June and 48% over a year ago according to Internet metrics company, Compete, Inc. The main key to this success they are saying has to do with a promotion that gives its users prizes!

A good portion of the new searches are coming from The Live Search Club where visitors can play games and get points which can then be redeemed for Microsoft products. It's sorta of like the old arcade games where you collect tickets and hand them in for cheap prizes, but in this case the prizes have some value. To get the points, visitors have to search with Live in playing the games.

Currently they have created 6 different games. One is called Flexicon, a crossword challenge where you test your skills with four different crossword puzzles that overlap each other. One long answer, the "Flexicon" connects all four puzzles. Another game is Chicktionary in which you are matched up against seven hens who really know their alphabet.  You have to peck out as many words as possible to fill up the Chicktionary word rack.

Some of the smaller prizes include ringtones, song downloads, magazines, digital headphones, earbuds, tee-shirts, flash drives, movie passes. Larger prizes include X-box games and accessories all the way up to the Xbox 360 Pro Console, Microsoft's new Vista operating system and Microsoft Zune. There's even a leaderboard where players can view the scores of others for each game along with a community section that informs you of what prizes that they have redeemed.

So far they have been able to take away about 5% of market share mostly from Google. "If Microsoft can actually leverage this traffic to Club.live into actual search users and string together a few more months like this, they could really threaten Google's top spot," said Steve Willis, a Compete analyst who wrote about this on the Compete blog. Willis said that Club.live.com wasn't generating noticeable traffic in April. In May, Compete tracked some 330,000 unique visitors at that site. In June, that number had risen to 3 million unique visitors.

Microsoft Live's tagline is "Changing the Game So Everyone Wins!" It just goes to support that fact that interactive promotions that provide the right prize incentive to their target audience can motivate and change people's behavior. So, will the trend continue? We'll have to wait and see the numbers for July.

AOL Partners with Hairspray Movie for Sweepstakes and Instant Win Game

Continuing to report on interactive promotions tied into this summer's theatrical movie releases brings us today to Hairspray from New Line Cinema. This film is based on the Broadway hit musical and adapted from the 1988 John Waters cult classic film. It's basically about a big teenager girl with big hair in love in the 60's, but includes a mom in drag. John Travolta plays Edna Turnblad in drag, which is a far cry from his roles in Grease the Musical and Saturday Night Fever. Also a bit out of character is Christopher Walken who plays Edna's husband, Wilbur. The New York Times just gave the movie a good review.

With New Line Cinema being a Time Warner Company it's only fitting that AOL is a major partner. They have created the Hairspray Dance to the Beat Sweepstakes and Instant Win Game. Visitors to the promotional website are asked to register on their first visit and then will be allowed to log-in for future visits. To play the game they first have to view one of 5 different dance video clips. Then by using the arrow keys on their keyboard they have to navigate through a series of 10 dance steps to guess the correct combination of the particular video shown. If they guess the sequence correctly they will receive two entries into the sweepstakes and if their guess is incorrect, they will only get one. It's pretty fun, but on my first try I didn't get it correct.

After they play the game they can click on a link which will confirm whether or not they are an instant winner (I was not). The instant win game is not associated with the "Dance to the Beat" game which is the sweepstakes component of the promotion. Visitors can come back daily and play both components up until August 5th when the promotion ends. What is unique that I read in the Official Rules is that if anyone attempts to play more than once a day all their entries will be declared null and void and any prize they may have been entitled to will not be awarded. An email confirmation is sent every time someone plays that includes a unique Security Identification Code (SIC) which confirms the receipt of the game.

The grand prize of the sweepstakes is a Samsung 61" DPL HDTV Television. The top prizes in the instant win game include a 36 session lesson from an Arthur Miller Dance Studio and a 8 ft. Hairspray can (worth $500). There are also 50 CoverGirl beauty kits, movie posters, and Hairspray merchandise.

There is also an Official MySpace Hairspray Profile Page that contains video footage of the premiere as well as downloads, songs from the soundtrack and links to blogs. You can visit the Official Hairspray Blog which has photos of the cast performing in Rockefeller Plaza in NY on the Today Show this morning as part of their concert series. You can view a video of this morning's performance as well as interviews with the cast. By the way, the cast of the film also includes Queen Latifah who belts out a few good songs, as well as Michelle Pieffer who sings one herself. Big girl Tracy is played by Nikki Blonsky and her best friend, Penny, is played by one my favorite young actors, Amanda Bynes.

The movie is fun and so is the sweepstakes and instant win game.  From an entertainment marketing perspective I think they did an excellent job connecting the two. So, check it out.

BlogHer Conference -- Blogs and Interactive Promotions

At the end of next week I'm off to Chicago to attend the Annual BlogHer Conference taking place July 27-29th. My friend and associate blogger, Yvonne DiVita, will also be attending with me and is the one who introduced me to the BlogHer network. This will be my first conference totally devoted to blogging as well as one that is focused just on women. So, my main objective will be to both meet other women bloggers and to hear about trends in today's blogoshpere.

BlogHer is an online community "Where the Women Bloggers Are". It's mission is to create opportunities for women bloggers to pursue exposure, education and community. By having an online community as well as one that regularly meets in person at regional, local, special events, and through this annual conference, it enables women bloggers to form their own personal networks. Growing your blog is very much about making connections and building your network, so it seems to be a good fit for me at this time. Yvonne has built quite a network and I'm really excited about having the opportunity for her to introduce me to those that see knows as well as meet people in person that I've already met online.

BlogHer held a special Business Conference in New York City back in March which Yvonne did attend and one that I'm particularly interested in. Back then I was just getting my blog going and actually was in Chicago attending PMA's Annual Conference, so I couldn't be there. The business blogging network is where I fall into since the primary objective of my blog is tied back to my business, DDC Marketing Group.

The focus of Donna's Promo Talk is to share information and provide up to date news on interactive promotions, specifically sweepstakes, contests and games as well as social media and blogging. Since my business, DDC Marketing Group specializes in these services my objectives are to enhance my expertise in this area, raise awareness of my business, drive more traffic to my website and hopefully meet new clients. I believe the majority of the women bloggers who will be at the Chicago conference will be blogging for personal reasons. Some will also be into the business to sell products through their blog. So I hope to meet a mixture of all types as well as those with similar business objectives as mine.

Yvonne and her team at WME Blogs were instrumental in getting me and this blog started. In return I have agreed to help them incorporate promotions in their blogs. Last month I wrote a post about two of the promotions we started which you can read here. The first promotion was on the pet blog Yvonne writes for Purina called Scratchings & Sniffings. We started a Cute Cat Video Contest in order to try and gain some insight from the cat readers by asking them to submit a consumer-generated video. The submissions were very small and we're still trying to find out why. Was it because the blog is mostly read by dog lovers? Perhaps cat people don't have video cameras? Or was the prize just not a big enough incentive to warrant the effort? It was a cat book.

The second promotion is for Yvonne's own blog, Lip-sticking, Smart Marketing to Women Online, which we're now in our second month. In June the response was somewhat small, but it was a start. I did a random drawing and we awarded the sweepstakes prize. The July Sweepstakes offers the chance to win a book called "Let's Not Call it Meditation" by a woman named PadMe who you can visit at her blog, Living With Awareness. Well she must have a very big network because as of today we already have 158 entries into the sweepstakes. This will give Yvonne insight into who is reading her blog and then be able to communicate with them directly whether she has a new announcement, special offer, or perhaps to get input from them on what they would like her to blog about.

So, you see you don't have to have a huge budget or have to build an entire website to do an online promotion. Small businesses and bloggers can do this very easily and inexpensively. Yvonne and I offered to be speakers at the BlogHer Conference, but we submitted our proposal too late. Actually the business BlogHer Conference which will take place again next March will probably be more appropriate for our topic which is titled "How to Get Results and Excitement Using Interactive Promotions on Your Blog". Showing these two promotion examples with their results was part of our plan. So, by the time we actually do make the presentation we hope to have many more examples.

I am now incorporating a Blog/Small Business Sweepstakes Administration package into my list of services from DDC Marketing Group. I believe the blogosphere will continue to grow and become more of an integral part of a company's marketing mix, whether that company is one or two people (such as Yvonne's and mine) or a corporation, like Purina. I promise to report back from Chicago on my BlogHer experiences and let you in on what's going on in the blogosphere, especially as it relates to us marketers.

By the way, guess which brand is one of the primary sponsors of BlogHer. Dove Ultimate Clear is offering BlogHer attendees an exclusive "Sleeveless Ready Kit" which includes their product as well as a sleeveless tee shirt. How cool is that? Also, we're invited to the Dove "Sleeveless Ready Cocktail Party" on Saturday night. Dove is donating $1 to the ME!the Girl Scout/Dove Self-Esteem Program for every sleeveless person in attendance. I guess I better pack some sleeveless tops! If anyone's planning on being in Chicago for BlogHer, please look for me!

Duck Tape Brand Consumer-Generated Contests

Who would have thought that a brand such as Duck Tape would be executing cutting-edge interactive marketing promotions. Well the parent company, Henkel Consumer Adhesives, Inc., has been conducting  consumer-generated contests for the past seven years that have been a hit with teens. They recently announced this year's winner of their Stuck at Prom Duck Brand Duct Tape Scholarship Contest in which a couple had to attend their prom in outfits made totally of duct tape.

This year's $6,000 cash scholarship prize went to Adrienne Beiler from Salisbury, PA and Zac Cuplar from Grantsville, MD who split the $3,000 while the other $3,000 went to the school that hosted their prom, Salisbury-Elk Lick High School. Adrienne said that they worked on the dress and tuxedo for about a year and used 40 rolls of duct tape. They used brown, orange, pink, green and yellow duct tape to create the Southern-bell style dress and Zac's suit. The dress was done in three layers and included a hoop skirt.

A panel of judges narrowed the more than 180 entries down to 10 finalists which were then were open to public voting online at www.stuckatprom.com during the month of June. At this website you can view all the finalists as well as everyone who entered. They even have all the winners still posted going back to 2001 when they first started the contest promotion. The judging was based on 30% workmanship, 30% originality, 15% use of colors, 15% accessories and 10% quantity of duct tape used.

There were also second and third place prizes awarded to other couples who received $2,000 and $1,000 respectively. Take a look at second place winners Ellen Jarl and Jake Loviska from Hackett Catholic Central High School in Kalamazoo, MI on the left and third place winners Zoe Watson and Gregory Tunstall from Durham School of the Arts in Durham, NC on the right. The amount of work and detail these kids put into their outfits is just amazing.

One reason why this particular contest got my personal attention was because duct tape has also been a big hit with my daughters and their friends this year. While they didn't participate in this prom contest (although they kidded around about it) they are really into duct tape wallets. One of their friends makes these wallets totally out of duct tape and she has a waiting list of friends who want one. Her friends, including my daughter, do different favors for her so that they can try and get to the top of the list. Here's a photo of one that she recently made for my daughter. The detail here is really incredible, especially on the inside. I've suggested that we start an online store for her and help her sell these because there really appears to be a market for them. So, here's the first peak online. Let me know if you're interested in learning more.

By the way, the Henkel Corporation currently has a new consumer-generated contest promotion which started on May 1st called Duck Tape Saves the Day Contest. Consumers can enter the contest online by submitting their true and factual story with no more than 250 words up until the end of this year. The winner will be announced in January who will receive a $5,000 cash prize and a year's supply of Duck Brand duct tape. 10 winners will also be chosen at random in a sweepstakes drawing to receive $500 each as well as a year's supply of Duck Brand duct tape.

I've heard all sorts of stories of how people have been saved by having a roll of Duck brand duct tape on hand," said Kim White, Manager of Market Research and Consumer Relations for Henkel Corporation. "I've heard tales from family outings, outdoor adventures, travel mishaps and many others. Based on these testimonials, there is no doubt in my mind that the winner's story will be absolutely amazing."

As of today I counted a total of 763 stories on their website with the leading category being "car repairs". I guess Kim was right about getting some amazing stories. By the way, next Monday, July 23rd, is Duct Tape Appreciation Day, so plan on doing something nice with your duct tape that day.  

MLB and MasterCard Team up for MBL Dreams Sweepstakes and Consumer-Generated-Contest

It wouldn't be summer without Major League Baseball and of course a big promotion to go with it. They've just finished their mid-season break with the All-Star Game so it's back to business. We're now in the second half of the season and it's time to start watching the stats a bit more closely. I have to admit that even though I was born in the Bronx, I'm a Boston Red Sox fan and the stats have been looking great for them to easily win the Eastern Division. But those pesky Yankees are known as the come back kids and most the time come alive in September! But as of today, Boston still has over a 10 game lead. Maybe 2007 is going to be the year again!

So, the big MLB promotion this summer has them teamed up with MasterCard for the MLB Dreams Sweepstakes offering a chance to win a week with your favorite ML Baseball team. Starting on July 1st, every time someone uses their MasterCard they are automatically entered into the sweepstakes. Consumers can also enter the sweepstakes online at www.priceless.com where they will view a MLB Priceless commercial. Fox Sportscaster Joe Buck is the host who welcomes visitors to the site that "celebrates our collective love of MLB.. and our boys of summer".

Three grand prizes will be awarded that consists of a 6 day/5 night Priceless baseball experience that includes trip options the winner can choose from for 4 people with the MLB team of their choice. The trip includes game tickets, airfare, hotel accommodations, meet-and-greets with select baseball legends, behind the scenes experiences, MLB memorabilia, professional photographs and $25,000 in spending money. Totally a dream come true for three baseball fans and their friends!

Joe goes on to explain how the promotion works which, besides the sweepstakes, there is a consumer- generated contest called "I Would Be A...". Between July 9th and September 30th consumers are asked to submit online their team-specific tribute video that corresponds to the contest theme and describes why they should be a member of that team. The MLB Dreams website prompts them through the process where they first pick their favorite team and then select up to 7 MLB video clips of that team, choose a music track as their background, and then record their own voice that states their name and fills in the blank to the sentence. This completed video is their official entry into the contest which consumers are allowed to complete up to 5 entries

Starting this Monday, July 16th, submitted entries will be available in "The Gallery" for voting. There will be 11 weekly finalist from the votes who will then have their entries reviewed by a panel of judges for a chance to win the grand prize. Judging will be based on relevance to the theme, overall delivery and appeal and quality. Grand prize is a trip for the winner and up to 3 guests to a 2007 MLB World Series Game including airfare, hotel accommodations for 3 nights, a meet and greet with Joe Buck, a behind-the-scenes tour of the ballpark and a $500 MasterCard Gift Card. Those who view and vote are also eligible to win $50 in MLB.com gift certificates through an instant win game. You can view some of the videos submitted already, but you can't vote till Monday.

All in all I think the promotion is very creative and definitely appealing to baseball fans. It's a good way for MasterCard to leverage it's sponsorship with MLB. However, there are several layers to the promotion which can make it complicated for entry. I may try and enter the contest myself to see exactly how complicated or easy it is. The one issue I have with the sweepstakes is that many people who use their MasterCard may not know that they were entered into the sweepstakes and therefore not accept a call or message from the sponsor if their name is drawn. There are many fraudulent promotions out there and I usually tell people that if they don't remember entering, then it's probably not a real sweepstakes.

Back to those Red Sox. Can they hold on to win the Pennant and make it to the World Series this year? They sure are looking good and it's always fun to see them beat the Yankees. I found this spoof of the Red Sox Priceless commercial on YouTube that was created after they actually won the World Series in 2004 and I couldn't resist sharing it. Here it is and enjoy the rest of the baseball season!

 

July is Harry Potter Month: Order of the Phoenix Hits Theatres Today, Deathly Hallows in Bookstores 21st

I have two teenage daughters, age 17 and 15, whom I've mentioned before in some of my previous posts. They have both grown up to be avid readers, especially my older daughter Kelsey who could consume an adult size book in one day if she had the time. They are also huge Harry Potter fans and yes they were both at the midnight premiere last night of the movie Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which follows the 5th book in the series.

My daughters and their friends are prime examples of the audience of kids who started reading Harry Potter when they were young and have grown up and continue to grow up along with the characters. This movie they say shows the darker side of Harry, and as any of us parents with teenagers know, we have experienced the darker sides of our children as well (though not with magical powers!).

By visiting Warner Brothers official website for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, you'll see that it was not created for little kids. It contains lots of background information to read about the story and the production plus photos, videos, downloads, games and community links. There's a place to create a customized Death Eater Mask and upload it to the site where you can then view what others have created and rate them. It also has an entire section for Webmasters in which they can integrate the movie trailer, images, banners, and MySpace Skins to create their own websites.

Another tool they provided is a Widget that you can place on your blog or website to listen to the soundtrack. Here it is. 

Warner Brothers appears to have stayed completely away from signing on any entertainment marketing partners for this movie which I believe is based on the terms they agreed to with the author, J.K. Rowling. She has been very involved in any promotional marketing for the series.  The only other brand I saw on the official website is the retailer Hot Topic, which you can order a Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix Voldermort T-shirt.

My daughters and all the Harry Potter fans are now impatiently awaiting for June 21st when the last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows goes on sale. A unprecedented 12 million copies of the book is being printed by Scholastic. My daughter Kelsey says she's going to re-read the 6th book between now and then to get back into the story. There is much speculation regarding whether Harry will survive this last story or not and once the book it out it probably won't remain a secret for long. Which is why they will all try to read through it very quickly.

For the book release Scholastic sponsored a Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows sweepstakes promotion which ended on June 15th. They drew 7 lucky winners who will celebrate the June 21st release with author J.K. Rowling at a midnight signing event at London's Natural History Museum. Rowling will sign books and do a reading at the event and each winner will receive a signed copy of the book. Scholastic also has a special website in which readers can "get ready for the new book".

I asked my daughter this morning what she thought of the movie, and she hesitated quite a bit before she answered. Of course as usual she says it didn't follow the book and especially how they ended it. For the majority of us adults who haven't read the books, we'll have to just live with the movie.

ePrize and Entrepreneur Magazine Launch Caffeine Interactive Promotional Contest

I'm back from my extended 4th of July Holiday. I hope everyone was able to enjoy this wonderful summer celebration.

Earlier this year ePrize introduced Caffeine...a web-based promotions platform that gives marketers the power to build their own customized online sweepstakes, instant-win and coupon-based promotions on a pay-per-lead basis. It's really targeted to small businesses who don't have the budgets for big prizes and web-based development. I first wrote about it in my blog back on April 1st when I interviewed both Alesya Opelt, Marketing Director for ePrize and Aaron Chestnut, VP of Marketing for Fathead, who is a Caffeine advertiser. So, check it out for more background on this.

The whole idea really intrigued me so through my company, DDC Marketing Group, I became a Certified Distribution Partner of the Caffeine platform and I've been running one of their instant-win games both on my blog, as you'll see in the right-hand sidebar, and also on my website. I wanted to try it out for awhile and see how it works before I started promoting it to clients. They're on their second phase of promotions and I think they've worked out some of the bugs from the first phase, so it's time to start promoting it.

Now ePrize has decided to promote Caffeine by partnering up with Entrepreneur Magazine to launch a interactive promotional contest called the "Entrepreneur and Caffeine Marketing Jolt" where businesses have the opportunity to win a "Online Marketing Makeover". Now through August 31st companies can enter the contest online here at Entrepreneur's Marketing Jolt promotional site and submit an essay about their biggest online marketing issues. So, here's everyone's chance to win a free Caffeine powered promotion that they can run on their website or blog for free.

The contest will be judged equally on four criteria: originality, business criteria, entrepreneurial spirit and grammar. The winner will be announced and featured in the December issue of Entrepreneur and receive up to $20,000 in products and services. These will include running a Caffeine powered promotion for 6 months or up to 100,000 entrants including 10,000 emails and 100,000 coupons. Also included is up to 30 hours of consultation from Caffeine experts, 6 months of search engine optimization from  Awecomm web strategies and graphic design services to update your company's logo. Entrepreneur is kicking in a three year subscription to the magazine and a selection of books from Entrepreneur Press.

ePrize Founder and CEO Josh Linkner stated "We created the ‘Marketing Jolt’ competition to inject Caffeine directly into the marketing veins of a business that shows exceptional potential to overcome extraordinary online marketing problems. With a Caffeine promotion, the winning business will experience a buzz among consumers at a level that it’s never been able to attain before.  This promotion will engage the business in new opportunities and drive amazing results through one-to-one marketing.”

Entrepreneur Editorial Director Rieva Lesonsky said "Today consumers carry their media in their pockets or around their necks, and they are poised for interaction every second. The Caffeine Marketing Jolt contest is designed to help one business demonstrate the full strength of that interaction through an energetic online promotions program.”

Unfortunately since I'm considered a Certified Distributor Partner of Caffeine, I can't enter the contest. But I encourage all other small businesses to enter and take advantage of the opportunity. It really could give a new start-up company a great marketing boost. Good luck and we'll report back in December to announce the winner. By the way, go ahead and play my Caffeine game if you haven't yet.