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

A Few Halloween Marketing Treats

According to a recent article in The New York Times, marketing campaigns for this Halloween have become scarier again, continuing the upward trend from the last couple of years. Ghouls and goblins are again more popular today than the marketing campaigns that were created right after 9/11. So, we're in for more "frightful" marketing messages and we progress into tonight.

Here's a Craftsman Tools Halloween ad the NY Times showcased. It shows a skeleton being created by Craftsman Tools!

Of course, not all campaigns are too scary. Here's a spot from Dunkin' Donuts advertising their Halloween munchkins and donuts. It's set at a Halloween party in which a headless guest tryies to eat a munchkin and is then approached by a cute little girl dressed as a pirate who says "Not a smart costume choice," as she takes her munchkin.

Walgreens is running two consumer-generated Halloween photo contests this year. One is for the Cutest Costumed Kid or Critter and the other is for the most Hair-Raising Halloween Haunted House. Photos can be entered online up until Nov. 3rd for a chance to win one of 260 prizes including a $250 Walgreens gift card or a $250 Walgreens.com photo package. All photo submissions can be viewed online and voting will take place Nov. 5th - 12th with the winners announced on Nov. 23rd. Check out some of these photos. As of today there were 8,895 photos of cute kids and pets submitted!

In addition, Walgreens teamed up with ABC’s “Live with Regis and Kelly” morning talk show to sponsor their special 3D Halloween episode that airs today. Walgreens has been giving away free 3D glasses through their photo departments for viewers to see the special effects on today's show.

So please have a fun, safe and Happy Halloween today. 

Don't Forget to Steal a Taco Today

Yes, I've been celebrating now that the Boston Red Sox swept the Colorado Rockies and are the new World Series Champions! However, I did promise to remind you when to get your free taco from Taco Bell, and today's the day.

In this year's "Steal a Base, Steal a Taco"World Series promotion Taco Bell promised to give a free taco to anyone in America if any player stole a base throughout the Series. As I reported in my prevoius post, there were no stolen bases in Game 1 of the Series, however, Red Sox reserve outfielder Jacob Ellsbury did steal second base during Game 2 and free taco day became today.

So go visit any participating Taco Bell today, Oct. 30th, between 2pm - 5 pm local time and just ask for your free Crunchy Seasoned Beef Taco. Bounce back to me here and let me know if you did participate and how the experience was.

Staying Ahead of Legal and Technological Evolutions found with Interactive Promotions

Interactive Promotions including sweepstakes, contests and instant-win games can deliver many benefits to both marketers and consumers. However, brands and agencies should consult a professional that specializes in the administration of these types of promotions to help in complying with multiple federal and state laws and regulations. I’ve been considering adding a regular feature post to review promotional marketing law, so I invited a lawyer that I work with who specializes in this area to become a guest blogger to share his knowledge with us.

Please welcome Ed Chansky who is going to help us stay ahead of the legal and technological evolutions found with Interactive promotions. Ed has been with the law firm Levett Rockwood since 1988. He practices in the areas of intellectual property, Internet and trade regulation law, including protection and licensing of trademarks and copyrights worldwide, and electronic commerce, advertising, promotion, sweepstakes and anti-trust law.

Ed is currently a Director of the Promotion Marketing Association (PMA), co-chair of the PMA Westchester-Fairfield chapter, co-chaired the PMA's 2002 national Promotion Marketing Law Conference in Chicago and speaks regularly at its annual conferences. From 1998-2001 he served as chair of the Intellectual Property Law Section of the Connecticut Bar Association.

Ed Chansky: An emerging trend has been the explosion of CGC (consumer-generated content) in sweepstakes and contest promotions. A central issue for any such program that allows the public to vote on the winners is whether the outcome is determined by skill or by chance.

Traditional skill contests use verifiable judging criteria applied consistently by a panel of competent judges. If a program allows the public to vote on consumer-generated entries, is the outcome based on skill?  On chance?  On an ability to get friends to stuff the ballot box with votes for your entry?  It’s often hard to tell. 

Eliminating the element of chance can be important in two different circumstances:

1. The entry process involves a substantial amount of time and effort, which can be deemed consideration for lottery law purposes in about 20 states.
2. The sponsor wants the program to have integrity and to select the “best” entry without a tainted or suspect selection process.

Here are some recommended procedures:

Have qualified judges select finalists based on disclosed criteria, one of which is “public appeal,” then let the public cast the final votes on the “public appeal” factor. The public presumably is qualified to voice its opinion on that factor.

Decide how to weigh the public voting. There are at least two choices:

1. Treat the final round like the final heat of a race in the Olympics – whoever gets the most votes is the winner, just like the winner in the finals gets the gold medal regardless if the runner up set a world record in the preliminary rounds.
2. Compile a cumulative score where the public voting counts for a limited portion of the overall decision. This may be fairer in some respects, but it also may be hard to administer.  How do you weigh an overwhelming public vote for one entry against a stronger rating by the judges on other criteria? The math can get tricky.  So can the public relations aspect when the public favorite is not the winner. 

Follow your own rules. If you announce that entries must be only 100 words, or 1 minute in length, etc., don’t post a non-complying entry on the web site for voting.  Doing so gives ammunition to non-winning entrants to attack the judging process.

Try to avoid having a random drawing at any point in the process. If you must have one to narrow the initial group of entries, then clearly disclose that fact so that entrants understand the chance element, and try to make the entry process relatively simple to avoid the consideration issue based on “substantial time and effort.”

Protect the integrity of the voting. Try to limit votes to one per person and per email address. There is no reason to allow multiple voting by the same person.  Doing so only encourages stuffing of the ballot box to skew results. Use technological safeguards to protect against hacking or other tampering.

Steal a Base, Steal a Taco World Series Promotion

I've revealed before in my posts that I'm a big Boston Red Sox fan and I'm just thrilled that they finally won their division this year and now have made it to the World Series! They got off to an overpowering start last night beating the Colorado Rockies 13-1. Josh Beckett pitched a fantastic game allowing only 6 hits in seven innings with 9 strike-outs and just one walk. Dustin Pedroia was first up for the Red Sox and became only the second player ever to lead off a Series with a home run. And of course Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz kept the hits coming all night.

However, what we didn't have in last night's game was a stolen base. In this year's Taco Bell World Series promotion they will be giving away free tacos for America if any player steals a base throughout the Series. "Steal a Base, Steal a Taco" is the latest "Think Outside the Bun" promotion the company has launched in partnership with Major League Baseball. Taco Bell is the Official Quick Service Restaurant of MLB. In previous promotions they placed their famous "Free Taco" target at the 2002, 2003 and 2004 World Series in hopes to give away free tacos.

"Fans across the country will have the opportunity to be a part of the World Series experience through the "Steal a Base, Steal a Taco" promotion," said John Brody, Senior Vice President, Corporate Sales and Marketing, Major League Baseball.  "The extension of the "Think Outside the Bun" philosophy is a creative way to engage Major League Baseball fans in all the action of the 2007 Fall Classic."

The Official Rules state that if a base is stolen during regulation or extra innings play by any player for either team in the 2007 MLB World Series, Taco Bell will offer every person in the U.S. the opportunity to obtain one free Crunchy Seasoned Beef Taco. If the first stolen base occurs during Game 1 (which it didn't) or Game 2, America will get its free Crunchy Seasoned Beef Taco on Tuesday, Oct. 30 from 2 - 5  p.m. local time at all participating Taco Bell locations. If the first base is stolen in Game 3 through Game 7, America can redeem their taco on Tuesday, Nov. 6 from 2 - 5 p.m. local time.

Between both teams, they had 196 stolen bases this past season; so they should average more than 1 per game (although again none last night, but with that difference, what would it have mattered?).  Also, consumers have only a three hour time period on a specific date to get their free taco, so the actual redemption rate will not be huge. It will be interesting to learn how many tacos Taco Bell actually does give away.

So, mark Oct. 30th and Nov. 6th from 2-5pm on your calendars to get your free taco. After tonight's game we'll know which date will be the actual one. In fact, I promise to send out a reminder on either day. Let's raise the promotion's redemption rate. In the meantime, let's go Red Sox!

PMA's User-Generated Content Survey Results

Since I've been on the subject of consumer-generated content since my last post on The Top Ten CGC Contests I thought I'd share with you some new research on the subject.

PMA, Promotional Marketing Association, released last week the results of an online survey that they sent to their members in order to get a snapshot of their perceptions on user-generated content (UGC). Of the 3,003 members that they emailed, they received 107 responses, a 3.6% response rate, in which 2/3 of the responses came from agencies and the remaining 1/3 from brands. Here's what they found:

• 70% of respondents have used UGC as part of an integrated campaign
• 82% are considering incorporating UGC in a future campaign
• 47% say sell through of UGC elements is "somewhat difficult". However, 18% described it as "easy".
• "Target engagement" was cited as the single biggest factor (40%) that drives the decision to incorporate UGC elements, while 21% believe UGC provides insight into brand perception.
• More than half (53%) felt that UGC has "some" impact on consumer purchase decisions. 22% of respondents weren't sure of the impact; 13% felt it has "significant" impact; 11% felt it had none.
• Respondents were evenly split between those who indicated that their companies have made no progress or fair progress (33% and 31%, respectively) towards coming up with useful metrics for UGC. However, most (62%) feel that they will make "some progress" in the next six months.
• 59% feel that their use of UGC will increase over the next six months, while nearly 38% felt it would stay the same. Just under 4% expect it to decrease.

Since I started this blog earlier this year I've been highlighting many of the contests that have been incorporating UGC and each time I write a Top Ten List I'm not sure if the trend will continue to go up or if it's hit its peak. So in reviewing this research I'd have to surmise that if 70% have used UGC, 80% are considering using it for a future promotion and 59% feel their use will increase, then the trend will definitely continue on it's upward path.

Here's a few more other thoughts that came to mind on these results. I'm a bit curious to know who makes up the 18% that say that UGC is easy to sell in. Is it agencies or brands or both? Also if they deemed their campaign a success then I would assume that they will have an easier time selling in the next one, however those that aren't sure of the results I'd guess would most likely will have an even harder time.

Lastly, since over half of the respondents are hopeful that they will be "getting their arms around the metrics issues" as Rob Fields from PMA says, it would be wonderful if we could all learn from their experience and experimentation. So, I look to those marketers and agencies that are incorporating UGC to share with us what worked for them as well as what didn't. If you'd like, you can view the online survey results here.

Top Ten Consumer-Generated Content Promotional Contests Part 3

As promised, here's my third post listing the top ten current promotional contests soliciting consumer-generated content. If you'd like to review the past posts here's the first Top 10 Consumer Generated Content Promotional Contests written back in June and here's Part 2 which I wrote in August. Again, I've pulled content from  PROMOXtra news briefs that I've collected over the past 4-6 weeks to create this summary as well as the promotional micro-sites themselves.

1. Number one that I just have to start off with is Dorito's latest Crash the SuperBowl Contest. The focus this year is on music and they're asking people to submit video and audio clips of themselves performing an original song for a chance to have it aired during Super Bowl XLII on Feb. 3rd. Entries are again submitted through the Snack Strong promotional site starting next week, Oct. 25th or through MySpace. Judges will select the top 10 entries on Dec. 10th and then visitors can vote on these semi-finalists to determine the three final performers. Each performer then gets a trip to the Super Bowl party in Phoenix and $10,000. The performer who has the most votes will be revealed when Frito-Lay plays their video during the game. Last year more than 1,000 videos were entered in Doritos’ consumer-generated ad contest and two of the spots ran during the game.

2. While on the subject of football, Cannon extended its sponsorship as the official camera of the NFL and is leveraging that sponsorship by bringing back it's "Why Do You Love Football?" Contest. Amateur photographers can submit their photos of youth football that capture the fun, passion and excitement of the sport at  USACannon.com. One grand prize winner will be selected from two age groups: Teens (13-18) and Adults (18 and over). They will each win a trip for 4 to Super Bowl XLII in Phoenix and to the Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremony plus a Cannon Rebel digital camera. Their winning photo will be displayed at the Football Hall of Fame as well as at the NFL Experience in Arizona. Former NFL quarterback, Archie Manning, is a spokesperson and judge for the contest. Second and third place winners will also be chosen. In a separate “Shoot Like a Pro” sweepstakes, 80 winners will be selected from 10 NFL teams to shoot during games on their home team’s sidelines. Fans of the Giants, Jets, Browns, Broncos, Colts, Dolphins, Rams, Chargers, Seahawks and Redskins can register on their team’s website.

3. Moving on to another sport, Sony Playstation is looking to promote its new NBA '08 Video Game with it's "Game or No Game" Contest. Gamers are invited to submit videos of themselves sounding off about anything NBA at GameorNoGame08 or at live events being held during a six-city tour in October. The judges are looking for dynamic personalities that can talk a good game. They'll chose the top 4 videos and award them with a trip to the 2008 NBA All-Star Game where these 4 finalists will compete against each other in a skill-based contest on NBA related topics to become the NBA '08 Game or No Game Champion. 145 daily prizes of PlayStation units and autographed copies of the game will also be awarded as well as another trip to the NBA All-Star Game through the NBA '08 Dr. Hasbro Daily Question Game Sweepstakes.

4. While on the subject of male-targeted promotions, Gardenburger is looking for a few real men in their "Real Men Eat GardenBurger" Contest. People were invited to visit the promotional website and nominate themselves or a man they know that defines what a "real man" is by submitting a photo and a 500 or less word essay online that describes what makes this man 'real'. Wholesome and Hearty Foods, the parent company, are trying to prove that their GardenBurger meatless product is not just for vegetarians and women. The submission date just ended on Oct. 17th and now through Nov. 8th visitors can view the entries and vote on their favorite. Of the top 5 finalists Gardenburger will select the "Real Man" around Nov. 19th. Grand prize is a year's supply of GardenBurger products, a catered party of up to 25 people, a Ducane gas grill, and a 42" flat screen TV. Votigo, an online social media platform for marketers, supports the promotion.

5. Now on to pet food, Goodlife Recipe has been sponsoring a pet video contest called "Here's to the GoodLife" where people where asked to upload videos featuring special moments that show "how well you and your cat or dog live life together". 60 second or less videos where submitted at GoodLifeRecipe.com and all entries could be viewed and voted on. However, the voting was just for fun since it's really now up to the judges, who include grammy-award winning recording artist LeAnn Rimes, to choose the six finalists who should be announced soon. The grand prize winner will receive $10,000, a year's supply of GoodLife Recipe pet food, a charitable food donation to a pet group of their choice, and a chance to appear in an upcoming GoodLife ad. The promotion includes a blog where visitors could leave comments about their favorite video which is all supported by Yahoo's Bix, another online social media contest platform.

6. What's even more popular than photos of pets? Photos of babies. The Gap has again partnered with the Kodak Gallery on their Gap Casting Call baby photo contest. People can upload photos of children four years old and under up until Oct. 24th at this promotional website hosted by ePrize.  A panel of judges will select 20 finalists, 10 babies and 10 children, who will each receive  gifts from the Gap and Kodak and a trip to San Francisco to participate in a Gap photo shoot and. Voting then takes place Nov. 20-Dec. 15.  Four finalists (one winner from four categories: baby girl, baby boy, girl, boy) will be selected from the voting. The finalist with the highest amount of votes will be chosen as the grand prize winner which will be announced in January and appear in select Gap ads and marketing materials. All four finalists will receive a $3,000 Gap gift card, a children's book collection and Kodak products including a camera, printer and gift card. Last year's casting call received more than 360,000 entries.

7. Unilever also has a promotion looking for kids...green kids. Their  "Go Green and Small" with "All" contest searches for the greenest grade school in America. The promotion encourages elementary school students to become environmentally conscious. The GoGreenWithAll website invites parents to enter by first filling out an Eco-Report Card in which they check off how many times their family practices the listed behaviors . Next they have the option of submitting an Eco-Advocate story explaining how their child makes a difference for the environment along with a photo of their child doing something related to the story. Each school will receive points based on the Eco-Report Cards and Eco-Advocate stories that are submitted and those with the highest total combined points will become the nine finalists and grand prize winner. The finalists will each receive $5,000 and the grand prize school will receive $50,000 to use towards a greening effort plus a green iPod shuffle with an environmentally friendly solar charger for each student and a year’s supply of All Detergent. The site also includes a section for kids to share their eco-stories and photos, games and lesson plans for teachers. The contest runs till Nov. 26th.

8. Designing a new hand-made car accessory is the focus of the Craft My Ride Contest presented by Scion. Amateur crafters can submit designs up until Oct. 22 of a unique car accessory that they create for the Scion vehicle at craftmyride.com. Submissions must include a photo of the accessory with a written description. Some suggestions include key chains, seat covers, floor mats, steering wheel covers and tissue holders. Craft retailers make up the judging panel who will select 20 finalists from the entries. The finalist must then send in an actual working sample of the accessory which the judges will pick the first, second and third place winners. First prize is a Scion xD vehicle, second place is $1,000 and third place is $500. The winners should be announced around Dec. 3rd. 

9. Another design contest is being sponsored by Embassy Suites Hotels in which they're looking for the most clever, outrageous and inspiring door hanger to place in all their hotels nationwide. The Do Not Disturb Sign Contest is being promoted at their website where designs are being accepted up till Oct. 31. Entrants can choose from 4 template designs and 27 template photos provided and then write a headline. A panel of judges will review all entries and the five signs with the highest amount of points based on the criteria outlined will become the winners. Those five signs will be used in Embassy Suite Hotels throughout the country and each winner will receive a 3 night stay at one of 5 selected Embassy Suite Hotels. The winners will be posted on their website around Dec. 10th.

10. To round off the list we have Project Direct, a film contest sponsored by Hewlett-Packard, Fox Searchlight and YouTube. Aspiring filmmakers are challenged to direct a unique film that's between two and seven minutes long and in which includes these three elements: 1) A character facing a situation above his or her maturity level; 2) This line of dialogue 'I demand an explanation for these shenanigans.  What do you have to say?’ And 3) The passing of a photograph. The dialogue line is a take-off on the tagline HP used in its campaign which Gwen Stephani and other celebrities were featured. Jason Reitman, the writer and director behind “Thank You For Smoking,” will review the entries and (along with a panel of judges) select 20 finalists.  The YouTube community can then vote for the overall winner. The winner gets to spend nine days as a guest of HP at a top international Film Festival where they will attend special events, including a meeting with Fox Searchlight production executives as well as a $5,000 debit card and have their video played on the YouTube homepage in seven countries. Films that don't make the final 20, but are close, will be posted on YouTube starting on Dec. 5th. Project Direct doesn’t guarantee a position at a movie studio and interested directors have until Nov. 9th to enter the contest.

Again I hope you enjoyed this summary of some of the Consumer-Generated Content contests that are going on this Fall. Please feel free to add to list since I haven't been able to cover them all. If you have one coming up that you're working on please email me the info so I can cover it in a future post. Thanks.

CGC Contests Announce Winners - Romance Writers and Jingle Singers

I do realize that it's been quite a while since my last Top 10 Consumer- Generated Content Contest post and I haven't written about new promotions that fall within this category...and new ones keep launching everyday it seems. So I promise to do that soon. But before I do, I thought I'd update you on a couple of promotional contests that I previously wrote about.

An August post on summer reading included Gather.com's First Chapters Romance Writing Contest. They recently announced the five finalists in their search for America’s next great romance writer. The finalists were narrowed down by the Gather community who read, commented and voted from nearly 500 manuscripts submitted from across the country since August. Congratulations go out to these following five women:

• Judi Fennell, Philadelphia, PA - In Over Her Head
• Rachael Herron, Oakland, CA - Love Spun
• Meredith McGuire, Chicago, IL - The Shadow's Kiss
• Dena Straughn, Grovetown, GA - Dancing With My Dream
• Starr Toth, Ortonville, MI - Trust Me

You can read more about them and their amazing chapters online at romancenovel.gather.com.   

Each of theses final novels will now be evaluated by Gather.com’s grand prize judging panel. Then on October 30th the grand prize winner will be announced and presented with a guaranteed publishing contract with the Pocket Books imprint of Simon & Schuster, along with a $5000 advance and distribution at Borders and wherever else books are sold. Good luck to all of the finalists.

In my first Top 10 CGC Post I included the Oreo & Milk Jingle Contest in which consumers could submit a video of their group (2-15 people) singing the O-R-E-O jingle or be videotaped singing it at a participating Major League Baseball event. Consumers voted on the 10 finalists which were posted online from hundreds on entries. The top 5 finalists were then chosen to compete in a live competition in Times Square hosted by Carlson Daly.

Well you can watch the performances from all five finalists which are still up on NabiscoWorld.com. However Promo Magazine reported last week that the father-daughter duo, Daniel and Samantha Casey from Selma, NC, who call themselves Samantha Casey and the Bluegrass Jam, won the $10,000 grand prize. All five finalists' performances were broadcast in Time Square which Samantha said "Our favorite part of the contest was seeing ourselves on the Times Square Super Sign". Kraft says it doesn't plan to use the jingle in any of its future advertising. It was just for fun.

More to come this week on CGC! I promise.

October's Pink Promotions

October is breast cancer awareness month and the pink ribbon symbols can be seen in many promotions created by marketers to tie their products and services to the cause.  Pink is more than just the color for breast cancer awareness; it represents the promise between two sisters to find a cure for breast cancer. That promise started Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the word's largest grassroots network of survivors and activists and the largest source of non-profit funds dedicated to the fight of breast cancer. 

Passionately Pink for the Cure is a program in which participants can pick any day in October, make a $5.00 or more donation and wear pink to share the promise. UPS is the official sponsor of this program and in addition to donating $50,000, UPS is shipping all participants kits free of charge.

One of the ongoing partners is Yoplait who is the National Sponsor of the Komen Race for the Cure and of the highly successful Save Lids to Save Lives program. This takes place throughout September and October each year in which Yoplait donates 10 cents to Komen for every pink lid a consumer mails in with a guaranteed donation of $500,0000.

Energizer is also a National Sponsor of the Komen Race for the Cure and their Power to Keep Going Promotion. During October 50 cents of all purchases of any Energizer product will be donated with a minimum donation of $100,000. Also consumers can send in 3 proofs of purchase to receive either a free charm bracelet or a free tote bag and Energizer will donate $1.00 to Komen for each one it sends out. Plus they offer a chance to win Energizer Bunny Gear, a Nikon Coolpix Digital Camera, Bushnell Onix GPS System, MP3 Players, Energizer Energi to Go iPod and other prizes with the Energizer PlaySource Game. Visitors to their website can play the instant win game once a day from the start of October through the end of January. A second-chance drawing will randomly pick winners for any unclaimed prizes.

Energizer website visitors can also leave a dedication by choosing one of the sixteen prewritten, picking who the dedication is for, a region where they're from and then placing a flag on the world map to indicate the site of their dedication. I left one for my mother, Eileen, which was the 500th dedication. She was diagnosed earlier this year with breast cancer and one of the lucky ones since she found it very early. The lump was successfully removed and she didn't have to have a mastectomy. She has gone through radiation treatment and has now completed her fifth out of six chemo treatments. There has been no history of cancer in our family, so this came as quite a shock to all of us. My mom along with the rest of our family had to quickly learn about the treatments and medical care that was needed. Now my sisters and I, along with my daughters, will have to be much more in touch with our bodies now that we have a family history.

Today in our local newspaper, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, there was an article about one of our local Ford and Subaru dealerships owned by Kitty Van Bortel who is a breast cancer survivor. After undergoing her lumpectomy in March 2006 she felt like riding with the wind in her hair, despite the fact that there was snow on the ground. So, she and her 8 year old daughter bundled up and took a red Mustang for a ride through the countryside with the top down. Now Van Bortel is sponsoring a sweepstakes promotion on her website in which she'll be giving away a $30,000 limited-edition white Mustang convertible with pink ribbons, stripes and other pick accents to a breast cancer survivor. Entries are being accepted this month only on her website. The car is one of 2,500 made as part of Ford's National Warriors in Pink campaign.

I entered my mom in Kitty's Ford Mustang Giveaway promotion today. Good luck Mom, you deserve it.  Pink has never been one of our favorite colors, but certainly this year it has become one that now has a very special meaning to us all in our family.

BTW - There are several other corporate sponsors that I didn't get a chance to mention here so I invite you to click on the links below to learn about more what they're doing to support the cause...American Airlines, BMW North America, Boston Market, The Carlisle Collection, Coldwater Creek, Hallmark Gold Crown, Kitchen Aid, Lean Cuisine, M&M's Brand Chocolate Candies, Mohawk Industries, New Balance Athletic Shoe, Payless ShoeSource, Pier 1 Imports, Quilted Northern Ultra, Rally for the Cure, RE/MAX, United States Bowling Congress, The Val Skinner Foundation, Wacoal America.

Chatting Live about Interactive Promotions

Well I participated in my first virtual trade show yesterday, eComXpo 2007, a three-day event for marketers, networks, etailers, agencies and advertisers. Yesterday was Day 1 and I was the first "Ask the Expert" group chat session scheduled for the event. It was also the first live chat session that I have ever moderated.

My session was titled Interactive Promotions that include Sweepstakes, Contests and Games Create Results. Since I don't have much experience doing these live chats there isn't much for me to compare it to, but in my opinion I would say that it was a success. I had for some time during the 45 minute session probably 15 people in the chat. After we got settled in the questions started to flow pretty quickly. At first people came thinking there was a presentation to follow since the majority of the educational events are set up that way. But once I explained the format everyone seemed comfortable (I may have lost one of two at that point).

I started the conversation going by providing some of the stats that I just sited in my last post from Jupiter Research that Matt Kates from ePrize used in his presentation at PROMO Live's Sweeps, Games and Contest Workshop. That seemed to help and I quickly realized that my audience knew very little about promotional marketing in general. The majority of the attendees of the show are involved in Internet advertising whether an advertiser, publisher, merchant, affiliate or service provider. So, I did review some of the basics by starting with defining that a promotion is normally a limited time offer done in order to increase trial, gain awareness, spike sales, etc.

With interactive promotions, such as sweeps, contests and games, you offer someone the chance to win which raised the question, do you need a prize? Well, yes, if you're going to offer a chance to win, they have to win something. I did mention that with another promotional tactic, sampling, you can instead give away product in order to meet your objectives. I explained that it all comes back to first defining your objective and then your target audience. Once you have these both defined you can then develop a promotion that is relevant to that audience with a prize that is appealing to them.

In my About This Blog post that I first wrote to welcome readers I reviewed the basic principles of promotional marketing. I believe that these have really not changed over time. The technology has changed, and consumers have changed, but the principles really have not. So, take a look. It's a good review.

Anyhow, back to the chat session. Since it's done live in real time I found it a bit challenging to keep up. Once you finish typing an answer to a question and hit the send button, two other questions have popped up in the meantime, so it does make for a jumpy flow. But it still can work. I was a little embarrassed because I was thinking and typing so quickly that I made a few typos which I noticed once they were already posted. Hopefully my group didn't hold that against me. I did receive a few thank-you's as well as follow-up emails, so that made me feel appreciated.

As far as the event, it's going on throughout today and tomorrow. Yesterday I did attend Andy Sernovitz's, author of Word of Mouth Marketing who was very good and one I recommend. If you register for the event you can replay his presentation. There's one this afternoon I'm interested in attending the Social Networking and Affiliate Marketing Panel moderated by Linda Woods, President of Partnercentric.

The first five people that register here using my special discount code, DECLEMENTE, are given the eComUniversity package for free which is a $49.95 value. This enables you to view any of the presentations, along with presentations from the event they held in March, for the next three months. So, that's worth it. After the five registrations are gone you can still register for the event for free and upgrade to the University package at a later time if you choose.

So, please check out the event and let me know what you think. They still have a few bugs to work out, but it's a pretty good event when you think about the fact that it's free and you don't have to go anywhere.
 

Highlights from PROMO Live's Games, Contests, & Sweeps Workshop

One of the PROMO Live half-day Pre-Conference Workshops this year was titled "Games, Contests, Sweeps...Promotions that Engage Your Target Audience in Experiences, Dialogs, and Relationships. Since this is my area of expertise I decided to reach out to ePrize who hosted the workshop this year and see how it went. I did attend PROMO Live this year but wasn't able to make any of the pre-conference workshops. However last year Josh Linkner, CEO of ePrize, hosted a similar workshop which I did attend and found it to be a great experience to have the opportunity to be with other promotional marketers as we discussed this topic.

Matthew Kates, VP of Strategic Services at ePrize shared his PowerPoint deck with me as well as the highlights of the session. Matt started off reviewing the value of online promotions in which he sited a recent survey by Jupiter Research in which they asked consumers what were their top online activities and 50% of those answered participation in contests or sweepstakes. The activities that were higher involved email, search, product research/buying and online billing/statements.

Matt also shared these interesting stats to further show the value of online promotions:

• 80% of consumers have entered an online sweepstakes
• 70% of consumers say they're influenced by promotions
• 68% of consumers actively participate in promotions
• 88% are seeking out more promotions than they did last year
• 81% of consumers say they have made a purchase due to a promotion
• 89% of consumers like to receive promotional messages online, 47% in-store, 33% direct mail, 25% phone, and 6% via text message
• Promotional incentives can more than double email open rates and improve click-through rates by as much as 1000%

The next part of the session they reviewed some of the top trends in online promotions. Advergaming had much discussion in which the group agreed it is an effective tool to drive brand engagement. They further discussed play frequency, time spent on the promotion and its viral applications. User-generated content obviously was another topic in which they talked about how it can be used to generate testimonials and PR as well as gain consumer feedback and enable consumers to feel more engaged with the brand. The words of caution were around recognizing the need to put safeguards in place to avoid negative UGC content from affecting the brand. Mobile was the next big trend that they focused on and how it can be best used. Events, programs targeted to teens and 20 something's and also augmenting existing promotions as another entry channel where the top uses discussed.

Matt pointed out that there are also some "danger spots" to avoid in the world of promotions and why brands should pull in experts in this area to assist them. For one there are many potential legal pitfalls that include different rules and regulations that vary from state to state as well as different industries. Another danger spot is the cheaters...they are out there and use bots and other techniques to illegally win so you have to make sure your promotion is designed securely.

Matt cautioned the group to balance the give and get in which he said "Users have choice in most all marketing experiences. So, it's important to have a balance with the consumer in order for the promotion to be effective. For example, don't ask for too much information if the value you're giving the consumer isn't equally strong or they will simply quit your experience." And lastly be careful that you aren't putting to much emphasis on the promotion being a viral success. I've written quite a bit about viral campaigns over the last few weeks and we've learned that you have to really work them, seed them and make them really WOW in order for then to work.

The workshop wrapped up with an interactive exercise in which the group broke out into 4 teams that were each given a different marketing challenge to solve for a specific brand. Each team got to present its solution to the group and online promotions where they way to go. As I've reported many times before in this blog, the use of interactive promotions, those that offer consumers a chance to win a prize in exchange for submitting their demographic information and preferences, is a win-win for both the consumers and the marketers and an activity that will continue to grow.