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

Pet Video Contest Offers Chances to Win Plus Matching Charity Donations

Art-Casso recently launched a one-of-a-kind pet video contest that we assisted in. Art-Casso is a small online retailer that sells NO MESS paint kit for pets that allows dogs and cats to paint with their paws and/or body.

The company was originally founded in 2006 with the idea that pets and owners could create paw paintings to cherish without making a mess. Joanna Sasso is the Company’s new president who's goal is to revitalize the Art Casso image. She believes that the animal-human bond can be enhanced through this interactive paw painting activity. What better way to create awareness of these products than with a promotion such as this video contest?

Participants can enter the contest by uploading videos of their pets enjoying Art-Casso’s paint kit products. The grand prize winner will receive a $500 check and an additional $500 will be donated to the winner ’s choice of a 501(c)(3) animal charity that is at least three years of age. A First Prize winner will receive $100 along with a matching donation and also a Second Prize winner will receive $50 check also with a matching donation.

To participate, individuals must first visit the Art Casso Facebook page and Like the page to become a fan. They will then be given access to the contest application which contains a special limited-time, Facebook Fan Discount Code that can be used on Art-Casso’s website to purchase a pet paint kit. After receiving the product they then create a video of their dog or cat painting with the kit and then come back to the contest application on Art-Casso’s Facebook page to submit an entry form along with their video.

Video submissions should be no more than one-minute in length and will be accepted up till March 11. At that time a panel of judges that includes Art-Casso President, Joanna Sasso, Celebrity Pet Expert, Charlotte Reed and Givenik Marketing Associate, Ben Cohen will review each submission and select three finalists. “Judges will determine the winner based on pet and owner interaction, creativity of the video and how the duo best highlight the essence of the non-mess paint kit,” says Art-Casso President, Joanna Sasso.

The videos of the three finalists will be featured on Art-Casso’s Facebook page around March 15 and then the public will be invited to vote for their favorite painting pet video up until March 31. The grand prize winner should be announced on April 1.

This promotion is a great example of how you can drive people to both your website and your Facebook page. The contest helps create awareness of the product, hopefully stimulates sales of the product, increases the Facebook fan base and helps to build a database from all those that submitted their information along with their video.

We are again utilizing a Facebook application called Shortstack which is very user-friendly. I will be moderating a panel session next month at PMA's Annual Marketing Conference on Facebook Applications for Building Brands With Promotions. Jim Belosic, Founder of Shortstack, along with Mike Nabasny from Wildfire and Kelly Lund from Capita will be joining me on the panel. More to come on the Conference in a future blog post. I would love to see some of you there.

In the meantime check-out the contest. Since I have several pets, I'm going to be creating one of these pet kits myself very soon!

Super Bowl XLVI Wrap Up....And the Winners Are:

Super Bowl XLVI created some big winners and also some losers. Obviously as we all know now, the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots in what was a come-from-behind, great game. The Giants got to parade down Broadway in New York City yesterday to celebrate with their fans. Yes, the fans and New York are all winners here as well. Plus of course we have Eli Manning, the MVP of the game, who now has two Super Bowl rings, one more than his brother Payton as the media was sure to bring up several times.

In the 6th annual Doritos Crash the Super Bowl Contest the two ads that were chosen from the 5 finalists to broadcast during the game were both winners. However, the Sling Baby ad has now been picked as the winner in the USA TODAY/Facebook Super Bowl Ad Meter. Online voting, began after each ad aired during Sunday night's broadcast and ended at 6 pm on Tuesday. Viewers picked from 55 commercials on which advertisers spent up to a record $3.5 million for each 30-second slot. Kevin Willson submitted the ad of the grandmother and baby who snatched a bag of Doritos and he will now receive a million dollars and a consulting contract with The Lonely Island. The other Doritos ad that was broadcast during the game, Man's Best Friend, came in #6.

All of us who signed up to be Papa John's Reward members and voted in their Super Bowl Coin Toss Experience came out winners as well. I voted for heads and heads was the choice that the majority voted for and heads ended up as the actual winner of the coin toss. Yesterday I received my prize code online which is good for a free, large, one-topping pizza and a two-liter Pepsi MAX. Papa Johns sent an email to all members which I had to retrieve from my spam folder. The email invited me to a landing page which I had to type in my name and email to receive my personal code. I have up till March 4 to redeem my prize. Papa John's now had to award many free pizzas, which hopefully for them will turn all us winners into regular customers. It will be interesting to find out the final results as to how many free pizzas were actually redeemed.

Twitter also came out a winner in the social media category averaging more than 10,000 tweets per second and not crashing! According to Twitter, the most tweeted moment of the game was when 12,233 people tweeted in a single second at the end when Tom Brady's Hail Mary pass wasn't caught. The second most tweeted moment came during Madonna's halftime show, which averaged more than 8,000 tweets per second and had a high of 10,245 tweets in a single second.

Personally I was watching the game with my laptop both tweeting and posting updates on Facebook. It was fun to see what others were saying and commenting on. I was trying to stay up to following a few hashtags on Twitter about the ads. My update on Facebook that received the most Likes and comments during the game was this: "David Beckham is pretty good to look at too. Don't ya think?". Now you get a sense of what my women friends like (as well as a male gay friend who Liked it as well).

Towards the end of the game I wasn't socializing any more. I just grabbed another drink and started praying the Giants would come out on top. Which they did in all nail-biting action. Thanks NFL. Now it will be quite some time before we see anymore football. Bring on the Summer Olympic Games!

BTW - I also finally came out a winner in our squares. The safety in the first quarter helped me win that square with a final score of 9-0!

Doritos Crash The Super Bowl Contest is back for its 6th Year

Super Bowl XLVI will be played on February 5 in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium. That means it's that time of year again to be writing about one of the biggest marketing events of the year. Now that the Green Bay Packers and the New Orleans Saints have been eliminated, what teams do you think will win? I'm going with Eli Manning and the Giants. Here's a great article I read yesterday from the WSJ titled "Why Giants Really Could Win It All".

So the next question will be what marketing and advertising campaign will come out a winner? The team at Doritos is at it again with their sixth "Crash The Super Bowl" contest. This contest has become the grandfather of all user-generated contests. The contest finalists have now been posted and last week their submissions surged to the top of the viral video chart after generating over 1.7 million views. This year's contest received more than 6,100 entries from people hoping their video will become one of two Super Bowl ads to be televised during the game, with a possible $1 million prize if viewers rate their ad highly enough.

The 5 finalists will all receive $25,000 each and a trip to Indianapolis for a private Super Bowl XLVI party hosted by Doritos. Following the voting round, the two finalists with the most votes will be declared the Grand Prize winners and their spots will be aired during the Super Bowl XLVI broadcast. If either of these commercials is awarded one of the top 3 spots (including ties) according to the USA TODAY Ad Meter rankings, that Grand Prize Winner will receive a bonus of $1,000,000 for the #1 spot, $600,000 for the #2 spot OR $400,000 for the #3 spot. In addition, the Grand Prize winners will be offered a consulting contract with The Lonely Island, a comedic trio consisting of Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, and Andy Samberg, best known for a series of "digital shorts" aired on Saturday Night Live.

The voting period is going on now till January 29th. Doritos this year is offering an incentive just for voters with the “Vote For A Chance To Win” Sweepstakes. They have integrated various ways participants can register to vote this year that include mobile and social media. The entry methods include the CrashtheSuperbowl.com website itself, a mobile optimized version of the website at m.crashthesuperbowl.com or crashthesuperbowl.com/mobile, the Doritos Facebook page, via Buzzfeed, through an Xbox console, and by clicking any of the various online banner ads the brand is running.

For every 100,000 votes received, a random drawing will occur from among all entries received during that voting period for a chance to win $10,000. Currently the site meter says they have received close to 300,000 votes, so they must have pulled two winners already that each have won $10.000. Doritos will do up to 10 drawings for a total potential prize pool of $1 million.

I just reviewed the five finalist spots. Three out of the five include dogs. One is a guy who acts like a bird and the last stars a very cute baby. All quite silly. Here's my favorite, which one is yours?

Rail Europe Utilizes a Facebook Contest to Grow and Engage with their Fans

Recently we helped launch a contest on Facebook for our client, Rail Europe, called Cultural Shock. The contest invites fans of their Facebook page to submit an entry that describes an experience that they may have had while in Europe which exemplifies cultural differences between the European and American lifestyle.

Rail Europe is asking people to share their experiences that may have been awkward, unexpected, inspiring or just plain interesting. An example Rail Europe offers is that you ordered steak tartar in France and you thought that you were going to receive regular steak; instead you received a plate of raw meat.

The objective of the contest is to get people to share their submissions with their friends and family on Facebook and invite them to vote for their submission. At the end of the two-week contest period the person with the most votes wins the grand prize for that round. A new contest round starts every two weeks. Currently we are on Round 4 which will be ending on Sunday, Jan. 15. Round 5 is scheduled to start on the following Monday, Jan. 16. We're hoping this is going to be a year-long contest. However, that will depend on if the level of interest and engagement continues to be strong. So far the results have been impressive.

Rail Europe USA is the leading authority of European rail in the United States, representing more than 35 European railroads. They currently assist more than one million visitors each year experience Europe by train. Therefore, the grand prize that is offered for each contest round is a 3-country Eurail Select Pass. Winners have up to six months to claim their pass which can then be used over a two month period.

You can visit Rail Europe's blog were the team has posted some of their European cultural shock experiences to help inspire people to submit their own stories. Submissions may include up to 1,000 characters of text and an optional photo. Currently when I click on the View and Vote tab I see 26 entries for this round that I can vote on. Here's a submission from Erin Clark that I thought was funny:

"When I was 17 and fresh off the farm, I was on a concert band tour of Europe. Toward the end of the tour we were exploring London. Our tour guide took us to The Old Curiosity Shop. I had made my purchases and decided to stand outside. A lady approached me and asked me "By chance do you have a fag?" I was mortified until a chaperone explained that she meant a cigarette."

The winner of the Round 3 contest was Mike Richard from New Hampshire. Mike's submission was an account of his experience last year of taking part in the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain. He received 65 votes! Mike came away without a bruise and stated "The event is unlike anything I have experienced in the United States and would strongly recommend the event to others."

This is the first Facebook contest I have set-up and help manage using the ShortStack Application. I've been very happy with the flexibility the app offers and the support that I have gotten from the ShortStack team. For example, when we first launched Round 1, we had one tab that included both the entry form and all the submission. We moved to a two tab set-up which we have now on the page that allows those who are visiting just to vote to find the entries much easier. When someone submits an entry, they then have the option to post on their wall as well as send out personal invites to some of their friends asking them for their vote. When the friend clicks on the link that takes them to the contest their friend's submission will be the first once shown in the gallery.

So I invite you to become a Facebook fan of Rail Europe and check out the contest. Yes, you have to Like the page in order to view or enter the contest. That's one of the benefits of running a contest like this and using an application that allows for both fan and no-fan content to display. Rail Europe currently has gained over 4,000 fans since we launched the contest back in November.

If you have an European Cultural Shock experience to share, please feel free to submit it in the contest. People can resubmit their entry in another round. However, they can only win once! Congrats to all the current winners. Let's see who's next.

Promo Talk's 2011 Year In Review

Today will be my last post of 2011. Where did 2011 go? The stats on this blog tells me that this will be my 530 post since I launched Promo Talk and the 73 post of 2011.

At the end of 2010 I wrote this post, Promo Talk's Top Stories of 2010: from social media, to check-in's to promotions. These were what I felt were my top posts that helped to define 2010. I decided to continue the tradition so I went back and read through some of the posts that I wrote during 2011. Here are my 12 top picks, one per month, that I felt reflected the pop culture of the month or that defined a major milestone or shift in marketing.

January - See who's winning on Facebook in 2011 with this new Social Media Monitoring Tool

I started off 2011 with one of my first posts about Facebook and it's continued to be one of my most popular topics all year. I state here that 2010 was definitely the year of Facebook. The social network dominated the media towards the end of the year and this has continued throughout 2011. If you recall, Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg was named Time Magazine's 2010 Person of the Year. We were speculating a year ago on when Facebook would file for their IPO and now it's apparent that will happen sometime in second quarter of 2012. So if you haven't yet, check out this Social Media Monitor that was developed by Wildfire. It continues to be one on the resources I turn to when assisting my clients with their Facebook marketing.

February - Did Super Bowl XLV live up to be the Social Super Bowl?

As with tradition, every year I write about promotions and advertising associated with the Super Bowl. This post was written after the game, and yes the Packers won, but overall I felt we were all let down by the overall marketing experience. Today most of us still will say that the Chrysler Detroit ad was one of the best of the year and we still seem to love the Volkswagen Darth Vader spot. But where was the conversation? On Twitter? Perhaps, but were the brands really listening? We'll soon see what this year brings.

March - Memphis Car Audio launches the Fast Five Movie Premiere Sweepstakes utilizing a new cross channel platform.

One of our new clients, the Fulmer Company, partnered with Universal Studios on the theatrical release of The Fast Five, the fifth film in the Fast and Furious film series. We launched for them our first cross-platform promotion which enabled entries into the Sweepstakes and Instant Win Game via Facebook, a mobile-enable web page and through SMS, text messages. It was very successful which this post here provides some updates.

April - Study Shows that Moms Love their Smartphones and to them mobile is mainstream

This “21st Century Mobile Mom Report” revealed that most women purchased a smartphone as a result of having a child and 51% of them admitted that they are “addicted’ to their smartphone. Their favorite feature is the phone camera of course. This report was one of many this past year that drove marketers to get on with their mobile strategies quickly and figure out the best way to market to these women. Mobile has now become mainstream and marketers need to understand now how to build meaningful relationships and connect through this channel.

May - Facebook updates its Promotion Guidelines and stresses importance of professional legal counsel

Facebook's Promotions Guidelines govern all promotions run on Facebook and outline what Page owners can and can not do when running promotions on Facebook. They clearly stated in this update that compliance with these Guidelines does not constitute the lawfulness of a promotion. Therefore, marketers should seek professional advice on what is legal and what is not.

June - And so begins the Google+ Project, the new social network from Google

The introduction of Google+ was one of the most talked and written about topics of the year. Many people said it would not stand a chance to compete against Facebook. Others said how brilliant it was and would change the way we search. We're still in a wait and see mode, but my recommendation for all businesses is to get on board one way or another. The lines between social and search are merging more and more. That is a trend for 2012 we'll see continuing.

July - Social Media Grows Up along with Harry Potter

I've been writing about this magical film and book series since I started blogging back in 2007. This was the last movie in the series to be released and it broke all box office records. But what's special about this post is that reflects on how my daughters grew up with Harry Potter, being the same age as Harry growing up in the story. It also reflects on how much the social media utilized to market Harry Potter changed from the first post I wrote about this series.

August - Social Sweepstakes and Contest Rules & Regs Session from BlogPaws 2011

This was the second year, and the third conference, that BlogPaws has hosted and that I also got to speak at. Both a hurricane and an earthquake where part of the main topics of conversation which was held in Tysons Corner just outside of D.C. on August 25-27. There was approximately 400 people in attendance and I was one of three women who spoke in a session titled Copyright Basics, FTC Updates & Contests Rules & Regulations. I also was the contest administer for this year's BlogPaws Photo/Caption Contest which awarded some trips to the conference. I'm already looking forward to BlogPaws 2012 which will be held in Salt Lake City, June 21-23.

September - Contest from Henkel Helps Kids Get Fit Program Offers Schools a chance to win $30,000

Henkel is the parent company of some famous brands we've all used which include Dial®, Purex®, Renuzit®, Right Guard®, Soft Scrub®, and Loctite®. I had the opportunity to work with their marketing team along with their digital agency on their largest promotion of 2011. Part of my roles was the opportunity to contact all the finalists to deliver the good news that their submission made it as one of top five in one of the three school categories. The winning schools are posted online here along with their videos and essays.

October - Supporting Pink in Honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month

As the calendar turns to October, another one of my traditions is to write about pink promotions, those that support Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This year I wrote this post along with this other later in the month. It's a very personal topic me, as unfortunately it is with many others who have lost a loved one to breast cancer. I lost my mom in April of 2011 to what this one program focuses on, metastatic breast cancer. Now just this year two young women in my golf league both had a double mastectomy. Thankfully, they are both doing well.

November - Live from Day 1 of PMA's 33rd Annual Marketing Law Conference

It was that time of year again for PMA's Annual Marketing and Law Conference which was being held back at the Marriott Hotel on Michigan Ave in Chicago. Social media was again a dominate topic of the sessions. We reviewed both Facebook and Twitter's Promotional Guidelines. However, mobile marketing was another topic that people had a huge interest. This is "Future" as the conference theme suggested. Foursquare location based marketing, QR codes, applications and SMS were all areas discussed. However the laws are still not quite up to speed with the technology.

December - Home for the Holidays T-Mobile Campaign goes Viral

Ending the year on another tradition is my review of some of the best and most unique holiday promotions. This one by T-Mobile is a great example of how to successfully market to women, integrate video with a promotional sweepstakes and engage fans on Facebook. I still can't get that song out of my head. YouTube has recently made some changes to its site to make it more social and therefore is a platform that more and more of us should be integrating into our marketing mix in 2012.

Hope you enjoyed the review. I wish you a very Happy New Year and here's to a wonderful and prosperous 2012. Thanks again for reading!

Contest Helps Us Help Our Neighbors and Reminds us to be Thankful

Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I sit here, in my home, at my computer this morning with many thoughts floating through my head on what to include is this blog post. What strikes me all of a sudden is that I can't believe another year has passed.

It's been a good year for me and my family considering how many families are struggling. Both my daughters arrived home last night from college safe and sound and it's nice to have a full house again. However, Thanksgiving was always my mom's favorite holiday and it will be the second one without her. The holidays are a time when we all realize how much we miss our loved ones that have passed on.

Last night I ended up watching quite a bit of TV while catching up on my email since I had to stay awake in order to pick my daughter up at the Rochester airport at midnight. I was really disappointed by many of the ads that I saw that were all related to Black Friday, which is now becoming Black Thursday.

A Walmart ad told me that they are opening at 10 pm on Thanksgiving night, joining Toys R Us and Kmart. Many of the other big retailers including Target, Best Buy, Macy's and Kohl's have all decided for the first time to open at midnight. Target's ad shows this over-stimulated women in a red suit and white pearl necklace doing work-outs to become a super athletic shopper. I find this ad really, really annoying and not sure what their marketing to women strategy is here. Anyone agree with me?

I asked my other daughter, Alex, who was already home if she was interested in shopping on Thanksgiving night. The retailers say that it's the young adults who are the ones that like to shop at this time because they would rather be up late then have to get up early in the morning and wait in line. Alex said she didn't agree with this. It's the fun and the experience of getting up and joining the crowds. Me, well again, I'm going to stick to surfing the Internet and waiting till another weekend to get to any physical stores.

I do want to share with you a heart-warming, holiday promotion that was just launched this week by the folks at Franz Bakery. Franz Bakery started out as a small neighborhood family-run bakery in Portland, Oregon over 100 years ago. They have grown to become the largest family-owned, independent bakery in the North West with locations throughout Oregon, Washington, Idaho and northern California.

Their agency, the Noot Group, who are based out of Idaho, came to us for guidance on developing a holiday contest. The Help Us Help Your Neighbors Contest invites people to nominate a person, family or organization from the North West region that they believe is in need and deserving of being one of the ten “Neighbors to Help”. Participants must visit the Franz Bakery website and complete an entry form along with an essay that illustrates why they chose this nominee. Franz will judge the submissions and choose ten winners who will each receive a $500 cash prize. The participants who nominated the winners will each receive a year's worth of Franz bread.

There's nothing splashy about this contest and there's no voting or gallery to read the submissions. In fact they all will remain confidential. The winners will be notified sometime after December 15, in time to enjoy some Christmas cheer and have something to be thankful for. Franz is promoting the contest on their Facebook page and directing people back to their website.

I point out this promotion today to remind us all not to get too caught up in the "Black Friday" weekend and all the new technologies that are connecting us. Let's remember what Thanksgiving is all about...giving thanks, sharing the day with family, eating great food and if you can, reaching out in some way to those less fortunate than us. Oh yeah, and let's not forget about football.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and thanks for being a reader.

Let the Holiday Season Begin. Brands looking to Facebook to launch Promotions.

Facebook appears to be the place where many brands and companies are launching their holiday promotions this year. I've already spotted quite a few, so from now till the end of the year I'll try and cover as many interesting and innovative holiday promotions as I can.

I'm going to start with one that we are working on for our client, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. This is the third promotion this year that we have launched with them and this one is to kick off their holiday visitor season. The Share Your Holiday Memories Sweepstakes invites participants to enter the sweepstakes along with a brief story about their Colonial Williamsburg holiday memory or one that they would like to have. One grand prize winner will receive a Colonial Williamsburg vacation for their family, complete with hotel, passes, tickets to programs, a carriage ride, and more good throughout 2012.

Participants also have the option to submit up to three photos or one video along with their story that matches the experience described in their story. This is the first promotion that Colonial Williamsburg has launched exclusively on their Facebook page. For more than 75 years families have been visiting and sharing in the traditions that are experienced at Colonial Williamsburg. This year they wanted to enable visitors to easily share their stories and photos with others, so Facebook was the obvious choice.

Already the Colonial Williamsburg Facebook page has seen a significant increase in their fan base, now at 23,400, since the promotion launched on October 14. The Facebook application allows for visitors to Like the page first by showing a non-fan message to new visitors that asks them to Like the page before they can view and enter the sweepstakes. The application tool utilized for this promotion is provided by Involver, which is my first experience with it. We also worked for the first time with Brains on Fire, one of Colonial Williamsburg's agencies.

You will notice now on Facebook pages that below the current number of "Likes" is a new term called "talking about this". As of this morning Colonial Williamsburg has 1,236 people that have talked about this page since the beginning of the week. The new Facebook analytics now allows you to break this number down and see by gender, age, cities, counties and language who these people are. So not only can you gauge how well your promotion is encouraging people to get the word out for you and share with their friends, but also what type of people and where they're located.

The Share Your Holiday Memories Sweepstakes is only running till next week, November 15, so please check it out before then. You can view the gallery and read some of the memory stories people have shared along with their photos. Also here's a video Colonial Williamsburg created that describes the prize in detail. Makes you want to visit, doesn't it?

PMA's 33rd Annual Marketing Law Conference will be the Social Event

Here we are just about three weeks away from PMA's 33rd Annual Marketing and Law Conference which is back again at the Marriott Hotel on the infamous Michigan Ave. in Chicago. This two-day conference, Nov. 15 and 16, promises to provide the attendees with the things we need to know to comply with the fast changing world of promotion and advertising laws, regulations and government enforcement policies. Special attention this year will be devoted to new rules and developments in social media, both policies and user generated content, as well as mobile including developing and using location-based apps.

This event is something that I really look forward to every year. Not only does it allow me the opportunity to be one of the few marketers in a ballroom filled with lawyers, but it also helps me get a head start on my holiday shopping. As I look over the agenda and see all the topics that are going to be covered I wonder what will really be this year's big take-a way.

It was back in November of '99 when Suzie White, Corporate Counsel for Facebook, presented to us after the lunch break "hot off the press" news. She reviewed with us Facebook's new Promotion Guidelines for running promotions on their platform which they had just posted online the day before. I had just launched my first sweepstakes promotion on Facebook and was very eager to hear what she had to say.

Facebook has come quite a ways over the past two years and has updated these guidelines a few times since then. At the same time we have launched many promotions on Facebook for a variety of clients. So what will be this year's "hot" news? Here are some topics of special interest to me:

What's New in the Game Today: New Promotional Techniques and Twists on Traditional Sweeps, Contests, Promotions from Linda A. Goldstein, Partner, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP and Sweepstakes Diva.

Think Before You Speak: Optimizing Corporate Social Media Policies which includes insights from McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and General Mills.

I Tweet therefore I Am: Legal, Regulatory and IP Social Media Challenges which includes counsel members from Visa, YouTube, Unilver and Facebook.

We Know Where You Are: Developing and Using Location Based Applications including input from MasterCard, Sprint/Nextel and Vibes.

The Ever Shrinking World and Ever-Growing Rules of Mobile Marketing that includes Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility and Energizer.

And the topic I seem to be asked about a lot lately:

One World: How Globalization affects Promotions originating here and across the pond with insights from Microsoft.

There are more topics, of course, but I find these the most relevant to me and our business. Last year was a sold-out, record-breaking event and this year looks to be the same. So book your registration and travel now and visit the PMA site regularly for agenda and speaker updates. Oh and I almost forgot to mention, the cocktail parties are great for both networking and the food and drinks.

BTW, for the sake of disclosure, I've been a guest of the PMA at this conference for the past five years since I do cover the event of my blog. So I invite you to check back here for my posts on the conference highlights.

Photo Halloween Contests for People and Pets

Halloween is now less then a week away and, again, there are many brands promoting the holiday to get the attention of consumers. Here's a couple of fun photo contest that do a good job of pulling us in.

FUJIFILM and Rite Aid are back again with their 7th annual Picture Perfect Halloween Photo Contest.  From now through November 8 entrants can submit Halloween-themed photos and vote for their favorites in seven categories: Best Pumpkin, Cutest Baby Costume, Best Kids Costumes, Best Teens and Adults Costumes, Best Pets, Spooktacular Decorations and Best Make-up.

To enter participants just need to visit HalloweenPhotoContest to register and then upload their photos which they can enter 70 pictures per household among the seven categories. Consumer can also enter the Daily Giveaway to win thousands of prizes such as picture frames, personalized photo t-shirts, puzzles, mugs, stickers, mouse pads, free photo prints and Halloween themed items.

The grand prize winner of the overall best Halloween photo will win a trip for four to Hersheypark in the Dark at Hersheypark, PA, including three days and two nights’ deluxe accommodations at Hershey Lodge, four two-day admission passes to Hersheypark in the Dark, four “Create Your Own Candy Bar” experiences at Hershey’s Chocolate World, four tickets for the town tour on the Hershey Trolley, $300 in Hersheypark “Chocolate Currency,” a Fujifilm FinePix F300EXR digital camera, a Rite Aid photo book and a HERSHEY’S chocolate gift basket.

Another promotion that I've been hearing much about is The PetSmart Monster Cute Photo Contest. Since I'm involved with the BlogPaws pet blogging community, I receive many emails and PR releases related to pet promotions. I have to admit that I have two dogs and two cats who would never sit long enough to be photographed in a costume. But I love looking at photos of pets in costumes.

The submission phase for this contest just ended Monday, Oct. 24. Participants were invited to visit the PetSmart Facebook page to enter. The grand prize winner's pet will appear in a PetSmart commercial plus receive a year's worth of GREENIES® Dental Chews!
There are also weekly winners who will receive $500 PetSmart gift cards!

You can view all the submission now in their gallery. Here's one of Tiramasu who was submitted in the Cutest category titled Little Miss Moo Moo. Plus here is our cat representative named Pai posing in a pumpkin and a witch costume.

There are a total of over 1,300 photo entries to view, so take your time reviewing them all. The contest includes two rounds of judging and public voting. Round 1 judging began on September 19 and will end on October 31 with the public voting already ended as of October 24. Round 2 judging will now begin on October 31 and end on November 4 with public voting beginning then and ending on November 3. PetSmart will announce the Grand Prize winner sometime after November 4.

I still remember the photo I took of my golden retriever, Shadow, for a company holiday greeting card with him wearing a Santa Claus hat. It finally worked only because I was petting him at the same time I took the photo. So I promised him I wouldn't make him do this again. But I applaud those who can get their pets to sit long enough in a costume to photograph them.

So Happy Halloween everyone. Have a safe and fun holiday.

Union Diamond Contest to Award Engagement Ring to a Member of the Armed Forces

Online retailer, Union Diamond, contacted us back in August regarding their desire to run a contest to award a diamond engagement ring to one member of the United States Armed Forces. They wanted to launch this contest in September to coincide with the 10th anniversary of 9/11 which was approaching, so we got to work with them quickly.

The contest is titled ''My Perfect Union" which launched on September 21. Members of the military, on active duty or retired, may be nominated either by themselves or by friends or family members that they believe has the "Perfect Union" and deserving of being the Grand Prize recipient of a diamond engagement ring. They can tell the story through a video and or essay submission at www.MyPerfectUnion.com.

Scott Anderson, President and CEO of Union Diamond, is featured on the contest website in a video describing the contest and his intentions behind this. Scott stated ''For me, it is the perfect way to show my appreciation to the men and women who protect us. I want to hand this platinum ring to them, look them in the eyes and tell them ‘thank you’ for all that they’ve done”.

So far as of this morning there are 116 nominations. There are some amazing stories here that people have shared that make you wish we could award them all. Many include those that are currently deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

One story that I happen to read was submitted by a friend who tells the story of Mike, who while serving in Afghanistan, lost 3 fingers when a bomb detonated in his hand. After nine months in the hospital, Mike returned home to be with his wife and daughter. His daughter will be turning four in January and he and his wife will be celebrating their 10th anniversary this November. What a nice present that ring would make to help the celebration.

The submission period closes on November 28, 2011. All submissions are being reviewed by a panel of judges selected by Union Diamond. The judges will evaluate all eligible submissions based on the following criteria: 30% on individuality/uniqueness, 30% on inspirational and 40% on compelling. They will narrow the submissions down to the top six who received the highest score and announce them on the website for people to review. The Nominator of the Submission with the highest score will be notified that their Nominee is the potential recipient of the Grand Prize, a diamond ring. 

As Scott states on the website "This isn't just any engagement ring I'm giving away...The center Diamond is over a carat, D in Color and Internally Flawless in Clarity and its set in a stunning "Natalie K" designer Precious Platinum Diamond Engagement Ring. It's worth OVER $40,000!"

The winner announcement is planned to take place on December 6, just in time for the holidays. So stay tuned.