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

Other than the Giants or Patriots, who else will come out a winner from Super Bowl XLVI?

I will be one of the millions watching Super Bowl XLV1 this Sunday and hoping for a good game, which it should be. As I've stated in my posts over the past couple of weeks, I'm behind the New York Giants all the way and would love to see Eli Manning get another super bowl win, especially while in his brother Peyton's home stadium. I'm sure Peyton will be there also, just not on the field this year.

I'm also hoping to see some real social media integration with the advertising campaigns that we see. If the advertisers are paying an average of $3.5 million for a spot, you would think they would try and get the most bang for their bucks. Last year I called it the "Social Super Bowl" and was disappointed with the overall advertising experience. Other than posting ads on social media, the brands did very little to really engage people and integrate social media into their strategies.

Other than the Giants beating the Patriots, who else is going to come out a winner? Last year the Volkswagen Darth Vader ad scored the highest in the USA Ad Meter for best liked ad. (What was not to like?) Volkswagen utilized social media to post the ad on their blog, on YouTube and their Facebook page five days before the game and it had 13 million views before kickoff. Sine then the ad as gotten numerous awards and nearly 50 million views on YouTube.

This year Volkswagen has already launched The Bark Side, a teaser video featuring a chorus of dogs barking The Imperial March. If you haven't seen it yet, here it is. I love it and think it's brilliant (especially since I'm a sucker for doggies!). It currently has over 10 million views on YouTube. If you click through to YouTube you will also be given the opportunity to view their new game time ad called "The Dog Strikes Back".

Papa John's, the Official Pizza of the NFL, decided not to run an ad during the game last year, but instead launched a huge promotion. They offered a free, large, three-topping pizza to all of its online rewards program members if the game went into overtime as well as a $45 Papa John’s gift card every 45 seconds to randomly selected consumers who ordered its pizzas online during game day.

This resulted in Papa John’s selling over a million pizza's during game day which beat it's previous Super Bowl Sunday sales record of 940,000 pizzas in 2010. Of course they didn't give out the free pizzas since the game last year didn't go into overtime. BTW, the Super Bowl has never gone into overtime, so the odds where in their favor. Papa John's did increase their loyalty membership numbers significantly though from this.

Now this year's promotion has a little better odds for their rewards members. They're offering a free, large, one-topping pizza and a two-liter Pepsi MAX to each member depending on the game’s coin toss. To be eligible people have to be a rewards program and call either heads or tails on the toss at papajohns.com. Tomorrow, Feb. 2, Papa John's will announce on their website what America's choice was and then if that choice is correct on game day all members will win. I just voted and went with heads. So we'll see.

Papa John’s is also running another sweepstakes but instead of giving away gift cards, their giving away pizzas. This year they have been randomly selecting winners from among online pizza-orders every 46 seconds each weekend starting back on Friday, Dec. 30, and ending on this Saturday, Feb. 4, the evening before game day. To follow the "No Purchase Necessary" requirement, rewards members also can enter without ordering a pizza, by following instructions in the Official Rules.

This year Papa John's has also created a promotional 30-second spot TV spot that stars Super Bowl champions Peyton Manning and Jerome “The Bus” Bettis kibitzing in a football stadium with Papa John's founder/chairman/CEO “Papa” John Schnatter talking about the coin-toss promotion. The commercial first aired during Jan. 22’s NFC and AFC Championship games, and has been airing since then.

They have integrated social media into the campaign by including a dedicated Twitter hashtag (#freepapajohns). Also when participants vote online for the coin-toss they have the option to sign into Facebook to “personalize” their experience. I did and I got to see my Facebook profile photo with my name up on the scoreboard in the stadium integrated into the online video. It happened so quickly though I almost missed it. So not the best social media integration I would say.

So now I two have a chance of being a winner after this Sunday's Big Game. Either I could win a free pizza from Papa John's along with an actual Chevy and other prizes from Chevy's Gametime app. (Plus some cash if my squares come out lucky!) It's great to see promotions playing a big role in these marketing strategies. Plus. I'm sure Volkswagen and Doritos won't be the only ads with animals in them. Hope you enjoy the game. I'll be writing a post game review next week. So please check back.

Super Bowl Mobile App from Chevy comes with a big Game Time Sweepstakes

Last Sunday was by far one of the most exciting NFL conference championship game days any real football fan can ask for. Yes, it will take a while for Raven fans to get over the missed chip-shot field goal and the 49er's to wonder what if they didn't turn over the ball in overtime. We're now moving on to Super Bowl XLVI with a big rematch between the Patriots and the Giants. As I said in my last post, I'm betting on Eli Manning and the New York Giants to be this year's champions.

The Super Bowl has now become the most active topic of the millions of us who write blogs posts and updates on Facebook, Twitter and now, Google+. In 2011, the only Facebook status update topic in the world, amongst 800 million users at the time that beat out the Packers winning Super Bowl 45 was the death of Osama bin Laden. Since many of these tweets and Facebook updates come via a mobile phone, this year General Motors and Chevrolet is adding mobile to their mix to capitalize off this.

If you want to watch the Super Bowl on February 5th on your smartphone or tablet, Chevy's got an app for that. The Chevy Game Time app is now available in the Android Market, Apple's App Store and at chevy.com/gametime. The app will ask viewers trivia and poll questions on subjects including the game, teams and commercials. Participants who answer trivia correctly or choose the most-common poll answer will be entered into the Chevrolet Game Time Sweepstakes drawing. The sweepstakes is awarding thousands of prizes including some instant Win Prizes from Bridgestone, Motorola, the NFL and NFLShop.com, Papa John's Pizza and Sirius XM Radio.

Chevrolet will be running several ads during NBC's Super Bowl broadcast. When someone downloads the app, they receive a unique "license plate" number and if anyone's numbers match any plate in Chevy's Super Bowl spots, they will win one of 20 Chevy's. There is also an alternate means of entry in which someone that does not want to download the app can register for the sweepstakes by visiting chevy.com/gametime.

So I just downloaded the app and will try it out. I don't have a tablet yet, so I will be experiencing it off my Droid Incredible phone. Should be interesting. In the meantime we all now have to go a whole weekend with no football! Let the fun begin.

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?

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!

T-Mobile's Home for the Holidays Campaign Goes Viral

You may have already seen and heard about this holiday campaign from T-Mobile: There's no Place Like Home for the Holidays. You know the saying and the song, right? 

T-Mobile hired 100 women who joined their corporate spokeswoman, Carly Foulkes, back on December 1 and staged a surprise performance of this song in the Woodfield Mall outside of Chicago. We all know Carly, that striking brunette that appears in T-Mobile ads wearing that signature color, magenta dress. T-Mobile selected 100 women from different races and ethnic background, shapes and sizes, who all got to wear that same magenta dress and surprise shoppers by prancing around the mall singing that song and encouraging all to join in.

The performance was filmed by director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, who has directed several episodes of Glee. It was then edited down into a three-minute video that has now been going viral on YouTube and on the T-Mobile Facebook page. You just can't help but smile when you watch this video which is the same feeling for those that are hooked on Glee.

Trish Cox, senior director of advertising and brand at T-Mobile had stated that women consumers really had a fascination with Carly and her magenta dress. “One of the things that has taken hold [with the campaign] were the magenta dresses she’s wearing,” Cox says. “Over the course of time, we’ve asked ourselves what we could do to capitalize on this idea.”

Since the video was posted on YouTube last week it already has nearly 2 million views. So it has definitely gone viral. T-mobile is also promoting it through rich-media banner advertising and some paid search ads. They also are planning to send it to their customers and employees as a “special holiday greeting”.

To further engage their customers, T-Mobile has also launched the Home for the Holidays Sweepstakes on their Facebook page which invites fans to write, in 100 words or less, why they want to go home to visit their families for the holidays. Three lucky winners will be selected from all the entries who will receive round trip travel to anywhere in the United States so they can spend the holidays with the ones they love. The sweepstakes ends today, so if you're what to enter you need to check it out now.

The campaign is all intended to reinforce the company’s position as one that is “all about connecting and sharing and providing connections and relationships among people,” Cox says. In my opinion it's also another great example of how to successfully market to women, integrate video with a promotional sweepstakes and engage fans on Facebook. I am not a T-Mobile customer, and won't be switching from Verizon anytime soon, but I am enjoying this video and hope you do as well. I am also really looking forward to my daughters coming home for the holidays.

Facebook Apps that Help to Get Fans in the Holiday Spirit

This holiday season many brands are turning to Facebook to promote their marketing campaigns while trying to grow and engage their fan base. Utilizing applications to run a sweepstakes or contest, give away coupons, administer a brief survey, or to promote a charitable cause are all great ways to get people involved beyond just clicking the "Like" button.

ShortStack is one of the newer applications that I have been trying out this past year. They recently announced their new Holiday Reveal Calendar template which enables you to run a campaign where users can unlock new content on your tab each day. It's idea for a 12 days of Christmas countdown type promotion.

Once a user has opened a day they will be able to see the prize, deal, gift, or whatever that has been placed within! If the day is still locked, the user will be served a message asking them to come back later to see the hidden content. The Calendar template is completely customizable, so you can use whatever graphics and photos you wish. Here's a video you can view that gives a quick review..

One company currently utilizing this ShortStack template for a holiday promotion on their Facebook page is AMD, a computing and graphics solutions technology company.

Now through January 2 the AMD Holiday Sweepstakes will be offering chances to win prizes ranging from products by HP to Marc by Marc Jacobs. Participants must Like the page first and then are invited to come back each day and enter for a chance to win that day's prize. The grand prize will be offered on the last day of the Holiday Sweepstakes, January 2, which includes an AMD Eyefinity setup and an HP TouchSmart 320-1050 All-in-One-PC.

Wildfire is another application that I have utilized for many clients and have written about before. Last month they launched their Advent Calendar template that also allows for the opportunity to create a calendar with up to 31 days that can reveal a special treat, message, gift, or prize each day.

Wildfire is offering these “advent-like” templates through their new Social Marketing Suite. To help promote the new templates Wildfire launched the 31-Days of Social Media advent calendar on their own fan page that offered daily social media advice throughout the month of November.

These are just a few of the ways you can add some fun content on your Facebook page to help get into the holiday spirit and engage your audience.

I have always had Advent calendars in the house since I was a child and then continued the tradition by giving them to my daughters, so I especially love these ideas. However, our calendars always revealed a different piece of chocolate each day. Now an app that could deliver that would be high on my list!

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.

Many Companies Going Pink for the Cure this Year

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and as the month moves on we are seeing more and more pink than I ever remember. We love the fact that so many companies and organizations are pitching in to help spread the word this year. I wrote this post a couple of weeks ago about this cause and highlighted all the NFL players who are decked out in pink this month. Here's a few more of some of my favorite companies that are supporting the cause.

Yoplait's super-popular Save Lids to Save Lives program is back and and I've been eating my fair share of their yogurt. They are accepting lids through the end of the year and for each lid received, 10 cents will be donated to breast cancer research... up to $2 million! This year they've added a way for us to redeem our lids online to make it real easy for us as well as for the folks at Yoplait. Visit their Save Lids Save Lives website to find out how. Hey, they even customized the page to include a Rochester, NY greeting for me. Plus you can share your story here as well.

On Yoplait's Facebook page they are featuring the Save the Lids campaign and have a "Share with Friends" option. Here you can select a message from a choice of nine to share on your wall to help encourage your friends to save the lids as well. I chose the "I collect Pink Yoplait lids for my mom" message.

Another brand, Food Should Taste Good, is encouraging fans to "do good." Visit their Facebook page and you can send coupons to friends for free bags and also enter a sweepstakes for a chance to win a year's supply of chips. 100% of the proceeds go to groups fighting breast cancer. You can also buy pink bags of the brand's snacks in stores which a portion of the proceeds also going to breast cancer organizations.

One of my new favorite teas, First Specialty Tea, has added Strawberry Hibiscus Tea to their Sip for the Cure cause! For every tin of tea purchased they donate a $1 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure and have previously donated over $1 million. The products can actually be purchased in their Facebook Store.

Sutter Home Winery has launched the 10th year of their Sutter Home for Hope program,  which also raises money for breast cancer research, treatment and education programs. Now through the end of the year they will donate $1, up to $100,000, for every top-quality seal or receipt from any Sutter Home bottle of wine that they receive. 

On the Sutter Home Facebook Page they are offering ways for people to get involved such as submitting a photo for a chance to be included in their Ribbon of Life. Also 400 lucky fans will receive an exclusive Sutter Home pink jersey and everyone can take their Breast Cancer Awareness quiz and post their knowledge on their wall. Sutter Home is also currently running the Sweet Escape Sweepstakes which offers a chance to win one of four really nice destination travel packages.

So please support these brands and the cause, especially this month. Hopefully we will help to make a difference.

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.

Supporting Pink in Honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October is here and we're starting to see a good amount of Pink in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month. Many big brands and organizations have become supporters in one way or another to help create awareness and raise funds for breast cancer research. So each October I usually will do a couple of blog posts on who's doing what to support the cause.

Some first signs of Pink I noticed this past Sunday while watching NFL football. That's because throughout October the league is allowing players, coaches and referees to wear pink gear and feature special game balls and pink coins in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The NFL's campaign "A Crucial Catch", is in partnership with the American Cancer Society, and is focused on the importance of annual screenings. Some players are supporting the cause by wearing pink cleats, gloves, sweatbands and towels. All apparel worn at games will be auctioned off at NFL Auction with proceeds benefiting the American Cancer Society and team charities. You can purchase some of this pink gear and apparel at the NFL Shop.

The idea for the shoes came from Carolina Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams whose mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004. She is now in remission, however his three sisters died from the disease. "Her detecting it early was the reason she was able to pull through it,” Williams said in this NY Times article.

Another interesting campaign this year, "The Pledge To Fight Forward", is being sponsored by pharmaceutical marketer Celgene, in an effort to focus attention on women suffering from metastatic breast cancer. Metastatic cancer is a cancer that has spread from the part of the body where it started (the primary site) to other parts of the body. The campaign is built around a digital component, this website, which enables supporters to pledge by sending an electronic postcard to show support and spread awareness of metastatic breast cancer. Supporters are also encouraged to send them the old-fashioned way via actual postcards distributed in hospitals, doctors' offices and treatment centers.

I just sent one of these postcards to my sister since this is personally very close to us. We lost our mom last year to metastatic breast cancer. Here was a situation in which the breast cancer was detected early and the doctors thought they had cured her. Only to find out a year later that it was back in her lungs. My sister was the primary family member that supported my mom through this illness and accompanied her on most of her visits to the doctor and the treatment center. We didn't initially understand all that you eventually learn once you do have a loved one with cancer. Support groups such as this are indeed a source of information and hope.

Many of us have personal stories that we can share regarding this terrible illness. With all the research and communications encouraging early screening we hopefully will start to see a decrease in the amount of women this affects. Just this past summer two women on our golf league each had double mastectomy surgery. Both are doing well and appear to be fine. One of the women was our league leader who, with all she was going through, hardly missed a week of golf and still kept the group organized.

This past weekend at our annual end of the year golf tournament and dinner we thanked our leader by donating to a local organization, The Breast Cancer Coalition of Rochester. I helped organize the event and was so pleased at the tremendously positive response that it generated which resulted in a $550 donation.

It's amazing what can be done when people get behind a cause they feel passionate about. This is definitely one of them.