Happy New Year everyone. We have now started not just a new year, but a new decade! I'm really looking forward to 2010 and have some very exciting things that I'm working on that I want to tell you about.

First off today we launched the new look for the Lip-sticking blog and announced the launch of The Lip-sticking Society. As many of my readers know I am one of the five women bloggers who writes for the Lip-sticking blog which was originally created by Yvonne DiVita back in 2004. I have been working with Yvonne behind the scenes during the second half of 2009 to expand the Lip-sticking brand and The Lipsticking Society is a result of this. This is, however, just the beginning and we have quite a bit more work to do.

Here's what Yvonne had to say on the blog this morning:

Welcome to The Lip-sticking Blog, an integral part of The Lip-sticking Society. Starting this year, we're expanding our reach to include services, advertising, and a Learning Center where we will offer concrete, actionable articles and webinars and content small business owners can use to build a stronger, more successful business this year.

Take a moment to visit The Lip-sticking Society's homepage and tell us what you think. We encourage feedback and participation. Let us help you make 2010 a star-studded year of amazing success.

So please give me your comments here about what you think of the new Lip-sticking site and what you'd like to see on it. I'm in charge of marketing and sales for the Lip-sticking Society and we are seeking sponsors and advertisers, so if you or your clients want to reach a very influential group of women, please contact me.

I'll also be writing about some other new exciting projects that I'm involved in, so please stay tuned and thanks again for being part of Donna's Promo Talk.

For those of us still working this week, or at least checking our email and social networks, it's been a nice time to catch-up and reflect on the past year. Over the Christmas weekend I spent some time reviewing all the blog posts that I contributed during 2009. I counted 109, so with this post I raise the total to an even 110. That equates to about a third of the year that I have invested part of my day to blogging.

For me 2009 was a year that I not only kept up my passion for blogging here, but I expanded my social media reach. The major highlights included increasing my guest blogging on the Lip-sticking blog to a weekly commitment, starting a Twitter page which resulted in over 1,600 followers so far and connecting with many old and new friends on Facebook. 

So I thought I would provide a summary of what I think are some of my top posts that help to define 2009. Looking back I tried to pick one post a month that is either of a promotion that reflected the pop culture of that time or one that defined a major milestone or shift in social media. So if I may here are my picks:

January - Facebook Helps Connect us to the 2009 Presidential Inauguration

Normally the majority of my posts this time a year are a countdown to the Super Bowl. With being a big NFL fan and a marketer I just love to read and write about what the major brands are doing. So I have quite a few dedicated to the big game, including this post on the infamous Dorito's consumer-generated ad contest. However, instead I'm selecting this post that really started us off to the year.

February - And the Oscar Goes To....This Year's Winning Promotions

This month we were treated to the 81st Annual Academy Awards and, as with the Super Bowl, several marketers created ads and programs affiliated with the event, but in this case directed to a more female audience. I was speculating whether Slum Dog Millionaire would win, and they did, which resulted in us all now being familiar with the term Bollywood.

March - Twitter, Facebook and Skittles...Oh My!

Both Facebook and Twitter were now getting quite a bit of press during the first quarter of 2009 and this brand decided to take the leap to create a totally new online experience that integrated these social media sites. Many, however, questioned their decision.

April - The Final Four is Here - What Brand-Sponsored Bracket are you following?

I spent a good amount of time in March attending some top marketing conferences and blogging about them so I didn't get a chance to write about who was doing what to promote March Madness until this post. For this year's countdown to the Final Four we were exposed to many different sponsored brackets to chose from and we even got to follow President Obama's bracket picks!

May - American Idol Finale. Did Google & Twitter Get It Right?

We experienced another popular season of American Idol, however, this one was a bit different since it included Twitter which made for a totally new experience. I was one of the many that watched the show on TV while also following the real-time tweets and sharing a few myself. The finale was a surprise to many and as of today we're still not sure since we have seen more from the #2 Idol than #1.

June - Bing, Microsoft's New Search Engine Arrives With a Wimper

There was much too choose from in June which included some major theatrical releases, such as the next  Transformers film, a Season 2 of the hit HBO TV show, True Blood, along with the sudden death of Micheal Jackson which was initially announced on Twitter. However, the month got started with the announcement of the much anticipated launch of Microsoft's Bing new search engine.

July - Promotions Help to Give Starbucks the Most Popular Brand on Facebook Title...For Now

The benefits of the combination of promotions and social media was beginning to become really apparent with the fact that Starbucks surpassed Coca-Cola as the #1 brand on Facebook. It also was a confirmation to what I have been describing as "Social Sweeps" promotions as becoming one of today's leading marketing strategies.

August - MAD MEN inspires brands to create some stylish AD campaigns to help kick-off season 3

Well I wasn't a fan of Mad Men until this season and am now totally hooked on this amazing series. I'm currently in the process of watching Season 1 On Demand and I just got Season 2 on DVD as a Christmas present from my daughter (which I had hinted on Facebook that I wanted and she got the hint!). Reading Media Post's Mad Blog written by Dorothy Parker as you watch the episodes is a must! 

September - Hanes T-Shirt Contest Seeks Passionately Pink Designs

In anticipation of October being breast cancer awareness month many brands starting kicking off their "Pink" promotions. These were especially close to my heart this year since my mom has been battling breast cancer and had a very tough year. Our prayers go to the many fighting this disease along with their families.

October - Google Wave....Will it be the email of the 21st Century?

Google made quite a few major announcements during 2009 and the launch of Google Wave was one of them. I still haven't experienced it personally, but I did share on Twitter and Facebook this very cool "Waving Good-bye to 2009" post on YouTube created with Google Wave.

November - Day Two at PMA's Marketing Law Conference: FTC "We have no intention of shutting down the blogosphere"

December - Twis the Season Twitter promo & Winter Wonder-Win game help promote American Express Gift Cards for the Holidays

With the economy as it was this year many brands decided to give-back through charitable holiday programs. Amex was one brand that not only partnered with the great organization, but also integrated fun promotions executed on Twitter and also online that promoted their brand and products.

Hope you enjoyed the recap. Happy New Year and here's to a wonderful and prosperous 2010,

It's the day before Christmas Eve and I still have some packages to ship and cards to send. Guess I'm doing the overnight shipping thing. It is also the day that I write on the Lip-sticking blog which I did this morning and now want to include my post here as well. So here it is. Now I have to get that package ready and on it's way. Those UPS folks do an amazing job this time of year, don't they?

Today I wanted to write more about the brands and companies that are using this holiday season to thank their customers and partners by contributing to a charity and giving back to the community. Here are five companies that I've come across with a charitable promotion this year. I'm sure there are many more that could be added to the list, so please do.

Xerox Let's Say Thanks - I think this is the third year that Xerox is supporting this program which provides a way for individuals across the country to recognize U.S. troops stationed overseas. Visitors to this website can send a free personalized postcard greeting to deployed servicemen and women. There are many postcard designs to chose from which are illustrations of patriotic scenes and hometown images that were selected from a pool of entries from children across the country.

So all a person has to do is click on a design and either select a message or create their own personal note. The postcards are then printed on the Xerox iGen3® Digital Production Press and mailed in care packages by military support organization Give2TheTroops.

Google's Happy Holidays  - I actually received an email from Google this morning which said "As we near the end of the year, we wanted to take a moment to thank you for the time, energy, commitment, and trust you've shared with us in 2009. With sharing in mind, this year we've decided to do something a little different. We hope you'll find it fits the spirit of the holiday season."

Google's little something is a $20 million dollar donation which you can see here a list of the current intended charities.

Macy's Believe - Macy's is donating $1 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation for every letter addressed to Santa Claus that was mailed at an official R.H. Macy Santa Mail Letterbox at a Believe station in Macy's stores. They have created a special Believe website in which they hosted a special "Tell us Why You Believe" Contest and the Believe meter that tracks the number of letters received.

They have pledged up to $1 million and as of today they have hit it with the Believe meter reading 1,000,000 letters received. Believe is inspired by a letter written by 8-year old Virginia O'Hanlon back in 1897 asking if there was really a Santa Claus. Journalist Francis P. Church responded with what became a famous essay, "Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus".

PetSmart is donating 10 percent of the $5 purchase price of a plush, collectible dog toy named Chance and their Luv-A-Pet holiday ornaments to PetSmart Charities to "help save the lives of homeless pets".

PayPal Re-gift the Fruitcake - Social media was integrated into this promotion where consumers were able to "give the gift no one wants and give the gift everyone needs." The fruitcakes were icons that linked to sites where users could make a donation to one of 25 charities. People created the fruitcakes with a designated charity and sent them to their Facebook friends who then could re-gift them and send to their friends. The program ended yesterday and their website states that they've raised over $22,000.

I already wrote this post on American Express who has partnered with United Way as well as this post on Iams Home 4 the Holidays Program. I received an update from IAMS who told me that 808,147 pets had been adopted as of December 17th! They are definitely on our way to reaching their 1.5MM goal by Jan. 4th.

So I do want to thank you all for reading my posts both on the Lip-sticking blog and here on Donna's Promo Talk. I wish you all a very wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year.

Well I couldn't let the holiday season pass us by without writing a post about those clever little elves that Office Max has brought back again for their fourth Christmas. JibJab is also back on the team for the 2009 edition of ElfYourself, the extremely popular website that features dancing elves you customize with the faces of you and your friends. The site has become an Internet holiday tradition drawing millions of visitors each year.

ElfYourself started back in 2006 and was a surprising viral marketing hit with 36 million views in its first year. In 2007, it really took off and reached 193 million views which I reported in this post. Last year I wrote about it again here when Office Max teamed up with JibJab to power the site. However they experienced a significant drop in views only bringing in 55 million. Much of the dropoff was a result of requiring visitors to register in order to share their videos with their friends. So while the videos didn't go as viral as they had the previous year, it did give JibJab a larger userbase.

It looks basically the same as last year where visitors can create up to 5 elves and select from various dancing styles like hip-hop, dance and new this year is disco and country. They can now pay to have their elves printed on gift cards or greeting cards, or to download a version they can store locally.

What I've read online is that views have been up considerably from last year. So we'll have to get a report back after the season has passed. Well here's my video. Enjoy!

I did just receive an update regarding the IAMS Home 4 the Holidays campaign which I wrote this post about last week. I was informed that 808,147 pets had been adopted as of December 17th! They are definitely on our way to reaching their 1.5MM goal by January 4th (only 14 days left now)!

I continued my blog coverage of holiday promotions over at the Lip-sticking blog today since since I am the Wednesday guest blogger. So here it is:

There's now only nine days left till Christmas and I've only had the chance to blog about a few of the great holiday promotions some brands are doing this year. I've especially been writing about those that I define as a Social Sweeps promotion which is an interactive promotion that integrates with at least one form of social media.

Well here's a pretty cool one that American Express launched at the beginning of December to help promote their new Gift Cards as the perfect gift this holiday season. Their ’Twis the Season Twitter promotion @americanexpress asked followers to tweet about any holiday gift they want, up to a $100 value, using the following format: Hey @americanexpress. I have _________ on my holiday list. Pick me! #amexgiftcard.

On each business day through yesterday, December 15, American Express randomly selected three participants who received a $100 American Express Gift Card.

American Express also launched a online interactive game called Winter Wonder-Win that runs now through January 30. Visitors must first register using an e-mail address and then they can play the game in which they use a digital ice scraper to clear off nine panes in a window. If they uncover three of the same Amex gift cards in a row, they can win a $25, $50 or $100 gift card instantly.

Both promotions are hoping to educate consumers on the fact that they’ve now made their Gift Cards even better with no monthly fees and with funds that never expire. Do you remember some of the bad press associated with gift cards because some where no longer good after a certain time period and had huge fees associated with them?

American Express is also giving back this holiday season and has teamed up with the United Way to provide the United Way Gift Card. For each card purchased, American Express will donate the $3.95 purchase charge to support United Way’s work. American Express is just one of United Way's national partners that is working together to create more innovative opportunities to support local communities during the holiday season, especially given the economy.

Another United Way partner is Target whose stores across the country are donating 3,400 decorated holiday trees, estimated at $1.7 million, through the Target Share-a-Tree Program—now in its 19th consecutive year. United Way volunteers will distribute the trees to families in need and partners such as shelters, community centers and childcare programs. 

So if you still have some holiday shopping to do (like me) consider American Express gift cards, or better yet the United Way Gift Card, for those on your list that you don't know what to get them. Don't forget to visit your local Target store as well.

By the way, I have no association with any of these brands, but I do have an American Express credit card which I am happy to say has not increased my interest rate like my MasterCard bank has! Happy Holidays everyone.

This promotion is an extension of the Fly Away Sweepstakes that I managed for three years that was in conjunction with Continental Airlines. The company I was working with, In-Flight Media, created a destination of the month from those the airline flew to and produced a video of that destination by teaming up with their respective tourism department. Well that program ended at the end of 2008 and now In-Flight Media has got a similar one started with Delta and kicked it off with the Israel Ministry of Tourism whose goal is to promote the country during the December holiday season.

We're doing things a little differently now though for this program. Instead of just a entering the sweepstakes through a promotional micro-site we've integrated social media into the campaign and have truly made it a Social Sweeps promotion. Entries are also accepted through the Facebook platform at www.Facebook.com/GoIsrael which is the Fan page for the Israel Ministry of Tourism in the U.S.

The sweepstakes is being run off the Wildfire App, one of a few third-party developers working closely with Facebook who I wrote about in this post back in June. They've been hard at work over the last few weeks updating their tool to be in compliance with Facebook's new promotional guidelines that I originally wrote about while at PMA's Marketing Law Conference. So by utilizing the Wildfire App we're totally legit in how this is running on Facebook. When you visit the Go Israel Fan page you will see the tab that has been added to the upper right of the main menu on their page. So whenever anyone enters the sweepstakes they can easily share it by posting it to their wall and they can then also invite their friends to enter as well. It's the viral nature of the social network that enables a person to share with their friends information about a chance to win a trip or other great prizes that makes this a winning combination.

The app also enables us to use the same method of entry for the micro-site which gives people the option to utilize Facebook Connect and share with their friends even though they may not be on Facebook. Plus a new option that was recently added is the sweepstakes for Twitter solution which is a powerful way to build Twitter followers and spread the word via Twitter. Entrants automatically can become a Twitter follower of the sponsor when they enter (though they can opt-out) and they can also automatically tweet their followers to increase their changes of winning. Entrants only increase their chances of winning based on how many of their followers engage with the sweepstakes not simply on whether or not they choose to tweet about it.

Many sweepstakes currently being run on Twitter lack legitimacy because they do not provide a way for entrants to access the Official Rules or provide their contact information and nor do they provide a way for the company to easily and accurately randomly draw the winners. This app technology provides is with an easy way to run legitimate sweepstakes while also providing the added benefit of building Twitter followers and spreading the word about a brand and promotion.

So please check it out and feel free to enter the sweepstakes. It only lasts till the end of December. My company, DDC Marketing, is a partner agency of the Wildfire App and we just recently finished a promotion that utilized this app for our local AMA chapter which I wrote about here. We are getting ready to launch a sweepstakes for another client in January and have others in the development stage. With this app and our experience in developing and managing promotions we can easily get a powerful Social Sweeps promotion up and running for a client in days. So please contact me if you'd like more information or if you'd like to discuss developing a promotion. Would love to toss some ideas around with you.

And also....Happy Chanukah to all.

Today being Wednesday was my day to post over at the Lip-sticking blog. If you aren't aware (and most of you that read my blog probably are not) Yvonne DiVita, the founder of Lip-sticking, also has a petblog that she writes called Scratching and Sniffings which is sponsored by Purina. So she receives quite a bit of content and requests to blog about pet related products and programs. This one program came from Iams, which reached out to many bloggers to help spread the word. Iams of course is a direct competitor to Purina, so Yvonne wasn't able to write about it. But I can and since I have two dogs and two cats, it's dear to my heart.

So last week I began my annual blogging about holiday promotions and started with this post about the Sephora Claus Twitter promotion. So as promised I'm continuing with the holiday theme, however, this Iams program takes on a much more serious tone that Sephora. Iams is back with their Home 4 the Holidays (IH4TH) program and needs help to place 1.5 million pets into loving homes by January 4, 2010!

Last year, the program’s goal of helping 1 million pets get adopted within three months was outdone when 1,202,701 pets were placed in homes — including Rumi, adopted by two-time Academy Award® winner and 2009 IH4TH ambassador Hilary Swank. You can watch an appearance of Hilary Swank on Ellen speaking about the program here on YouTube.

With the Feed Pets in Need program, Iams is offering to bring much needed food to Home 4 the Holidays participating shelters by asking visitors to IH4TH.COM to simply cast a vote. Each month, for the next 13 months, the shelter with the most votes gets a month’s supply of free food!

Iams is also sponsoring the Life's Better Sweepstakes which is giving away thousands of prizes to help pets get the most out of life. Part of the promotion includes a $10,000 donation in Iams food to the Home 4 the Holidays participating shelter of the winner's choice.

So check it out and feel free to spread the word. This is a great way for a brand to raise awareness of themselves while giving back to the communities.

I spoke on a panel regarding the new FTC disclosure guidelines and what they mean for advertising and marketing. I had the privileged to be joined by Linda Goldstein, Esq., Partner, Manatt, Phelps, & Phillips LLP, who I have heard speak several times and highly regard as the diva of sweepstakes and promotional marketing law, and Randall Rothenberg, President, Interactive Advertising Bureau, who I had not previously met but got to speak to ahead of time on a conference call. We were the last panel of the day just prior to Tim Reis from Google and Elizabeth Apelles from agency Greater Than One , both Summit co-chairs,  who got to wrap-up the day with a look into the future. Then eveyone could head over to the cocktail reception which was held at Google's Chelsea Market Slide Microkitchen location just across the street from where we were.

Linda took the lead of our panel and started off with an overview of the new guidelines which where issued on October 5, 2009 and just went into effect as of December 1st. Some people in the room where not familiar with them at all. The main points she referenced were:

• The guides hadn't been updated since 1980 and they do not have the force of law; not a statute or formal trade regulation rule
• Applies only to SPONSORED ADVERTISING - Endorsements paid for/solicited directly or indirectly by the Advertiser
• Requires disclosure of material connections between seller and endorser
• No fines for violating the Guides
• Violation of Guides likely will be viewed as violation of Section 5 of FTC Act
• FTC goal is transparency and honesty

Randall spoke more from the IAB's position as well as his own and both he and Linda agreed that the process the FTC followed in releasing these updated guidelines was very flawed. He called the new FTC guidelines "the most egregious violation of first amendment freedom in the history of the FTC". He said shame of the FTC who didn't hold any public workshops that they normally do when issuing new guidelines such as these.

From the blogger's point of view I mentioned that we're all really waiting to see what the first real enforcement of the guidelines will actually be. Most bloggers that I follow have been somewhat positive about these changes and hope that they will weed out those affiliate marketers that are not being transparent and who need to be held accountable for their claims. In a way these guidelines have verified that blogs are now a legitimate form of new media and bloggers are being recognized as professional writers and journalists.  

I also shared information about the Blog With Integrity pledge that was created by four women bloggers (one my friend Susan Getgood who I first met at BlogHer back in 2007) to provide bloggers with a tangible and collective way to express their commitment to a simple code of blogging conduct. I signed up and am proud to carry the badge on my blog. They now have over 1950 members since they launched this in July in anticipation of the FTC's actions. They recently held a free webinar which was a Town Hall Meeting with FTC's Mary Engle and they are planning future webinars to further educate both bloggers and marketers. 

Another new program that has just launched this past week also in response to the FTC's new guidelines is CMP.ly. This disclosure solution was developed by Tom Chernaik, founder of parent company DigComm, and Chris Smith, Senior Editor of TechStartups.com. They are hoping that this solution will become the model for how marketers and agencies track the conversation and which gives bloggers an easy and effective way to disclose their relationship.

I could do a blog post on each and every speaker that was at the Summit, but I promised my readers I'd be blogging about current holiday promotions, so I need to get back on that. Though I have to report that I loved meeting and listening to the keynote speaker, Clara Shih, author of The Facebook Era, who talked about how social media is changing the marketing landscape. I picked up an autographed copy of her book. Plus Ben Smith from Dunkin Donuts reviewed with us some of the promotions that they've done on Facebook this past year and the strengths and weaknesses of each. I got some great ideas from Ben which I told him later on at the cocktail party that I was going to steal and he said "be my guest"!

Thanks to the team at PMA for inviting me. Looking forward now to their Annual Integrated Marketing Conference which is called Blur to be held back in Chicago at the Fairmont Hotel on March 23 & 24. So I hope to see many of you there.

Yvonne Divita wrote a blog post yesterday over on the Lip-sticking Blog titled Ready...Set...Go! While she was referring to 2010 being that the calendar now saying December, I'm just starting to get into this year's holiday spirit. With Thanksgiving behind us we are now in full swing into the season. So what I normally blog about this time of year are some of the fun and unique holiday promotions I see online. So I started with this post on the Lipsticking Blog since it is marketing to women. Here we go:

Sephora has launched a promotion on Twitter that they're calling Sephora Claus who has come to town and taken over the @Sephora Twitter page to bring gifts for everyone. Sephora followers are invited to tweet completing the sentence "Dear @sephora, All I want for the holidays this year is _________". They can wish for any Sephora item up to $150 and be entered in the daily sweepstakes. Sephora Claus is awarding one prize a day up till December 19th.

They have also created this promotional micro-site at www.sephoraclaus.com which visitors can also enter the daily sweepstakes by submitted their wish here. The site provides a drop down menu that lists the most popular wishes that visitors can choose from or they can just create there own. 

Sephora is promoting this on their Facebook page as well. If you become a fan of their page you can then use a special code at their online store to receive your choice of one of three mini product offers.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving Holiday. Thanksgiving was late this year, being the 26th of November, which means we are now fully into the 2009 Holiday shopping season.

According to comScore, this year's Black Friday brought in $595 million in U.S. online holiday spending, up 11% versus Black Friday 2008. comScore chairman, Gian Fulgoni stated “The $595 million in online spending this Black Friday represents the second heaviest online spending day of the season-to-date and a double-digit increase from last year. While this acceleration in spending suggests the online holiday season may be shaping up slightly more optimistically than anticipated, it may also reflect the heavy discounting and creative promotions being put forth by retailers that now encompass the use of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter."

Five retail properties surpassed four million U.S. unique visitors on Black Friday, with each of these producing gains over last year. Amazon sites was the most visited retail property, followed closely by Walmart. Apple.com Worldwide sites was third, Target and Best Buy sites rounded out the top five.

The hottest products this year on Black Friday where Tom Tom GPS systems, Kodak digital cameras and the Nintendo Wii who took the No. 1, 2, and 3 spot, respectively, according to credit card fraud prevention company Retail Decisions.

Today is Cyber Monday which is supposedly the biggest online shopping day of the year, so we'll have to see how it does compared to Friday. So far it is a very encouraging start for online sales. A survey conducted for Shop.org by BIGresearch suggests that 96.5 million Americans plan to shop online today, up from 85 million in 2008. 

From now till the end of the year I'll be writing about some of the interesting and unique holiday promotions that I come in contact with. I'm going to especially focus on those that I would define as a Social Sweeps^TM promotion, one that includes at least one social media platform to generate buzz. So stay tuned and if you have any that you want to pass my way, please do. Let the shopping begin!