Happy Holidays to us! Some good news was bestowed upon the sweepstakes world this week as Florida confirmed that they’ll now accept email addresses for prizes which are fulfilled electronically.

What does this mean for you?

The short answer… you no longer have to collect full contact info on your digital prize winners!

The full 101 response… As you may be aware, the states of New York and Florida require games of chance (not skill contests) to be registered and bonded when the total retail value of all the prizes exceeds $5,000. Following finalization of the Winners List, the winners’ names, full mailing addresses, prize description/values and date of award must be submitted to these states in order to deregister the program and cancel any open bonds.

With game of chance promotions shifting into the digital realm, satisfying state requirements for full winners address(s) has increasingly become a nuisance, particularly when trying to adopt “less is more” entry standards. For digital prize-based programs, we’re often collecting addresses from entrants solely for the purpose of meeting state filing requirements or contacting winners post-program to secure addresses for this purpose (delaying program closure and eating into your budget).

Moving forward, we can only hope that New York takes Florida’s lead. While programs which run in New York will still need to be deregistered with full address, we’re optimistic that this shift in Florida’s stance will trend to New York soon as well.

Is another gift to the industry on the horizon? We certainly hope so!

The content of this post: Update! Florida Eases Registration Winners List Requirements appeared originally on tD+P/S/T Blog.

With today’s online population growing at an every increasing rate (2,267,233,742 worldwide as of first quarter 2012), the ability to reach people at all corners of the planet is a shocking (and exciting) reality. Yet, the tactics and underlying mechanics to manifest that connection have become complicated and harder to decipher. Take- for instance- a brand campaign that must transcend several markets outside the US. Translation alone isn’t enough —there are cultural, societal, privacy, data storage, and legal concerns to consider when spreading a marketing message worldwide.

For more information on globalization of your brand message, consider reading The Global Brand or this post.

With the rise of the “global” brand footprint, we’ve seen significant interest in international promotion activation. Complicated? Check.  Intimidating? Check.  Impossible? No.

Admittedly, programs that cross multiple international boundaries can be tricky, requiring administration as a whole (entry, eligibility, rules, rewards, fulfillment…) to comply with each and every native country’s guidelines. Issues arise on the simplest of programs and become increasingly more complex as the basic initiative (a sweeps) evolves into increased interaction (a user generated contest, instant win game, etc.).

The key? Focused strategy and planning with longer lead-times facilitate launching compliant and successful international promotions.

While the marketing/advertising industry continues to demand immediate activation and quick to market solutions for North American deployments— the global promotions landscape has not caught up.  Timeframes and processes for approvals and reviews within different territories vary drastically, with deliveries in each ranging from days to weeks to months dicated by legal standards or- at times-even cultural habits at the local level. At the outset, defining your ideal promotion framework and functionality is the best starting point to begin vetting program, privacy and administrative compliance and flag nuances per market. For instance, consider:

• France, Spain and Poland will not allow a publicity release to be obtained in perpetuity.
• In France, minor entrants must obtain the express consent of both of their parents to participate in minor focused promotions.
• Implications of data transfer from Europe to the U.S. along with data collection and provisions of the brand’s privacy policy and how it’s applicable to the promotion.
• Where the data is stored-U.S. servers or in Europe for instance-as how some laws apply will be affected
• EU provisions which grant citizens broad rights to access and delete their data
• The nature of prizing and winner selection will often be impacted, depending on the type , and value of the prizing and the type of program being executed. This can become cost prohibitive if prizing is intended to be very large or numerous and often specific localities have their own restrictions. For example:

• In Italy, cash prizes are prohibited
• In the Netherlands, there is a per winner prize value limit and a total promotion winnings limit
• South Africa requires a separate prize pool for its residents
• Mexico requires that any prize exceeding $6,000 USD be delivered to the winner in the presence of Mexican authorities

Program types can also be impacted by local requirements.  For instance, in Brazil, games of chance are prohibited and Poland doesn’t allow them if they are conducted online.

As with our U.S. programs, we help clients mitigate risk by taking special care to construct programs which eliminate elements that could trigger restrictions. The rule of thumb for global deployment is simple.  If you’re planning to launch a program that will activate internationally — make sure to reach out to a trusted provider with experience very early on in the process.

Remember to start your planning process with these things in mind:

1. Define your program ‘wish list’: Who is participating? How are they participating and what is the preferred entry experience? What markets are you deploying in and how are you advertising the program in those markets? How long will the campaign be in market? What prizes are you dangling and how are you awarding them?
2. Timeline: Allow sufficient time for the vetting process overseas.
3. Flexibility: Be prepared to make ‘wish list’ adjustments as needed prior to any digital program builds.

The content of this post: International Promotions in an Ever Shrinking World. appeared originally on tD+P/S/T Blog.

The NFL Season just kicked off this past Wednesday evening with the Giants and the Cowboys. We’re excited because the NFL Fan Flag Challenge culminated in a pre-game ceremony at Rockefeller Center in NYC. Each of the teams had a fan inspired flag presented by NFL Alumni and the Flag Design Winners — celebrating the love, history and inspiration of the game.

Thousands of fans submitted entries, with all 50 states and each team represented many times over. This led to tons of press coverage both at the local team level and nationally, helping to add even more energy to the Back to Football experience.

While the teams and the NFL will surely get some press from this program, the big winners are the Fans. Sweepstakes participants, time and time again, profess their love for prizing that involves unique experiences and getting to present your team’s flag with a team Legend for the Back to Football celebration is definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity.
One fan’s inspiration:

The G has always been the symbol of the Packers, Vince Lombardi made the Packers winners and a recognized condendor for being the best team from a small community. The people tailgating has been a tradition from the beginning this is all a part of going to a game.  The Lombardi Trophy’s show that a people owned team can be the best in the world.  Then last but not least the picture of Lambeau Field in the middle, shows the pride in our team, the support from the community, and the people of the state. There are people that come from all over the world to see that stadium and it is the center of all things Packer.  It is the people’s stadium, as well as the home of our Players.  These are the reasons for the design I came up with, which depics all of the elements that make up the Green Bay Packers, The people’s team.

The flags will be flown at each of the individual teams stadiums throughout the season. Below are the winning flags for your enjoyment, click to view larger:

A few articles that grew out of excitement about the program and Back to Football:

http://www.baltimorebeatdown.com/2012/7/1/3127235/nfl-fan-flag-challenge

http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcsouth/tag/_/name/nfl-fan-flag-challenge

http://www.ksdk.com/news/photo-gallery.aspx?storyid=336689

http://www.11alive.com/news/article/254680/3/Local-fans-make-flags-for-NFL-kick-off

The content of this post: Fan Flags and Back to Football! appeared originally on tD+P/S/T Blog.

It’s that time of year again. Time to head back to school and back to football. What better way to celebrate than with our recently launched NFL Play 60 Super School contest. Celebrate the school’s physical education efforts with your support for the NFL.

From August 1st to September 14th, school Administrators, teachers, PTA and PTO leaders^† nationwide are encouraged to submit 3 essays about how their school is celebrating its NFL team pride, about their current PE environment and how their school is teaching the importance of health and wellness.

The 34 winning schools will be named NFL PLAY 60 Super Schools and receive an NFL team celebration and a $10,000 NFL PLAY 60 health and wellness grant*. Schools are allowed to submit multiple entries.

Will your local school be one of the 34 Super Schools? Only on way to find out.

The content of this post: NFL Play 60 Super School Contest! appeared originally on tD+P/S/T Blog.

*Update* Since launching on July 10th — the program has earned over 1 million for cancer research if you haven’t participated yet, jump onto Facebook and share the message and then head out to dinner and pay with your MasterCard. 

Today we had the privilege to participate in the launch of MasterCard’s Stand Up To Cancer Dine and Be Generous campaign. An effort to help fight cancer driven simply by encouraging consumers to dine out on their MasterCard. The program which we worked on with MasterCard’s agencies includes a heavy Facebook presence and a Merchant Portal.

The Dine and Be Generous platform runs from July 10th through September 28th 2012 and provides participants with a large toolbox to encourage the spread of the message. Peppered into the experience is a tD+P/S/T administered sweepstakes with rewards like a trip to the World Series and weekly giftcards.

Our Merchant Portal allows participating restaurants to log in and grab flyers and banners to display at their place of business, to let consumers know that their meal is working towards a cause.

The content of this post: MasterCard Stand Up to Cancer appeared originally on tD+P/S/T Blog.

It’s been known for quite a while that one of the busiest times for Social Activity is primetime TV viewing time. Though the laptop in the home has steadily risen over the past decade, the majority of these interactions happen within the mobile and tablet user experience. In fact: Nielsen recently reported that 70% of tablet owners and 68% of smartphone owners say they use their devices while watching TV.  

App makers have been trying to capitalize on this idle time, and recently a few stars have risen. Social Apps like UMAMI, GetGlue and IntoNow focus on enriching the viewer experience with content around the content they’re watching. UMAMI and IntoNow use audio fingerprinting to detect which show you’re watching based on the audio of the show, while GetGlue focuses on a gamified approach to content allowing viewers to ‘check-in’ to content they enjoy, awarding stickers and other special offers.

All these app platforms look for ways to engage viewers while they’re engaged with TV content by extending the experience to their devices — fulfilling a documented viewer desire. It’s actually quite intriguing how much the content we consume visually sparks our interest. Any evening, during primetime check out Google Trends (google.com/trends/) and see what search terms are currently most popular. You’ll find that most evenings the most popular terms have to do with content that is currently being watched online — and this is people actually just searching in Google. Twitter reveals similar trends on what people are talking about, and if you’re touching Facebook, chances are there atleast three posts in your current feed focused on content someone viewed on TV.

Even cable providers are getting in on the content game with mobile and tablet driven interfaces for their channel lineups.

Now. We know that viewers are engaged and enthralled with the content they’re viewing, so much so that they’re willing to search out topics… and in some cases like AMC’s The Walking Dead, they’re engaged with the content providers or brands that sponsor them. But we think there is loyalty gold in them thar’ hills: we should create programs that incentivize and reward loyal viewers for their viewership. A few ways to engage:

Trivia After-all, it’s why they’re active in the first place.

Voting Allow viewers to share how they things are going to pan out, could be especially potent with realityTV and season-long story threads.

Contests Invite fans to share their passions for the shows they love with user generated content contests — asking fans to become part of the story.

Ultimately viewers will be excited to participate with the show they love, and weekly or show based engagements will drive some participation — but longer engagement, high prize value programs will be more successful at driving viewership.

Look for our Mobile Promotions Primer, A Quick Guide to Mobile Promotions due out on August 5th.

The content of this post: TV: Getting Social from the Couch appeared originally on tD+P/S/T Blog.

And more responses than the mobile web.

That’s right. We said it. And so did 75% of smartphone users. It turns out that while the mobile app and mobile web are all the rage, one of the most successful mobile marketing tactics is still SMS.

In late March, YouGov and SocialMediadd released survey findings, noting that 65% of people like offers on their mobile phones and 75% of smartphone users prefer receiving offers via SMS. Those numbers present a pretty good case for running an SMS promotion, but let’s take it a little further.

How quickly are your emails read?

Consumers are continually interacting with brands on an ever increasing number of platforms. But in many places they’re not overtly active. Consider that the majority of consumers check their Facebook pages a few times a day and most check their email multiple times a day — our marketing messages are often saved for their idle time. Mobile has provided yet another always-on channel granting a more access to the consumers idle moments.

The disruptive nature of SMS delivers a slightly different reaction. An impressive 90% of SMS messages are read within 3 minutes of delivery (source). While that’s not a brand-centric number, one of the unique things about SMS is that the device does not discriminate, delivering the brand message with as much fan-fare as a friend.

Get mobile.

While 55% of marketers still haven’t developed a mobile strategy, they are moving in that direction. In the next year over 88% of marketers not in the mobile space are planning to be there (source). But getting mobile doesn’t have to be complicated — launching an SMS program doesn’t require an APP or a Mobile Website, though they can be used to augment it’s success.

The content of this post: SMS: Faster than an App… appeared originally on tD+P/S/T Blog.

Hot off the launchpad: the NFL Fan Flag Challenge.

As fans prepare for the upcoming NFL season and the start of training camp, the NFL and all 32 clubs are inviting fans to participate in the NFL Fan Flag Challenge. NFL fans can let their team pride fly by submitting their inspiration for their teams NFL Flag. Each submission is also an entry — and the 32 individuals who submitted the selected flag concepts will be flown to New York to represent their team and participate in kick-off activities.

Each of the team flags will translated into a real team flag and will be featured during the season kick-off and taken back to their home stadiums.

Enter now »

You can read more about the program directly from the NFL. Interested in a program like this for your brand or sports league? Get in touch with us.

The content of this post: Back to Football with Fan Flags appeared originally on tD+P/S/T Blog.

Facebook has recently opened up a new feature that allows companies to promote their page posts and increase the number of eyes exposed to their message.

Currently posts on FB pages may only reach a limited number of people that like your page — this is based on FB’s Edge Rank algorithm.

Primer:

At a high level, the EdgeRank formula is fairly straightforward. But first, some definitions: every item that shows up in your News Feed is considered an Object. If you have an Object in the News Feed (say, a status update), whenever another user interacts with that Object they’re creating what Facebook calls an Edge, which includes actions like tags and comments.

—  TechCrunch

With the introduction of Paid Highlighted Posts, brands now have the ability to promote a post to more of their followers, in a sense, bypassing the EdgeRank algorithm.

Promoted posts are seen as “Sponsored” and are present within the users’ newsfeed, while all other FB ads live in the right column.

Promoted posts can significantly increase the awareness factor and work very well with promotional offers, sweepstakes and contests.  Content, especially photos and videos will grab attention and  can mean the difference between clicks and a scroll-by.

To learn more about promoted posts, we recommend checking out the Facebook Help Center. If you’d like guidance on how to build a successful promotion on Facebook, we recommend saying hello.

The content of this post: Facebook Paid Highlighted Posts appeared originally on tD+P/S/T Blog.

The 2012 MasterCard Sweepstakes Available with ExxonMobil Speedpass ^TM  went live earlier this week. The power of MasterCard teams up with the speed and convenience of SpeedPass to provide consumers with a much welcomed savings on Gas purchases and automatic entry into the sweepstakes.

One Grand Prize winner and guest will be shipped off to the 2012 MLB® World Series®, with hotel and airfare. But they’ll also get the opportunity to view Batting Practice on the day of the game.

Start using your SpeedPass now, and check out the official rules.

The content of this post: MasterCard & ExxonMobil SpeedPass World Series Play appeared originally on tD+P/S/T Blog.