By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk Would you like a chance to win two tickets to Italy on Alitalia, the national airline of Italy? Alitalia has been a client of mine for the past couple of years. I've worked with them on several different promotions and their most recent just launched this week, My Italy Moment Summer Video Sweepstakes. Alitalia is inviting their Facebook fans to submit a video for a chance to win two tickets to Italy. The submission period is June 17 - August 30, so their objective is to encourage visitors from the United States visiting Italy this summer, or those traveling on Alitalia, to share some special moments of their trip. Examples of special moments that are suggested on their Facebook Promotion page are, a coin toss at the Trevi Fountain, a gondola ride in Venice or enjoying a glass of wine on board Alitalia. The video submission should be short, 15 seconds, and besides showing an actual location in Italy, it can also be the participant on board an Alitalia plane or at an airport showing the Alitalia brand. While not directly promoted, the rules state that photos are also accepted in place of a video submission. Today is only the start of day 3 of the submission period and there are currently 13 submissions, 11 are videos and 2 are photos. You can view all the entries in a gallery in the application which also provides a brief description of the submission. Three different random drawings will be held periodically during the promotion to determine the three winners who will each receive round- trip air transportation on Alitalia for themselves and their guest. Flights may be from any of the United States gateway airports that Alitalia services to any of their many destinations in Italy. Now this is an example of a sweepstakes promotion that looks like a contest. The term contests and sweepstakes are both used quite a bit when referring to any type of chance to win promotion. However, there are big differences between the two. Sweepstakes are conducted by a random drawing and the odds are based on the number of people that enter. Contests on the other hand are not games of chance such as sweepstakes, but instead are based on a degree of skill. Since the winners of this promotion will be determined strictly by random drawings, it is a sweepstakes. If all the entries were instead judged based on a criteria outlined in the official rules, then it would be a skill-based promotion and therefore a contest. Whenever you require a submission in order to enter a sweepstakes or a contest you will most likely get a lower number of participants because you are asking them to do something. If it takes them 15 minutes or less (20 minutes tops) in most cases it will not be construed as "consideration" which in the case of a sweepstakes would make it an illegal lottery in the United States. For contests you can required more time to create and submit an entry. Also, based on past experience I have found that the longer your submission period, the longer people put off entering. Human nature is basically to wait to last minute. Alitalia has helped solve that issue by having three separate drawings throughout the submission period. Another contest that I wrote about a few weeks ago here for Huggies also has helped solve that problem by including five different judging periods throughout the contest. So I hope some of this information on the differences between sweepstakes and contests is helpful as well as my tips and best practices. For now if you're planning a trip to Italy this summer, or have any videos or photos from a past trip, I invite you to enter and share your special Italy Moments. La Dolce Vita! Continue reading

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk Many families during the month of June are now celebrating graduations, weddings and Father's Day, which is this Sunday. Many are also planning their summer vacation. One of our long-standing clients, Colonial Williamsburg, is a popular destination spot on the east coast for family vacations. Last week they kicked off this summer promotion that we assisted them with. The “Colonial Williamsburg History Mystery” Contest offers a chance to win a family getaway hotel package while at the same time helping to solve a history mystery. The contest invites participants to submit a creative interpretation taking inspiration from this stamp found on George Washington’s Revolutionary War tent, The First Oval Office. Despite extensive research, no one has yet been able to discover its purpose. Colonial Williamsburg tailors are reconstructing an exact replica of the tent in their Revolutionary City's Secretary's Office that families can experience during the summer 2013 season. The contest submissions should in some way tell a story or demonstrate an imaginative project using the stamp which can be fictional or based on research. All entries are being accepted in photo, video, and/or written form, and must be received through this promotion application on the Colonial Williamsburg Facebook Page. Submissions will be accepted up until June 23. A panel of judges will then select 10 finalists based on the following criteria: Originality and Creativity (35%), Inspirational and Imaginative (35%), Quality and Relevance of Content (30%). These submissions will then be displayed in the Contest app and the public will be invited to vote for their favorite from June 26 - July 5. The Submission with the most votes will be the grand prize winner who will receive a 4 day/3 night family stay at the Williamsburg Woodlands Hotel along with admission passes for Colonial Williamsburg's Revolutionary City and art museums and more. I learned a little more history facts myself just working on this promotion. Visit the Colonial Williamsburg Facebook Page along with The First Oval Office Blog if you'd like to learn more as well. Continue reading

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk The With Art Pinterest Contest, sponsored by Visit Philly, invited fans to pin an artful weekend getaway in Philadelphia to be entered for a chance to win it. The actual Philly weekend getaway prize would be designed by the winner. Here's how it worked: Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (aka Visit Philly) launched the contest on April 25 and started promoting it on their Facebook page. Participants were asked to first follow Visit Philly on Pinterest then create a board titled “With Art Philadelphia”. The board needed to contain at least ten pins taken from the following: • 3 pins from the Visit Philly With Art website • 2 pins from the With Art Philadelphia Pinterest Page • 2 pins from the Visit Philly Eat & Drink Pinterest Page or of restaurants from the Visit Philly website • 2 pins from the Visit Philly Stay In Philadelphia Pinterest Page • 1 repin of Visit Philly’s official contest pin Each board needed to have at least two restaurant pins and two hotel pins so that Visit Philly could compile the winner's prize from what they pinned on their board. Once the entrant’s board was completed they had go to the Visit Philly Facebook page and click on the link to the Contest application. If they were not a current fan of Visit Philly they had to first Like the page to become a fan in order to access the Contest entry form where they would enter the URL address of their “With Art Philadelphia” Pinterest board along with their name and email address. The contest ended on May 24 and a panel of judges reviewed all the submissions and chose a winner that was based on creativity and originality. That grand prize winner, Lyn Benonis, was just contacted and she is so excited to plan her Visit to Philly! You can view Lyn's Pinterest board here. There were also five runners-up chosen by the judges that will each receive a membership to one of Philadelphia’s art museums. We worked with Visit Philly's agency, Sparkloft Media, on this promotion. They specialize in assisting tourism and convention and visitor bureau (CVB's) organizations with their marketing needs. They have been keeping track on blog of where CVB's stand on Pinterest and, as of May 30, Visit Philly had 4,062 followers and was ranked #12. We have done several promotions with Sparklfot Media for some of their other clients such as the Beaches of Ft. Myers and Sanibel Florida. Some of these have also included Pinterest, however, this was the first one where a prize was designed by the entrant themselves which I thought was highly innovative. Congratulations to Lyn. Hope she and her guest enjoy their weekend getaway in Philly. Continue reading

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk I recently attended the 2013 BlogPaws Conference which was held back in Tyson Corners, VA, May 16 – 18. This was my fifth BlogPaws Conference and I am proud to say that I have made it to them all. BlogPaws 2013 is a Pet Social Media Conference made up of attendees who are pet bloggers, pet brands, pet educators, pet rescue organizations, social media professionals and of course, PETS. I have two dogs, Shadow, a Golden Retriever, and Izzie, a cross between a King Charles and a Cocker Spaniel, along with two cats, Jack and Rose. I have not brought any of them to any of the conferences mostly because they do not like to travel. They are all more then happy to hold down the fort and keep each other company when we travel. I did however bring my daughter, Alex, with me this year, who just was accepted to Ross University's School of Veterinary Medicine and will be attending this fall semester. Alex also has a pet, Echo, a beautiful black cat. As a typical college student, she was thrilled to get lots of free samples for Echo as well as her friend's new puppy. It was great to reunite with some old friends and see other attendees who, like me, have been there since the start. BlogPaws was co-founded back in 2010 by Yvonne DiVita and her partner, Tom Collins, both good friends of mine and who helped me launch this blog. So I have been helping them with some of the marketing for BlogPaws and have run a promotion for them each year to help create awareness of the conference. This year the 2013 BlogPaws or Bust promotion was a photo caption contest that I wrote about previously here on this blog. Vicki Boatright, artist/owner of BZTAT Studios, was the grand prize winner who got an all expense trip to attend this year's conference. The sessions and speakers were all great. This year the conference actually sold out! There was a total of 540 people there along with over 90 pets, mostly dogs, in attendance as well. So I tried to photograph as many of them as I could. Here are some of my photos that I'd like to share with you. Enjoy! Hope to see some of you next May in Lake Las Vegas! Continue reading

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk Some of the most successful ways to grow your Facebook fan base and gain insights on your customers is by running sweepstakes and contests promotions. Contests are considered the heart of social promotions today since they are a great way to create buzz, awareness and engage followers and fans. In order to run a promotion on Facebook though, you must follow Facebook’s Promotional Guidelines and run it through an application and not directly on your Facebook page. We have been working with a few preferred Facebook application partners that enable us to offer this service to our clients. They all include sharing via the Facebook functionality which allow participants to easily share the promotion with their friends and help spread the word for you. Most applications will give participants the option to publish that they entered the promotion on their Facebook wall so all their friends will see it and have the chance to enter too. They can also choose to invite a few of their friends to participate as well. When we first started running promotions on Facebook we utilized an application called Wildfire which turned out to become one of the most popular. In time Wildfire added more services and changed their core services from just a Promotion Builder app, to a full social marketing suite of services. They were acquired by Google toward the end of last year and then just a month ago Wildfire announced that as of June 30 they will no longer just provide their Basic, Standard and Premium Promotions but instead only offer it as part of their full suite of services. For those that may be looking for a new resource for Facebook promotions, especially small businesses, I highly recommend the ShortStack Facebook Application. We have been utilizing this application in place of Wildfire for the past two years and I have been extremely impressed and happy with the results. Not only do I find the application flexible and user-friendly, but their customer service is one of the best experiences I have had from a provider. How it works is the app gets installed on the sponsor’s Facebook page as a tab page. We upload images that include graphics and copy that describe the details of the promotion. The ShortStack promotion widget allows us to set the promotion up either as a sweepstakes or a contest. The major benefits include the following: • Able to include both fan and non-fan data, therefore inviting non-fans to first “like” the Sponsor’s Facebook page before they can access the app. • Ability to not have any application branding on the page • Complete ownership of all the data collected • Graphics can be easily added as jpeg files and additional customization using CSS is available. • Contests may include a voting widget that enables voting in a gallery for photos, videos and essay submissions • Entries can be viewed and downloaded at any time during the promotional period. • Mobile devices can access the application via a “Smart” link to use in FB status updates and other online messages. • A fairly new feature is the ability to embed the promotion as an iFrame on a website to enable entries from both locations into one database Promotions also need to have Official Rules that should be posted in the app and accessible prior to anyone entering. We have created what we refer to as a Social Sweeps package that combines us setting up the ShortStack Facebook app along with our promotional marketing legal expertise that includes a set of official rules. This package has enabled many of our customers to get these types of social promotions up and running very quickly and cost-efficiently. Here’s one example of a sweepstakes that we set-up and are administering for Design Within Reach that is currently running on their Facebook page. The DWR Eames Foundation Sweepstakes offers a chance to win a weekend trip to Los Angeles for winner and guest to experience an afternoon at the Eames House on Members’ Appreciation Day hosted by the Eames Foundation taking place on June 22. This sweepstakes is open till May 30. You can also check out these two contest promotions that we are currently running for Rail Europe on their Facebook page that both utilize the ShortStack App. The Rail Europe Picture Perfect Contest invites participants to submit a photo they took while visiting Europe and then encourages them to share with their friends and family to gain votes. Rail Europe is selecting 5 weekly winners who will receive a t-shirt and the 3 photos at the end of the month with the most votes receive a 7-day Global Eurail pass. The Rail Europe Culture Shock Contest has been running since late 2011 and restarts a new round every two weeks. This contest also is offering participants a chance to win a 7-day Global Eurail pass by submitting an entry that describes an interesting, awkward or inspiring European cultural experience. Participants also have the option of uploading a photo. The submission with the most votes at the end of each round is the grand prize winner. These promotions are great examples of how they help to reinforce the brand. If you decide to run a contest, be prepared to receive fewer entries versus just running a sweepstakes since you are asking people to do some work. The quantity will be lower, but the quality and engagement will be higher. Therefore, I usually recommend that if you are trying to build a fan base and add to your database, start with a sweepstakes. Once you've established a following, contests are a great way to engage with your fans and get them to help spread the word for you. Please feel free to contact me if you’d like more information about running promotions on Facebook as well as the Shortstack App. If you want to try out Shortstack they do offer a free version,... Continue reading

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk Mother's Day is just a few days away. I personally will have a unique way of celebrating the day this year. But before I get to that, I wanted to first share this promotion we have been administering for Lane Bryant. The Mom and Me Love LB Photo Contest kicked off back on April 22 and invited their Facebook fans to submit a photo of themselves with their mom, or with a woman who has been a mother figure to them, wearing some Lane Bryant styles. Then starting on May 4 the contest moved into its voting phase where participants now (up until Friday) are encouraged to share their photo and invite their friends and family to like their submission. The three photos with the most likes will move on to the judges who will then determine the final winners based on the creativity, uniqueness and expression of passion in the photo. The Grand Prize winner will receive a trip to Full Fashion Week in New York City for two including airfare, hotel accommodations and two $500 Lane Bryant Gift Cards. The first runner up will also receive two $500 Lane Bryant gift cards and the second runner up will receive two $100 Lane Bryant Gift Cards. You can view all the photos here on this Facebook tab page and vote for your favorite. There are a total of 179 photos display in the photo gallery that have been submitted to the contest. So now for sharing my personal story regarding this year's Mother's Day. I will be spending the day attending the graduation of my youngest daughter, Alex, from the University of Buffalo. My other daughter, Kelsey, who graduated last year from New York University, will be coming up from NY to also attend. We haven't all been together since Christmas, so it will be a special day. Not only is Alex graduating with a degree in biology, but she has been accepted into vet school. This year she will start attending the Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine located in St. Kitts, We are all so very proud of her. I keep saying that we're now going to have a doctor in the family for the first time. I wish my mom was here to share this with, but I know she will be smiling down at us from heaven. This is the third Mother's Day that she is gone and it continues to be such as bittersweet day. My mom gave me, along with both my daughters, the will and determination to accomplish anything that we set our minds to. Alex, congratulations, you did it! Thanks again Mom. Continue reading

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk Last week I wrote about some new research on how moms are using their mobile devices for shopping. Here's some other new insights that find that moms are 20% more likely to use social media across all devices than the general population. BabyCenter, with comScore, revealed this new data that states 91% of moms now use social media regularly, a 20% increase since 2010. And, 22% of moms say that if friends or family don’t participate in social media, they are not as much a part of their lives. Mike Fogarty at BabyCenter, says “... before mom clicks to buy, she’s posted, pinned, tweeted, and shared... so much a part of a her life... (she checks) social platforms... before first cup of coffee... now fundamental to... moms’... lives...” Here's another new promotion that we're involved in that is targeted to these moms. The Huggies Little Hands, Big Plans Contest invites participants to write an essay about the big plans they have for their child. Two lucky winners a month for five months will each reach $5,000 to help them make their dream come true. This contest is sponsored by Huggies' parent company, Kimberly Clark, Corp., in conjunction with DollarGeneral.com. We are again working with Triad Retail Media who specialize in creating and managing online media programs for major retail e-commerce websites such as Dollar General as well as Walmart, Sam's Club, CVS and Toys R Us. They create custom digital ad campaigns for a variety of national brands to help them reach their customers and engage with shoppers while they’re doing researching and making final purchasing decisions. The entry form for this contest asks participants to provide their mobile phone number and then invites them to sign up for DG Mobile Text alerts to receive text messages about Dollar General's events and coupons. This is one initiative Dollar General is using to grow their mobile phone message list in order to reach these key customers. Last week's survey stated that SMS was the only category that a majority (52%) of moms said they used to incorporate mobile into their shopping experience. A panel of judges will be reviewing all the contest submissions and twice a month pick the top two winners based on the following criteria: Creativity/Originality (25%); Quality of Submission (25%); and Fit to Contest Theme (50%). There are already 60 entries from the first week of the contest. It will be interesting to see the number of entries and how many new mobile text alert subscribers Dollar General gains. Contest ends September 30, 2013. This appears to be the year that retail e-commerce marketers are definitely focused on mobile marketing, especially mobile marketing to women! Continue reading

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk A new study by Alliance Data found that more than half (51%) of smartphone or tablet owning moms use their mobile device as part of their shopping experience either daily or weekly with more than a third (35%) using them daily, base They surveyed women who have one to two children, and found the top reasons that most of them (56%) use mobile devices to shop is that it’s fast/easy, they have no time to go to a mall or store and they can more easily compare prices. They found that the number one way that moms incorporate their mobile device into their shopping experience is that they like to receive SMS/text messages from retailers. In fact, SMS was the only category that a majority (52%) said they used to incorporate mobile into their shopping experience. With that information I wanted to share a new promotion that recently kicked off that I've been involved with for almost a year. We've been working with Triad Retail Media who specialize in creating and managing online media programs for some major retail e-commerce websites such as Walmart, Sam's Club, Dollar General, CVS and Toys R Us. These custom digital ad campaigns are created for a variety of national brands to help them reach their customers and engage with shoppers at the right time while they’re researching brands and making final purchase decisions. For 40 days Mobil 1 is giving away free oil changes from a Walmart Tire Lube Express. All Walmart customers need to do is visit the Walmart.com Mobil 1 website to enter the sweepstakes and sign up to receive car care tips on their mobile device from Mobil 1. The entry form includes a short survey to help gain additional insights into these customers such as gender, age, how often they may use a Walmart Tire Lube Express, type of oil used, age of vehicle and who is primary decision maker for auto care in the family. Besides the entry form, banner ads are also inviting customers to enter via text message by texting Mobil1 to the shortcode 50101. Those that enter the sweepstakes by this method receive an additional text message inviting them to opt-in to receive the future car care tips. We are again using the Signal platform to create and host our sweepstakes promotion which collects the different methods of entry, both the SMS and the web landing page, into one database. It then allows us to maintain an SMS list of all the subscribers in order to send out the car care tips to them via their mobile device. We will be drawing 40 winners, one per day, and at the end of the promotion. All winners will receive a Walmart gift card good to cover the cost of a oil change at a Walmart Tire Lube Express along with a Mobil 1 hat. It will be interesting to see the final stats and gain insights into female vs male participants and who they say is their primary car care decision maker in the family. In my household it's definitely my husband. However, he's not the norm. This is someone who recently rebuilt the engine of a 1985 Spitfire that he owns. I'm the one though that does do the majority of the food and household shopping and using my iPhone and my iPad more and more these days! Continue reading

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk Normally I would be in Chicago today attending the PMA/BAA Annual Marketing Conference that got underway yesterday afternoon. I've attended this conference almost every year since I started blogging back in 2007 and sorry to be missing it this year. My schedule just doesn't allow me to be out of the office this week. So I guess I'll just have to follow along with the tweets (#annualMTG13)and updates on the PMA Facebook page instead. This year the conference theme is titled "The Art and Science of Brand Activation". The association announced last year at it's Annual Marketing Law Conference that after over 100 years in existence, it was changing its name from PMA, Promotional Marketing Association, to BAA, Brand Activation Association. Bonnie Carlson, the association's president, made the announcement at that event and said the name change would become official at this conference taking place now. Bonnie stated that the new BAA will have a broader focus on translating marketing strategy into best brand activation strategies. They will strive to help members solve problems, rather than just dwell on specific tactics. I'm curious to hear want new developments and resources they have put in place to achieve this. Walmart kicked off the conference yesterday afternoon with a special session for brand marketers only from Clint McClain, Senior Director, Marketing. Clint was to speak about Brand Activation strategies that utilize Walmart’s proprietary "Brand Growth Platform” and demonstrate how Walmart provides the tools marketers need for success. In a session today Clint will share some interesting insights from a case study on Walmart's local marketing efforts. Today the morning is getting off to an opening keynote speech titled a "View of the Retail Landscape" by author, and marketing consultant, Paco Underhill. Paco will share his insights about what motivates shopper behavior today and what changes to expect over the next five years. There will be sessions from brands such as Godiva Chocolatier (@godivachoc), Kimberly Clark(@KCCorp), Hasbro (@vlee) and more @thePMA . Plus they will end the conference tomorrow night with a gala dinner to celebrate this year's Reggie Awards Finalists. Promotional Marketing is a key ingredient in today's marketing mix. Check out this recent article from MediaPost that is great news for any of us in the business. According to Borrell Associates, spending on digital promotions will hit $36.1B this year. Online sweepstakes and contests, which is my area of expertise, is part of that and is headed in a totally mobile direction. So it's a good time to pitch for new business that involves social and mobile promotions. I'll be missing the networking opportunities that are available when you attend these types of conferences. Still today there is nothing that can compare with a face-to-face meeting, especially over a cocktail! To all my friends at PMA (BAA), I wish you a great and successful conference ! I hope to see you at the Annual Marketing Law Conference in November! Continue reading

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk With all the cold weather we've been experiencing, along with the freak snow storms, it's hard to believe that this weekend is Easter Sunday. Easter does occasionally happen in March and this year the holiday hits on the very last day of the month. I went looking for some Easter promotions to help get me in the Spring mood and landed on the Paas Facebook page. This immediately got me feeling much more like Spring. Even though Easter is a highly religious christian holiday, I would still guess that the vast majority of us have used the Paas egg decorating kits many times in our lives. In fact Paas says that 88% of adults carry on the Easter tradition of creating Easter baskets for their kids and 90% of us hope for own treat from the Easter Bunny. Yes, I already got my pastel-colored peanut M&M's! Paas has joined the Pinterest bandwagon this year with their "Egg-Ceptional Eggs" Pinterest Contest which they have been promoting on their Facebook page. First, participants needed to follow PAAS on Pinterest, create a board and name it “PAAS Egg-ceptional Eggs”. Then they had to add at least 15 pins from either the Paas website or Pinterest page along with any other Easter egg Pins they wish. The #easter and #paas hashtags had to be included on all Pins and then they submitted the URL address of their Pin Board on this entry form. A panel of judges has already chosen a winner based on the following criteria: originality, theme, and creativity. And the winner is Karla Cyr! You can check out her winning Pin Board here: http://pinterest.com/karlacyr/paas-egg-ceptional-eggs/. Karla's board contains some beautiful decorating ideas. Paas is still offering fans of their Facebook page some coupons for $1.00 and $1.50 off their decorating kits. So enjoy and have a Happy Easter. Hey, they say it may even get close to 50 degrees here on Sunday! Now that's something to celebrate! Continue reading

Spring officially arrived this morinng at 7:02. But you wouldn't know it from the weather. We're stuck in this cold pattern here in the Northeast till at least the end of March. Yesteday we even woke up to a couple... Continue reading

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk Happy Spring! It officially arrived this morinng at 7:02. But you wouldn't know it from the weather. We're stuck in this cold pattern here in the Northeast till at least the end of March. Yesteday we even woke up to a couple inches of the wet, white stuff on the ground and it's still there. Well, at the least the dogs love it! Today is also the start of the NCAA March Madness. Have you filled out your brackets yet? If not you can fill one out here at the official Capital One NCAA March Madness Bracket Challenge or here at Yahoo! Fantasy Sports Tourney Pick 'Em. I'm sure there are many more online you could find as well. But you need to do it today. The first two games actually went off last night and there are two more tonight to determine who will make it into "Round of 64" which begins on Thursday. All to decide who will play in the Final Four in Atlanta at the Georgia Dome on April 6. With Coca-Cola being a big sponsor and headquartered in Atlanta, they are hosting Bracket Town which consists of several events happening in and around Atlanta and the Georgia Dome. The games will be broadcast on CBS and on three Turner Networks. Fans can also watch all the games live by downloading the NCAA March Madness App available in iTunes for Apple devices. Twitter this year is helping to bring all the exciting plays to the mobile masses within a few minutes of them happening via Instant Replays. Twitter introduced the "instant replay" concept last year with ESPN for college bowl game highlights which allows users to watch videos from their phones, tablets and PCs without leaving Twitter.​ AT&T and Coke Zero are sponsoring the March Madness videos, and the replays will begin with a short video clip from either sponsor. You can follow the official Twitter page here @MarchMadness. We assisted one of our clients with the Dunkin' Philly Madness Sweeps which they are running on their Dunkin Philly Facebook Page. They're giving fans daily chances to win college gear, Dunkin Donuts mGifts, basketball tickets, coffee for a year and a final Grand Prize of $5,000. Also for every entry, they’ll donate $1 to Coaches vs. Cancer of Philadelphia. (up to $5,000). Sweepstakes ends on April 8. There are also still chances to win tickets to the Final Four tournament. LG Electronics is currently running their Do March Right Tip-Off Bracket Challenge on their Facebook page. The top prize consists of airfare for two to Atlanta, hotel accommodations, tickets to the semi-finals and the championship games and $500 spending money. Pretty sweet package. So get your brackets ready today. We'll be cheering for the Syracuse Orangemen, the #4 seed in the East Division. They lost the final Big East Tournament to Louisville, who ended up getting the #1 seed spot. So you never know. At least we have some good basketball games to watch while we still wait for Spring to actually arrive! Continue reading

We've just launched the new 2013 BlogPaws or Bust promotion for the 2013 BlogPaws Conference which this year is a photo caption contest. If you've been following my blog for awhile, then you should be familiar with BlogPaws. For those... Continue reading

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk It's that time of year again to share with you info about the 2013 BlogPaws Conference along with the new 2013 BlogPaws or Bust promotion which this year is a photo caption contest. Most of you are familiar with BlogPaws, but for those that are not, BlogPaws is an online community of pet lovers made up of pet bloggers and pet brands. BlogPaws was co-founded back in 2010 by Yvonne DiVita, our Lipsticking leader, and her partner, Tom Collins, and it has become the go-to resource for bloggers and brands to partner on projects and campaigns, to be educated on social media, and to attend face-to-face meetings. The first BlogPaws Conference was held in Columbus, OH, in April, 2010, and last year it moved out West to Salt Lake City in June. This year's 2013 BlogPaws Conference will be held back in Tyson Corners, VA, on May 16 - 18. It was held here two years ago in August in which we unfortunately experienced Hurricane Irene. I was one of the lucky ones that was able to get on an earlier flight on Saturday because I was heading south to visit family in South Carolina instead of heading north in the direction of the hurricane. So I literally flew over the hurricane as it was coming up the coast. I have been a speaker at each of the past BlogPaws conferences speaking mostly about running contests and sweepstakes. This year I didn't make the agenda, but I am attending and am the contest administrator which I have set up the contest on the BlogPaws Facebook Page and am again using the ShortStack Application. This year the contest features this photo of the two dogs in a tug-of-war and invites participants to submit a caption to accompany the photo. All the submissions can be viewed and shared. The contest started accepting submissions this past on Sunday, March 10, and will run till the end of day on March 24. There are currently 120 submissions. A panel of BlogPaws staff members and volunteers will judge all the submissions based on the following criteria: Creativity 50%, Originality 25%, and Relevancy 25%. The Grand Prize winner will receive a trip to Tysons Corner, VA, to attend BlogPaws 2013 which includes round trip air transportation, hotel accommodations at the Sheraton Premiere and of course admission to BlogPaws 2013. A Second Prize winner will receive hotel accommodations and admission to BlogPaws and a Third Prize winner receives the free admission. Many of the captions are written in the voice of the pet, which are quite funny. We held a similar contest a couple of years ago where participants submitted their own photo along with a caption that was in the voice of the pet. Deb Barnes was the winner of that contest with this beautiful photo of her cats with the featured caption. I am very much looking forward to going back to this year's conference and seeing some old friends, both two and four-legged! I'm planning to bring my daughter, Alex, with me this year who will be graduating from college the week before. She's applied to vet schools and still waiting for word. There is still plenty of time to register for the Conference. You can find all the information here on the BlogPaws website. I'll be sure to give you an update on the contest results and announce the winner sometime in April. Continue reading

Walmart kicked off a new "Green" promotional marketing campaign last month with its first #WinItWednesday contest on Twitter. The contest gives entrants the chance to share their unique eco-friendly ideas and to win Walmart Gift Cards. The contest takes place... Continue reading

By Guest Blogger Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk Last month Walmart kicked off a new "Green" promotional marketing campaign with its first #WinItWednesday contest on Twitter. The contest gives entrants the chance to share their unique eco-friendly ideas and to win Walmart Gift Cards. The contest takes place on the first Wednesday of each month, so today is round two for the month of March. Today @WalmartGreen will ask Twitter users to respond to a specific #WinItWednesday sustainability inspired challenge question. Three winners will be selected by judges representing Wal-Mart Stores, and the Mother Nature Network for each month's challenge question. Participants must follow and reply to @WalmartGreen and include the hashtag #WinItWednesday in their tweet. Each of the three winners will receive a $100 Walmart gift card and a chance to have their Submission featured on Mother Nature Network’s The Leaderboard and The Green Room, Walmart's sustainability blog, within that month. For the first contest entrants were invited to share their idea for an eco-friendly gift for their Valentine (in 140 characters or less !). This first contest resulted in a 5.4% spike for @WalmartGreen in their number of Twitter followers in only 6 hours. This equaled 1.5 new followers every minute. The contest was also mentioned by John McCain and Planet Green on Twitter! Here's an overview of last month's winners which includes Terri Pointon who's idea is turning old wool and cashmere sweaters into new items. Walmart's “The Leaderboard” was launched earlier this year through a new partnership formed with the Mother Nature Network with the purpose of creating a special editorial channel on the site for readers to explore the people, businesses and organizations leading in sustainability. “Thanks to the ingenuity, passion and innovative thinking of so many people, we’ve seen an increase in sustainable technologies, processes and options in the past decade,” said Andrea Thomas, senior vice president of sustainability at Walmart. “These new ideas have helped companies, like Walmart, make significant progress toward our sustainability goals. Walmart has a responsibility to use its size and scale to influence positive change, and we believe ‘The Leaderboard’ will be a place to showcase cutting edge ideas and spark further adoption.” Today's challenge question is scheduled to be posted at 11am ET, so check it out and share a tweet @WalMart Green with one of your eco-friendly ideas. Continue reading

By Donna DeClemente I wrote my first blog post on this blog, Donna's Promo Talk. six years ago. So I'm celebrating my blog's birthday and the fact that I'm a six year-old blogger. Thanks again to my good friend and... Continue reading

By Guest Blogger Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk Six years ago today, February 27, 2007, I wrote my first blog post on my blog, Donna's Promo Talk. Today I'm celebrating my blog's birthday and the fact that I'm a six year-old blogger. Thanks again to my good friend and founder of this blog, Yvonne DiVita, along with her business partner and now husband, Tom Collins, for helping me get started. Lipsticking was launched a couple of years before my blog, so we're both considered old timers now in this business. I have developed a few traditions in my blog postings over the years and one is in celebration of my blog's birthday. For this I write about the same brand that I devoted my first blog post about which is Dove. I love the brand and use their products and have been following their Real Beauty Campaign over the years which I continue to support. So as I did last year, I sat at my computer this morning, opened up Facebook and hopped over to the Dove Facebook page. Last year I did the same thing and to my surprise I found that Dove had just converted to the new Facebook Timeline. Dove was one of the first brands that Facebook partnered with to roll out their new Timeline for business pages which is now a year old. Dove's current promotional campaign is called the Dove Truth Files where they invite fans to "Reveal the Truth and Reap the Awards". Part of the campaign includes this Instant Win Game they are running on a Facebook app. The game is giving away over 20,000 prizes instantly such as Amazon gift cards and music downloads, plus everyone receives a Dove $2.00 coupon. Participants "Play Detective and Put Your Bar or Body Wash to the Test." To start you need to pick the body wash or bar that you currently have in your shower from a choice of 13 different products.According to which brand you chose, you are then served a custom video that describes the "truth" of what is wrong with the brand you chose. I chose Nivea and the woman in the video demonstrated how Nivea is harsher than Dove. You can then proceed to see if you're an instant winner and if not you're invited to come back tomorrow and try again. Pretty clever I think. You also have the option to play a few games such as a word scan, a forensic mix-up or a photo analysis. Of course everyone can share and invite their friends to play as well. In reviewing the Dove Facebook page I found it very interesting how they are engaging with their fans. They post something at least once a day and they asks many questions. As part of the Dove Truth Files Campaign they are posting updates every Tuesday that invite fans to "come clean". Here's yesterday's #TruthTuesday, "Come clean about what you REALLY do when your kids leave the dinner table". If you have a Facebook Business page, or are managing one for a client, what have you done to optimize it over the past year since the new Timeline was introduced? You first need to decide what you want people to do once they are there. The Facebook page consists of these key areas you should be focusing on: The Cover or Banner Image - update it frequently have make sure it reflects the brand. The Profile Image - This shows up in the fans news feeds so make sure it is sized properly. Tabs - These images that are located under the banner image and link to your apps and photos. These can all be moved, except for the photos tab. So make sure you have those at the top you want to give priority to. Photo Tab - This will always display the last photo that you upload, so make sure it a brand friendly image. About Section - Include basic information along with links back to the company's website, blogs, and other sites. Looking back over the past ear since Timeline was launched it appears that a Facebook business page now is a required element in everyone's marketing mix. It's not easy keeping up with the latest technology and new social and mobile platforms. Right now I've been focusing on updating my blog with a new look on a WordPress platform and hope to launch it this week. So check back soon and take a look to see the New Donna's Promo Talk. Let me know what you think and thanks again for being a reader. Continue reading

By Donna DeClemente Women TIES is hosting another luncheon event today that I will be heading out to attend shortly. You may have read some of my previous posts about this organization. TIES stands for "Together Inspiring Entrepreneurial Success" and... Continue reading

By Guest Blogger Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk Today I will be heading out to attend another luncheon event put on by Women TIES. You may have read some of my previous posts about this organization. TIES stands for "Together Inspiring Entrepreneurial Success" and the organization's leader, Tracy Higginbothom, strongly believes in the power of women supporting each other in their businesses. Tracy started out as an event planner in her business and launched Women TIES back in 2005 which has now grown to reach many women in upstate and western New York. I was honored almost three years ago to be the speaker at her first Rochester Chapter event and was invited back to speak again this past October. Here's the post I wrote about my topic which was How to use Facebook to Build Your Brand and Grow Sales. The event today is sold-out! Tracy had to cut-off the registrations at 70 since that's the total the restaurant can fit in the room we have.This now makes the 4th Women TIES event this year that has sold out in various cities throughout upstate New York. It appears that 2013 is going to be the year business women and entrepreneurs are ready to achieve great success! Today's event is perfect timing for mid-February. We're already over a month into this year and we all could use a good reminder that without sales, you don't have a business! We all have business prospects from contacts made in 2012 and new ones we already made in 2013. The key to sales success in the New Year lies in getting these prospects to act and purchase our products or services. Vicki James will be our speaker today who will explain how the "Marketing Hourglass" can help us move prospects through a series of Know, Like and Trust phases at their own pace to bring us more sales success. Vicki is going to demonstrate how to create our own "Marketing Hourglass" by no longer pushing prospects but instead allowing them to make the journey on their own terms and ultimately, removing the need to sell. Most of us women don't like to "sell". We may be passionate about the business that we are in, but when it comes to sales, that's were the majority of us really need help. Learning about new sales strategies should be an excellent investment of our time today. Vicki's own company is called Stand-Out-Results focuses on mentoring small to medium size business with their marketing and sales strategies. The event is co-sponsored by Joleene Speaks which is run by Joleene DesRosiers Moody. Joleene is known as the "Unstuck" Consultant - helping women entrepreneurs strengthen their selling power to make money enthusiastically and fearlessly. I heard Joleene speak last September at the Women TIES Annual Retreat and she was highly motivating. So I am looking forward to seeing her and hearing her speak again. My hope is that 2013 will be a great business year for myself and all my friends and colleagues and readers, not just women. We all use a different mix of marketing and sales tactics to achieve our success. Having the support of others, whether it's a collective group of women, such as Women TIES, or our own individual mentors and advisers, it helps us to become stronger together than we are as one. As Tracy always signs-off..."In Entrepreneurial Spirit". Continue reading

By Donna DeClemente Valentine's Day seems to becoming a bigger and bigger holiday every year. Many brands have been jumping on the V-Day bandwagon and offering up some sweet deals for their customers. Here's a few that I've come across.... Continue reading

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk Tomorrow is Valentine's Day and it seems to becoming a bigger and bigger holiday every year. Many brands have been jumping on the V-Day bandwagon and offering up some sweet deals for their customers. Here's a few that I've come across. Krispy Creme has a sweet Valentine's day offer that is leveraging mobile and social to drive traffic in-stores. Just till tomorrow they are offering special heart-shaped donuts. They have printed a QR code located on the Valentine’s Day box of these donuts that enables users to send a Krispy Kreme Valentine e-card to someone special. In addition to the e-cards, inside each box of heart-shaped donuts are six Valentine cards. Fans can also visit Krispy Kreme’s Facebook page to customize a Share Your Heart Facebook cover photo. Pizza Hut is promoting it's Last Minute Lovers Packages on Twitter. Today's the last day to tweet @PizzaHut using the hashtag #LastMinuteLovers with a plea for help to have a chance to win one of 24 daily (one per hour) prizes. The packages include a bottle of the chain’s perfume, Eau de Pizza Hut, and a $20 Pizza Hut gift card good for a Lover’s Pizza or the new Big Pizza Sliders. The packages will supposedly by shipped in time to arrive for Valentine’s Day. According to Pizza Hut, 78% of people by gifts one week or less before Valentine's Day. I just tweeted, so we'll see if I'm a winner today! I'm currently working with the team from Alitalia on this We Love Italy Photo Sweepstakes that's running off their Facebook Page. Two lucky fans will win round-trip air transportation for two on Alitalia to Italy. I will get to draw the first winner tomorrow on Valentine's Day and proceed to contact them to relay the great news! The other winner will be drawn after the promotion ends on February 20th. To enter fans need to submit a photo that shows then with any friends, family members, spouse or partner, someone special, enjoying a moment in Italy! There are some great photos that have been shared that you can view here. Yesterday I informed one lucky woman that she was the winner of this beautiful tear-dropped shaped necklace from IPPOLITA Jewlery. She was one of many who entered the Ciao Stella Sweepstakes that we hosted for them on their Facebook page. They have a great video still posted on the page you can view along with some great V-day present ideas if you still need to drop a hint! I'm actually going out to dinner tonight with my husband to celebrate Valentine's Day. There's a fairly new restaurant I've been wanting to check out and Wednesdays they allow BYOB of wine with no corkage fee! So we're celebrating a day early. What's your plans this year's Valentine's Day? Continue reading

By Donna DeClemente An estimated 108.4 million people watched the Super Bowl this past Sunday? The Nielsen Company said Monday that the Baltimore Ravens' 34-31 victory over the San Francisco 49ers was the third most-viewed program in television history. Both... Continue reading

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk Are you one of the estimated 108.4 million people who watched the Super Bowl this past Sunday? The Nielsen Company said Monday that the Baltimore Ravens' 34-31 victory over the San Francisco 49ers was the third most-viewed program in television history. Both the 2010 and 2011 Super Bowl games were slightly above this year hitting the 111 million mark. While the game has now become a distant memory, if you were one of the viewers you have to admit it was extremely entertaining. Between the great brother vs. brother pregame storyline, a second half comeback by the 49's, all the ads, the tweets, the Facebook posts and Beyonce and girls performing an amazing halftime show, there was something for everyone! Add in that the drama of the lights going on in the stadium, and it made it the longest Super Bowl game in history. This gave CBS more airtime and allowed us all to chat more on social media as well as get up and stretch! By now I'm sure everyone has watched the ads and heard and read the reviews to determine in their minds who are the winners and losers of the this year's Ad Bowl. Who really came out a winner, besides John Harbaugh and the Baltimore Ravens, is Twitter! The brand really supplanted itself as much more than just another social media network. According to MarketingLand’s count of hashtag and Twitter mentions, 26 ads during the game itself had a Twitter reference compared to only 4 that referenced Facebook, one to Instagram, one to YouTube and not any to Google+. Last years only 8 ads mentioned Twitter. A total of 24.1 million Super Bowl related tweets were posted apart from the ad hashtags. A Twitter spokesperson reported that “By the beginning of the second half, the volume of Tweets had already surpassed last year’s Tweet total". When the power went out in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome at the beginning of the third quarter it prompted a surge on Twitter of 231,000 tweets per minute which even outpaced those during Beyonce's halftime show. Some brands were quick to respond in real-time to take advantage of this huge audience. One of the Super Bowl advertisers, Oreo, posted this to Twitter "Power out? No problem. You can still dunk in the dark." The tweet was retweeted 10,000 times within one hour. What really impressed me was when I read after the game this quote from Sarah Hofstetter who is the president of 360i, Oreo's digital agency of record that was behind this Tweet; "It was designed, captioned and approved within minutes." They were able to do this in real time because both Oreo brand members along with a team from 360i were together monitoring the game and the social media conversation in a "mission control" center at the agency's headquarters in Manhattan. Sarah also stated "You need a brave brand to approve content that quickly. When all of the stakeholders come together so quickly, you’ve got magic.” This simple, but brilliant, execution is exactly what social media marketing is all about. It obviously cost far less than the elaborate, expensive TV ad Oreo ran in the game before the blackout which was done by their agency Wieden & Kennedy. Brands should learn from this. Tide was another Super Bowl advertiser brand that hopped on the blackout band wagon on Twitter with this tweet: I haven't read any further insights into how this brand was able to react so quickly. But obviously they were prepared. So that wraps up my coverage of Super Bowl XVLII. I hope you enjoyed my posts. It really is only one football game. However, it seems to grab the attention of the world! Congratulations again to John Harbaugh and the Baltimore Ravens for becoming this year's champions as well as Jim Harbaugh and the San Francisco 49ers for making it there. How we gonna top this next year? Continue reading

By Donna DeClemente Super Bowl XLII will be broadcast from New Orleans this Sunday not only on the CBS TV network, but viewers can also watch it on their small screens. We can even listen to it on Sirius radio... Continue reading