Orville Redenbacher's Pop & Win Game

Orville Redenbacher is running an instant win game on specially marked packages of Orville Redenbacher's Gourment Popping Corn. The game is called Pop & Win.

What I love about this promotion is the game piece. Each bag has a heat activated game piece. Once you cook the popcorn in the microwave, a winning or non-winning message is revealed. Winning game pieces tell you what you have won and show a prize redemption code that you enter online.

There are over $8 million in prizes to be won. And the odds of winning are good: one in six wins. I actually won a prize on the first bag I cooked from the 3-pack box I purchased.

I love how technology can enhance the sweepstakes experience if you can find the right technology for the right brand. The anticipation of waiting to see if I won was a fun experience. And even though I'm not hungry for popcorn right now, I can't wait to see if I have won any more prizes with the remaining two bags in the box.

Game ends 11/30/11.

http://orville.promo.eprize.com/popandwin/

Extreme Couponing on The Learning Channel

There are consumers who are obsessed with saving money. TLC has a special called Extreme Couponing which profiles four coupon fanatics that go beyond the norm to save hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars on their monthly grocery bill. This show portrays what they do to save money.

Digging through garbage to find coupons that have been thrown out, carefully following store ads, going to stores that only double coupon, stock piling, and hoarding is just a part of the lifestyle that these shopaholics lead.


One star of the show had a store visit that only cost him $241 after using his coupons, a retail value that would have cost him $5743.00.


One mom utilized her coupons and only had to pay $6.32 on a bill that came to $230.38.


Check out the details here: http://press.discovery.com/us/tlc/programs/extreme-couponing/



Look for reruns of this special on the TLC website found here: http://tlc.discovery.com/search/results.html?focus=site&query=extreme+couponing

Record Year for Coupons.com

For the first three quarters of 2010, Coupons.com has shown a 57 percent growth compared to the same period in 2009. The company reported that it has surpassed the $1-billion mark for printed savings for the year.

The growth shows a consumer comfort level in printing and saving coupons to their loyalty cards. This also shows that more manufacturers are getting accustomed to offering coupons online. We wouldn't be seeing this type of interest from both sides if the economy hadn't forced consumers to look for savings and brands to find new ways to promote their product and stand out among the competition.

For the first 9 months of 2010, the following digital coupon categories have been most popular:
#1 Ready to Eat Cereal
#2 Yogurt
#3 Refrigerated Dough
#4 Portable Snacks
#5 Vegetables,
#6 Baby Needs,
#7 Soup,
#8 Nutritional Snacks
#9 Lunch Meats
#10 Cheese

You can find the Coupons.com news release here: http://www.couponsinc.com/Corporate/OurCompany/PressReleases/2010.aspx?udt_447_param_detail=118

Making Sweepstakes Fun

The 20 Pine Tree Air Fresheners in 20 Nights Sweepstakes is an interesting play on words. The actual prize in this sweepstakes is the air freshener carrying case you get if you win - a 2011 Chevrolet Cruze 2LT’s plus $5,000 cash. One prize will be given away each weekday until December 21st.

The use of Conan also makes for added exposure to this sweepstakes. Potential winners are being announced on-air on the “Conan” television show to add more excitement to this program.

Funny how the air freshener is not listed in the actual prize description. I wonder if winners will actually get one.

Entry deadline is 12/21/10.

http://teamcoco.com/chevycruze

Facebook Promotions

Brands are engaging with the consumers in new ways, thanks to Facebook. Instead of putting coupons or sweepstakes offers on brand sites, companies are getting their consumers to interact with these promotions like never before.

ConAgra posted a progressive coupon on their Healthy Choice Facebook page. As more consumers "liked" the offer, the better the offer increased in value. The coupon started as $0.75 off and grew into a buy one, get one free coupon.

Jack in the Box ran a sweepstakes where a virtual nickel was deposited into the prize pool for each new follower of the Facebook page. The promotion ended October 25 and the grand prize winner will get the actual prize pool in real dollars.

As a marketer, you are accomplishing several goals: 1) luring consumers to your brand, 2) getting consumers to interact with your promotions, and 3) getting your consumers to come back to see "where the offer stands today." What a great opportunity to talk to your consumers and offer up new messaging to them.

http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/direct/e3i1c1499752deb3a60fd537cddbdaf44b2?pn=1

Poll on Prizes - What would you want to win?

McDonald's is running a poll on their FaceBook site with the question "What would you most want to win?" Who better to decide than their Facebook fans.

A new car, $25,000 cash, and tropical vacation are the choices. As of this morning, almost 93,000 people have taken the survey. Cash is winning by 78%. A new car is second at 15% and a tropical vacation is third with 7% of the votes.

Clients do tend to ask "what do people really want to win?" Here is an informal way to get feedback on options you might be considering. This survey falls in line with other results I've seen with cash being the top prize-choice among consumers. Trips and cars seem to run both 2nd and 3rd. More details about the trip value and car value might have made this poll more interesting.

If you'd like to take part in the survey or see the latest results, go to the official McDonald's page on Facebook and click on the arrows to see the Polls tab.

Allure Magazine Sweeps Results

Allure Magazine has published the results of their mobile barcode sweepstakes.

Every weekday in August, Allure gave away prizes - over 32,000 prizes in all.

Consumers were asked to download the scan-tag app and scan the barcode to enter every sweepstakes. The alternate method of entry was online.

The Results:
1) There were 38% more entries into the giveaways this year than last year, 28% of these entries were directly attributable to barcode scans
2) Mobile users entered more giveaways than PC users – an average of 25 times per mobile entrant, and 9.4 times for PC entrants.
3) 34% of mobile entrants opted in for more information.

You can find more info here:
http://www.gomonews.com/mobile-barcodes-allure-results-from-microsoft-tag-725k-give-away/