Sweepstakes usually involve assertive temptations to enter a contest for fantastically large prizes. There is typically no cost to the entrant to enter for the prize, with the exception of possibly being placed on a promotional mailing list. Winners are not required to pay a fee of any type to receive their prize.

Sweepstakes are also used by fast food restaurants to boost their business. One of the most popular sweepstakes has been the McDonald's Monopoly promotion. Soda companies also run sweepstakes, including the Pepsi Billion Dollar Sweepstakes game.

A person who enjoys entering sweepstakes as a hobby is called a sweeper. They often enter into both online and mail in sweepstakes.

It is very convenient to enter sweepstakes over the Internet. There are many sweepstakes directories, some offering advanced features such as tracking which sweepstakes have been entered and possibly providing many different categorizations for the competitions listed. The most popular sites draw hundreds of thousands of visitors each day with a very large registered user base. For some entering sweepstakes is a hobby, perhaps even an obsession, where they compete against each other in the number of sweepstakes they have entered and even use software which can partly automate filling in the entry forms.

Sweepstakes continued popularity may be partly due to the somewhat limited-number of promotional options available to marketers, an increase in the nationwide phenomenon of Lotto Fever and the greater acceptance of casino gambling among mainstream America. Or it could simply be the fact that sweepstakes, contests and games offer certain advantages such as fixed-budget liability, as opposed to open-ended liability situations such as refunds and premium programs that when unexpectedly became more successful than anticipated, have the potential of breaking the bank.

Excluding event sponsorship and traditional media, some categories of business, such as alcoholic beverages, have so many restrictions levied against them, that refunds or sweepstakes are really the only options available to them when trying to achieve an at-retail effect from their marketing support expenditures.

Sweepstakes are used to drive traffic to your physical retail location or to your website. Online entry is now the number 1 way that participants enter sweepstakes.

One of the most effective means of gathering customer or user database information is sweepstakes. This can also be used to start an ongoing dialog with this key audience.

Sweepstakes have the benefit of being a fixed budget. Prizes are determined up front and you won't have to worry about going over budget. Other promotional tactics such as premiums, coupons and rebates are more open-ended.

Themed sweepstakes and prizes often are developed to reinforce and build your brand or products or service features and benefits. Prizes that leverage an existing sponsorship, such as sporting event tickets, help build the brand and deliver prizes that the average consumer can buy on their own.

Regular sweepstakes are those in which there is a prize or set of prizes and there is one entry deadline and one drawing. Each sweepstakes has different rules, and some may ask you to write a qualifying phrase or a few words on your entry. Others may ask you to answer a few simple questions. Be sure to read the rules carefully and know exactly what is required before entering a sweepstakes.
Multiple drawing sweepstakes are those in which prizes are given away at certain intervals, for example monthly or quarterly. There are different entry deadlines for each drawing. There also may be one regular grand prize drawing but monthly smaller prize drawings.

Second chance drawings are those in which the sponsor held an instant-win promotion or a match-and-win promotion, where you collect games pieces on specially marked packages of their products. If not all of the prizes are awarded during these promotions, the sponsor will hold a second chance drawing to award those prizes not claimed. Typically, over half of the prizes in these types of games are not awarded, often including the grand prize. Many people don't enjoy sweepstakes or don't even look at the game pieces, so many prizes go unclaimed. Second chance drawings offer perhaps a better chance of winning, because people either don't enter them or send fewer entries, thinking there may be no prizes left to claim.

Contests require skill of some sort. These usually involve writing an essay, submitting a recipe or photo, or creating a jingle or clever saying of some sort. A judging panel reviews all of the entries and chooses the winner based on a set of predetermined criteria. You have a better chance of winning contests, because there are fewer people who enter them. It takes a lot more effort to enter contests than it does to enter sweepstakes.

Raffles are usually random drawings with no skill involved, but the main difference is that you have to pay to enter.

Each sweepstakes has its own set of official rules. The important information you need is the entry information, what the sponsors require, which is usually just your name and address hand printed on a 3x5 piece of paper or index card, the address to mail it, and the deadline date for the entry. There may be certain restrictions, such as age, residency, or they may allow only one entry per person. All of this information can be found in the official rules.

Resources:

WWW.SWEEPSTAKES.BZ
WWW.SWEEPSTAKESONLINE.COM
WWW.LIGHTSPEEDPANEL.COM

The first deliberate form of product placement took place with the creation of the Soap Opera. Soap Operas were actually created as a medium to showcase household cleaning products by incorporating them into the story line. The idea has taken off and become a very important contributor to the marketing and advertising world.

The set designers are responsible for putting the products in the background. The idea is that the product or logo to be so cleverly placed that it doesn't stick out like a blinking neon sign. The product should fit the context of the scene while at the same time stand out enough to draw people's attention to it.

Product placement can be a win-win situation for everyone. While the benefits for the manufacturer are somewhat obvious, the director of the film or television show also benefits from having a real product contribute to the realism of the scene. If the director does not want to pay for an actual brand-name product, they are forced to mimic a product which can actually take away from the focus of the dialogue and direct attention to the fake product. For example, a soda can with the word "soda" has to be used if the director is not willing to pay for the use of an actual Coke or Pepsi product. This can look cheap and corny and distract the viewer from the action or dialogue taking place.

The placement fees can be determined through quantification methods that track brand integrations. Studies can be done to measure the recall rate of the viewers to see what type of impact the presence of a certain product made. Sometimes products are included but can't be identified by the viewer and other times products can play a key role in a storyline. Oftentimes, a manufacturer will pay to have their product be the sole brand represented in the entire show. Examples include an automobile company paying to have only Fords used in the movie or television show. Or, for a movie or show where cell phones are used frequently, Motorola may pay to have their phones be the only phones used by the actors. In general, this is a relatively cost-effective way to advertise when compared to the hundreds of thousands of dollars 30-second commercial spots cost. It has been proven that teenagers are especially influenced by the products used by actors in certain movies and television shows.

Another way manufacturers get their products on-screen is to negotiate or barter with the producers. For example, the actor, director or producer of a movie may be willing to showcase a certain vehicle in the movie if they receive one as compensation for their own use. Or, if the product provides a service such as cellular phones, the manufacturers may equip the cast and crew with the cell phones in order for them to be used in the production. The options of this type of bartering system are endless and are negotiated most commonly by a representative of the product and the set designer. Some manufacturers believe in product placement so much that they hire product placement companies to do the negotiating to ensure their product is included in all of the right places at the right times.

There are times that a product finds its way on the screen without the manufacturer becoming aware of its usage. This is important for times when the product is used in a negative manner and the manufacturer may be concerned with the message that is insinuated with the connotation of the product. Law suits can possibly be filed in these instances, so it is a good idea to always get permission from the manufacturer!

Also, an important deterrent of traditional advertising through commercials is the popularity of TiVo and similar digital video recorders. These devices allow viewers to skip the commercials altogether and never see the ads that have been paid to play. This is requiring the advertising agencies and marketers to become creative in their forms of advertising.

Another advantage to having your product featured in a show is that it can be used in a real-life scenario, which can call attention to the several features of a product that a short commercial spot doesn't have time to do.

Today, there is a growing trend of manufacturer-sponsored television shows. This means that a certain company chooses to sponsor or co-sponsor the entire show. The most notable example of this happening is the popular reality show, American Idol. Regular viewers know that the show is sponsored by Ford, Coca-Cola and AT&T Wireless. By sponsoring the show, their commercials are run during intermissions, the judges sit behind large Coca-Cola cups and drink from them each and every show, voters who want to text their vote can only use AT&T cell phones that the show's host mentions every instance when it is time to vote, and Ford uses the contestants to create commercials for the company that are attractive to the young, trendy and fun audience. If this weren't enough, the website also mentions these sponsors and products and dedicates certain spots for them to develop on their site.

Although product placement in television shows is a more recent endeavor, it has really taken off and surpassed that of the movies. Seinfeld was one of the first sitcoms that really popularized product placement - we all remember the episodes that called out brands such as Snapple and Junior Mints. More recently, reality shows have jumped on the product placement band wagon. Survivor was sold in to CBS executives when Mark Burnett promised that product placement would off-set some of the production costs. The first prize awarded on the show was a bag of Doritos and a six-pack of Mountain Dew. Since then, entire shows have been created around product placement such as The Apprentice. Each week the contestants work with executives from major companies such as Sony, Verizon, Visa and Procter and Gamble while the companies in turn get publicity for their new products that are just entering the marketplace.

Now that you aware of how product placement works, try to pay close attention the next time you are watching a movie or television show. You should notice a lot more than you used to, and now you know why that Coke can is turned perfectly toward the camera!

Sources:
1. www.wikipedia.com
2. www.howstuffworks.com
3. www.sourcewatch.org
4. http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/prouductplacement.ars

In our more technological age, Internet coupons are becoming exceedingly popular. There are a number of reasons for this. One reason this is becoming popular is that the cost of printing the coupon is eaten by the consumer, instead of the manufacturer. Since the vast majority of coupons printed by manufacturers are thrown away, this saves manufacturers money. Another reason Internet coupons are popular is simply the boom that is online shopping. Many web sites which offer online shopping allow you to use coupons, increasing convenience for the customer. They usually offer this with some form of a coupon code, which you type into a box on the web page where you complete your checkout. Sometimes coupons you find in print will even have this coupon code printed on them, so you can use them either in the store or on the Internet. Often, instead of offering a dollar amount or percentage off, these Internet coupons will offer some other incentive; the most popular of these is free shipping and handling on your order. There are a number of web sites where you can look for coupon codes for numerous online retailers. One of the simplest ways to find coupon codes is to do a simple search on any Internet search engine for the name of the store where you want to shop followed by the word "coupons." For example, if you want to find online coupon codes for The Home Depot, you could type in "Home Depot Coupons" in Google or another search engine, and the results would include all kinds of sites which will give you the coupon codes for The Home Depot.

These Internet coupons are also sometimes called promotional codes, discount codes, source codes, or voucher codes.

These are all good questions. Let's explore.

It all starts when you receive your Sunday newspaper, which is usually packed full of special advertisements and coupons. You look through the coupons, clip out the ones you want, and then do your shopping during the week. During your shopping trip, you go up to the cashier and hand them your coupons, which they scan or enter and then put into the cash drawer. This is the end of it, as far as you're concerned. But, honestly, this is only the beginning of an unbelievably long process.

At the end of the work day, the coupons in each cash drawer in the store are added up and included in the cash total, to make sure the totals all balance out. The problem for the store is, those little scraps of paper aren't the same thing as cash, so the store is still out of luck. The store has to mail these coupons in to their manufacturer, who will in turn reimburse the store for the money they discounted for the customers. But, even this process sounds far simpler than it really is.

So, what's next? Well, at the end of each week (at least most of the major chains do it this way), each store packages up all the coupons from that week and send them to the store's corporate headquarters. The people at the store's headquarters are truly middle men, as they simply look over the coupons, repackage them, and send them to an independently owned, third party clearing house. And the people at the clearing house have an enormous job on their hands.

The work at the clearing house begins with the workers sorting through every coupon by hand. You can imagine, at clearing houses which are contracted by large chains, that this literally means sorting through millions of coupons each week. The first item of business is to separate the coupons based on the manufacturer which offered them in the first place. Then coupons are separated by examining the bar code on them: coupons with in tact, readable bar codes go in one stack, while coupons with bar codes which have been somehow damaged (torn, smudged, etc.) go in another. The coupons with readable bar codes are placed face up on a conveyor belt which causes them to pass under a scanner, much like the one you would find at the grocery store which originally scanned the coupon. The other coupons, with the damaged bar codes, are tallied by hand. The coupons are then totaled up and added together, and the sum is placed on an invoice. The coupons from each manufacturer are placed with their invoice, and the entire package is then sent to the manufacturer.

There are a couple different options as to what happens at this point. Usually, the manufacturer sends payment for the invoice to the store, and the store then pays the clearing house whatever fee they have agreed on. Sometimes, though, the manufacturer pays the clearing house the amount of the invoice, and the clearing house is responsible for settling up with the store. Incredibly, in order to avoid fraudulent activity, the manufacturer will often tally the total of the coupons one more time, a practice they usually hire their own clearing house for.

So, let's count the steps: The coupon is in your hands, then the cashiers' hands, then the counters' hands, then the headquarters' employee's hands, then the hands of the clearing house folks, then the hands of the manufacturer, and finally into the hands of another clearing house! Isn't it amazing all the trouble that is taken so that you can save a quarter on a can of sweet peas?!

• Double Your Pleasure. Many stores these days are offering to double the face value of a coupon, usually up to 50 cents. So, if you have a coupon for 50 cents off a particular item, the store will double its value so it turns out to give you a dollar off instead!
• Shop the Specials. As you browse your newspaper ads (or the ads you can pick up at almost any store), look for other discounts on items you need. If you find something that is on sale and you find a coupon for that same item, you're saving even more money. Occasionally, larger chain stores will place their best offers right on the same page with coupons you can use with those offers, complete with a table that shows you the regular price, the sale price, and they price you'll pay if you use the available coupons. It's an even better deal if you can find these deals at a store which will double your coupons.
• Ask the Competition. Often, if you find a coupon which is offered only by one store in particular, you can ask a competitor if they will accept the same coupon. They will often agree in order to keep your business. For example, it is a little known fact the Lowe's and The Home Depot accept each others' coupons. So, if you have a coupon for 10% off a ladder at The Home Depot and the ladder is less expensive at Lowe's, you can usually purchase it there and use your coupon for The Home Depot for the same discount.

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