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User generated content (UGC) is a critical part of fostering active engagement across online users. In some applications, it is considered the holy grail of brand authenticity. What makes layering a UGC strategy into your promotion so powerful is that it carries a prize incentive for users to participate and become part of the conversation. UGC can be incentivized by almost any promotion type – whether you’re looking to collect UGC entries via a microsite, social channels, or both!

Let’s face it, everyone loves prizes. Free trips, money, products or exclusive opportunities, what’s not to like? As the nation’s leading partner for prizing and fulfillment services, we take prize strategy and awarding very seriously.

Social media is a busy and crowded part of the internet and the brands that can stick out are the ones that gain the most traction across social channels. One sure-fire way to stick out against other brands competing for the same audience share is to incentivize interaction with your brand with a social media activation

Also known as “limited time offers”, “fire drills”, and “while supplies last” promotions, giveaways aim to spark immediate action across consumers and drive brand awareness. Awarded on a first-come first-serve basis, they serve as a means to drive engagement, create awareness and keep your brand top of mind.  Before running any digital promotion, it is important to understand what digital promotion type is right for your goals. Consider the basic pillars of digital promotions as: Sweepstakes - A classic promotion type – by entering a sweepstakes users earn the chance to be selected as a prize winner at random. Instant Win Games - Instantly award consumers with smaller prizes. Instant Win games are great for driving repeat engagement. Users are randomly selected as winners as they play.  Contests - Drive interaction with consumers by calling on user generated content submissions. Winners are selected by your brand via judging or voting criteria.  Consumer Rewards - Directly reward consumer purchase behavior. Leverage receipt validation technology to verify purchase behavior and award prizes to eligible consumers.  Giveaways - Spark immediate action with while supplies last promotions. Prizes are awarded on a first come, first serve basis to consumers.  When putting together a giveaway it is important to keep in mind three key areas of excellence: User Experience Prizing & Incentives Targeting & Methods of Entry At Realtime Media we specialize in full-service support for digital promotions. Our in-house teams provide comprehensive and flexible support across development, project management, legal administration, player support, and fulfillment administration.  WHILE SUPPLIES LAST By positioning limited quantities of prizes behind consumer-action you are creating a sense of urgency to participate. Unlike sweepstakes, that allows all entries an equal chance to win the prize, giveaway prizes are awarded on a first-come-first-serve basis. Immediate action is the name of the game As previously mentioned, giveaways allow brands to spark high levels of engagement at a single point in time. With this short form engagement it is important to take two things into consideration: Do you already have an engaged user-base? Because of their short-form nature (only running as long as there are prizes remaining in inventory), giveaways work best when there is a pre-existing audience in place to broadcast the promotion to.  Do you have a plan to continue engaging users after the giveaway? Since giveaways are typically short, it is important to think about how you’re going to engage your audience after the prizes are awarded.  Oftentimes, as a means to create repeat engagement with a giveaway, brands will run multiple giveaways as a part of a series. Using a single microsite to run consecutive giveaways, it allows users who may have missed a rewards period to have another shot at earning a prize and in turn re-engage with your brand.  Realtime Media’s PromoPick™ platform makes building and executing giveaway series easier than ever. Our quick-to-launch templates make it easy to get up and running and our flexible development options make it even easier to run a series of back-to-back promotions.  PRIZING FOR GIVEAWAYS When looking to build the prize pool for your giveaway it is important to remember that it is the chance to win that is driving engagement. While sweepstakes and contests can leverage a single, grand prize to excite and activate users, with giveaways you're going to want to think small.  By using your budget to deploy a prize pool of lower-value prizes you can greatly increase the total number of users who can become prize winners. From the consumer perspective the chance to win is often a higher factor in participation than how high the prize value is.  Targeting & Broadcasting Your Giveaway Some of the most successful examples of consumer engagement happen when a brand understands not only how to engage, but also where to engage consumers. As the attention of shoppers becomes harder to capture, going to the shopper, rather than expect shoppers to come to you, is key.  Leveraging social media with giveaways is a great way to bring your promotion right to the consumer. As seen through most of 2020, one of the most popular social media sites to target consumers through digital promotions is Instagram giveaways. According to Sprout Social, the average shopper spends 53-minutes per day on Instagram - creating plenty of touch points for brands to engage with consumers.  CONCLUSION At Realtime Media, our ultimate goal is to help brands power engaging giveaways – with in-house teams supporting development, project management, winner administration, and fulfillment. We can guide your team through all phases, from navigating federal, state and local laws, to collecting email addresses, to prize notification. To get started, take a few minutes to build your quote today.

Full-Service Contest Management Creating or running a contest can be made easy with the help of a contest administrator or digital promotions company. When it comes to sweepstakes and contest administration, a contest management company takes care of all the details so you don’t have to. A contest agency provides a full-service solution to digital promotions, covering all aspects of the promotion to support your marketing goals and ensure a successful launch. Behind every successful digital promotion is a focus on three core areas: development, legal administration, and prize fulfillment.  The best contest company can utilize its expertise to fulfill all aspects of the promotion and deliver a seamless experience.  There are three core components that make up a successful campaign. With the help of a contest administration company, you can ensure all aspects of your campaign are taken care of: Contest Legal Administration, Judging, and Moderation Contest laws and regulations are at the core of every promotion. A contest administrator can help you meet legal requirements and help assist in the authoring of official contest rules. Unlike sweepstakes and instant win games where winners are chosen at random (i.e, games of chance) contest winners are selected via judging or voting. While voting is typically carried out by the public, judging and moderation is often performed by brands internally. Where contest administrators typically help is in initial rounds of judging and moderation, narrowing down the pool of eligible entries to a top 10 or top 20 list. From there, brands carry out the final round to ultimately select the winner(s) of the contest. As a one-stop-shop for legal coverage, compliance, and rules administration, Realtime Media will help your brand navigate the complications of state-by-state legal requirements. We provide in-house legal support for contests, sweepstakes, and instant win games. Additionally, our moderation and judging teams can your brand narrow down and screen entries for compliance to the official rules.  Learn more about Realtime Media’s legal administration services. Contests, Sweepstakes and Promotion Development  As a full-service contest management company we make launching a contest promotion as easy as possible. With full-stack development handled 100% in house, we help enable powerful data collection and consumer registration for digital promotions. With decades of experience, part of our job as a contest vendor is to guide your brand in selecting the best avenue and add-ons to accomplish your goals.  Brands can activate consumers with digital contests through different entry types and entry methods. Our flexible development allows for UGC aggregation with photo, video, text, or audio entries through methods such as uploads, social media pullers, or text-to-enter. Entries can be collected, screened, and judged in our admin portal to help control your brand image and displayed in five different gallery styles. At Realtime Media we help you build and develop your digital promotions campaign. With help the world’s biggest brands handle sweepstakes, contests, instant win games, and consumer rewards campaigns from start to finish. Our PromoPick™ Platform is a full-service solution to launch your digital promotions with speed and flexibility. “PromoPick™ has long been the leading full-service solution for quick-to-market digital promotions at a great price value,” said Robert Bernstock, President & CEO, Realtime Media. With our PromoPick™ Platform, we help you build your promotion in three easy steps, always pushing the boundaries of digital promotion technology and keeping flexibility in mind. Learn more about Realtime Media’s PromoPick Platform. Contest Prize Strategy & Fulfillment Contest fulfillment companies offer more than just prize fulfillment services. From shipping and handling to winner administration, a prize fulfillment agency can provide complete contest and sweepstakes fulfillment admin to guarantee your consumers a seamless experience. At Realtime Media, we help with prize strategy and winner management to construct the best winner experience. We can help you develop a worthwhile prize pool while also handling the fulfillment and shipping of prizes. Realtime Media covers aspects from timelines and logistics of procurement to trip coordination, providing every service needed to support your contest or sweepstakes. Learn more about Realtime Media’s prize fulfillment services.

If you’re wondering how to create or run a sweepstakes, it is helpful to seek the service of a sweepstakes company. When it comes to sweepstakes and contest administration, a sweepstakes management company takes care of all the details so you don’t have to. By providing a full-service solution to digital promotions, a sweepstakes agency covers all aspects of the promotion to support your marketing goals and ensure a successful launch. Behind every successful digital promotion is a focus on three core areas: development, legal administration, and prize fulfillment.  The best sweepstakes company can utilize its expertise to fulfill all aspects of the promotion and deliver a seamless experience. There are three core components that make up a successful campaign. With the help of a sweepstakes administration company, you can ensure all aspects of your campaign are taken care of: Sweepstakes Legal Administration Sweepstakes laws and regulations are at the core of every promotion. A sweepstakes administrator can help you meet legal requirements and help assist in the authoring of official sweepstakes rules. Registration and bonding can be a tricky part of running a sweepstakes due to state-by-state variance based on prize value. This makes it common for brands to avoid certain states by excluding consumers in those areas from participating. A sweepstakes legal administrator ensures that your promotion has a national reach without excluding states.  As a one-stop-shop for legal coverage, compliance, and rules administration, Realtime Media will help your brand navigate the complications of state-by-state legal requirements. We provide in-house legal support for sweepstakes, contests, instant win games, and consumer rewards campaigns, making it easy to protect your brand. Learn more about Realtime Media’s legal administration services. Sweepstakes, Contests, and Promotions Development  As a full-service sweepstakes management company we make launching a sweepstakes as easy as possible. With full-stack development handled 100% in house, we help enable powerful data collection and consumer registration for digital promotions. With decades of experience, part of our job as a sweepstakes vendor is to guide your brand in selecting the best avenue and add-ons to accomplish your goals.  At Realtime Media we help you build and develop your digital promotions campaign. With help the world’s biggest brands handle sweepstakes, contests, instant win games, and consumer rewards campaigns from start to finish. Our PromoPick™ Platform is a full-service solution to launch your digital promotions with speed and flexibility. “PromoPick™ has long been the leading full-service solution for quick-to-market digital promotions at a great price value,” said Robert Bernstock, President & CEO, Realtime Media. With our PromoPick™ Platform, we help you build your promotion in three easy steps, always pushing the boundaries of digital promotion technology and keeping flexibility in mind. Learn more about Realtime Media’s PromoPick Platform. Sweepstakes and Contest Prize Strategy & Fulfillment Generally speaking, sweepstakes fulfillment companies offer more than just prize fulfillment services. From bonding and registration to shipping and handling, to winner administration, a prize fulfillment agency can provide complete contest and sweepstakes fulfillment admin to guarantee your consumers a seamless experience. At Realtime Media, we help with prize strategy and winner management to construct the best winner experience. We can help you develop a worthwhile prize pool while also handling the fulfillment and shipping of prizes. Realtime Media covers aspects from timelines and logistics of procurement to trip coordination, providing every service needed to support your contest or sweepstakes. Learn more about Realtime Media’s prize fulfillment services.