🧠 The Definitive Guide
Promotion Planning in Four Essential Steps
Everything you need to run seamless and effective campaigns.
01. Promotion Type Selection
Sweepstakes can be powerful tools for broad reach and awareness, while contests and instant win games prompt engagement and interactive fun experiences.
We help you select the
promotion type that aligns
closely with your business goals.
Each type of promotion can serve a
different strategic purpose.
The three main types of promotions are:
Sweepstakes
Contests
Instant Win Games
We understand that the essence of a successful promotion lies not just in its appeal, but in its
strategic alignment with your brand's unique objectives. Realtime Media will help you choose
the promotion type that best fits your strategic
needs.
strategic alignment with your brand's unique objectives. Realtime Media will help you choose
the promotion type that best fits your strategic
needs.
Sweepstakes “Game of Chance”
- In this type of promotion, winners are chosen randomly from the pool of entries.
- The simplicity and ease of entry encourages broad consumer participation.
- This is a valuable approach for consumer data collection and new customer acquisition.
Contests “Game of Skill”
- Here, you invite participants to invest time and creative effort to enter the contest.
- A contest winner is selected via judging or voting.
- This is an excellent way to drive deeper engagement with your target audience
Instant Win Games “Game of Change”
- In this option, users interact with a game on-site to find out if they've won a prize.
- The experience provides immediate gratification to users, leading to high levels of participation.
- It is a strong option that encourages repeat interaction and engagement with your brand
02. Methods of Entry
Realtime Media can help you not only maximize your strategy, but also take away the tedious work of managing the winner selection process when the promotion comes to an end.
Microsites
Microsites are a versatile, effective platform for digital promotions, providing several key benefits:
- Dedicated microsites are a vehicle for your brand to create unique, engaging content and an immersive user experience.
- A microsite serves as a central hub for your promotion, allowing for efficient, centralized data collection.
- Microsites also offer an opportunity for full customization to match your brand's identity and the promotion;s theme.
Microsites are highly impactful but can also seem deceptively simple. It's likely a good idea to seek out a sweepstakes and contest administration company that has templated offerings for various promotion types.
Social Media Platforms
Social media platforms offer the following benefits:
- Social media platforms have vast, built-in audiences, creating the possibility for wide reach and high participation.
- Promotions on social media can easily be shared, enabling high engagement levels and potential viral spread.
However, social media platforms have data policies that must be strictly adhered to for your consumer data collection. You will also have less control over the participant experience if it's hosted on a social media site.
A key aspect of this decision relates to the consumer action you would like to incentivize. This could involve using a dedicated microsite to drive participation and game plays, posting to social media platforms, sending an SMS text-to-enter, making a
purchase, or even taking actions within your brand's app.
purchase, or even taking actions within your brand's app.
Realtime Media, your dedicated promotion partner, will help you launch a successful campaign. Each of the methods of entry - microsites, social media platforms, SMS text-to-enter, or entries your team collects offline or in-store- offers powerful benefits along with some considerations.
Sweepstakes, instant win and contest promotions can be incorporated into nearly any stage of your marketing strategy. So, the first type of entry method you may consider is one that you may already be able to manage. This could include users who take action or make purchases within your app or new signups to your loyalty program from your website or POS.
03. Prize and Winner Management
A well-crafted prize strategy and outstanding winner management execution are essential components of a successful promotion. Realtime Media understands that.
Next, you'll need to create a compelling prize pool that also aligns with your promotion's objectives and budget.
Our comprehensive services include strategic planning and prize conception, prize procurement, winner selection and outreach, prize administration, and prize fulfillment.
Realtime Media will guide you in selecting prizes that resonate with your target audience's interests, determining the total number of prizes, and deciding on the value of each prize to optimize engagement and return on investment. Also, we can efficiently handle every aspect of prize fulfillment and winner management to execute an optimal winner experience.
Winner Management Execution
Realtime Media's comprehensive winner management process is a differentiating
strength in the marketplace.
First, we will help your team select winners, through content moderation and judging for “game of skill” contests and random selection winner drawings for “game of chance” promotions.
After winners are chosen, we efficiently manage the entire experience from the moment of winning to the delivery of the final prize.
Our team's approach focuses on clear communication, personalization, and efficiency to create positive, memorable experiences for your entrants.
Our winner management services are designed to simplify promotion execution, by converting complex challenges into straightforward processes.
Prize Strategy
We guide your team in creating prize pools that excite your audience, while aligning with your brand's identity and marketing goals.
We guide your team in creating prize pools that excite your audience, while aligning with your brand's identity and marketing goals. We'll help your team come up with creative and engaging prize ideas that resonate with your target market and meet budgetary requirements. Our goal is to make your promotion stand out.
Prize Options Include:
- Brand Products and Coupons
- “Swag” and Promotional Items
- Open and Closed Loop Gift Cards
- Cash and Cash Alternative Prizes
- Cars and Vehicles
- Trips and Experiences
Our team of procurement specialists have the buying power to deliver the best available prize package at a cost-effective rate. We will coordinate with suppliers, manage inventory, and establish clear timelines for prize delivery. Due to our expert knowledge of the fulfillment industry and carrier requirements, we're able to secure timely and cost-effective prize delivery.
Prize Redemption Solution
Our winner management tools streamline prize redemption, inventory management, and communication, eliminating manual data collection for a hassle-free experience and complete process visibility.
Realtime Media's Prize Redemption Solution is a centralized hub that offers complete support, making winner outreach an easy, smooth process:
- Build custom emails and notifications containing important winner information and status updates.
- Create unique prize redemption forms customized to your brand.
- Manage prize inventory in real time, with live tracking updates.
- Automate prize tracking to directly email winners with shipment details.
04. Legal Administration
Realtime Media's expert legal team takes care of all legal aspects for a promotion, minimizing your risk and ensuring compliance.
The final step incorporates the promotion type, method of entry, and prizing to determine legal compliance needs and draft official rules or terms.
Some of the compliance needs may include:
- filing necessary state bonding and registration
- ensuring that your promotion adheres to all relevant local, state, federal (and sometimes international) laws and regulations
We have one of the most experienced and capable legal teams in the promotions industry, with deep and broad experience in all kinds of promotions across many industries. We have built a reputation for excellence over the past thirty years. Realtime Media's legal experts will guide you to ensure that your promotion is fully compliant with state and federal laws. Our legal services will safeguard you against legal repercussions, while also prioritizing strong consumer protections and proactive risk management for your promotions.
Beyond that, they can help guide you on some “business” decisions, such as promotion structure, timing, prizing, logistics and other non-legal but important elements of your promotion to help it be successful. Our legal team is easy to work with, creative, and focuses, wherever possible, on getting to “yes” as they assist you with your promotion.
We provide differentiating offerings in the four critical areas of legal services for promotions:
1. Official Rules or Terms
2. Alternate Means of Entry (AMOE)
3. State Bonding and Registration
4. Winner List Requests
Comprehensive legal services for promotions are vital for several reasons:
Business Protection
We'll ensure that your promotion adheres to all relevant local, state, federal, (and sometimes international) laws for robust legal protection, where non-compliance could lead to severe legal consequences. Realtime Media's comprehensive legal oversight and our promise of indemnification for all of our services will give you peace of mind. We will help safeguard your company's reputation and protect your business from the risk of costly legal disputes and fines.
Consumer Protection
Our strong focus on achieving legal compliance means that we run promotions that are fair, transparent and respectful of consumer rights. We provide clear communication to participants about the terms and conditions of the promotion, prize details, the protection of consumer data, and the fair and unbiased selection of winners. Realtime Media is deeply committed to data security and adherence to data privacy regulations. By prioritizing consumer protection, we help maintain and build trust between brands and their customers. Trust is an essential component of a positive brand image and developing long-term brand loyalty.
Risk Management
Our proactive approach to risk mitigation serves to streamline compliance efforts, especially when ideating new ways to incorporate promotions into your marketing. This can save you time and resources so that you don't pursue a cutting-edge application of promotions too deeply only to find out there are compliance challenges that might interfere with execution. Additionally, the digital landscape is continuously evolving, posing new challenges in terms of data protection and digital marketing laws. Realtime Media's team of seasoned legal experts stays abreast of these changes, ensuring that your promotions adapt to new regulations.
Click here for additional details on our extensive data security protections and protocols.
Our experienced team can help guide you through the four key components of legal services related to promotions:
Official Rules or Terms:
At the core of Realtime Media's legal services is the meticulous drafting of Official Rules or Terms. These documents clearly outline the eligibility criteria, entry methods, prize details, and any limitations or restrictions. Our in-house legal experts can also review marketing collateral associated with the promotion to ensure they properly comply with promotion-specific advertising ethics and disclosure laws. We provide both full and abbreviated official rules for use in association with your promotion.
Additionally, Realtime Media excels in designing legally compliant official rules for recurring promotions, making it even easier to repeat marketing activations that are producing results for you. We partner with you to align on a standardized rules structure which can be more easily refreshed to repeat promotions of a similar structure. This approach serves to greatly simplify the drafting process; it also creates efficiencies that significantly accelerate the promotional set up and may even save review time for your legal team. This structure also benefits consumers, ensuring consistency through clear and uniform sets of rules that participants can easily follow.
The knowledge imparted by our legal team will serve to guide your prize strategy for U.S. tax compliance, including necessary forms and documents and even advice regarding “grossing up” -- a practice used in conjunction with higher-value prizes to help offset tax liability for your winners.
Alternate Means of Entry
An AMOE is legally required for purchase-based promotions. That is why you may commonly have seen “no purchase necessary” in sweepstakes advertising. However, “consideration” extends beyond just purchase requirements, so our team conducts a holistic review of the promotion and how participants will enter, in order to include an AMOE option in all relevant promotional campaigns. We can help with creative ideas of how to structure a free method, depending on your needs and preferences.
Bonding and Registration
State-by-state regulations may require promotions to be registered and bonded. Our team of experts will determine whether surety bonds are necessary, and as relevant, handle any necessary paperwork and filings to ensure your compliance with all of the steps. We make the process easy for you.
Winner List Requests
At the end of your promotion, Realtime Media manages any winner list requests from those who are interested to know who won, ensuring transparency and adherence to legal requirements. Our team handles the request process efficiently, while providing participants with easy access to this information.
