Boost brand awareness and sales with an instant win sweepstakes. This game of chance lets participants know instantly if they’ve won. Besides the timing and frequency of winner announcements, what are the differences between an instant win game and a traditional sweepstakes? 

Sweeppea offers the option to run an instant win campaign or a traditional sweepstakes. Before you decide which option is best for your promotion, here’s everything you need to know about traditional vs instant win contests or sweepstakes.

How Does an Instant Win Games Work?

Instant win games or instant win giveaways mean that there is no waiting until the promotion ends before a winner is drawn and participants learn whether or not they have won a prize. As a result, instant win sweepstakes entrants find out instantly as soon as they submit their entry. They instantly win.

In contrast, in traditional sweepstakes or contests, participants have to wait weeks or months in order to find out whether they’ve won or not.

The best instant win games also typically involve giving away small prizes that can change daily or the prizes are randomly selected so that entrants don’t know what prize will be available yet. With traditional sweepstakes, there is typically only one grand prize (or several main prizes and a grand prize) that are given away once the promotion has ended.

Why Run an Instant Win Promotion?

Let’s face it, people love instant gratification. For sweepstakes entrants, the choice is obvious: finding out if you’re a winner in an instant win sweepstakes in just a few seconds is much more exciting than having to wait.

There are also many more benefits for brands. With an instant win game:

• Daily entries for multiple prizes means daily traffic
• Sales leads and email opt-ins help you build your customer list
• Increased brand awareness and social media engagement
• Customer loyalty

Before you start creating your traditional or instant win sweepstakes or contest, take a look at what other brands in your industry are doing. It’s also a good idea to use full-service sweepstakes administration to ensure that your sweepstakes promotion delivers the results that you’re looking for.

What Traditional Sweepstakes Do For Brands That Instant Wins Don’t

Participants who are continuously offered the chance to win a prize but never do will burn out at some point. As a result, an instant win promotions like instant win cash sweepstakes isn’t the best option if it’s your only means of building customer loyalty.

When it comes to building brand awareness and customer loyalty, here is where traditional sweepstakes shine. A large sweepstakes prize like cash prizes combined with an elaborate rollout and winner announcement is guaranteed to wow your audience.

It also makes it seem like your promotion is worth the wait, which means that the participants who are most likely to wait for the winner’s announcement in traditional sweepstakes are also your most loyal fans.

Ready to get started? Check out these tips to make sure that you have everything you need run a sweepstakes:

Your Sweepstakes Official Rules Checklist

Here’s What Entrants Love About Sweepstakes and Contests

Business to Business Sweepstakes: 5 Ways to Reach B2B Customers Effectively

What’s the Difference Between a Sweepstakes, Contest, Game, Raffle and Giveaways and Which is More Popular?

Align the Sweepstakes Prizes With Your Goals/Brand

Lastly, before you choose prizes for an instant giveaway or traditional sweepstakes, think about how you can align your prize with your campaign’s goal and brand.

Sure, a $1,000 gift card instant win might bring thousands of entrants, but are they interested in your brand? Aligning the sweepstakes prize with your brand, not only attracts higher quality participants, but it will also help you decide whether to run an instant win game or a traditional sweepstakes.

Sweeppea’s full-service sweepstakes management service provides everything you need to create an engaging and rewarding instant win game or traditional sweepstakes.

Need help with sweepstakes or contest management? Call 305-505-5393 or email us with your questions.

The post Instant Win Game vs Traditional Sweepstakes: What Are the Differences? appeared first on Sweeppea Blog.

Want an easy way to delight your customers? Hint: give them free sweepstakes prizes! The right sweepstakes prize will deliver a huge amount of brand awareness, help you find new audiences, and grow your following across multiple platforms.

However, even with your best efforts, the truth is that without an awesome sweepstakes prize, you won’t get many entrants. If you’re wondering how to select the right sweepstakes prize idea, here are the most popular sweepstakes prizes and why brands love them.

Top Prizes – Cash and Gift Cards Rule

Vacation Sweepstakes Prizes

Vacations are one of the most common sweepstakes prizes. This type of prize works best for companies in the travel industry or a related industry. Vacation prizes come with drawbacks that make prize delivery a bit more complicated, such as eligibility verification and accommodation arrangements.

However, they can generate a lot of hype for your brand, especially the chance to win a trip to a popular tourist spot or a luxury vacation.

Early-Access / Discounts / Coupons

Offering exclusive access or discounted pricing to your customers via your sweepstakes can be a good approach if you are launching a product or service for the first time. This can help you build hype and establish a loyal customer brand, especially for subscription-based products.

Custom Merch / Limited Edition Products

Giving away limited edition or custom products is a great way to add exclusivity and value you to your sweepstakes prize since it will be something that entrants can’t get elsewhere.

Free Product / Membership

Offering your product or service for free as a sweepstakes prize is quite common, especially for B2B businesses. It’s also useful for raising awareness about your brand.

Prize Bundle

A sweepstakes prize bundle generally consists of several smaller prizes bundled as a single, unique larger prize for one winner. They are useful if you want to involve sponsors in your sweepstakes in order to tap into their audiences.

Cash is King

There is one prize that we can all agree on, and that is cash. It’s common for brands to give away money as cash prizes will attract more entrants.

But you should be mindful that a percentage of participants will enter just to try to win money and will not be your target audience.

Final Thoughts on Types of Prizes

Overall, it’s best to give away sweepstakes prizes that would mostly only appeal to current and potential customers of your brand. As you review options for sweepstakes prizes, choose the one that is likely to get the most attention from your core audience first.

Secondly, aim for one that is sustainable – namely that you won’t run into any problems with delivering the prize.

So you’ve announced the winners of your sweepstakes and surprisingly some winners haven’t bothered to claim their sweepstakes prizes! While this scenario doesn’t happen often, it still does from time to time.

What do you do with an unclaimed sweepstakes prize? Do all prizes offered in a sweepstakes have to be given away? Here’s what you should know.

When Is a Sweepstakes Prize Considered As Unclaimed?

A sweepstakes prize is considered as unclaimed when the maximum amount of time for a winner to claim their prize, per your Official Rules, has expired. At this point, you have two options: choose a new winner for the prize or don’t award the prize at all.

Choose a New Winner

If you decide to choose a new winner or alternate winner, you will then have to perform the drawing and winner notification process again. Let participants know that you didn’t select a winner for the prize yet and that a new winner will be announced. You should also make sure that you have sent a notice to the old winner letting them know that they have forfeited their prize.

Don’t Award the Sweepstakes Prize at All

On the other hand, you may decide that awarding the sweepstakes prize is no longer worth it. Perhaps the prize has expired or can no longer be fulfilled due to some circumstances like a cancelled event. If this is the case, how you handle the matter will depend on sweepstakes laws and your Official Rules. Most times, the Sponsor substitutes the Prize for one of equal or greater value.

To ensure that you are following the law, find out in advance of the launch of your promotion what the legalities are in your state concerning unclaimed prizes.

Registration and Bonding to Award Prizes

For this specific reason, there are multiple states that require registration and bonding for sweepstakes to ensure that the sweepstakes prize will in fact be awarded to a winner. So if you plan to recall your prizes or want the option to, check with your jurisdiction first to make sure that it is permitted.

Which States Require Sweepstakes Registration and Bonding?

Mention Unclaimed Prizes in the Sweepstakes Official Rules

If it’s legally permissible for you to keep sweepstakes prizes and you want the option to do so, this needs to be explicitly stated in your Official Sweepstakes Rules. Make sure to mention that “unclaimed prizes will not be awarded” and what the exact conditions are for awarding the prize.

For example, you may require winners to provide identification including proof of age and residency. Winners may also be required to sign affidavits regarding the use of their identification in the verification process.

Need help with sweepstakes or contest management? Call 305-505-5393 or email us with your questions.

The post What Are the Most Popular Sweepstakes Prizes? Do All Prizes Offered in a Sweepstakes Have to be Given Away? appeared first on Sweeppea Blog.

When you write your sweepstakes rules, or the Official Rules, it’s customary to disclose the Approximate Retail Value (or “ARV) of the prize you’re giving away. In fact, many state laws and regulations require that businesses include the ARV.

Here is what you need to know about the ARV.

What is ARV?

ARV is the monetary value the prize is worth if it were to be redeemed for cash. For a cash prize, the ARV is simply the dollar amount of the prize. However, for non-cash prizes such as cars, the ARV may vary.

The method of determining a non-cash prize ARV varies. While most companies use the cost a winner would pay to purchase the prize or the advertised retail price of the product, others use the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) as the ARV.

Why is ARV an Important Part of Your Sweepstakes Rules?

Aside from including the ARV because it may be required by state law, there is another reason you want to include it: taxes.

The IRS will determine the amount of taxes the winner owes on the prize based on the Fair Market Value (FMV) of the prize. The FMV refers to the current market value that the winner could potentially sell the prize for.

If a participant wins a prize with an ARV of $600 or more, your company will need to send them an IRS Form 1099-MISC. You’ll also have to file it with the IRS directly.

In some states, your sweepstakes may also have to be registered and bonded. New York and Florida require that companies register and bond their sweepstakes if the total ARV of the prizes exceeds $5,000.

In Rhode Island, there is no bonding requirement but the registration requirement applies if the prize is worth $500 or more and if the sweepstakes is conducted by a brick and mortar business with promotions taking place inside of a retail location.

This is essential for your promotion to be considered as a legal sweepstakes in those states.

How Do You Calculate the ARV?

While the ARV might be easy to calculate for some prizes, in other cases it could be a bit more complicated.

Here are some basic rules to follow:

Base ARV on the Retail Value, Not Your Cost

Some companies base the ARV on the cost they paid for the prize. But, if you received the prize at a significant discount, or paid wholesale price or if it’s your own product, this amount may be significantly different than what the prize winner would pay if they purchased the prize themselves.

So you should always disclose ARV as the retail value, not what it cost your business.

Use a Standard Formula for Travel Prize ARV Calculation

Travel prizes are one of the most difficult categories of prizes when it comes to determining ARV. This is because airfare and accommodation rates can fluctuate significantly, based on the date of travel and departure and arrival locations.

In this case, you can take these steps to calculate the ARV :

1. Obtain quotes from multiple travel agencies and online websites for the dates the winner will travel .
2. Base the ARV on the average of these quotes for airfare and ground transportation, along with the rate your company is willing to pay for accommodations and any other amenities that may be included.

Take care in your calculation as the winner may decide to dispute the ARV in order to lower their tax bill, since the amount of taxes owed is based on the FMV.

In fact, winners are more likely to challenge the ARV on a travel prize for this very reason.

Make Sure to Calculate the Total ARV

Some companies overlook calculating the total ARV for all of the sweepstakes prizes combined. Don’t ignore this in your Official Rules, especially if it’s possible for the winner to purchase all of the prizes as a bundle at retail value.

If you don’t calculate the total ARV, a winner could tally it on their own and then dispute it if it turns out to be higher than the FMV for the prizes purchased as a bundle.

Calculating ARV for your sweepstakes rules can be complicated. It’s highly recommended that you retain legal counsel to help you determine the ARV and assist you with any registration and bonding requirements that may arise.

Need help with sweepstakes or contest management? Call 305-505-5393 or email us with your questions. 

The post Why Your Sweepstakes Rules Should Include an ARV appeared first on Sweeppea Blog.

Getting your customers’ attention is a challenge and it feels like an even bigger one when you want to increase survey participation. Fortunately, there is an easier way to ensure people take your survey: use a sweepstakes!

To help you get started, here is how to use sweepstakes and prizes to increase survey participation.

Require Survey Participation to Enter Your Sweepstakes

In order to ensure that entrants take your survey, the best way to combine a sweepstakes with a survey is to have them complete the survey first in order to receive an automatic entry into the sweepstakes.

By having entrants take your survey first, they are required to complete the task you want them to do before they get what they came for. There is one drawback to this approach: sweepers, people regularly who enter sweepstakes as a hobby, may skew the results.

Add Questions to Screen for Sweepers and Bots

To avoid having sweepers and bots skew the data, add survey questions that gauge survey takers’ familiarity with your brand, as well as, attention check questions. You can also ask them if they would mind if you follow up with them via phone or another contact method at the end of the survey.

Then simply eliminate those responses from your data if they don’t provide the right answers to your questions.

When and How to Launch Your Sweepstakes Survey Promotion

Now that you know how to ensure participation and get valid responses for your sweepstakes survey promotion, here is how to ensure a successful launch:

1. Check for Competition

Make sure to schedule your sweepstakes survey for a time when you won’t be competing with other brands for attention (such as during a major holiday). By launching a sweepstakes at a time when there is not much else going on in your industry, your promotion will garner a lot more attention, thus increasing your participation rate.

2. Set Reminders

Since you only have a limited amount of time to conduct your survey, send reminders to your customers to encourage them to enter before the sweepstakes ends.

3. Make It Easy

The most important factor that will increase your survey participation is to make it easy. Make sure that the survey length is appropriate for the prize that a potential sweepstakes winner can win.

For example, don’t require participants to take a 10-minute sweepstakes if the prize is a discount coupon. On the other hand, if you plan to give away a high-value prize to one or multiple winners, you may be able to get entrants to take slightly longer surveys.

4. Manage Expectations

Let participants know exactly how long the survey will take before they start. Provide a progress bar that shows how much of the survey has been completed as they are taking it.

Once they have completed the survey, thank them for their participation. Make sure to also follow up regarding when and how sweepstakes winner announcement will take place.

Survey Sweepstakes: A Win-Win for Businesses and Customers

A survey without a prize or reward is just not that enticing to most people and will likely result in a low survey participation rate. However, by following these tips to combine a survey with a sweepstakes and prizes, you can delight your customers and thank them for giving you the valuable insights your business needs!

Need help with sweepstakes or contest management? Call 305-505-5393 or email us with your questions.

The post How to Use Sweepstakes and Prizes to Increase Survey Participation appeared first on Sweeppea Blog.