Tired of your best mate canceling dinner plans? So is Outback Steakhouse – and they’re doing something about it!

The ReplaceMates Sweepstakes, a brainchild of Mischief @ No Fixed Address, celebrates Outback Steakhouse Mate Day on May 8. An online video ad and social media posts encourage brand followers to tag their flakey mate for a chance to enjoy dinner with an actor who will stand in for their constantly canceling best mate. ;-p

Promosis is proud to provide Mischief, Praytell Agency and Outback with complete sweepstakes consultation, promotion administration and prize fulfillment services.

If you’d like to discuss how we can help you bring your own national holiday to life, please don’t hesitate to reach out – we’re here to help.

You may already know that offering a product rebate is a time-tested method for increasing sales, but did you know that rebates are as effective as ever due to these five reasons?

1. Audience Acceptance: According to a survey by market research company NPD Group, 65% of consumers have used a rebate offer to purchase a product. Furthermore, according to a Consumer Technology Association survey, 71% of consumers said that rebates and discounts are important factors when purchasing electronics.
2. Satisfy Your Sales Partners: Offering a rebate to customers who buy your product through a specific retailer can strengthen your relationship with both your sales partner and target audience. For example, we work with Tempur Sealy International to offer BJ’s Wholesale Club members a unique rebate good for a BJ’s gift card with a qualifying mattress purchase. Customers submit their claim via a branded rebate portal; Promosis then reviews the claim and fulfills the BJ’s gift card.
3. Protect Your SRP: A rebate is a great way to motivate sales while maintaining the Suggested Retail Price of your products or services. Maintaining a consistent SRP is crucial for building a strong brand image, maintaining healthy channel partner relationships, ensuring legal compliance, and gaining a competitive advantage. It also helps with data analysis, marketing strategy, and monitoring performance.
4. Increase Registration Numbers: Coupling a rebate claim with product registration helps you collect valuable customer data, improve product safety and liability management, and foster customer engagement, which ultimately leads to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
5. Maintain Profit: According to various studies, the average rebate redemption rate for consumer packaged goods is approximately 2-3%, while for consumer electronics the redemption rate is between 10-15%. Therefore, using a rebate to lower the price of your product or service greatly protects your margins compared to reducing the price via an across the board sale.

If you’d like to discuss how to create, develop, administer and fulfill a motivating rebate offer for your next promotion, please don’t hesitate to reach out – we’re here to help.

You may already know that offering great prizes helps drive a promotion’s success, but did you know we always consider these five items when developing a motivating prize structure?

1. Audience: We all have different preferences when it comes to, well… everything. When considering a grand prize such as a vehicle, it’s vital to conduct research to ensure it’s an aspirational prize to your target audience, and not simply what the sponsor believes is desirable according to their personal preferences.
2. Partners: Offering sweepstakes or skill contest prizes that tie your brand to pre-existing relationships with renowned spokespeople or companies attracts additional attention and participation. For example, if offering a travel prize, also include a sponsored celebrity meet and greet.
3. Length: If your promotion is in support of a one day grand opening celebration, the prize structure should reflect immediacy. Likewise, if a sweepstakes runs for an entire Major League Baseball season the prize structure needs to help maintain participant interest over a number of months.
4. Goal: Whether the sponsor wants to boost incremental brick and mortar sales, increase loyalty program participation or announce a new product or service, the prize structure must support – and not be at odds with – the promotion goal.
5. Budget: A clearly communicated promotion budget allows us to recommend motivating prizes that are within the sponsor’s spending guardrails; we wouldn’t want to recommend a grand prize of a two week cruise when the budget allows for a weekend getaway ;-).

If you’d like to discuss how to create a motivating prize structure for your next promotion, please don’t hesitate to reach out – we’re here to help.

You may already know the abbreviation “CCV” stands for “Commercial Co-Venture”. You might not know these five important details:

1. The definition of a CCV is quite general: Numerous states define an altruistic promotion in which a company motivates a consumer to make a purchase – or even just take an action – to raise funds for a charitable organization as a commercial co-venture.

2. CCV regulations protect all parties: State statutes strive to prevent companies from making charitable marketing claims and then never following through with donating any money. The same rules prevent charities from obtaining a positive halo-effect by illegitimately partnering with a well-known brand. The consumer receives protection in either scenario.

3. A commercial co-venture requires a specific contract: A number of States stipulate that a contract between the for-profit and non-profit companies be filed with the appropriate regulators. The document must reference state statutes, include the registration numbers of the CCV and charitable organization, the amount that will be donated to the non-profit, and more.

4. The promotion must be filed: Numerous states require CCV registration, filing and bonding. Complicating matters is that certain filings need to be completed by the for-profit company while others need to be executed by the charitable organization.

5. Maintain records: State laws require commercial co-venturers to retain records relating to all solicitation activities and a copy of the contract remain on file, to be available on request. Those records should be maintained for a particular period of time. In addition, some states require the commercial co-venture entity to submit a final accounting statement to the state. Typically, donations must be made within three months of the contract execution, and annual reports are required if the promotion period is greater than one year.

If you’d like to discuss an upcoming altruistic promotion, don’t hesitate to reach out – we’re here to help.

You may already know the abbreviation “AMOE” stands for “Alternate Means Of Entry”. You might not know these four important details:

1) An AMOE May Require the Purchase of a Postage Stamp: It’s OK to require sweepstakes entrants mail a letter or postcard. However, entrants do so at their own peril – just last week we received an AMOE mailed in 1999!

2) You Can Motivate a Purchase: It’s totally cool to motivate your audience to make a purchase in exchange for an entry. It’s not cool to omit an AMOE in the sweepstakes official rules and disclaimers.

3) Sometimes You Need an AMOE Even When Not Motivating a Purchase: Some states view requiring an in-store visit or actions of effort as “consideration”, which means you need to include an AMOE for these state residents, only.

4) Requiring a Free Enrollment For Entry Doesn’t Necessitate an AMOE: It’s true; requiring entrants to enroll in a no-cost rewards program is typically not viewed as consideration.

If you’d like to discuss an upcoming promotion, don’t hesitate to reach out or reply to this email – we’re here to help.

You may already know the benefits of conducting a sweepstakes or skill contest on TikTok – the world’s most downloaded app. You might not know these five important details:

1. CTA: The call to action needs to be simple and clear. Entries must be established by interacting with the post and or hashtagging in a specific way.

2. Launch Video: The promotion launch video should contain a specific disclaimer and link to the complete official rules.

3. Messaging Preferences: Entrants need to have their messaging preferences set in a certain way or they cannot be notified if they’re a preliminary winner.

4. Manual Winner Notification: The winner notification process cannot be automated; each preliminary winner needs to be individually messaged by a human.

5. Entry Quality: Instructing entrants to post or comment to earn an entry may result in lower entry quality and runs the risk of participants posting off-brand content. An alternative is to create a promotion video that directs entrants to a dedicated microsite that provides a more immersive experience and gives the promotion sponsor greater control over posted content.

If you’d like to discuss if a social media promotion is right for you, don’t hesitate to reach out – we’re here to help.

Skill Contests can be the source of outstanding user generated content (UGC). A skill contest is a powerful tool to drive product and brand engagement. It can also create valuable user generated content that you can use in your next marketing campaign to tell a relatable story about your product and your customers’ experience with it.

Learn about skill contest basics and more in Promosis’ Skill Contest Promotion Tips.

Successful Loyalty Rewards programs generate 30% larger order sizes from loyalty rewards program participants. And, according to Harvard Business School studies, while you are on your way to that higher level of business, rewards “create and accelerate loyalty”. Your customers remain your customers and less frequently try your competitor’s products.

Want larger orders and turn your customers into brand evangelists? Read Promosis’ Loyalty Rewards Guide

Motivating consumer reviews, getting your customers to submit product or service reviews can be difficult – but we love a good challenge.

Our mattress client, the largest bedding company in the world, asked Promosis to help them and a retail partner motivate their customers to review both companies in the same campaign. Check out their co-branded Reviews Sweepstakes and note these innovative features – and each step earns a sweepstakes entry:

1. Entrants find their retail store (the store locator filters for only their brand) and a link automatically pops in taking them to the Google store review for that specific location
2. When entrants complete the mattress product review it is published on the client’s ecommerce website and also syndicated to the retailer’s site.

Ready to motivate your customers to award you 5-star reviews? We’re here to help!

Regards,

Harry & Peter
Co-Founders

JetBlue has recognized that no community has taught us more about what it means to be human — no, superhuman — than the millions of healthcare workers across our country who risked their lives, and in some cases, tragically lost them, to protect ours. Spearheaded by executive leadership, JetBlue approached Promosis for help executing a program offering 100,000 pairs of round-trip flights to these brave professionals. Once they are able to take some much deserved rest, promotion winners and a guest will be able to fly to any JetBlue destination – courtesy of JetBlue. Separately, JetBlue invited its 23,000 Crewmembers to also nominate their own healthcare hero!

Utilizing our READYsweeps™ platform, we collaborated with our amazing clients to launch this massive initiative in just ten days. We’ll also be verifying each of the 100,000 nominees and electronically fulfilling their pair of flight certificates.

“Promosis is an excellent partner that I would work with time and time again and recommend to others! They are true experts in their space, responsive to our needs and very helpful as priorities shift. They have the ability to scale up and manage everything from small to very large-scale promotions with ease.”

-Ashley Graf, JetBlue Marketing

We’re honored to partner with Ashley and her team to deliver future relaxation to our heroes.

Regards,

Harry & Peter
Co-Founders

With READYsweeps™, we can help you launch a customized promotion in just days!

Thanks for your great response to our READYsweeps platform launch. A few of you asked great questions about the service, so we put together this sweet one-pager to provide all of you some answers.

And, if you don’t feel like checking it out right now, here are five big benefits of READYsweeps:

1. Easy: Provide us a bit of info and Shazam! – we deliver a customized sweeps site to you
2. Fast: Launch within days (or even hours!)
3. Legal: Official Rules, disclaimers, and indemnification are included
4. Affordable: A fraction of the price needed to develop and code a site from scratch
5. READY: Did we mention we can launch a legal sweepstakes for you in just days?

You can also check out our live demo – go now and you could even win a little something!

If you’d like to discuss if READYsweeps is right for you, don’t hesitate to reach out – we’re here for you.

Regards,

Harry & Peter
Co-Founders

Introducing the first of a suite of motivational-marketing platform services from Promosis – READYsweeps™!

Drawing from our decades of experience, our new READYsweeps blends our long-standing approach of developing promotions that meet your specific needs with a quick-to-launch web-based sweepstakes platform. Equipped with white-label technology, every READYsweeps promotion may be customized to reflect your individual company’s identity, tone, values, goals, and audience.

To experience our new service, simply visit our READYsweeps Launch sweepstakes site. Once there, we invite you to share a quick story – just a sentence or two – about someone you know who recently demonstrated a small act of service or aid. We’ll randomly select a winner who will receive a $100 Visa prepaid Gift Card. And, if we select the person you nominated, you’ll also receive a $100 matching gift card!

If you’d like to discuss if READYsweeps is right for you, don’t hesitate to reach out – we’re here for you.

Regards,

Harry & Peter
Co-Founders

We’re creating and building for you.

People are hungry for an upbeat message and a touch of kindness. Sweepstakes and skill contests are perfect tools for providing a real boost to your customers.

Our crew is collaborating on the launch of two new promotion services to help you quickly and affordably launch your next motivational project.

Keep an eye out for our email next week. We’ll announce the first of these services, along with a chance for YOU to win a positive prize from Promosis.

Don’t hesitate to reach out – we’re here for you.

And remember…

Patience and determination will prevail.

Regards,

Harry & Peter
Co-Founders

Just in case you’re like we are and have lost track of what day it is, today is Friday, March 27, 2020.

Regards,

Harry & Peter
Co-Founders

Better Things to Come

We hope you and your loved ones are OK.

We just wanted to confirm that all current programs remain live and functional.

Our crew, working remotely, is available to serve in any capacity you need – even if you’re just looking for a streaming suggestion (Treme is a sleeper!).

While current times feel grim and without hope, we remain powerfully optimistic that together we will rebound and reach new heights of collaboration, health and prosperity.

Don’t hesitate to reach out – we’re here for you.

Regards,

Harry & Peter
Co-Founders

Say Hi to Harry and Kramer’s dogs – both named Chester. Weird, right?

We’re psyched to welcome our new Lead Full Stack Software Engineer – Kramer Huculak.

Kramer recently moved with his wife, children and dog from their life-long home in Canada to the Boston area. He will be working alongside his Promosis crew members at our office in Marblehead, MA. He earned a Bachelor of Applied Science in Metals and Materials Engineering from The University of British Columbia in Vancouver and has over 10 years of software engineering and development experience.

Kramer will be leading our efforts to develop next-generation technologies that change how both our clients and their customers connect and interact with information and one another.

Do you want a fresh perspective for your next promotion? Give us a call at 781-639-1937 or drop us a note.

Regards,

Harry & Peter
Co-Founders

Build a website in ten minutes. Cut and paste. Template-driven.

Whether they initially realize it or not, these terms and solutions aren’t a fit for our clients. Instead, every promotion site we develop must adhere to a client’s creative standards, style, and voice.

When Bose asked us to develop Sound Sanctuary – a site to share how Bose products help a friend or family member cope or heal – they requested we include a full-bleed, dynamically looping background-image gallery in the website’s header area.

What’s particularly special about this header can be broken down in three parts:

1. Complex content that needs to sit above the dynamically looping images
2. A background area with adjustable opacity, based on the displayed image
3. Providing functionality that allows the visitor to change the index of the looping images in real-time

Dealing with opacity

Those who have dealt with the opacity requirement are aware of the technical considerations needed when placing content on layers that need to utilize opacity. At its surface the answer seems simple – set the background property of our header element to an image and set the opacity property to something a bit translucent like 0.8. Even when considering a looping set of background images, this answer seems ok because they can be set programmatically – so it’s not the looping that causes an issue.

The problem with this approach is that setting the opacity property on an element affects all children elements. Because we need to adjust the opacity and place complex layout content in child elements (really this background is just one layer of multiple in an intricate header), this solution won’t work for us.

Instead, we utilized a solution we’ve deployed many times in the past – creating a separate sibling element that sits alongside our parent element, but doesn’t have any children elements of its own.

To allow this to work we need to set the sibling’s position property to absolute, and give it a width and height of 100%. Then, we give our main parent element a position property of relative and make sure to have its height set.

Now we are free to set the opacity of our sibling element and dynamically set the background images without intruding on our child elements.

Creating the looping image gallery

Let’s look at how we coded the looping gallery and animation alongside the dynamic image selection.

Programmatically, we needed to not only allow the background images to loop on their own timer, but we also need to account for the fact that users may change the background image at any time by clicking on the small indicators at the bottom of the header.

To achieve this, we decided to start the background-looping action on a timer using the browser’s setInterval function. This looping action would consist of:

1. Lowering the opacity
2. Removing the current image
3. Placing the new image
4. Increasing the opacity

Typically, this coding is sufficient. However, since users can interrupt and alter the background-looping action, we needed make further maneuvers.

Using setInterval()

First, we store the result of the setInterval browser function in a variable in our Vue instance. setInterval is a way to kick-off a function repeatedly on a set time – perfect for our use-case. setInterval returns the id of its instance, which gives us a hook into the process. This is important because there’s actually no way to poll the browser for all active intervals – we need to keep track of them.

Then, whenever a user chooses a new background image, we cancel the old setInterval and set a new setInterval instance based on the background image the user selected. The user will see their selected image appear, then the looping will proceed normally, displaying the next image in the array . Using this process we programmatically bob-and-weave as a user changes the background image and restarts the looping dynamically. BUT, we’re still not done!

Implementing the fading transition

Just like their products, Bose’s brand reflects a premium, solidly-engineered feel. We wanted to bring that same luxurious quality to the fading transition animation between the looping background images.

Visually, we landed on a transition value of opacity 1.4s ease-in-out – moving slowly in and out of each image to add a premium feel to the animation.

Also, you may have noticed we are only transitioning the opacity property – this is very important because only a few select properties are considered safe to transition without completely bogging down one’s browser. The other safe properties are position, scale, and rotation. If you’d like, check out this article by Paul Lewis and Paul Irish to read more on why this approach is important for performance.

Wrapping up

We hope you found a little insight into the process of crafting just a single site component to be useful. Why not check out the live site to see it in action? And, if you’re ready to begin crafting your next unique motivational marketing website, give us a call at 781-639-1937 or drop us a note.

Contributing Author

John Datserakis

Lead Full Stack Developer

Sweepstakes, skill contests, and instant-win games are appropriate tools to use for attracting prospective customers and motivating sales. We can also help strengthen the post-sale relationship with your customers with four different tactics:

1. Gift with Action: Want to better understand what your customers think about your products and services? A gift with action – something that will help folks enjoy their purchase to the fullest – is just the thing to motivate them to complete a survey or review.
2. Loyalty Rewards Program: Stay connected with, extend your relationship and keep your customers using an efficient points program
3. Product Recall: Mistakez happen. Strengthen your bond with your customers by offering a clear, simple-to-participate-in product recall program. We can help with logistics, site development, product return and replacement, and customer service.
4. Rebate Program: Reward your best customers with a cost-effective VISA prepaid gift card or Amazon.com reward code.

Do you want to dramatically improve and extend the relationship with your customers? Give us a call at 781-639-1937 or drop us a note.

Boston City Hall selected Promosis to administer the Boston’s Safest Driver Competition. The promotion is part of Mayor Marty Walsh’s initiative to bring traffic deaths in Boston to zero. Launched last week and running through July, City of Boston residents and residents of most Metro Boston cities and towns can hone their safe driving skills and compete for prizes that reward safe driving.

The contest is a partnership effort between Promosis, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, and Cambridge Mobile Telematics – the developers of a smartphone app that scores drivers on their behaviors (acceleration, braking, cornering, speed and phone distraction) and allows them to see and think about the details of each driving trip.

Want to check it out? Download the app from the Apple Store or Google play.

 

Do you want to explore using a skill contest to motivate a specific behavior of your target audience? Give us a call at 781-639-1937 or drop us a note.