Donna's Promo Talk - Promotional Marketing that Creates Excitement and Gets Results

I Love this Valentine's Day Pet Kissing Photo Contest

Valentine's Day has now come and gone and I haven't had the chance to write a post about the holiday this year until now. It appears that marketers are the ones that are in love with the holiday more than any of us. This year especially I received more emails and saw more ads focused on what I should be doing that day with the person I love and what I should buy this person. It's gotten a little out of control, don't you think? However, it is a good excuse to remind someone that you love them.

Here's a very cute promotion that got my attention which involves some of the loves of my life, pets! Sure Fit, a provider of slipcovers and home and pet solutions, launched a Valentine’s Day Pet Kissing Photo Contest! They apparently have had past successes with their Halloween Pet Costume Contest and Holiday Pet Photo Contest, so they came up with a way to celebrate Valentine's Day.

Sure Fit ran the contest on their Facebook page and invited fans to submit a photo entry of themselves with their beloved pet sharing a smooch for a chance to win items from the Sure Fit Pet Collection. Three prize packages were awarded that consisted of Sure Fit products both humans and pets love!

Approved submissions were posted in the Sure Fit contest photo album on the Sure Fit Facebook page. Facebook fans were invited to vote for their favorite entries by “liking” the photos. The photo with the most “likes” won the contest which was announced on Valentine’s Day. And the winners are:

1st Place - Fritzi the Jack Russell!!

2nd Place - Balim Receiving His Special Valentine Kiss

3rd Place - Chesapeake, our Retriever

Now even though I do really like this contest, I have to comment on the fact that Sure Fit really was not in compliance with Facebook's Promotional Guidelines since they used the "like" button as their voting method. So don't go copying how they executed this contest. Sure Fit should be utilizing a application to post the photos in a gallery and then invite people to vote on them. So I think I'll reach out to the folks at Sure Fit and suggest ways to run this contest in the future that are in line with Facebook's guidelines.

Also, I have a couple of antique wing chairs that could really use some new skins. My cats have been using the chairs as their scratching post for way too long! So I now have become a fan of Sure Fit Slipcovers.

I'll be speaking next month at PMA's Annual Marketing Conference: Game Changers

Next month I’ll be heading back again to Chicago to attend the PMA's Annual Marketing Conference taking place March 14-15 at the Westin Hotel. They've picked up the theme from last year's conference, Game Changers, with a new twist, "The Rules are being rewritten. Don't be left behind".

I say this theme statement is right on today. All of us have to deal with marketing in some respect and it's hard to keep up with the latest technologies, let alone understand how to use them effectively. I was just watching the Today Show yesterday morning and they were interviewing Kate Upton, this year's Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover model. She's 19 years old, virtually unknown and was discovered by the videos she has posted of herself on YouTube. She said she has now fulfilled her dream and looks forward to what this opportunity will bring her. I guess you could say she's a Game Changer!

I am honored to have been asked by the folks at PMA to moderate a panel at this year's conference which is called Building Brands through Promotion: Beyond Facebook. The focus will be on how to utilize Facebook application to grow your fanbase and engage with them by running sweepstakes, contests, games and other promotional offers. Joining me will be Mike Nabasny from Wildfire, Jim Belosic the founder of Shortstack and Kelly Lund who's with Capita Technologies. They represent three companies that have been Game Changers in the way we market our businesses and brands on Facebook. Each will be reviewing a different case study that demonstrates how brands are using these apps to connect with their fans. This breakout session will be taking place on day one of the conference, March 14 at 2 pm.

Other than the 15 breakout sessions there will also be 10 Keynote speakers. Some include, Jim Sabia from Crown Imports talking about the Corona brand, Jeff Rosenblum, Founding Partner of the Naked Brand, a documentary that shows how companies can't hide from the truth, and Cindy Donohoe, in charge of Pharmacy Marketing at Walgreen's, winner of last year's top Reggie Award. David Shing, Digital Prophet who's with AOL will kickoff the conference and Day 2 includes Lisa Landsman, Head of Commerce for Google and our very own former CMO of Kodak, Jeffrey Hayzlett, who is now a best-selling author.

I've been a guest of PMA's conference for the past five years and have written many blog posts about their conferences before, during and after. They formally named me as their "Official Conference Blogger" a couple of year's ago. Actually, PMA was one of the catalyst that got me blogging in the first place.

I launched this blog five years ago this month. At the time PMA didn't have a blog so they invited me to be a guest to their conference in return for blogging about it. I then quickly learned as much as I could about blogging from Yvonne DiVita, Lip-sticking  blog founder, and her partner, Tom Collins, who then helped me launch my blog. They introduced me to Greg Bell who had also recently started a blog to "cover jazz around Rochester and Beyond" called Jazz@Rochester. Greg joined me at the PMA Marketing Conference in 2007 and we hosted a breakfast roundtable together on blogging. It was still a fairly new marketing concept at the time. So thank you again, Yvonne, Tom, Greg and the PMA.

If anyone would like to attend the conference you have up until this Friday, Feb. 17 to register here at the discounted rate. You can also register for one day at a reduced fee if you can't attend for both. Since I'm a speaker I have a code that provides an additional $100 savings. So if you're interested leave me a comment and I'll email you the code. The full conference registration also includes a ticket to the Reggie Awards dinner on March 15 which showcases the best promotions of 2011. So I hope to see some of you in Chicago.

Pet Video Contest Offers Chances to Win Plus Matching Charity Donations

Art-Casso recently launched a one-of-a-kind pet video contest that we assisted in. Art-Casso is a small online retailer that sells NO MESS paint kit for pets that allows dogs and cats to paint with their paws and/or body.

The company was originally founded in 2006 with the idea that pets and owners could create paw paintings to cherish without making a mess. Joanna Sasso is the Company’s new president who's goal is to revitalize the Art Casso image. She believes that the animal-human bond can be enhanced through this interactive paw painting activity. What better way to create awareness of these products than with a promotion such as this video contest?

Participants can enter the contest by uploading videos of their pets enjoying Art-Casso’s paint kit products. The grand prize winner will receive a $500 check and an additional $500 will be donated to the winner ’s choice of a 501(c)(3) animal charity that is at least three years of age. A First Prize winner will receive $100 along with a matching donation and also a Second Prize winner will receive $50 check also with a matching donation.

To participate, individuals must first visit the Art Casso Facebook page and Like the page to become a fan. They will then be given access to the contest application which contains a special limited-time, Facebook Fan Discount Code that can be used on Art-Casso’s website to purchase a pet paint kit. After receiving the product they then create a video of their dog or cat painting with the kit and then come back to the contest application on Art-Casso’s Facebook page to submit an entry form along with their video.

Video submissions should be no more than one-minute in length and will be accepted up till March 11. At that time a panel of judges that includes Art-Casso President, Joanna Sasso, Celebrity Pet Expert, Charlotte Reed and Givenik Marketing Associate, Ben Cohen will review each submission and select three finalists. “Judges will determine the winner based on pet and owner interaction, creativity of the video and how the duo best highlight the essence of the non-mess paint kit,” says Art-Casso President, Joanna Sasso.

The videos of the three finalists will be featured on Art-Casso’s Facebook page around March 15 and then the public will be invited to vote for their favorite painting pet video up until March 31. The grand prize winner should be announced on April 1.

This promotion is a great example of how you can drive people to both your website and your Facebook page. The contest helps create awareness of the product, hopefully stimulates sales of the product, increases the Facebook fan base and helps to build a database from all those that submitted their information along with their video.

We are again utilizing a Facebook application called Shortstack which is very user-friendly. I will be moderating a panel session next month at PMA's Annual Marketing Conference on Facebook Applications for Building Brands With Promotions. Jim Belosic, Founder of Shortstack, along with Mike Nabasny from Wildfire and Kelly Lund from Capita will be joining me on the panel. More to come on the Conference in a future blog post. I would love to see some of you there.

In the meantime check-out the contest. Since I have several pets, I'm going to be creating one of these pet kits myself very soon!

Super Bowl XLVI Wrap Up....And the Winners Are:

Super Bowl XLVI created some big winners and also some losers. Obviously as we all know now, the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots in what was a come-from-behind, great game. The Giants got to parade down Broadway in New York City yesterday to celebrate with their fans. Yes, the fans and New York are all winners here as well. Plus of course we have Eli Manning, the MVP of the game, who now has two Super Bowl rings, one more than his brother Payton as the media was sure to bring up several times.

In the 6th annual Doritos Crash the Super Bowl Contest the two ads that were chosen from the 5 finalists to broadcast during the game were both winners. However, the Sling Baby ad has now been picked as the winner in the USA TODAY/Facebook Super Bowl Ad Meter. Online voting, began after each ad aired during Sunday night's broadcast and ended at 6 pm on Tuesday. Viewers picked from 55 commercials on which advertisers spent up to a record $3.5 million for each 30-second slot. Kevin Willson submitted the ad of the grandmother and baby who snatched a bag of Doritos and he will now receive a million dollars and a consulting contract with The Lonely Island. The other Doritos ad that was broadcast during the game, Man's Best Friend, came in #6.

All of us who signed up to be Papa John's Reward members and voted in their Super Bowl Coin Toss Experience came out winners as well. I voted for heads and heads was the choice that the majority voted for and heads ended up as the actual winner of the coin toss. Yesterday I received my prize code online which is good for a free, large, one-topping pizza and a two-liter Pepsi MAX. Papa Johns sent an email to all members which I had to retrieve from my spam folder. The email invited me to a landing page which I had to type in my name and email to receive my personal code. I have up till March 4 to redeem my prize. Papa John's now had to award many free pizzas, which hopefully for them will turn all us winners into regular customers. It will be interesting to find out the final results as to how many free pizzas were actually redeemed.

Twitter also came out a winner in the social media category averaging more than 10,000 tweets per second and not crashing! According to Twitter, the most tweeted moment of the game was when 12,233 people tweeted in a single second at the end when Tom Brady's Hail Mary pass wasn't caught. The second most tweeted moment came during Madonna's halftime show, which averaged more than 8,000 tweets per second and had a high of 10,245 tweets in a single second.

Personally I was watching the game with my laptop both tweeting and posting updates on Facebook. It was fun to see what others were saying and commenting on. I was trying to stay up to following a few hashtags on Twitter about the ads. My update on Facebook that received the most Likes and comments during the game was this: "David Beckham is pretty good to look at too. Don't ya think?". Now you get a sense of what my women friends like (as well as a male gay friend who Liked it as well).

Towards the end of the game I wasn't socializing any more. I just grabbed another drink and started praying the Giants would come out on top. Which they did in all nail-biting action. Thanks NFL. Now it will be quite some time before we see anymore football. Bring on the Summer Olympic Games!

BTW - I also finally came out a winner in our squares. The safety in the first quarter helped me win that square with a final score of 9-0!

Other than the Giants or Patriots, who else will come out a winner from Super Bowl XLVI?

I will be one of the millions watching Super Bowl XLV1 this Sunday and hoping for a good game, which it should be. As I've stated in my posts over the past couple of weeks, I'm behind the New York Giants all the way and would love to see Eli Manning get another super bowl win, especially while in his brother Peyton's home stadium. I'm sure Peyton will be there also, just not on the field this year.

I'm also hoping to see some real social media integration with the advertising campaigns that we see. If the advertisers are paying an average of $3.5 million for a spot, you would think they would try and get the most bang for their bucks. Last year I called it the "Social Super Bowl" and was disappointed with the overall advertising experience. Other than posting ads on social media, the brands did very little to really engage people and integrate social media into their strategies.

Other than the Giants beating the Patriots, who else is going to come out a winner? Last year the Volkswagen Darth Vader ad scored the highest in the USA Ad Meter for best liked ad. (What was not to like?) Volkswagen utilized social media to post the ad on their blog, on YouTube and their Facebook page five days before the game and it had 13 million views before kickoff. Sine then the ad as gotten numerous awards and nearly 50 million views on YouTube.

This year Volkswagen has already launched The Bark Side, a teaser video featuring a chorus of dogs barking The Imperial March. If you haven't seen it yet, here it is. I love it and think it's brilliant (especially since I'm a sucker for doggies!). It currently has over 10 million views on YouTube. If you click through to YouTube you will also be given the opportunity to view their new game time ad called "The Dog Strikes Back".

Papa John's, the Official Pizza of the NFL, decided not to run an ad during the game last year, but instead launched a huge promotion. They offered a free, large, three-topping pizza to all of its online rewards program members if the game went into overtime as well as a $45 Papa John’s gift card every 45 seconds to randomly selected consumers who ordered its pizzas online during game day.

This resulted in Papa John’s selling over a million pizza's during game day which beat it's previous Super Bowl Sunday sales record of 940,000 pizzas in 2010. Of course they didn't give out the free pizzas since the game last year didn't go into overtime. BTW, the Super Bowl has never gone into overtime, so the odds where in their favor. Papa John's did increase their loyalty membership numbers significantly though from this.

Now this year's promotion has a little better odds for their rewards members. They're offering a free, large, one-topping pizza and a two-liter Pepsi MAX to each member depending on the game’s coin toss. To be eligible people have to be a rewards program and call either heads or tails on the toss at papajohns.com. Tomorrow, Feb. 2, Papa John's will announce on their website what America's choice was and then if that choice is correct on game day all members will win. I just voted and went with heads. So we'll see.

Papa John’s is also running another sweepstakes but instead of giving away gift cards, their giving away pizzas. This year they have been randomly selecting winners from among online pizza-orders every 46 seconds each weekend starting back on Friday, Dec. 30, and ending on this Saturday, Feb. 4, the evening before game day. To follow the "No Purchase Necessary" requirement, rewards members also can enter without ordering a pizza, by following instructions in the Official Rules.

This year Papa John's has also created a promotional 30-second spot TV spot that stars Super Bowl champions Peyton Manning and Jerome “The Bus” Bettis kibitzing in a football stadium with Papa John's founder/chairman/CEO “Papa” John Schnatter talking about the coin-toss promotion. The commercial first aired during Jan. 22’s NFC and AFC Championship games, and has been airing since then.

They have integrated social media into the campaign by including a dedicated Twitter hashtag (#freepapajohns). Also when participants vote online for the coin-toss they have the option to sign into Facebook to “personalize” their experience. I did and I got to see my Facebook profile photo with my name up on the scoreboard in the stadium integrated into the online video. It happened so quickly though I almost missed it. So not the best social media integration I would say.

So now I two have a chance of being a winner after this Sunday's Big Game. Either I could win a free pizza from Papa John's along with an actual Chevy and other prizes from Chevy's Gametime app. (Plus some cash if my squares come out lucky!) It's great to see promotions playing a big role in these marketing strategies. Plus. I'm sure Volkswagen and Doritos won't be the only ads with animals in them. Hope you enjoy the game. I'll be writing a post game review next week. So please check back.

Super Bowl Mobile App from Chevy comes with a big Game Time Sweepstakes

Last Sunday was by far one of the most exciting NFL conference championship game days any real football fan can ask for. Yes, it will take a while for Raven fans to get over the missed chip-shot field goal and the 49er's to wonder what if they didn't turn over the ball in overtime. We're now moving on to Super Bowl XLVI with a big rematch between the Patriots and the Giants. As I said in my last post, I'm betting on Eli Manning and the New York Giants to be this year's champions.

The Super Bowl has now become the most active topic of the millions of us who write blogs posts and updates on Facebook, Twitter and now, Google+. In 2011, the only Facebook status update topic in the world, amongst 800 million users at the time that beat out the Packers winning Super Bowl 45 was the death of Osama bin Laden. Since many of these tweets and Facebook updates come via a mobile phone, this year General Motors and Chevrolet is adding mobile to their mix to capitalize off this.

If you want to watch the Super Bowl on February 5th on your smartphone or tablet, Chevy's got an app for that. The Chevy Game Time app is now available in the Android Market, Apple's App Store and at chevy.com/gametime. The app will ask viewers trivia and poll questions on subjects including the game, teams and commercials. Participants who answer trivia correctly or choose the most-common poll answer will be entered into the Chevrolet Game Time Sweepstakes drawing. The sweepstakes is awarding thousands of prizes including some instant Win Prizes from Bridgestone, Motorola, the NFL and NFLShop.com, Papa John's Pizza and Sirius XM Radio.

Chevrolet will be running several ads during NBC's Super Bowl broadcast. When someone downloads the app, they receive a unique "license plate" number and if anyone's numbers match any plate in Chevy's Super Bowl spots, they will win one of 20 Chevy's. There is also an alternate means of entry in which someone that does not want to download the app can register for the sweepstakes by visiting chevy.com/gametime.

So I just downloaded the app and will try it out. I don't have a tablet yet, so I will be experiencing it off my Droid Incredible phone. Should be interesting. In the meantime we all now have to go a whole weekend with no football! Let the fun begin.

Marketing During the Super Bowl is a No-Brainer for Many Brands

By Guest Blogger, Dave Thomas, Online Content Editor for business.com

While it’s no surprise that advertisements during the Super Bowl cost big dollars, that hasn’t stopped many companies from opening up their checkbooks to market their wares.

Recent reports note that NBC, this year’s host for the Feb. 5 event in Indianapolis, sold its entire allotment of commercial airtime for the game before Thanksgiving 2011, having a waiting list to boot.

According to the network, slots are still open during NBC's pregame show, and those on the waiting list for the Super Bowl will have an opportunity to advertise if other companies forfeit their slots.

So, how much does an ad cost when more than 100 million people tune in to watch the AFC and NFC battle next month?

The average cost for a 30-second spot in 2012 is $3.5 million, with some time slots leading advertisers to spend as much as $4 million. The bottom line is you better have a sizeable amount of cash to spend if you want to get noticed on Super Bowl Sunday during the year’s most watched sporting event.

When you break down the marketing efforts of advertisers and NBC for that matter, at a $3.5 million average, the 70 commercials that appear during the game would lead to $245 million in gross revenue. When you take away the ad agency commission, NBC would take in just over $208 million when all is said and done.

There are also six commercials scheduled for halftime, along with a plethora of them slated to run in the nauseating six hours of pregame hype.

As a spokesperson for the sales and marketing team with the NBC Sports Group noted, “We should shatter all prior records for that day.”

As many marketing and sales pros can attest to, it isn’t just the televisions sets where people will be exposed to advertisements. The network is also selling spots on its live streamed broadcast of the game and on Super Bowl-related programming to be broadcast on the NBC Sports Network.

Among the companies planning to market their products during the game next month are Volkswagen, General Motors, Toyota, Dannon, Century 21, GoDaddy.com, and Bridgestone.

While most small businesses will never get the chance to market their products during an event such as the Super Bowl, there are lessons to be learned from the experience. Among them are:

• Always be sure to reinforce your brand and/or business. While some Super Bowl messages are cute and funny, the brand sometimes gets lost in the message. Marketers want consumers to remember who they are whether it is a 30-second spot or a 60-second one. Make sure you don’t leave people guessing as to what your message is;
• Logos, web addresses, phone numbers, etc. are essential. It is important when marketing to make sure consumers have the ability to reach out to you. You can have the best product in the world, but without a way for people to reach you, what good is it? Don’t make consumers have to work to find you;
• Redefine the targeted audience – This is why surveys, reports, metrics etc. are important. Make sure you are marketing to the right demographics so that your money is well spent. If your primary market is young women, don’t spend your time marketing to middle age men in hopes that they will pass the details along to their younger offspring.

You may not be advertising during the biggest television spectacle of the year, but that doesn’t mean your marketing efforts are worthless.

Score a touchdown with the right marketing campaigns, which begin with kicking off in the right direction.

Dave Thomas, who covers among other items starting a small business and business proposals, writes extensively for Business.com, an online resource destination for businesses of all sizes to research, find, and compare the products and services they need to run their businesses.

Doritos Crash The Super Bowl Contest is back for its 6th Year

Super Bowl XLVI will be played on February 5 in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium. That means it's that time of year again to be writing about one of the biggest marketing events of the year. Now that the Green Bay Packers and the New Orleans Saints have been eliminated, what teams do you think will win? I'm going with Eli Manning and the Giants. Here's a great article I read yesterday from the WSJ titled "Why Giants Really Could Win It All".

So the next question will be what marketing and advertising campaign will come out a winner? The team at Doritos is at it again with their sixth "Crash The Super Bowl" contest. This contest has become the grandfather of all user-generated contests. The contest finalists have now been posted and last week their submissions surged to the top of the viral video chart after generating over 1.7 million views. This year's contest received more than 6,100 entries from people hoping their video will become one of two Super Bowl ads to be televised during the game, with a possible $1 million prize if viewers rate their ad highly enough.

The 5 finalists will all receive $25,000 each and a trip to Indianapolis for a private Super Bowl XLVI party hosted by Doritos. Following the voting round, the two finalists with the most votes will be declared the Grand Prize winners and their spots will be aired during the Super Bowl XLVI broadcast. If either of these commercials is awarded one of the top 3 spots (including ties) according to the USA TODAY Ad Meter rankings, that Grand Prize Winner will receive a bonus of $1,000,000 for the #1 spot, $600,000 for the #2 spot OR $400,000 for the #3 spot. In addition, the Grand Prize winners will be offered a consulting contract with The Lonely Island, a comedic trio consisting of Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, and Andy Samberg, best known for a series of "digital shorts" aired on Saturday Night Live.

The voting period is going on now till January 29th. Doritos this year is offering an incentive just for voters with the “Vote For A Chance To Win” Sweepstakes. They have integrated various ways participants can register to vote this year that include mobile and social media. The entry methods include the CrashtheSuperbowl.com website itself, a mobile optimized version of the website at m.crashthesuperbowl.com or crashthesuperbowl.com/mobile, the Doritos Facebook page, via Buzzfeed, through an Xbox console, and by clicking any of the various online banner ads the brand is running.

For every 100,000 votes received, a random drawing will occur from among all entries received during that voting period for a chance to win $10,000. Currently the site meter says they have received close to 300,000 votes, so they must have pulled two winners already that each have won $10.000. Doritos will do up to 10 drawings for a total potential prize pool of $1 million.

I just reviewed the five finalist spots. Three out of the five include dogs. One is a guy who acts like a bird and the last stars a very cute baby. All quite silly. Here's my favorite, which one is yours?

Rail Europe Utilizes a Facebook Contest to Grow and Engage with their Fans

Recently we helped launch a contest on Facebook for our client, Rail Europe, called Cultural Shock. The contest invites fans of their Facebook page to submit an entry that describes an experience that they may have had while in Europe which exemplifies cultural differences between the European and American lifestyle.

Rail Europe is asking people to share their experiences that may have been awkward, unexpected, inspiring or just plain interesting. An example Rail Europe offers is that you ordered steak tartar in France and you thought that you were going to receive regular steak; instead you received a plate of raw meat.

The objective of the contest is to get people to share their submissions with their friends and family on Facebook and invite them to vote for their submission. At the end of the two-week contest period the person with the most votes wins the grand prize for that round. A new contest round starts every two weeks. Currently we are on Round 4 which will be ending on Sunday, Jan. 15. Round 5 is scheduled to start on the following Monday, Jan. 16. We're hoping this is going to be a year-long contest. However, that will depend on if the level of interest and engagement continues to be strong. So far the results have been impressive.

Rail Europe USA is the leading authority of European rail in the United States, representing more than 35 European railroads. They currently assist more than one million visitors each year experience Europe by train. Therefore, the grand prize that is offered for each contest round is a 3-country Eurail Select Pass. Winners have up to six months to claim their pass which can then be used over a two month period.

You can visit Rail Europe's blog were the team has posted some of their European cultural shock experiences to help inspire people to submit their own stories. Submissions may include up to 1,000 characters of text and an optional photo. Currently when I click on the View and Vote tab I see 26 entries for this round that I can vote on. Here's a submission from Erin Clark that I thought was funny:

"When I was 17 and fresh off the farm, I was on a concert band tour of Europe. Toward the end of the tour we were exploring London. Our tour guide took us to The Old Curiosity Shop. I had made my purchases and decided to stand outside. A lady approached me and asked me "By chance do you have a fag?" I was mortified until a chaperone explained that she meant a cigarette."

The winner of the Round 3 contest was Mike Richard from New Hampshire. Mike's submission was an account of his experience last year of taking part in the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain. He received 65 votes! Mike came away without a bruise and stated "The event is unlike anything I have experienced in the United States and would strongly recommend the event to others."

This is the first Facebook contest I have set-up and help manage using the ShortStack Application. I've been very happy with the flexibility the app offers and the support that I have gotten from the ShortStack team. For example, when we first launched Round 1, we had one tab that included both the entry form and all the submission. We moved to a two tab set-up which we have now on the page that allows those who are visiting just to vote to find the entries much easier. When someone submits an entry, they then have the option to post on their wall as well as send out personal invites to some of their friends asking them for their vote. When the friend clicks on the link that takes them to the contest their friend's submission will be the first once shown in the gallery.

So I invite you to become a Facebook fan of Rail Europe and check out the contest. Yes, you have to Like the page in order to view or enter the contest. That's one of the benefits of running a contest like this and using an application that allows for both fan and no-fan content to display. Rail Europe currently has gained over 4,000 fans since we launched the contest back in November.

If you have an European Cultural Shock experience to share, please feel free to submit it in the contest. People can resubmit their entry in another round. However, they can only win once! Congrats to all the current winners. Let's see who's next.

Mobile, Social and Presidential Campaigns to Dominate 2012

I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and had some time to relax. For my last blog post of 2011 I did a review of the year and featured a post from every month. It is a tradition I have done for the past few years and its a way for me, and I hope you as well, to reflect back on the year dominate

As always with a new year we read about what many predictions and forecasts. With today being just the fourth day of the new year, and the morning after the Iowa Caucus, we already know that it is going to be a heavy political season which has just begun.

This MediaPost article is interesting which states that if we take a look at some of the recent engagement on social media we may be able to predict who will be our next President. Similar to search engine stats which have predicted what items were going to be the big holiday sellers, social media can give us a glimpse into the future as well. This company called Socialbakers has created metrics based on Facebook Likes, sentiments in comments, and interactions to identify the candidates most likely to win at the polls.

As of yesterday, their metrics suggested that Ron Paul held the highest overall "Viral Reach" with 59,554 comments this past week. Rick Perry had the most engaging single-post among candidates, followed by Jon Huntsman and Newt Gingrich. So Mitt Romney wasn't even mentioned and he just won the Iowa Caucuses by 8 votes!

Another very popular topic and prediction that I've been reading centers around mobile and the need for marketers and publishers to ramp up their efforts here. This also goes for those seeking to become the next President. While social media played a very important role in the 2008 presidential election, the explosive growth in smartphone usage and the introduction of tablets could make or break the candidates for president in 2012.

This article on Network World goes on to say that while some of the GOP campaigns have special links on their websites for getting updates via SMS, they don't appear to have candidate-specific downloadable mobile apps on Apple's App Store or the Android Market so far. I would agree with this writer that this will most likely change and we move forward with the race. However, it is odd when you think about how you can now follow the NFL playoffs with an app, but you can't follow the race for the White House.

It is definitely going to be a very exciting year and it will be interesting to see the expanded role both social media and mobile play in the campaigns along with how marketers continue to utilize these resources. I'm glad to be able to bring to my readers updates and unique examples of how social media and mobile will be utilized as the year moves on.

For now I just want to end my first post of the year by featuring one more holiday promotion that I "Liked". Cox Communications launched its first social giving campaign on their Facebook page in support of Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) by spreading social media cheer with their Holiday Snow Globe.

Cox Facebook fans were invited to place one of their photos into a holiday-themed snow globe that offered a variety of different designs, such as Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Wonderland and more. They then were allowed to share their personalized snow globe on Facebook as well as through email. I shared mine with a photo of my husband, Kevin and I in the globe. But unfortunately when I went to look for it today, it's been deleted.

Anyhow, Cox will donate one dollar to the organization for each snow globe created this holiday season, up to $10,000.They have not yet announced how much they raised since it just ended yesterday. They also were running a Holiday Sweepstakes as part of the campaign in which they are giving away a trip to attend a holiday concert in NYC along with a selection of prizes including an iPod Touch, PlayStation 3 and a Dell Streak Tablet.

Happy New Year. I hope 2012 is a great year for you and thanks again for being a Promo Talk reader.