Managing Your Promotion

Managing and administering promotions can be very complicated. In addition to running the sweepstakes and selecting winners, rules must be drafted, federal, state and local laws need to be obeyed, insurance should be obtained, winners must be validated for eligibility, taxes must be reported, and prizes must be delivered. SweepstakesPros can manage all aspects of your sweepstakes or contest.

Our Promotions Administration Services include:

• Strategy & Prize Structure Planning. We are experts at running successful, legal sweepstakes and contests. We provide concept development, prize structure planning, execution management and strategic guidance to maximize the results of your promotion.
• Full Legal Services (Domestic & International). We provide information and advice on how best to run your sweepstakes or contest and access to legal counsel to ensure that your promotion is compliant with all applicable U.S. federal and state laws, Canadian provincial laws and international laws.
• Drafting Rules and Regulations. We will draft the Official Rules to comply with all applicable laws.
• Advertising Review. We will provide you will the mandatory legal language, abbreviated rules and disclaimers for all of your advertising materials (print, radio, television, web, etc.). We will then review all of your advertising, media and materials to ensure that they are consistent with the promotional offer and with all federal and state regulations.
• Full Legal Indemnification. We will take full liability for all of our work. We provide full indemnification to you for all of the sweepstakes and contest services we provide (unless you disregard our recommendations.)
• Sweepstakes Insurance Coverage. Most business insurance will not cover your company if you run into trouble running a sweepstakes. But if you work with SweepstakesPros, we will take on that risk. All of our services are covered under a comprehensive Professional Liability Insurance policy which is expressly designed for promotions marketing, sweepstakes and contests. Our insurance covers all of our sweepstakes and contest services.
• State Registration and Bonds. In the U.S., the states of Arizona, Rhode Island, New York & Florida all have regulations requiring registration of sweepstakes or contests under certain conditions. In addition, if the total prize value of your sweepstakes is over $5,000, separate surety bonds for the total value of all prizes are required in New York and Florida. SweepstakesPros will manage the registration and filing of your promotion in each state and acquire the appropriate surety bonds for the total retail value of all of the prizes (or if eligible, file a surety bond waiver request).
• P.O. Boxes. SweepstakesPros will establish and maintain Post Office boxes for mail-in entries and the receipt of winner's lists requests. We will compile all entries for the random drawing and, if needed, data enter all submissions.
• Game Cards & Ballot Boxes. Need instant win game cards or in-store ballot boxes for your promotion? SweepstakesPros will design and print your game cards (such as scratch and win, decoder cards, peel and win or on-pack/in-pack game pieces) and promotional materials. We will then randomly seed the winning game pieces and deliver the game cards along with instructions, rules, and other promotional materials to your locations.
• Customer Support. Do your consumers or retailers have questions about the promotion? SweepstakesPros will provide online and toll-free answers to all of their questions.
• Independent Judging. SweepstakesPros will act as the 3rd party independent judging organization for your sweepstakes or contest. We will interpret rules and make fair and impartial decisions if issues arise and we will arbitrate any consumer complaints or inquiries. This will protect you. By designating SweepstakesPros as the 3rd party independent judge in the Official Rules of the sweepstakes you (and more importantly your entrants) agree that if an issue or complaint arises, SweepstakesPros will decide how best to proceed. Courts have upheld that decisions by 3rd party independent judges are binding and this limits your entrants from suing if a problem occurs.
• 3rd Party Winner Selection. How do you ensure customers and courts that your sweepstakes was fair? By having SweepstakesPros pick your winners. As an independent party, SweepstakesPros has no incentive to pick your “best” customers so we will ensure that your winners are picked fairly and impartially. To pick your winners, SweepstakesPros will compile all of the sweepstakes entries and complete a supervised, impartial, random drawing to select the winners.
• Winner Notification, Release Documents and Validation. SweepstakesPros will notify your winners and draft and deliver the winner validation and release documents (such as the Congratulations Letter, Affidavit of Eligibility, Advertising and Publicity Release, and the Prize and Travel Releases). We will receive the completed paperwork from the winners and complete the validation process to verify each winner’s eligibility in the sweepstakes or contest. We can also perform detailed background checks on winners if needed. We will then store and file all winner affidavits and paperwork in compliance with all applicable laws.
• Winners Lists. You are required by law to provide a list of winners to all who request it. SweepstakesPros will create an independent, certified official winners’ list for your sweepstakes and fulfill all winner’s list requests.
• Prize Acquisition. SweepstakesPros distributes over 50,000 brand name items so we can find the right prizes at discount prices, or we will source and acquire custom prizes or find and negotiate with potential prize sponsors for free prizes. See our Prize Management Services for more information.
• Prize insurance. Want to offer a $50,000 prize but only have a $5,000 budget? SweepstakesPros can help you take the risk out of a great promotional idea by acquiring a prize insurance policy for your grand prize for a fraction of the prize amount.
• Prize Fulfillment & Travel Management. Whether its trips, cars, TVs or cash, SweepstakesPros will manage the fulfillment of all of your prizes. We will notify winners, coordinate signing of prize releases, securely store and deliver your prizes and provide toll free customer support to answer any questions your winners may have.
• Tax Filings. You are responsible for reporting (and sometimes for withholding) winnings for winners who receive $600 or more in prizes. SweepstakesPros will prepare and issue the appropriate IRS tax forms to all applicable winners and will withhold and submit the appropriate winnings and documentation to the IRS.