-JPK

The contest asks patrons to visit participating bars, enjoy a pint of Guinness or two; rate their pint(s) on a 1-10 scale, and text GREAT and the rating to 88500. The top rated bar will receive a plaque and a celebration party sponsored by Guinness. Abramovich notes, “The Guinness Quality Mobile Program is the first of its kind. This program allows consumers in a non-invasive way to tell the bar or restaurant how much they enjoyed or disliked their pint. While the consumer rates the pint, the bar or restaurant is now measured against its peers.”

Although asking a barroom of Guinness drinkers to provide accurate, measurable data about the quality of their beer may seem like a fruitless cause, Guinness is nevertheless rewarding each participant by entering them to win a trip to the Guinness Brewery in Dublin to celebrate Guinness’s 250th Anniversary.

An important note about the contest is that free lift ticket prizes can not be used from December 26 through Jan 3, January 17 through January 19, or February 14 through February 20. Those dates aside, this contest and all 10,000 of it’s lift ticket prizes, is worth an entry (the official rules list odds of winning as 1:15).  The contest runs from November 10 to February 18, 2009.

Stratton also offers mobile alerts with Stratton Mountain Mobile, which users can sign up for here.

-JPK

The contest has been active since November 27 and requires players to record code words that Comedy Central has been playing on the air once per hour. Players must submit these code words to Comedy Central using either the contest’s official CodeKeeper entry form (available here). Players can also enter into a special mobile contest by texting ENTER to 44686.

The contest accounts for those of us who were too busy eating, napping, and shopping by playing a video on the Thanksgiveaway Wiikend site that displays each code word. The contest expires on December 7th, so it is still active and Scions and Wiis are still up for grabs by the hour. Good luck and happy code hunting!

- JPK

“The mobile effort, introduced without fanfare, targets shoppers with the promise to deliver them early news of bargains in-store or online at Walmart. It is also an opportune attempt by Walmart to build a database of mobile consumers for marketing offers and deals” (read the rest of the article…)

Walmart emphasizes the ease of signing up for the alert service. By simply dialing #WMT on a mobile phone, Walmart shoppers enable their phones to receive the SMS alerts. Alerts include gift ideas, recipes, and product news and reviews. Subscribers will receive three alerts per week and the alerts run not only for the duration of the holiday shopping period, but also will be sent periodically throughout the year to subscribers.

In addition to Holiday Mobile Alerts, Walmart also offers a shopping-trip enhancing iPhone application, as well as iPhone widgets for direct linking to the walmart.com homepage.

- JPK

Jackpot Rewards gives subscribers three weekly opportunities to win a $145 Million Super Jackpot, as well as weekly $1 Million Jackpot drawings and a weekly Guaranteed Prize Winner drawing, which gives away a prize rather than a jackpot. The company essentially hosts a lottery where they randomly select six numbers. Jackpot Rewards members are automatically entered into each contest with six numbers that they have selected. If a contestant’s six numbers match the six numbers drawn, they then win the Super Jackpot. If the contestant matches two or more numbers, they are automatically entered into the $1 Million Jackpot drawing. In addition, for each number matched, the contestant receives ten entries into the Guaranteed Prize Winner contest. Super Jackpot drawings are held every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, while the weekly Jackpot drawings are held on Saturdays and the Guaranteed Prize drawings are on Sundays. Members can also form Jackpot Groups and align with other members to increase their chances of winning prizes.

Subscribers also can instantly save money with Jackpot Rewards’s Cash Back Shopping program.  Jackpot Rewards explains that retailers pay the company commission for generating and referring sales and in turn, Jackpot Rewards gives their commission back to their customers. For example, if they use Jackpot Rewards as a portal to shop at Target Online, customers receive 10% cash back from their total purchase. Jackpot Rewards also hosts a Deal of the Day, where they greatly discount a certain item for members.  Over 550 merchants and 20 million items are accessible to purchase through the Jackpot Rewards portal.

Finally, Jackpot Rewards maintains a dedication to donating money to charity. The company itself was founded around principles of charity; born in a strategic planning meeting discussing ways to help poor and at risk children. The company offers a program for charities that actively provides a different kind of reward. When a charity partners with Jackpot Rewards, they receive both a $10 donation and 25% of the supporter’s monthly membership fees. Since Jackpot Rewards does not set a cap on the amount of money that can be earned by the charity, the program offers, as they say on their website, unlimited earning potential.  

Jackpot Rewards is an easy opportunity for gamers, shoppers, and charities to earn money for themselves and their charities. The free trial that the company is offering enables new members and subscribers to try Jackpot Rewards out and potentially win something in the process. Between enticing weekly jackpots and practical daily savings, Jackpot Rewards offers something for every member and is a great way to both give and receive.

The site primarily is a regionally organized database for more traditional, promotional coupons and offers, but it features an option for sending and storing coupons on mobile devices. While the site doesn’t actively send mobile coupons to a user’s phone, it still uses the user’s phone as the tool for utilizing such coupons. More importantly, GreatLocalCoupons actually promotes local businesses and offers. A search of “Boston” on the site yields a pizza/calzone savings at a pizzeria down the street from the Code/Codespotter office. A map is also included so that users can see visually where the savings are.

In addition to their coupon offerings, the agency facet of GreatLocalCoupons also has some value for other companies. It isn’t shy to extend advice to other mobile advertisers and marketers. In a series of blog-style postings and advice pieces, the site extends their thoughts and musings on effective trends in the mobile marketing industry.

While the site itself doesn’t offer anything that is uniquely groundbreaking to the world of mobile coupons, GreatLocalCoupon’s greatest strength is that it capitalizes on proximity-based coupons and offers, which is a key trait for using coupons effectively. Savings that are accessible to users are the ones which they will capitalize on, and GreatLocalCoupons knows it, sticks to it, and does a great job doing so.

Players can play the game either in store, online, or via text messaging. In store instant-win prizes include McDonalds food and other smaller instant win prizes. By entering these game piece codes online at PlayatMcD.com, you can also instantly win cash (anywhere from $50 to $100,000), Shell Gift Cards, or 25 MyCokeRewards points. To play with text messaging, register your phone online and then text game codes to 96363.

Buying and eating more of those selections gives you a higher chance to win prizes. 2 pieces, plus one bonus piece, are found on Medium and Large Premium Roast Coffee (excluding iced coffee and specialty coffee), McSkillet Burritos, Southern Style Chicken Sandwiches, Big Macs, Premium Chicken Sandwiches, Large French Fries, Medium & Large Fountain Drinks, and Hash Browns.

McDonalds Monopoly is wildly popular and certainly delivers a great deal of prizes. An online ticker keeps track of winning prizes that are redeemed and when I started writing this post, the number of winners was around 17,000. It is currently at 19, 271 (edit: The game is currently at 171,005. 2:07PM, 10/08/08). Literally there are people winning almost every second. These are pretty good odds and the contest is definitely worth a play or two. The contest will be running at a McDonalds near you from October 7, 2008 to November 3, 2008. Rules and conditions can also be found on PlayatMcD.com. 

-JPK