Social Media Promotions
What a weird time we’re living in… sickness, shut downs, massive unemployment, and spending freezes.
During this COVID-19 shelter in place order, businesses are getting very creative. Restaurants are becoming take-out spots and mini markets, wineries are offering curbside pickup and virtual tastings, distilleries are producing hand sanitizer instead of booze.
Alcohol suppliers are rushing to get in front of consumers in ways I haven’t seen before. One of those ideas is to run promotions (contests, sweepstakes, giveaways.) This is a great way to connect with your community, but don’t forget that wineries sell alcohol and are bound to way more laws & regulations than a sock company.
Do not give away free wine. It’s not legal anywhere for anything ever.
A contest is a game of skill. If you want people to take a photo and enter it into a contest, you need to create a set of rules around the entries. For example, the photo must be about X topic, it must meet X requirements and all entries will be independently judged on creativity and adherence to the rules. Another contest is a caption to an Instagram pic or tagging your winery in an Instagram Story video.
A sweepstakes is a game of chance. You ask for basic contact info and you choose the winner randomly out of all entries. Use a random number generator to choose your winner. Random.org is a good one.
A giveaway is a giveaway: you have X number of stress balls and you give them to the first X number of people who ask for one. There are laws about the value of your item based on the type of alcohol you produce. Research these very, very well before you start giving things away out of the warehouse.
No purchase necessary. We’ve all heard those words a bazillion times in our lives - that’s because by law, we as consumers are not required to buy a product in order to enter a contest or sweeps. If you want to run a contest and are asking people to take a pic of your wine in a certain setting, please don’t. You must go generic.
Must be 21+ to enter. Duh, right.
Social media platforms have their own set of rules. For example, you cannot require people to like your Facebook page as a form of entry. Facebook also does not allow companies to ask people to tag their friends as a form of entry. Learn these rules - if you don’t, you risk having your page/account shut down and that would be terrible.
Tip: If you’re running a contest or sweepstakes, or even a giveaway, collect emails! Email marketing is more important now than ever, so leverage the uptick in social media use, the draw of a promotion and the reward to your community and collect those emails. There are a lot of software options out there to help: Woobox, Rafflecopter, (and my fav) Shortstack.
Maybe a silver lining here is that the wine industry will move into the 21st century and start to implement digital marketing in the way that most other industries have been for a decade.
Contact us if you’d like assistance in creating a social media promotion.
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. I've just been working on social media in the wine industry for a long time and know the ropes pretty well. For great legal information in the bev-al space, follow Alcohol.Law Digest and Booze Rules.
Interesting Resources: Check out this article about general alcohol advertising. Remember, everything an alcohol supplier publishes is considered advertising. Follow the rules & work creatively within them. Check out this article about running a contest or sweeps in general (as you can see - lots to consider & plan for!!) Check out this article from my favorite publishing software, HeyOrca, on planning a promotion.
