“How did we have sweepstakes before Facebook?” That question, which I heard during a call last week, summarizes the tremendous impact that social media has had on the use of sweepstakes and contests. READ MORE

Early in her career, Taylor Swift was a spokesperson for one of our clients. I drafted the official rules for several contests that were used for her concerts and appearances at the client’s sponsored events. (I am secretly convinced that it was those contest rules that lead to her phenomenal success a singer.) READ MORE

Internet and mobile advertising is subject to the same rules as anything else, the Federal Trade Commission recently assured us in a detailed 53-page booklet. To be fair, online advertising is subject to ordinary advertising rules. But there are always twists to how ordinary rules are applied online. READ MORE

The video-based social media site Vine is less than a month old, so I haven’t seen any contests or sweepstakes crop up, but it’s only a matter of time until companies take advantage of this inventive, highly visual social media application as a platform for marketing their sweepstakes. READ MORE

A picture is worth a thousand words, but a picture of your customers using your product may be worth thousands of new buyers. In the past, photo contests usually cropped up as “cutest baby” or “best picture of the year” competitions. READ MORE