17flier.190Many traditional marketing mainstays — such as sweepstakes, quizzes and contests — have been reborn in digital formats. Social media channels such as Facebook are ready-made for these fun, interactive marketing campaigns.

Remember Publisher’s Clearing House and its Prize Patrol, which traveled the country surprising winners with champagne, flowers and a giant check while the cameras rolled? Like thousands of other brands, PCH today sponsors on-line sweepstakes and other promotions to drive traffic, capture consumer information and sell product.

Once mainly tied with direct mail and supermarket aisle promotions, today’s sweepstakes are Internet based and the quizzes, contests and surveys that often drive consumers to them are more numerous and imaginative than ever. They combine the best of social media public relations, marketing and other disciplines.

A variety of web tools are available to help marketers engage consumers, including Wildfire, which provides a platform for building social media marketing campaigns. With a few simple steps, Wildfire can help create a comprehensive promotional campaign for your brand on various social media channels or your website.

Getting started is easy – users just respond to simple questions such as when the promotion starts, how long it lasts, the name of the campaign, prizes, and other information, according to blogger Ben Parr. You can choose from a variety of interactive strategies, such as a sweepstakes, photo or essay contests, video competitions and/or coupon offerings.

You can build a professional-looking entry form via drag-and-drop fields, uploading your own images and banners, and establishing your own rules. Even after the initial set-up, you have control over the look and feel of each section on the campaign.  Wildfire offers a clean, well-executed promotional application and makes it easy for users to submit videos, images, or essays.

Other sites make it easier still for marketers.  Launched last June, Loffles is an online sweepstakes service that, according to its press release, “offers consumers a fun, easy and free way to win high-end prizes.” In essence, consumers voluntarily complete profiles, register for the prize they want, and after watching an ad, are automatically entered to win a sweepstakes for that giveaway product or service.