Shipley Do-Nuts E-Trivia Contest

This promotion is pretty selective given that only people from McLennan County, Texas can win but the promotion involves some elements that I have not seen in many other contests so I thought it was worth sharing. Shipley Do-Nuts advetised this contest on their website to announce the details and starting date which was March 3 and runs through June 1, 2008. I would say that main goal of this contest is to increase sales and recognition of Shipley Do-Nuts because their contest targets children age 5-12. This age group is not frequently the contestants for product contests and promotions, however for something like donuts they are definitely consumers.

This promotion is also a little different because the whole premise is that every week three new questions will be posted on the website, and the contestants need to search through the website to find the answers. Each contestant prints out an entry form for each week, fills out the answers, and drops off the form to a Shipley Do-Nut location in McLennan County. Each week every location in McLennan County pulls 3 winners from the acceptable applicants who can win food and gift prizes. For little kids this is a pretty exciting contest because they have 13 chances to win something. Every winner from the 13 weeks then gets added to the Grand prize drawing which is a cruise for a family of 4. The questions are also not very hard, for this week there is the question "what is the most popular donut we sell?" which is not common knowledge but would definitely be somewhere on the site. To enter to you only have to be a resident of McLennan county and have a parent or guardian over 18 who can claim the prize.

This contest offers kids an opportunity to be like their parents or older siblings and enter a contest. It is also relatively educational, the children need to read Shipley's history section and other aspects of the website in order to answer the questions correctly. I think this contest gives kids the opportunity to educate themselves and while they probably need help to print and get over to hand in the form, for many kids they can do it all by themselves. This also largely promotes Shipley's, in order to hand in the form the kids are going to be begging to go to Shipleys which could then translate into the future they will be begging to go get some donuts.

I think this is a clever contest and parents would support their children taking part in it. There is no reason that I could think of that parents would reject their children's entry so that shows good planning by Shipleys.