From The Contest Queen

Friday morning started off with a really fun game called “Give’m the Boot”! Twelve names were drawn and the first player got to sit in seat #1. Then the other eleven players rolled a set of Texas-sized dice. If the player got doubles, they got to roll again. They then rolled one die and if they got a one then they would give the first player the boot. If not, then they won a custom painted boot with a prize inside.

Then Jeffery Feinman, former President of Ventura Associates and author of The Prize Winners Handbook, spoke about the hobby from a marketer’s perspective.

After a quick lunch we came back for session of the nail-biting Deal or No Deal. To make the game even more interesting, Brent Riley, owner of Online-Sweepstakes.Com, matched dollar for dollar, whatever each contestant won.

What a convention! I think I know 1/2 the people here. I have been so busy I didn’t even get a chance to blog yesterday.

You may remember Rick Adams from the 1st Annual National Contestor Convention. He and his wife Chris joined us here in San Antiono and came with us on Thursday morning for breakfast. We headed to the Guenther House in the King William area for their famous sweet cream waffles. YUMMY!

We came back to the hotel for a dip in the pool followed by another Tex-Mex meal. Nicole can’t seem to get enough of queso and chips!

After registering, we headed to San Antonio’s most famous landmark, The Alamo. WOW!

At 7:00pm the convention officially kicked off with a welcome from Robert & Gwen Beauchamp followed by a casual mix and mingle. I could have stayed up all night catching up with friends.

Originally we wanted to head south to Corpus Christi as our daughter has never been to the ocean, but the poor weather forecast caused us to visit other sights in Texas.

We chose to drive north and visit the Cascade Caverns, which boasts having Texas’ only 100′ waterfall. But, when we got to the end of the cavern, the waterfall wasn’t working. Hmmm….

After stopping in Boerne (pronounced Bernie) for lunch at Bumdoodlers, we headed west to the Enchanted Spring Ranch.

It’s a replica of an old west town. It has been used for countless movies, weddings, etc. They have daily ranch tours and we got to see the current reigning World Champion Gun Twirler, Pistol Packin’ Paula. What a great show she put on for us!

After another great dinner beside The Riverwalk, we spent the rest of the evening catching up with fellow sweepers in the lobby as conventioneers had trickled in over the course of the day. Our fun-filled weekend started early!

This week I am blogging from San Antonio Texas. We arrived in San Antonio yesterday afternoon combining a family holiday and our attendence this weekend at the 19th Annual National Sweepstakes Convention.

The first thing we did this morning was go shopping! I love a store called Anthropolgie which is only located in certain US cities, so whenever I am travelling near one I make a point of stopping by.

Then we began our trek up the Mission Trail. We began at Mission Espanda, stopped at Mission San Jose and then ran out of time for the day. We plan to visit the most famous stop on the Mission Trail, The Alamo on Thursday.

After being in the heat for most of the day, we returned to the hotel for a dip in the pool followed by an authentic Mexican dinner at Casa Rio on San Antonio’s famous Riverwalk.

This one is way to good not to re-post.

Bonnie belongs to the T.O. Wanna Winner’s Contest Club and has a wonderful flare for writing.  She really shows her stuff this week by posting a letter to Subway regarding the dismal odds in their current Scrabble-style sweepstakes.

Bonnie’s Letter to Subway

Dear Subway,

Wow, you’re having a contest. Good for you.

Oh, and you’re having a contest with the lowest odds of winning in Canadian contesting history – you should be really proud. The rest of us are alarmed, if not disappointed, that you thought no one was going to notice how likely it was that your company would be keeping the $250,000 grand prize in your back pocket while countess uninformed Canadians gulped down soda pop 21 ounces at a time.

Even though the odds are one in five billion that you care about my opinion, I thought I’d improve my chances by writing you this letter.

It turns out that the letters I’ve been collecting by purchasing your overpriced beverages can also help me spell some words that I can use to describe how I really feel about your Play Subway Scrabble contest.

Z-I-P
The level of interest this contest generates when people discover that their odds of winning the lottery are much, much better.

A-T-T-E-M-P-T
A feeble act conducted by Subway to lure customers into their restaurants. Odds of it working: 1:326,652,198

B-I-G W-U-S-S
The name of the executive who approved this campaign. Odds of this person getting a raise: 1:130,660,879

You might want to get a coffee and make yourself comfortable; I’ve been working on this for a while.

F-A-S-T O-N-E
What Subway tried to pull on Canadian consumers.

S-U-B-P-O-E-N-A
What Subway executives should be expecting soon.

B-A-L-O-N-E-Y
A type of meat you can get on a Subway sandwich, and what the marketing team is full of. If you’re watching your weight, you should deal with the other type of marketing team member they have:

T-U-R-K-E-Y-S
The folks who thought that Canadian consumers would gobble up this idea without reading the fine print.

B-O-G-E-Y-M-A-N
The type of person who will be declared the “W-I-N-N-E-R” of the grand prize. Odds of us ever learning his/her real name: 1:1,633,260,992.

B-O-N V-O-Y-A-G-E
Say goodbye to all that “feel good” publicity you were hoping this campaign would create. Jared’s too skinny to appeal to us anymore, so just give up already.

S-W-E-E-T R-E-V-E-N-G-E
Wow, I almost used up all my letters in one play! This is for getting all my friends and family to go to Mr. Sub instead of your misleading place. Odds of that happening: 1:1

Oh, and in case some of these letters are impossible to get, I’ll use some of the easier ones in my final word for you:

N-O
As in, “no thank you.”

Your Play Subway Scrabble campaign, upon closer inspection, appears to be short more than just a few letters. Odds of recovery: 1:5,470,776,824.

Sincerely,

Bonnie Staring
A Canadian Consumer

I spent the day at the Canadian Gift and Tableware Association (CGTA) trade show. I found an interesting product line and I would appreciate your feedback as to whether or not I should begin selling them.

Let me take two steps back. As you may know, not only am I the Contest Queen, but for the past 20+ years I have also been a professional marketer. About a month ago I was contacted by Alphacritters. They had been successfully selling their name pictures for the past 10 years at festivals and fairs. The business was run by a mother-daughter team, Linda and Karen. All the “critters” had been created by Karen, who sadly passed away last year. (For the full story behind the company, please visit their website.) Linda promised to keep Karen’s legacy going. My job was to help Linda grow the business and keep her promise. The next logical step was to take the product to the retail market place. So we created a wholesale marketing plan and Linda rented booth space at Canada’s largest retail industry trade show.

Now one step back. Several weekends ago we attended the wedding of very close friends of ours up in Collingwood ON. At the Sunday brunch, one of the guests was wearing the most interesting flip flops. They were covered in little blue balls looking like sea foam and tucked in the “foam” were little fish and starfish. All the women were commenting on them. (Men don’t really care about such things!)

Back to the CGTA. While on a break, walking through the show looking for anything lucky I could add to my online store or sell on a convention vendor table, what should I see but the Canadian distributor for Hot Flops!

Not only did the have the oceanic flip flops, but they had all sorts of fun styles. The closest thing they had to lucky, was poker. I don’t think they fall into the lucky category, but they sure are fun!

So, what do you think? Should I carry them?

One of my favourite authors, Michael Losier, has his own show on XM Radio airing on the Oprah and Friends channel several times per week. (Full channel schedule here.)

You may recall I quoted Michael’s book The Law of Attraction (LOA) in the Attracting Luck section of my book. Michael’s book is a real law of attraction HOW TO. He divided his book into three easy steps:

1. Identify Your Desire
2. Raise Your Vibration
3. Allow It

It wasn’t until I read his book did I realize that I had been missing step three. He also includes many other tips and tricks which are really easy to follow.

XM Radio is offering a 30-day free trial offer to listen online, so sign-up and tune in. (You can even email your LOA questions to Michael to be answered on air.)

Contesting: The Name It And Claim It Game – WINeuvers for WISHcraft by Helene Hadsell, the woman who wins every contest she enters.

WOW! If you only read one contesting book, this should be it!  On the surface, Helene’s book is about her contesting journey, but it is far more than a contesting book. It’s a book about how to use the power of your mind to have anything you wish in this life. I can’t even begin to touch the depth of the wisdom she bestows upon the reader in this review.

Helene has a fantastic imagination and gift with words. She loves playing with words to get her point across. To get anything you wish for in life, Helene sugests you use the SPEC method:
SELECT IT
PROJECT IT
EXPECT IT
COLLECT IT

She also has many fantastic quotes. This is one of Helene’s favourite. She actually wrote it out twice.

“Watch you thoughts, they become words; watch your words, they become actions; watch your actions, they become habits; watch your habits, they become character; watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”
Frank Outlaw

If you wish to purchase her program, click here.

Helene was also a guest on my online radio show on Monday August 4th.  You can listen to the archived show here.  She was so popular, I promise to have her on again.