5th Annual Focus on Sweepstakes, Contests, and Promotions

Tuesday, September 27, 2011 | Conference

7:30 Registration and Continental Breakfast

8:30 Chair’s Opening Remarks

Brendan J. Healey
Senior Counsel, Media and Promotions
Tribune Company (Chicago, IL)

8:40 Creating an Explosive Viral Phenomena: Capitalizing on Social Media’s Popularity While Adhering to Platform Specific Guidelines

Lori A. DeAngelis
Senior Attorney
Publix Super Markets, Inc. (Lakeland, FL)

Linda D. Seal
Counsel
The Home Depot (Atlanta, GA)

• Utilizing social media as an effective and inexpensive way to land new customers and loyalists
• Developing best practices for social media in light of the fact that the law has not caught up with the technology
• Tracking the effectiveness of your social media sweepstakes or promotion
• Understanding Facebook’s ever-changing promotions guidelines
• Ensuring that necessary disclosures are made in the confines of Twitter’s character count
• Utilizing fan pages, blogs and chat rooms as means of engaging consumers
• Granting users the right to free speech and privacy
  • clear opt-out provisions
• Governing your Facebook page to remove inappropriate or offensive content
• Implementing safety controls to prevent underage children from entering
• Structuring a social media promotion that adheres to the FTC’s Testimonial and Endorsement guidelines

9:50 Smart Promotions for Smart Phones: Exploring the Latest Trends in Mobile Apps and Gamification

Gabriel H. Karp
Executive Vice President and General Counsel
Prize (Pleasant Ridge, MI)

Susane J. Shani, M.B.A.
Legal Manager, Digital Marketing, eCommerce, and Technology
Commercial Practices Group, North America
The Procter & Gamble Company (Cincinnati, OH)

Susan Tillotson Bunch
Partner
Thomas & LoCicero PL (Tampa, FL)

Mobile Apps

• Creating an interactive and cutting edge experience for your customers
  • QR code scavenger hunts
• Encouraging a niche group of customers with smart phones to download your app and enter your sweepstakes
• Mobile optimized sites and location based services
• Dealing with patent issues that have not presented themselves in other mediums
• Highlighting the capabilities of a new mobile app while giving customers the opportunity to win prizes
• Making all material disclosures as you would in a non-mobile sweepstakes
• Incentivizing customers for frequently accessing your app
• Linking sweepstakes submissions with loyalty programs

Gamification

• Using game-like elements to make everyday life and consumer experiences more compelling
• Examining the rules and legal pitfall of taking your intellectual property into a game environment
• Building a comparative narrative that engages players to participate and “win” badges and other prizes
• Offering a sweepstakes entry to gamification point leaders
• Eliminating lottery issues with the use of “virtual” currency as prizes

10:50 Morning Coffee Break

11:00 Minimizing IP Liabilities and Legal Risks When Conducting User Generated Contests

Michael B. Sapherstein
VP, Deputy General Counsel
Marvel Entertainment, LLC

Ira Schlussel
Associate General Counsel
ePrize (Pleasant Ridge, MI)

Pamela Deese
Partner
Arent Fox LLP (Washington, DC)

• Establishing a standard of conduct for posting materials on a company’s site or YouTube channel
• Ensuring that disclosures are properly displayed and comply with applicable laws - how are disclosures displayed?
• Protecting intellectual property rights
  • your company’s rights
  • rights that you do not own
  • determining the extent of licensing rights
• Dealing with the element of public voting
  • minimizing the risks of fixed votes and hacking
• Analyzing what constitutes consideration when a consumer spends time to create a video
  • does the contest leave too much to chance?
• Obtaining proper clearances if copyrighted material is used
• Implementing a monitoring and review process to flag inappropriate content
• Safeguarding against consumers making false claims
• Counseling the marketing department on the logistical and legal challenges associated with how submissions will be received and posted

12:00 Networking Lunch

1:00 Winning a Dream Vacation: Factoring the Tax Implications of Awarding Extravagant Prizes Into Your Disclosures

Jessica R. Browde
Attorney, Office of Chief Counsel
Internal Revenue Service (New York, NY)

Mark R. Townsend
Assistant General Counsel
VF Corporation (Greensboro, NC)

Scott A. Schleifstein
Partner
Cowan, Silverman and Rowan LLP (New York, NY)

• Determining who the “winner” is for tax purposes
• Writing rules that clearly explain a winner’s obligation to pay taxes on prizes awarded
• Understanding both the company and consumer tax consequences for prizes over $600 in value
• Encouraging consumers to enter your sweepstakes in spite of the tax implications
• Advising participants on the tax ramifications of sweepstakes prizes awarded to non-profit organizations
• Withholding prize until an affidavit specifying taxes is signed by the winner
• Avoiding a public relations nightmare when a winner cannot afford the prize taxes

2:00 When Good Ideas Go Wrong: Sharing War Stories and Sweepstakes Disasters

Brendan J. Healey
Senior Counsel, Media and Promotions
Tribune Company (Chicago, IL)

Sabrina Simon
Director, Senior Attorney
Burger King Corporation (Miami, FL)

Michael D. Hobbs, Jr.
Partner
Troutman Sanders LLP (Atlanta, GA)

Errors in a sweepstakes, contest or promotion can expose a company to liability, not to mention a public relations debacle. In-House and Outside Counsel who have been in the trenches of sweepstakes gone wrong will share their war stories while offering their solutions.

• Scrutinizing the red flags of a promotion and what the company plans to do
• Would the campaign lead to a public relation backlash?
• How would materials need to be edited?
  • flyers, advertisements, emails
  • radio and television commercial copy
• What would better protect the company?
• Turning a public relations nightmare into valuable buzz marketing
• Handling consumer complaints
• Ensuring a “Kraft clause” is in each set of rules
• Exploring what could go wrong and determining in advance what will be done in the unlikely event something does go wrong

3:15 Afternoon Refreshment Break

3:30 Devising a 50-State Game Plan: Practical Strategies for Navigating Unique Bonding and Registration Requirements While Keeping up With Changing State Laws

Emily N. Roisman
Vice President and Corporate Counsel
Feld Entertainment, Inc. (Vienna, VA)

Mary Dalton Baril
Partner
McGuire Woods LLP (Richmond, VA)

Many companies endeavor to run national sweepstakes campaigns. States such as New York and Florida require these to be filed and bonded when the prize value exceeds a certain amount. Additionally, with constantly evolving state laws, it is critical for you to understand these requirements in order to successfully and legally run your sweepstakes. A panel of experts will teach you exactly what you need to do, or risk having your sweepstakes pulled mid-campaign for noncompliance.

• Distinguishing between a sweepstakes, a contest and a lottery
• Identifying the bonding, registration and insurance triggers
• Posting a bond in an amount equal to the offered prize
• Complying with designated waiting periods before the promotion commences
• Drafting rules that comply with disclosure requirements in states where the sweepstakes will be registered
• Analyzing new state laws affecting internet cafes and sweepstakes rooms
• Updating upcoming legislation relevant to your national promotional endeavors

4:30 Collecting Consumer Information: Implementing Proactive Privacy Safeguards to Protect Data and Comply With Anticipated Legislation

Luke Paglia
Vice President -- Deputy General Counsel
American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. (Pittsburgh, PA)

Alan N. Sutin
Partner and Chair, Global Intellectual Property & Technology Practice Group
Greenberg Traurig LLP (New York, NY)

• Providing consumers with clear opt-out methods
• Reconciling a consumer’s desire for privacy with the sometimes conflicting desire to be active in social media
  • knowing when a consumer’s participation on a social media site indicates the giving up of privacy rights
• Proactively preparing for FTC and Congressional privacy initiatives
  • developing other ways to gather information or engage customers
• What are the privacy implications for sites like Foursquare that allow customers to “check in” at a location?
  • do customers want companies tracking their every move?
• Structuring privacy policies designed to protect consumer data collected through sweepstakes and contests submissions
• Verifying either that a child is older than 13, or that parental consent is given
• Balancing a company’s information storage practices with state data breach notification laws
• Determining the length of time that a company can hold on to data

5:30 Conference Concludes

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