Prize fulfillment is the part of the sweepstakes or contest that consumers may love the best, but for the promotion administrator there is a lot more involved than putting a prize in the mail. Here are 6 things to consider when putting together a plan for prize fulfillment for your next sweepstakes, contest or instant win game.

1. Prize sourcing

Giving away the latest goods, services, and experiences takes planning — and potentially lots of vendors and contacts, especially if an item is hard to find or in high demand. Cars given as prizes need to be sourced locally for your winners, or may need to be shipped by freight to the winner location. Electronics need to be purchased in country to ensure compatibility in that area. Trips and tickets to events have lots of moving parts to consider when planning out an itinerary. Plus there are things to consider in finding prizes like adding your custom logo to goods, or how to economically buy items in bulk.

2. Warehousing inventory

If you are giving away a lot of prizes, where will you store them until the promotion is over? Do you really want 500 laptops or dolls or phones or whatever you are giving away taking up all the space in your office?

3. Custom labeling or printing

Consideration should be given to how you will put your brand’s logo on the items you are giving away. Are you doing a custom print run on the items themselves, or are you sending a card or note with the prize? Either way, you may need to consult a printer or custom imprinter.

4. Packing and shipping

What type of boxes or envelopes will you need to ship prizes? What sort of packing materials makes sense – and should they be recyclable? These are questions for your brand to consider and work out before it’s time to ship out prizes.

5. Tax requirements and other details

Will you need to collect W-9’s or affidavits from winners? What about background checks, cash awards to help offset taxes, and travel insurance?

6. Customer Service

And finally who is going to be the go-to person to send winners to when they have questions? You will need to have a point person to handle all emails and phone calls from winners and other consumer inquiries.

All of these add up to one big reason why you might want to consider outsourcing your prize fulfillment to a third party. A promotional marketing company that specializes in prize fulfillment can do all of the above, and save you time and money.

Marden-Kane is your go-to prize fulfillment agency. We have fulfilling prizes for over 60 years, and can help you. Contact us for a quote today!

To read more posts by Marden-Kane, please visit our main blog page or subscribe to our email list.