Recently, I attended the PMA Law Conference at the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago.

The conference itself was very Digital/ Internet/ Mobile focused, with traditional sweepstakes and contests placed on the back-burners. One presentation however, given by Linda Goldstein (Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP), offered a “what if” look at a merge of the old and new.

Surrounded by one-click solutions and “There’s an app for that.” messaging, Linda’s presentation showcased a hypothetical “Promotion Risk Assessor App” – push the button, input some specs, and voilà: a quick and easy recipe for a legal promotion is served. A tour of the App gave some insight into its different features: laws, regulations, and even a smart function that would create the entire promotion for you…just push the button.

The idea was intriguing to say the least. Being in the industry, it’s easy to fantasize about how much time could be saved if all we had to do was drop in a few details, sprinkle in some eligibility, and add a dash of winner announcement. In a microwave world, authoring rules (and the successive versions thereof until they’re “FINAL”, “FINAL_REV”, and, of course, “USE THIS ONE_FINAL_REV_REV”) can sometimes feel like crock-pot cooking.

In the end though, everything boiled over when Linda pushed the button – it turns out there was a glitch in the program. The fictional App had created a promotion that was completely illegal (on a number of fronts) and would surely end up with the Sponsor in some hot water.

The moral of the story: “There is no App” for promotions. Promotions require knowledge, guidance, and experience. Each new ingredient has the ability to change the entire flavor of the promotion; and knowing how to combine those ingredients so that everything mixes together correctly is critical for all parties involved. Now, here at Marden-Kane, we’ve been cooking for over 50 years making promotions our bread and butter.

Guest post by Matt Bonatti an Account Executive in Marden-Kane’s NY Office. Matt can be reached at MBonatti@MardenKane.com.