Auto insurance company Esurance launches the “SXSW Dream Gig” contest. Its looking for a socially savvy storyteller who is “inspired by technology, tapped into music and moved by film,” and who wants to be the Esurance correspondent at this year’s South by Southwest Conference and Festivals (SXSW), March 8-17, 2013.

Esurance is hosting the contest on Facebook where entrants have to “like” the Esurance Facebook page and then enter via the SXSW Dream Gig Facebook contest page. The first phase of the contest runs through January 25, 2013, at which point the judges will then select three finalists by February 1st. The finalists will each have to create a video demonstrating why they’re “the perfect SXSW correspondent,” according to the contest overview and official rules. The next phase of the contest is the public voting phase where Facebook users will vote for their favorite finalist. The public voting phase runs from February 15th through the 22nd.

The winner will receive a Platinum badge to SXSW; roundtrip air travel to Austin, TX; a 10-night hotel stay at the Hilton Austin; an iPad; a $2,000 stipend and will be the official SXSW correspondent for Esurance.

SXSW is a fun-filled conference with non-stop action. It really is a tech, music and film lover’s dream to have an opportunity to see the latest indie films, bands and social apps; and interview the hottest actors, up and coming indie bands and singer-songwriters, and social media entrepreneurs and celebs. If you’re socially savvy and good on camera and love tech, music and film, then this is truly your “Dream Gig.” 

It’ll be interesting to see the results from this campaign from how many entrants and votes the contest gets to how many video views and social media buzz and mentions Esurance gets during this year’s SXSW.

It’s the season of giving and spirit brand Grand Marnier is sharing in the joy with its second annual Grand Giving Tree campaign hosted on Facebook (via a Facebook app). How it works is fans can select from one of three holiday ornaments and place them on the virtual Giving Tree. Each ornament represents a charitable organizations: Best Friends Animal Society, Earth Day Network, Surfrider Foundation.

The charity with the most ornaments on December 31, 2012 will receive $20,000, while the remaining two organizations will receive $5,000 each. As if helping out your favorite charity wasn’t enough, Grand Marnier is also giving participants of the Grand Giving Tree a chance to win $1,000. There’s one hiccup, fans who are California residents are not eligible for the contest portion due to the State of California laws. However, California fans can still participate in voting for their favorite charity in the Grand Giving Tree.

After you vote and hang your ornament on the Grand Giving Tree for your selected charity, you can also view the ornament count to see which charity currently has the most votes. I won’t spoil it for you by telling you who is in the lead, but I will tell you who I voted for.

As an animal lover, I voted for Best Friends Animal Society. Who will you be voting for?

Reaching Facebook milestones are always fun and what better way to celebrate it than with a giveaway that says “Thank You” to the fans that helped you reach the milestone. Today, Pacific Natural Foods is doing just that with a product giveaway. 

In celebration of reaching 100,000 Facebook fans, Pacific Natural Foods is saying “thank you” to its fans with a giveaway where 10 lucky fans will be selected and will have their pantries stocked with $200 worth of their favorite Pacific Natural Foods products.

If you’re anything like me and care about what you put into your body, then you may want to venture over to Pacific Natural Foods’ Facebook page and enter for a chance to win some deliciously healthy foods. Of course if you’re not a fan already, then be sure to like their Facebook Page. You’ll be glad you did because they share lots of yummy foods and are great with engaging with fans.

For example, they recently shared a photo of tomatoes with a status update of “I’d say I had a successful tomato harvest this weekend! What are your favorite ways to use tomatoes?” and that prompted one of their fans to share a photo of her tomato harvest. In which, Pacific Natural Foods then shared the fan’s photo with other fans on its Facebook Timeline. It’s not only a great example of fan engagement, but a great example of a brand that appreciates its fans and customers. 

Congratulations to Pacific Natural Foods for reaching 100,000 fans! 

Southwest Airlines launched a fun contest to celebrate its newest destination, Atlanta. The contest is taking place today in five cities that will be the first of Atlanta’s inbound/outbound markets, which are Austin, Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, and Houston.

The airline has “unleased” five peaches — a person in a peach costume —  in each of the cities. How one enters is the person has to figure out the location of where the peach will be and then take a picture with the peach and tweet the photo. The tweet has to include Southwest’s twitter handle @SouthwestAir and the hashtag #AtlantaAtLast.

Southwest has provided clues and times to help people know where the peach will show up. One of the clues for Chicago is “A mile so magnificent, you’d better bring your wallet.”

If you’re interested in learning more about this campaign, read Southwest’s blog post: CONTEST ALERT: Spot the Peach

With the holiday shopping season now underway many stores and brands are conducting holiday giveaways to garner attention, interest and boost the bottom line before the year ends. One that caught my eye is from Samuel Gordon Jewelers because it’s the first that I’ve seen to use the new photo-sharing social network Pinterest in a fun and creative way. 

Samuel Gordon’s “Pin To Win” contest, which ends tomorrow, will giveaway a $500 gift certificate to one lucky winner. How one enters is they have to go to Samuel Gordon’s website and pick out jewelry that they like and “pin it” on Pinterest and hashtag it with #samuelgordons. And the more you “pin” the better your chances of winning.

I checked it out and sure enough, it was easy to enter. I picked a Tag Heuer watch on Samuel Gordon’s website and then clicked the Pinterest “Pin It” button that they had on the right side of the page and then a popup window came up, which allowed me to enter the #samuelgordons hashtag and then I “pinned” it. Simple.  

It’s a great contest idea because it’s fun for participants who love jewelry and sharing photos, but more importantly, they’ve made it simple to enter and it encourages people to share Samuel Gordon’s offerings at a time when many people are shopping for gifts and the #samuelgordons Pinterest page is basically a photo gallery filled with lots of great gift ideas for those who love jewelry and watches. 

Given the volume of entries, I’d say it looks like a successful contest for Samuel Gordon Jewelers and the first I’ve seen that utilizes Pinterest in a fun way for a contest. 

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