Running a sweepstakes might sound straightforward, but when you get to the rules you might realize it's harder than you’d think. There are a lot of elements to sweepstakes rules you must include in order to run a legal sweepstakes. Below we have listed the key elements to sweepstakes official rules creation.
Disclaimer- this article is to help your understanding of sweepstakes official rules creation, this is not a guide on creating sweepstakes rules. If you are creating a sweepstakes, we strongly recommend hiring an expert to put together official rules for you. Please contact our experts if you’re interested in learning more.
ELIGIBILITY
One of the most important aspects of your sweepstakes official rules. Under the eligibility section, you will inform your sweepstakes audience who is eligible to participate in your sweepstakes. For example, the most common eligibility requirements listed are the age and location of those who can participate.
SWEEPSTAKES PERIOD
In your official rules, it is important to list the sweepstake period. This will let your audience know during what time their entries are valid. You will want to be specific here and list the date, time, and time zone.
TO ENTER
Letting your audience know how to enter your promotion is clearly important to the success of your program. But you must also add the information on how to enter into your sweepstakes official rules. While your description of ‘how to enter’ on your sweepstakes site and promotional materials might be short, it is important to be very descriptive with how to enter in your official rules.
DRAWING AND ODDS OF WINNING
Next, your official rules must include the odds of winning, since sweepstakes are a random drawing. This section is straightforward and serves to inform your audience that the chances of winning depend on the number of entries. Use caution in this section if you are running anything other than a run-of-the-mill sweepstakes, because the information you must add here can be slightly more complicated.
PRIZE AND VALUE
In this section, you will list information on your sweepstakes prizing. You will want to include the following:
- The APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE (ARV) of your prizes
- PRIZE RESTRICTIONS (E.g., limit one per person, prizes are non-transferable, and prize substitution is not permitted)
WINNER NOTIFICATION AND PRIZE CLAIM
This section, like most, is pretty self-explanatory. Here you will detail how winners will be selected and then notified of winning.
PRIVACY POLICY
As with most things on the internet, you will want to include your company's privacy policy. Privacy policies inform your audience how you use their information. Your privacy policy will live somewhere else (please don’t copy/paste your whole privacy policy into your sweepstake official rules). But, you will want to include wording in your official rules stating something like: Information submitted in connection with this Sweepstakes is governed by Sponsor's Privacy Policy.
Conclusion
We hope you found our cheat sheet for sweepstakes official rules creation helpful. Official rules are full of legal jargon, so if you are at all unsure of anything in your official rules, it is crucial that you contact a professional to look it over for you. Contact MRi’s experts for help with your sweepstakes official rules creation and keep an eye out for more promotional marketing information on our insights page.
