Freeborn & Peters LLP's client launches and completes successful marketing campaign for national restaurant company.

Freeborn & Peters LLP recently represented a promotions agency that was hired by a national restaurant chain, to develop a marketing promotion that involved utilizing various forms of "new" media, including popular online video sharing services, cellular phone text messages and an online auction to reach its target audience. The restaurant company offered valuable prizes, including cars, a motorcycle, big-screen TV's, and laptop computers for a nominal amount (e.g., $10.00).  Each day, a puzzle was posted to the restaurant company's website.  When solved, the puzzle revealed a clue. Once the clue was revealed, the consumer went to the online auction service and searched for another clue which revealed the prize that could be purchased for the nominal amount.  The online auction service had never done a promotion of this kind before.

In the planning stages, we assisted our client with the structure and writing of the rules of the promotion.   We also reviewed the agreements with the car companies, the scripts for the videos, and the copy for the websites, press releases, banner ads and text messages promoting the contest. We even helped to create the puzzles.

The promotion involved legal issues including compliance with sweepstakes/skill contest laws, false advertising, copyright infringement, fraud and harassment. There were even scammers who posted false listings on the online auction service copying the legitimate listings.  We worked feverishly to squelch all of the issues in a timely manner.

The promotion recently concluded and it was very successful.  One of the online video series had well over 2.5 million views. Most importantly, sales spiked for the restaurant company during the promotion.

Partners Andrew Goldstein, Neal Levin and Brian Smith, and Associate Stephanie Towner were instrumental in this matter.