CBS Television Distribution hopes to
build Entertainment Tonight's audience and Web traffic with a
multi-platform sweepstakes designed to encourage viewers to refer their friends
to both the show and the contest.
"We've really made it very
advantageous," says Mike Mischler, CTD's executive VP of marketing. "The more
you watch and the more you encourage your friends to watch, the more chances
you have to win."
"ET's Stars of Summer
Sweepstakes" focuses on summer's biggest movies - Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron
Man 2, Sarah Jessica Parker's Sex and the City 2, Russell Crowe's Robin
Hood, Tom Cruise's Knight & Day, Jake Gyllenhaal's Prince of
Persia and Julia Roberts' Eat, Pray, Love - all of which will be
profiled on Entertainment Tonight in May. After viewers watch an episode
of the show, they'll be directed to ETOnline.com, where they can answer a
multiple-choice question about what they've just seen.
The contest begins just in time for
May sweeps, launching Monday, May 10, and running for two weeks through Friday,
May 21. The first time a player answers a question, she gets five chances to
win a prize. Those chances increase the more she plays: the tenth correct
answer equals 120 chances to win. Answering every question correctly over the
contest's ten-day run would give someone 400 chances to win.
Bonus points can be earned by
referring friends to the contest via Facebook, Twitter and other social
networking outlets, and those referrals will be tracked at ETOnline.com.
"When you register, you'll be able to
see and follow how many of your friends also participate in the contest," says
Mischler. "It should be fun for people who are big connectors and big users of
Facebook and Twitter."
Viewers who enter the multi-pronged
contest will be eligible to win a variety of trips. The Grand Prize is a week for
the winner and three friends in the movie-themed destination of their choice: Rome, London, Bali or Abu Dhabi. Winners will
stay in a Hilton premiere property and receive $5,000 in cash. The runner-up
will win a week for two in Barcelona,
Spain -- inspired
by the film Knight & Day, starring Cruise and Cameron Diaz. That
pair will stay at the Hilton Diagonal Mar Barcelona and win $2,500 in cash. All
travel arrangements are being handled through Hilton, CTD's partner on this
sweepstakes.
Entrants can win prizes in two other
ways. Viewers who have ten or more friends enter the contest and answer at
least one question correctly will qualify for a chance to win a weeklong trip
for two to London,
where they will stay in the Hilton London Paddington and win $1,000 cash.
Viewers also can check in to
ETOnline.com and answer a "Quickie Quiz" question. Those contestants will be
eligible to win a week in Maui at Hilton's
Grand Wailea and $1,000. In addition, each day a drawing will be held to send a
winner and a friend for a weekend to any Hilton in the U.S., plus $500
cash.
"We wanted to take advantage of
the whole social marketing thing that's sweeping the country," says Mischler.
"We want to be as competitive as we can be in the May sweeps and create as much
traffic as we can."
