La Opinión Puzzle Sweepstakes …. a HUGE Sucess.

La Opinión recently wrapped up Rompecabezas (Jigsaw Puzzle), the most ambitious reader participation game ever undertaken by the daily. La Opinión, with support from Dearden’s, Univision and Ford of Montebello, brought readers this popular and wildly successful interactive contest.

A new puzzle piece began appearing daily in the newspaper beginning on November 24th and continued through December 19th. There were a total of 26 collectible puzzle pieces, along with a daily entry form. Every day three lucky contestants, who sent in their entry forms, were awarded $100 each. In addition, a big screen TV was given away each week for four weeks. The contest culminated with the giveaway of a 2004 Ford Explorer, which was won by Francisco Cruz, a reader from the city of Bell.

Participating retailers of La Opinión were also given the opportunity to score big during the run of the game. A retailer element allowed for daily prizes including a grand prize at the conclusion of the sweepstakes.
“Our promotion was a great success resulting in over 100,000 entries, meeting our marketing objectives and making winners out of our readers, retailers, sponsors and advertisers,” said Enrique Kaufer, Vice President of Marketing for La Opinión. “The great public reaction that the contest generated resulted in circulation and readership growth for La Opinión. During this time 83 prizes were awarded to participating readers”.

The popularity of the sweepstakes game served to drive customer foot traffic into stores and retail outlets that carry the newspaper and provided great exposure to contest sponsors and advertisers. The Rompecabezas game is the first of many jointly sponsored in-paper promotional events and giveaways that are planned for 2004 by La Opinión.