Promotion Launch Checklist: Structure, Official Rules, Registration, Platform Terms, and Winner Documentation

By Casey Scott McKay · 2026-04-14

This checklist takes a promotion from the marketing request to the closed file, with gates at the points where a mistake cannot be corrected later. It begins with the four intake answers that determine structure, cost, and the earliest lawful launch date, then screens every entry requirement for consideration and builds an alternate method of entry that works operationally rather than only in the rules. It covers registration and bonding lead times, the official rules provision by provision, the abbreviated block for each medium, and the creative review that catches a mechanic mismatch before it ships. It runs the drawing, the verification package, the tax reporting, and the entry clearance that outlives the promotion. It closes with the file a regulator inquiry needs and the standing program that stops each promotion being a fresh emergency.

IP and Technology > Internet | Checklist | Published 14 April 2026 - Updated 19 May 2026 | Casey Scott McKay - marksy.us

Summary. This checklist takes a promotion from the marketing request to the closed file, with gates at the points where a mistake cannot be corrected later. It begins with the four intake answers that determine structure, cost, and the earliest lawful launch date, then screens every entry requirement for consideration and builds an alternate method of entry that works operationally rather than only in the rules. It covers registration and bonding lead times, the official rules provision by provision, the abbreviated block for each medium, and the creative review that catches a mechanic mismatch before it ships. It runs the drawing, the verification package, the tax reporting, and the entry clearance that outlives the promotion. It closes with the file a regulator inquiry needs and the standing program that stops each promotion being a fresh emergency.

Keywords: promotion intake · prize value threshold · chance or skill · consideration screening · alternate method of entry testing · state registration filing · surety bond · official rules provisions · abbreviated rules by medium · creative review · judging criteria · entry pool reconciliation · drawing witness record · affidavit of eligibility · publicity release · tax reporting · content license · third party clearance · platform promotion rules · post promotion file

How to use this checklist

| Phase | What it covers | |---|---| | 1 | Intake and the four questions | | 2 | Structure: chance or skill | | 3 | Consideration screening | | 4 | Building the AMOE | | 5 | Registration and bonding | | 6 | The launch calendar | | 7 | Official rules | | 8 | Abbreviated rules by medium | | 9 | Creative review | | 10 | Contest judging design | | 11 | Prizing and valuation | | 12 | Entry systems testing | | 13 | Platform rules | | 14 | Data and messaging consent | | 15 | Children and age gating | | 16 | Content license and clearance | | 17 | Running the drawing | | 18 | Winner verification | | 19 | Taxes and delivery | | 20 | Mid-flight failures | | 21 | The post-promotion file | | 22 | The standing program |

Boxes marked [Gate] must clear before the promotion opens; a miss here cannot be cured afterward.

The matter. A retailer asked for a trip giveaway worth eleven thousand dollars, entry by photo upload, winner chosen by the marketing team, launching in six days. Four separate problems in one sentence, and the calendar was the least fixable.

Phase 1. Intake and the four questions

[ ] [Gate] Get the four answers before any creative work begins.
- What is the total approximate retail value of all prizes, and the largest single prize? Determines registration, bonding, and therefore the calendar.
- Is the winner picked at random or judged? Determines sweepstakes versus contest.
- What must someone do to enter? Determines whether consideration exists.
- What happens to what they submit? Determines license, clearance, releases, and idea-submission risk.
[ ] Ask who runs it operationally on the day. Most compliance failures are execution failures.
[ ] Produce a one-page structure memo within a day: structure, excluded states, registration and bond requirements with dates, the mechanic in one sentence, and the earliest lawful launch date.
[ ] Record the intended launch date and the earliest lawful one side by side. That gap is the conversation.

Phase 2. Structure: chance or skill

[ ] [Gate] Confirm which of the three lottery elements is being removed.
- Why. Prize plus chance plus consideration is a lottery, unlawful in every state and reinforced by 18 U.S.C. § 1301, 18 U.S.C. § 1302, and 18 U.S.C. § 1304, with the state exemption at 18 U.S.C. § 1307.
[ ] Sweepstakes: chance decides, entry must be free.
[ ] Contest: skill decides, consideration may be permitted subject to state limits.
[ ] Classify the specific format — random draw, purchase-linked with AMOE, skill contest, instant win, loyalty points, referral mechanic, or something adjacent to gambling.
[ ] Escalate anything resembling a wager. Bracket pools, prediction contests, and fantasy formats sit near or inside gambling law under 31 U.S.C. § 5362 and state statutes.
[ ] Escalate charitable raffles. A raffle is a lottery, lawful only under a specific state exemption with its own registration.

Phase 3. Consideration screening

[ ] [Gate] List every action required to enter and test each one.
[ ] Monetary consideration: purchase, entry fee, subscription, premium message charge. Fatal to a chance promotion without an AMOE.
[ ] Non-monetary consideration: substantial time, effort, or inconvenience. Assume the expansive state view for a national promotion.
[ ] Apply the conservative answers.
- Social follow or tag — treat as consideration.
- Email address alone — generally not.
- Long registration, multi-step upload, store visit, event attendance, watching an advertisement — treat as consideration.
[ ] Analyze loyalty points separately. Points earned only by purchase look like consideration; spending points for entries is effectively purchase-linked.
[ ] Decide: remove the burden, or build a real AMOE.

Phase 4. Building the AMOE

[ ] [Gate] Equal dignity. Same odds, same prize pool, same deadline. Not a lesser chance and not a separate prize.
[ ] Genuinely accessible method — hand-printed mail-in card, free web form, toll-free number, or non-premium text.
[ ] Keep formatting requirements reasonable. Onerous requirements convert the free path into a burden and defeat its purpose.
[ ] Disclose it in the rules and reasonably in the advertising.
[ ] [Gate] Build the operational process: maintained address checked daily, entries opened and date-stamped, logged, validated, pooled with paid entries, and retained.
[ ] [Gate] Test it. Mail three entries from outside the company and confirm they appear in the pool. One hour; the highest-value pre-launch test available.

Phase 5. Registration and bonding

[ ] [Gate] New York: registration and bond for games of chance with prizes over five thousand dollars under N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 369-e, filed at least thirty days before opening.
[ ] [Gate] Florida: registration and bond above the same threshold under Fla. Stat. § 849.094, filed at least seven days before.
[ ] Rhode Island: registration for retail sweepstakes with prizes over five hundred dollars under R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-50-1.
[ ] Start the surety bond application first. Underwriting is the long pole nobody anticipates.
[ ] File the rules as they will be published. Changing them after filing is a problem.
[ ] Diary any post-promotion filings, including winner lists and proof of award.
[ ] If the threshold is a problem, choose one of three lawful responses: delay, reduce the prize below the threshold, or exclude the state. Restructuring is usually cheapest.

Phase 6. The launch calendar

[ ] T-45. Mechanic and prize values locked, itemized. Structure and excluded states decided.
[ ] T-40. Rules drafted. Bond application started.
[ ] T-35. Registrations filed.
[ ] T-30. Platform rules reviewed. Privacy notice updated. Consent language finalized.
[ ] T-21. Creative reviewed against the rules.
[ ] T-14. AMOE built and tested. Verification documents drafted. Entry system tested including exclusions.
[ ] T-7. Florida window. Final sign-off on rules and every abbreviated block.
[ ] T-1. Rules published at a stable URL and archived. Test entries mailed.
[ ] State the policy plainly: no promotion above five thousand dollars in prizes launches within forty-five days of intake.

Phase 7. Official rules

[ ] Sponsor and administrator, legal names and street address, with responsibilities allocated.
[ ] [Gate] Eligibility: age, residency, excluded states, and exclusion of employees, their households, and the agencies.
- Why. This clause is what resolves a winning code redeemed by an insider's relative, and it cannot be added later.
[ ] Entry period with times, time zone, and the official timekeeping device.
[ ] How to enter, including the free method, described specifically enough to follow.
[ ] Entry limits and duplicate handling.
[ ] Winner selection method and date, or for a contest the criteria, weights, judges, and skill-based tiebreaker.
[ ] Prize description with approximate retail value, exclusions enumerated, restrictions, and non-transferability.
[ ] Odds: "depend on the number of eligible entries received."
[ ] Notification and verification, with response window and the disqualification consequence, including "time permitting" for alternates.
[ ] Taxes, the winner's responsibility, sponsor reports.
[ ] Publicity, noting states that restrict conditioning a prize on it.
[ ] Content license for entrant material.
[ ] Limitation of liability, indemnity, dispute resolution, governing law.
[ ] Right to modify, suspend, or cancel, tied to causes beyond the sponsor's control with a stated fallback.
[ ] [Gate] Mechanic-unavailability clause. Foreseeable and almost always omitted; it is what saves a promotion when a platform removes the mechanic.
[ ] Winners list, how to request and for how long.
[ ] Publish at a stable URL and archive every version with dates.

Phase 8. Abbreviated rules by medium

[ ] [Gate] Include in every block: no purchase necessary; a purchase does not improve chances; eligibility and age; excluded states; entry period with time zone; prize and approximate retail value; odds language; pointer to full rules; sponsor name and street address.
[ ] Produce a version for each medium — broadcast, print, social, in-store, packaging — each still carrying the material terms.
[ ] Confirm the "purchase does not improve chances" line is true. If the paid path has better odds, the promotion is a lottery.
[ ] Confirm state exclusions appear here, not only in the full rules.

Phase 9. Creative review

[ ] [Gate] Review every asset against the rules at three weeks out.
- Why. This is where "best photo wins" meets "random drawing" and one of them has to change.
[ ] Check the mechanic described in the creative matches the rules exactly.
[ ] Check prize depiction against what is actually awarded, including anything shown but excluded.
[ ] Check superlatives. "Biggest giveaway ever" is an advertising claim requiring substantiation, testable by a competitor under 15 U.S.C. § 1125.
[ ] Check influencer scripts for the disclosures required by 16 C.F.R. Part 255.
[ ] Check that the free method is reasonably communicated, not buried.

Phase 10. Contest judging design

[ ] [Gate] Announce criteria with weights before entry opens.
[ ] Identify judges by category — independent panel, sponsor's team, or public vote.
[ ] Treat public voting carefully. A gameable popularity contest is arguably not skill; make it one weighted input rather than the whole determination.
[ ] Make tiebreakers skill-based.
[ ] Check state consideration restrictions on contests, and the disclosure requirements at Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17539.15.
[ ] Have judges score independently before conferring, and retain every scoresheet.

Phase 11. Prizing and valuation

[ ] [Gate] State approximate retail value accurately.
- Why. Overstating inflates the winner's tax burden under 26 U.S.C. § 74; understating misleads entrants.
[ ] Itemize multi-element prizes.
[ ] Enumerate exclusions — for travel: airfare, ground transport, meals, gratuities, insurance, companion requirements, blackout dates.
[ ] Reserve substitution at equal or greater value.
[ ] Address unclaimed prizes and the alternate process.
[ ] Secure instant-win seeding: certified randomization, seed list segregated from anyone who could exploit it, access logs retained.
[ ] Confirm insurance, including prize indemnity where the prize is contingent.

Phase 12. Entry systems testing

[ ] [Gate] Confirm state exclusions are enforced by the form, not merely stated in the rules.
[ ] Confirm age gating works and cannot be bypassed trivially.
[ ] Confirm entry limits are enforced and duplicates handled as the rules describe.
[ ] Confirm entries are logged with timestamp, method, and eligibility data.
[ ] Test the free path end to end, including receipt and pooling.
[ ] Test at the entry-period boundary, since the closing minute is where disputes arise.

Phase 13. Platform rules

[ ] [Gate] Read the platform's promotion rules before the mechanic is chosen.
[ ] Confirm the mechanic is permitted. Requiring users to tag others or share is commonly prohibited.
[ ] Include required disclaimers, typically that the platform does not sponsor, endorse, or administer the promotion.
[ ] Understand the consequence: mid-promotion post removal and account restriction, with no due process. See Managing Platform Account Risk.
[ ] For influencer-run promotions, contract for compliance, supply the abbreviated rules, and monitor the posts. The sponsor remains responsible.

Phase 14. Data and messaging consent

[ ] [Gate] Capture marketing consent separately from prize-notification consent, and make it optional.
- Why. Statutory damages under 47 U.S.C. § 227 multiply across an entrant list, which makes this the most expensive available failure.
[ ] Confirm text-to-enter mechanics meet the consent requirements of 47 U.S.C. § 227.
[ ] Confirm email follow-up meets 15 U.S.C. § 7704 — identification, opt-out, and physical address.
[ ] Update the privacy notice to describe the collection and use.
[ ] Confirm entrant data is reachable by rights requests — access, deletion, correction.
[ ] Set a retention period and a deletion job. See the Marketing Privacy Compliance Checklist.

Phase 15. Children and age gating

[ ] [Gate] Determine whether the promotion is directed to children or likely to attract them.
[ ] If so, confront 15 U.S.C. § 6502 and the parental consent regime, which is difficult in a promotional context.
[ ] Set a minimum age in the rules — eighteen is the common answer for this reason.
[ ] Remember contracts with minors are voidable in most states, which undercuts the releases and the liability limits for that population.
[ ] Screen the creative and the media plan for child-directed placement. See the Children's Privacy Compliance Checklist.

Phase 16. Content license and clearance

[ ] [Gate] Grant a license covering the 17 U.S.C. § 106 rights the sponsor will actually exercise, since the entrant owns the copyright under 17 U.S.C. § 201.
[ ] Decide whether the license covers all entries or only the winner's, and say so.
[ ] Disclose the grant plainly, including in the abbreviated materials if it is broad.
[ ] Require an entrant representation about ownership and third-party releases — and do not rely on it for paid media.
[ ] Clear the winning entry separately for any advertising use: music, visible brands, backgrounds, and every identifiable person.
[ ] Obtain actual likeness releases for high-value uses. See the Visual Content Clearance Checklist.
[ ] Address idea submissions expressly if the mechanic solicits concepts.
[ ] Tag entries in the asset library with license scope and clearance status at intake.

Phase 17. Running the drawing

[ ] Freeze the pool at the stated end time and export it with a count.
[ ] Reconcile online entries against logged mail-in entries.
[ ] Remove ineligible entries — excluded states, over-limit duplicates, out-of-period — and log each category with counts rather than deleting silently.
[ ] Use a documented random method, certified for large prizes.
[ ] [Gate] Witness it. One named person outside marketing, who signs the record.
[ ] Record pool size, method, seed if applicable, selection, and alternates in order.
[ ] Store the record with the entry export and the removal log.

Phase 18. Winner verification

[ ] [Gate] Verify eligibility before announcing. Age, residence, and the employee-and-household exclusion.
- Trap. Announcing first and verifying second produces a public retraction.
[ ] Send the package with a stated deadline: affidavit of eligibility, liability release, publicity release where lawful, and tax documentation.
[ ] Decide notarization in advance and state it in the rules rather than improvising.
[ ] For travel prizes, add companion releases, identification confirmation, and date selection within blackout windows.
[ ] Diary the response deadline, the alternate-selection date, and the announcement date.
[ ] Follow the rules if the winner does not respond — disqualify and select an alternate, time permitting.

Phase 19. Taxes and delivery

[ ] Report the prize at or above the reporting threshold, treating it as gross income under 26 U.S.C. § 74.
[ ] Withhold where required under 26 U.S.C. § 3402, and state in the rules whether the sponsor withholds or grosses up.
[ ] Deliver the prize and record delivery.
[ ] Post the winners list for the period the rules promise.
[ ] Make any post-promotion state filings.

Phase 20. Mid-flight failures

[ ] Platform removes the posts. Invoke the mechanic-unavailability clause, designate a substitute of comparable accessibility, post notice at the rules URL, document the decision, and disclose how entries by the removed method are treated.
[ ] Prize becomes unavailable. Substitute at equal or greater value and document the valuation.
[ ] Entry system outage. Extend only if the rules permit or the extension is disclosed and does not disadvantage earlier entrants. Record the outage window and the remedy.
[ ] Winner ineligible after announcement. Correct publicly and promptly; a quiet substitution reads worse later.
[ ] Fraud or vote manipulation. Apply the anti-fraud provision consistently across all entrants, not only the ones complained about.
[ ] Regulator writes. Produce the file, answer narrowly and factually, and supply records rather than conclusions.

Phase 21. The post-promotion file

[ ] Structure memo and the four intake answers.
[ ] Every published version of the official rules, dated and archived.
[ ] Abbreviated rules as they appeared in each medium.
[ ] Registration filings, confirmations, and bonds.
[ ] Entry logs including the free method, with counts.
[ ] Physical AMOE entries, retained.
[ ] Eligibility-removal log by category.
[ ] Drawing record, witnessed.
[ ] Judging scoresheets for a contest.
[ ] Executed verification documents.
[ ] Tax reporting records.
[ ] Winners list as posted.
[ ] Consent records for any data used afterward.
[ ] Platform correspondence.
[ ] Clearance file for any entry used in advertising.

Phase 22. The standing program

[ ] [Gate] Build a template set — rules for random draw, purchase-linked with AMOE, and judged contest; abbreviated blocks per medium; the verification package; the structure memo.
[ ] Create an intake form routed automatically to counsel before creative work begins.
[ ] Adopt the forty-five-day calendar rule as policy so it is not renegotiated each time.
[ ] Vet a promotion administrator who carries bonding relationships and drawing infrastructure.
[ ] Set a prize-value threshold above which legal sign-off and a registration analysis are required.
[ ] Standardize the file structure.
[ ] Review templates annually against changing registration thresholds and platform rules.
[ ] Train marketing once a year, forty-five minutes: the three elements, the four intake questions, and the calendar.

Phase 23. Promotion-type boxes

Run the base checklist, then the extra boxes for the format in play.

Random-draw sweepstakes, no purchase.

[ ] Confirm no entry requirement constitutes consideration under Phase 3; if any does, this is the wrong classification.
[ ] Confirm the odds language is the "depends on entries received" formulation rather than a numeric figure you cannot support.

Purchase-linked sweepstakes with AMOE.

[ ] Confirm equal odds, equal pool, equal deadline in the rules and in fact.
[ ] Confirm the "purchase does not improve chances" line appears in every abbreviated block.
[ ] Confirm the free-entry operational process has a named owner and a daily task, not a mailbox nobody opens.
[ ] Reconcile free and paid entry counts at the drawing and record both.

Skill contest.

[ ] Criteria and weights published before opening.
[ ] Judges identified by category; independence confirmed where claimed.
[ ] Skill-based tiebreaker.
[ ] Entry-fee restrictions checked state by state; disclosure obligations at Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17539.15 satisfied where a fee applies.
[ ] Scoresheets retained for all entries, not only finalists.

Instant win or game piece.

[ ] Number of winning moments or pieces stated in the rules.
[ ] Randomization certified by the vendor and documented.
[ ] Seed list segregated; access logged; segregation of duties enforced.
[ ] Unclaimed-prize treatment stated and lawful in each state.
[ ] For physical pieces, production quantity, distribution, and destruction of overruns documented.

Loyalty or points entry.

[ ] Determine whether points can be earned without purchase.
[ ] If not, treat as purchase-linked and provide an AMOE.
[ ] Confirm the loyalty program's own terms permit the use.

Referral mechanic.

[ ] Endorsement disclosure required of referrers under 16 C.F.R. Part 255.
[ ] Referral messages by text or email screened against 47 U.S.C. § 227 and 15 U.S.C. § 7704, including where the entrant presses send.
[ ] Cap referral entries and state the cap.

Influencer-run promotion.

[ ] Sponsor identified as sponsor in every post.
[ ] Abbreviated rules supplied and required by contract.
[ ] Disclosures required, monitored, and evidenced.
[ ] Platform rules confirmed for the influencer's account as well as the brand's.

Phase 24. Quarterly and annual metrics

Six numbers, tracked across promotions.

[ ] Promotions launched, and how many went through intake before creative. Target: all of them.
[ ] Median days from intake to launch, against the forty-five-day policy.
[ ] Registrations filed and bonds posted, with any late filings flagged.
[ ] AMOE test results — did the pre-launch test entries pool correctly, every time.
[ ] Winner verification cycle time, and the number of alternates required.
[ ] Entrant records subject to marketing consent, as a proportion of total entrants. This is the number that predicts the expensive claim.

Phase 25. Evidence request, written in advance

Draft it once so it can be sent unchanged when an inquiry arrives. Name the system and the owner for each item.

[ ] Official rules, every version, with publication dates and archive captures.
[ ] Abbreviated rules as they appeared, per medium, with placement evidence.
[ ] Registration filings, confirmations, and bond documents.
[ ] Complete entry export, with method, timestamp, and eligibility fields.
[ ] Mail-in entry log and the retained physical entries.
[ ] Eligibility-removal log, by category, with counts.
[ ] Drawing record, witnessed, with pool size, method, and alternates in order.
[ ] Judging scoresheets, for a contest.
[ ] Winner correspondence and the executed verification documents.
[ ] Tax reporting records and proof of prize delivery.
[ ] Winners list as posted, with dates.
[ ] Consent records for every entrant subsequently messaged, with capture timestamp and the exact language shown.
[ ] Platform correspondence, including any enforcement action.
[ ] Clearance file for any entry used in advertising.

Why this belongs in the checklist. A sponsor that produces this file in a week usually resolves an inquiry at the correspondence stage. One that cannot spends a quarter reconstructing it and settles for more than the promotion cost.

Phase 26. The official rules skeleton, with drafting notes

Sections in the order they should be drafted, because each depends on the one above. Adapt the language; keep the sequence.

1. Sponsor and Administrator. Legal names, street address, and which entity conducts the drawing and administers verification.

2. Eligibility.

Open only to legal residents of the fifty United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 or older as of the Start Date. Void in Rhode Island and where prohibited. Employees, officers, and directors of Sponsor, Administrator, and their affiliates, and members of their immediate families and households, are not eligible.

3. Entry Period.

Begins at 12:00:01 a.m. Eastern Time on 1 September and ends at 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern Time on 30 September. Sponsor's computer is the official timekeeping device.

[ ] The timekeeping sentence disposes of most entry-period disputes and costs one line.

4. How to Enter, with the free method stated in full and this sentence verbatim:

Mail-in entries have the same chance of winning as online entries.

5. Winner Selection.

One potential winner will be selected in a random drawing from among all eligible entries received, conducted on or about 5 October by Administrator, whose decisions are final and binding.

6. Prize.

One Grand Prize: a travel credit of $4,000 and merchandise with an approximate retail value of $900. Total ARV: $4,900. Prize does not include airfare, ground transportation, meals, gratuities, insurance, or any expense not expressly stated. Prize is not transferable; Sponsor may substitute a prize of equal or greater value.

7. Odds. "Odds of winning depend on the number of eligible entries received."

8. Notification and Verification.

The potential winner will be notified by email and must respond within five business days, and may be required to execute and return an Affidavit of Eligibility, a Liability Release, and, where lawful, a Publicity Release, with required tax documentation, within ten days of issuance. Failure to respond, failure to return documents, undeliverable notification, or non-compliance will result in disqualification and selection of an alternate winner, time permitting.

[ ] "Time permitting" prevents an endless alternate cycle.

9. Taxes. Winner responsible; Sponsor reports as required.

10. Entrant Content License.

Entrant grants Sponsor a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, sublicensable license to reproduce, display, distribute, and create derivative works from the submitted content in any media for Sponsor's promotional and commercial purposes, and represents that entrant owns or controls all necessary rights and has obtained releases from every identifiable person appearing in the content.

11. Right to Modify.

If for any reason beyond Sponsor's reasonable control the Promotion cannot run as planned, Sponsor may modify, suspend, or terminate it and, if terminated, award the Prize in a random drawing from among eligible entries received before termination.

12. Mechanic Unavailability.

If the entry method in Section 4 becomes unavailable, Sponsor may designate a substitute method of comparable accessibility and will post notice at example.com/rules.

[ ] Foreseeable, almost always omitted, and the clause that saves a promotion when a platform removes the mechanic mid-flight.

13. Limitation of Liability, Disputes, Governing Law, Winners List.

Phase 27. The one-page brief for marketing

Hand this over at intake. It does more good than a memo, because the decisions that create the problems are made by people who do not know they are legal decisions.

Three ingredients. Prize, chance, and something the entrant gives up. All three together is illegal. We remove one.

Random winner means entry must be free — really free, equally weighted, and somebody opens the envelopes.

Judged winner means criteria in writing before we open, and named judges.

Over $5,000 in total prizes means we file in two states, and one takes thirty days. That is a statute, not a preference.

Tell us the mechanic before you tell the agency. We can usually restructure the prize to move faster, and restructuring is cheaper than registering.

Whatever people upload, we don't own it unless the rules say so — and even then we cannot use the music, the visible brand, or the stranger in the background without separate clearance.

Everyone who enters is not automatically someone we can email or text. That consent is a separate, optional checkbox, and it is the one that becomes a class action if we get it wrong.

Platform rules are not law and are frequently the more expensive constraint. Breaking them costs the account, mid-campaign, with no appeal we control.

Phase 28. The verification package, document by document

Send it as one package with a cover memo stating the deadline and the consequence of missing it.

[ ] Affidavit of Eligibility. Sworn statement of age, residence, and non-excluded status. Decide notarization in advance and state that decision in the rules rather than improvising after selection.
[ ] Liability Release. Release of sponsor, administrator, and affiliates from claims arising from participation, prize acceptance, and prize use. Travel prizes warrant a separate acknowledgement of travel risks.
[ ] Publicity Release. Consent to use of name, likeness, hometown, and statements, with scope, media, territory, and duration stated.
- Trap. Several states restrict conditioning a prize on publicity consent. Where that applies, the release must be genuinely optional and the rules must say so.
[ ] Tax documentation. The identification form needed to report the prize, with a short plain-language note explaining why it is required — this prevents a week of correspondence.
[ ] Travel-specific documents. Companion releases, identification confirmation, date selection within stated blackout windows, and an acknowledgement that the winner arranges anything not expressly included.
[ ] A separate, specific release for any advertising use of the winner's entry or likeness, rather than relying on the general grant in the rules. This is the step most often skipped and most regretted when the image runs nationally.
[ ] Diary every date: response deadline, alternate-selection date, announcement date, delivery date, and reporting deadline. The rules created these obligations and the sponsor must meet them.

Phase 29. Insurance and vendor controls

[ ] Confirm prize indemnity coverage where a prize is contingent on an uncertain event, and read the notice and verification conditions, which are strict.
[ ] Confirm the general program responds to promotion-related claims, including personal and advertising injury. See the IP Insurance and Risk Transfer Toolkit.
[ ] Read the administrator's contract for allocation of registration and bonding responsibility, drawing conduct, verification, and records retention — and confirm who holds the entry data and for how long.
[ ] Require the administrator to deliver the file at close, in the structure Phase 21 specifies.
[ ] Confirm the administrator's data terms support entrant rights requests and deletion.
[ ] Confirm any fulfillment vendor can deliver the prize as described, including to excluded-state edge cases and to addresses the rules permit.
[ ] Confirm the randomization vendor, for instant-win formats, will supply a certification and will retain the seed documentation for the record period, and that nobody at the vendor with seed access also has redemption access.

Outcome. The eleven-thousand-dollar trip was restructured into a four-thousand-dollar travel credit plus nine hundred dollars of merchandise, keeping total value under the New York and Florida thresholds and eliminating a thirty-day filing dependency. The mechanic was changed from marketing-team judging to a random drawing, which removed the criteria and judging-record obligations entirely. The photo upload was retained but made optional and non-determinative, with an express license and an entrant representation. Launch slipped nine days rather than thirty. Three test entries mailed by the free method confirmed the AMOE pooled correctly. The winning photograph was cleared separately before it ran in paid media, because the entrant's representation was not relied upon, and the release for the second person visible in the frame took two weeks to obtain — which is exactly why it was started before the campaign was booked.

Key Authorities at a Glance

| Authority | Proposition | |---|---| | 18 U.S.C. § 1301 | Transporting lottery tickets | | 18 U.S.C. § 1302 | Mailing lottery matter | | 18 U.S.C. § 1304 | Broadcasting lottery information | | 18 U.S.C. § 1307 | State lottery exemption | | 39 U.S.C. § 3005 | Postal enforcement | | 15 U.S.C. § 45 | Unfair or deceptive practices | | 15 U.S.C. § 1125 | Competitor false advertising | | 16 C.F.R. Part 255 | Endorsement disclosure | | 16 C.F.R. Part 310 | Telemarketing prize promotions | | N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 369-e | New York registration and bond | | Fla. Stat. § 849.094 | Florida registration and bond | | R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-50-1 | Rhode Island registration | | Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17539.15 | Contest disclosures | | Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17537 | Prize promotion restrictions | | Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 622.051 | Texas sweepstakes disclosures | | 47 U.S.C. § 227 | Text-to-enter consent | | 15 U.S.C. § 7704 | Commercial email requirements | | 15 U.S.C. § 6502 | Children's data collection | | 26 U.S.C. § 74 | Prizes as gross income | | 26 U.S.C. § 3402 | Withholding | | 17 U.S.C. § 106 | Rights the license must reach | | 17 U.S.C. § 201 | Entrant owns the entry | | 31 U.S.C. § 5362 | Gambling definitions |

The five things people get wrong

Legal sees the promotion after the creative is approved. Every other failure descends from this one. The mechanic is a legal decision made by people who do not know it is one, and it is locked before counsel is asked.

The alternate method of entry exists on paper only. Nobody built the process to receive, open, log, and pool mail-in entries, so the promotion as actually run is a lottery regardless of what the rules said.

The prize crossed a registration threshold and nobody checked. This is publicly discoverable, because the promotion advertised itself, and the thirty-day New York lead time under N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 369-e cannot be compressed.

Entrants are marketed to without separate consent. The most expensive failure on the list, because statutory damages under 47 U.S.C. § 227 multiply across the entrant list and dwarf the entire promotion budget.

The winning entry is reused years later without re-clearing it. The license in the rules covers the entrant's copyright and nothing else — not the music, not the visible brand, and not the stranger in the background.