MatchLogic Hops on Sweepstakes Bandwagon

Excite@Home database marketer MatchLogic hopes to establish a continuous source of opt-in customer information through its newly launched sweepstakes site, “FastFreeFun”.

Up for grabs for visitors to the site is a variety of prizes, including trips, automobiles, consumer goods and up to $1 million.

Up for grabs for marketers, on the other hand, are sales leads and consumer profiles, MatchLogic says. The company aims to beef up its own database of opt-in consumer data through the site, ultimately with the goal of delivering user information to its clients.

“With FastFreeFun, we expand our permission-based database and build opt-in relationships with consumers that marketers can leverage for their marketing goals,” said MatchLogic president Tim Prunk.

Web sweepstakes are popular with online marketers for their typically low operation costs and potentially high rates of return using opt-in, targeted data — suitable for high-response marketing communications like direct email.

As with online contest company Promotions.com‘s Webstakes.com sweepstakes site, among others, visitors to FastFreeFun must register to enter each of the site’s 12 sweepstakes or games and answer several survey questions.

“We use the contests as a forum to complete registration pages and forms, which include questions and data collection on behalf of advertisers,” said Tarek Dimachkie, MatchLogic’s director of acquisition marketing.

According to MatchLogic executives, survey questions can be targeted dynamically to cull specific opt-in information based on geographical, demographic, socio-economic, lifestyle or interest criteria.

“For consumers, the site provides entertainment, gaming, and content as the attraction,” he added. “But it provides advertisers with an opportunity to acquire customers in ways not based on media.”

Spokespeople say the site already is seeing some returns, to the tune of 250,000 registered visitors daily.

Officials said they hope to boost this number with an online ad buy of about 7 million banner impressions. Advertising partners were not disclosed.

The company also plans to attract return visits by rolling out new games and sweepstakes weekly, Dimachkie said.