Miscellaneous Mentionables

I frequently receive email from companies asking me to share news or discounts with my readers. Each week I’ll gather the best requests and share them with you here.

ARM & HAMMER

The flowers are in bloom, the grills are uncovered and summer is upon us. Ready to dive into your pool? Not so fast!
It’s important to ensure you’re taking proper care of your pool—and now you can do it in one easy step. Introducing, ARM & HAMMER Clear Balance Pool Maintenance Tablets. From the same company you’ve trusted for over 100 years, this new Baking Soda product is a convenient, cost effective, one-step solution that guarantees crystal clear water all season long, without the need and hassle of adding multiple products. So, you can be your own pool expert – and spend more time in your pool and less time taking care of it!

And don’t forget about all of the money you can save with a traditional box of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda. With just one 99 cent box of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda, you can:

• Clean your pool toys
• Polish your jewelry
• Dry bathe your dog
• Soothe bug bites, bee stings and sunburn
• Clean doors and window screens
• And much more!

CONTEST FROM BEST BUY AND SPIKE LEE

Interested in learning how they could win a day with Spike Lee on the set of his next production, a trip to Cannes and a $10,000 Best Buy shopping spree?

Best Buy is asking consumers to create branded videos through MOFILM U12 – a user generated movie contest hosted by Spike Lee. They are looking for short, creative films showcasing how technology holds great promise, is entertaining, connecting and fuels life passions.
Spike Lee himself will be viewing the top videos so channel your inner-creative genius and get to work. Up for grabs is a $10,000 Best Buy shopping spree, a trip to the Cannes Lions 2009 Advertising Festival and a day on the set of Spike Lee’s next production. A $5,000 and $3,500 Best Buy shopping spree will go to the second and third place winners respectively.

Go to http://cannes.mofilm.com/bestbuy to view the full creative brief, download assets you can utilize such as the Best Buy logo pack, brand guidelines, images and videos, and upload your best submission. Deadline is June 8.

FRIENDLY’S – FREE ICE CREAM DAY ON JUNE 6

Friendly’s, a family dining chain of more than 500 restaurants, will kick off summer on Saturday, June 6, 2009 with Free Ice Cream Day. From noon to 5:00 p.m., customers can receive a one-scoop dish or cone of their flavor of choice at any participating Friendly’s restaurant. With 26 flavors to choose from including Hunka Chunka PB Fudge®, Black Raspberry and ever-popular Vanilla, Friendly’s offers a flavor for every taste. This is the second annual Free Ice Cream Day at Friendly’s. Last year the company gave away more than 300,000 free cones.

In conjunction with the promotion, Friendly’s is challenging consumers to find their “Ice Cream Treat” profile through a Facebook quiz. Answers to the lifestyle quiz reveal a personality match to a signature Friendly’s ice cream dessert, like a Jim Dandy™ (“You want the most out of life and know how to get it”), Friend-z® (“You’re in a constant social whirlwind and the life of the party”) or Fribble® (“You are a smooth operator who never loses your cool”). Other elements of the campaign will include a Twitter feed with promotion updates, along with Flickr and YouTube coverage of the event.

“We want to give away as much ice cream as possible,” said Friendly’s CEO Ned R. Lidvall. “We hope that by getting the word out online, a record-breaking number of people will come in to enjoy one of our 26 flavors. After a winter that was grueling – both because of the economy and because of the weather – people deserve a cool, delicious treat to kick off the summer.”

THE NATURAL DENTIST

Despite the current state of our economy, people are buying natural or eco-friendly products now more than ever. A new study from the Grocery Manufacturers Association and Deloitte finds more than half of shoppers consider green characteristics in their purchasing decisions.

Why use natural oral care?
People are so concerned with what they eat and put on their skin and in their hair, but there is little attention to the fact they are putting chemicals into their mouths two times a day by using regular toothpastes and mouth rinses. There are natural oral care alternatives that work just as well as non-natural brands without alcohol, harsh chemicals, artificial sweeteners, preservatives, detergents, bleach, or dyes.

The Natural Dentist, a thirteen year-old natural oral care company, wants to make it a little easier for folks to go the natural route when it comes to oral care. The brand recently announced a drop in retail prices (up to 30%) for all mouth rinses to make natural oral care more accessible. This includes the Antigingivitis Rinse, Pre-Brush Whitening Rinse, Healthy Gums Mouth Rinse, Healthy Teeth Anticavity Fluoride Rinse and Healthy Teeth Fluoride Rinse. These rinses have decreased from $9.99 to a suggested retail price of $6.99 for a 16-ounce bottle.
The Natural Dentist mouth rinses are great for your oral health and the oral health of your family. They pair well with the brand’s toothpastes to ensure a complete and natural oral care experience.
The Natural Dentist wants to help your readers get an even bigger discount! For a limited time only, The Natural Dentist is offering a coupon for $1.50 off any product from The Natural Dentist line of toothpastes or mouth rinses. This coupon can be found at: www.thenaturaldentist.com/pricecut.

PALISADES CAR INSURANCE NICE DRIVE CONTEST

With summer so close, Palisades Car Insurance is starting their search for the nicest drives in New Jersey. We are asking New Jersey-ians to submit their nicest drives in text, photo, or video so that everyone can enjoy the best drives that NJ has to offer. More importantly, everyone that submits a nice drive will be entered to win one of twenty-five $50 gas cards!

Submissions will last until June 23. At the end of June, Palisades will share its top 10 drives (as selected by an expert panel of Palisades Crashbusters®- people who drive over 300,000 miles a year) on its website.
For submissions please visit Palisades.com/nicedrives and fill out the form.

Why the nicest drives? Well, Palisades is the nice New Jersey car insurance company. So nice, that its service is ranked as one of the highest in the state — better than Allstate, GEICO, State Farm, Progressive, and others. (Source: Palisades was ranked far superior to many national insurance brands – including Progressive, GEICO and State Farm – on how well its policies and practices supported quality and speed of repairs, as well as the overall customer experience according to a recent independent survey of NJ body shops conducted by USA/Direct, Inc.)

CAMPUS EXPLORER

CampusExplorer.com announced it has expanded its website capabilities to actively advise prospective students on the college choice that best fits them. The new features include side-by-side institution comparison, comprehensive behavior and history tracking modules; personalized educational profile tailoring and admissions chance analysis.

CampusExplorer.com founder and CEO Jerry Slavonia believes the improved technology will allow prospective students to more fully understand what they want in a school and which institutions best fit their personal interests, financial capabilities and grade expectations.
“Not everyone has an advisor readily available to help them find the college that best suits them,” remarked Slavonia. “The new features are meant to help guide prospective students through the process on their terms to find the best fit for their respective educations.”
The new side-by-side college comparison feature allows visitors to view specific criteria from multiple schools on the same page. This way, the comparison process is more visually intuitive as students filter schools that interest them.

New “My Schools” and “My Profile” options allow the viewer to personalize his or her search to a greater extent. With “My Schools,” prospective students can rate and save schools by interest and priority levels. The feature also tracks viewed schools and customizes modules for the searcher. “My Profile” tailors the student’s search based on questions answered by the student.

In addition, CampusExplorer.com recently added an option that shows the viewer’s chance of getting into specific four-year universities, based on grade-point average, SAT/ACT score, and extracurricular activities.
“Choosing a college should be personalized,” said Slavonia. “We’re not trying to push specific colleges at prospective students; we’re trying to give our clients a tool to find the school that works best for them. We want to put the consumer at the front of the line, rather than the institution.”

Tags: Arm & Hammer, Best Buy, Campus Explorer, Friendly's, Palisades Car Insurance, Spike Lee, The Natural Dentist

Category: Announcements