Sweepstakes are a way that allow companies to advertise their merchandise while getting customers to participate. One such sweepstake is the Publisher’s Clearing House which gets people involved by playing on their need to get rich. America is great for promoting the American Dream which includes that dream house, the dream care, and the dream family.

So the sweepstakes in their advertising tactics hires a star [Ed McMann] and each year they announce a winner from entries. Sounds simple right? Winning all that money? Limosine at the door? Guess again, because through this sweepstake as with all sweepstakes the idea is to get the public to spend money.
Ogden & Ogden (2014) wrote concerning Sales Promotion:

Sales promotion describes incentive and interest-creating activities that are designed to get customers to buy immediately instead of waiting. Sales promotions are often separated into two distinct types: 1) consumer, and 2) trade (or B2B). There are many different types of sales promotions used by marcom managers to stimulate sales. Sales promotion vehicles include (but aren’t limited to) coupons, contests, sweepstakes, rebates, product demonstrations, product/service sampling, BOGOs (buy one, get one), premiums (free items such as cups and pens), and “price-off” offers [Sales Promotion Section; para.1].

Hence, with in the entry point of the sweepstake potential customers are invited to subscribe to various magazine offers [I,e., publishers] for a percentage off newsstand prices. Therefore, each entry is contingent on each subscription.

Ogden & Ogden (2014) stated that the marketing communications mix consists of (a) advertising, (b) personal selling (c) sales promotion [sweepstakes], (d) public relations/publicity [star endorsement], (e) direct marketing [mail advertisings], (f) electronic/internet marketing [email], and (g) branding. The thing about magazines is that the publishers do not advertise on television so one may see magazines at the checkout in many stores, rather, than on the tv screen.

Creating integration and consistency in communication is a necessary tool to ensure that the brand of the company will be remembered and participation of the public is of essence to ensure that the brand is well known.