• by Tanya Gazdik , March 4, 2011

Jackson Hewitt Tax Service is launching both a sweepstakes and a contest with more than $25,000 in cash prizes.

Consumers can enter one or both social media initiatives between now and April 15 for a chance to win a $1,000 weekly cash prize through the "Jackson Hewitt's Got My Back" photo sweepstakes or $20,000 in total cash prizes through "Win Win with the Big Check" video contest.

The goal of the two contests is to encourage consumers to interact with the brand both online and offline, says David Koroghlian, director of interactive marketing, Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc.

"Our overall target audience is U.S. consumers over the age of 18, but we are also targeting the Generation Y demographic since they are major proponents and users of social media channels and many of them are just entering the taxpaying phase of their lives," Koroghlian tells Marketing Daily.

There were two main objectives behind running both a contest and a sweepstakes, he says. "One was to increase fans on both our Jackson Hewitt corporate Facebook page and our Big Check Facebook page," Koroghlian says. "Additionally, just like we provide taxpayers with a choice between visiting an office and filing their taxes with Jackson Hewitt Online, we wanted to give consumers the choice to enter the promotions with photos, videos, or both."

The video contest encourages contestants to print out a downloadable "Win Win" image (found at Jackson Hewitt's "Big Check" Facebook page), and then videotape themselves creatively passing that "Win Win" image along to another person. Once contestants upload their videos to the Parsippany, N.J.-based company's Facebook page, site visitors can vote on their favorite submission based on creativity and originality.

The 20 most popular videos will be reviewed by a panel of judges comprised of Jackson Hewitt employees, who will select a winner to receive $10,000 for the winning video, and $10,000 for an additional person designated by the winning video entrant.

To enter the photo sweepstakes, contestants must take a picture in front of any non-Walmart-based Jackson Hewitt location around the country, and then upload that image to Jackson Hewitt's Facebook page, tweet it to Jackson Hewitt on Twitter, or upload the image to www.JacksonHewitt.com/sweepstakes. Weekly winners will be randomly chosen (one entry per week from all valid entries) to win a $1,000 cash prize.

Jackson Hewitt will also create an online interactive map, posted on JacksonHewitt.com/sweepstakes and its Facebook page, which will allow site visitors to view all entries.

Jackson Hewitt is promoting the contest and sweepstakes with Facebook advertisements, tweets via our corporate-verified Jackson Hewitt and Big Check Twitter accounts, promoted tweets per an official Twitter beta product that pushes tweets to the top of search results and feeds, in-store collateral, and public relations via a national press release and media outreach to bloggers and other media outlets.

Last year, Jackson Hewitt ran a contest, "What Would You Do with a Big Check?" through its Big Check Facebook page that asked taxpayers what they would do with $3,000 (representing the average tax refund).

"The contest was a success on multiple fronts -- increased fans on our Big Check Facebook page, increased positive brand buzz, as well as learning truly what people would do if they won a big check, with the majority either paying off debt or helping a friend or family member," Koroghlian says. "These insights provided the basis for the present "Win Win with a Big Check" contest."