Campaign of the Year
Winner: Voyage of a Lifetime Getaway | USA Today
This promotion won campaign of the year because it drove HUGE results for the media company AND the advertiser!!
The USA Today team crafted a sweepstakes for their sponsor, Century Cruises, to promote a new cruise down a Chinese river. The prize was a 14-day luxury cruise tour for two with international airfare included – a $28,490 Value!
This amazing prize helped this sweepstakes deliver huge results with over 17,000 new email marketing contacts, which allowed Century Cruises to book several thousand travel consultations. The USA Today team was able to secure $40,000 for this campaign.
But that’s not where this story ends! The Chinese government was so impressed that they have requested USA Today‘s help in educating US citizens on travel to China.
Since this sweepstakes ran and the incredible results came in – the advertiser is now spending $600,000 and rising for 2026 – a 1400% increase in spending! Century Cruises actually moved all of their budgets around to put more into promotions because they saw that they WORK.
The takeaway here is that a simple sweepstakes with a relevant and valuable prize, combined with lead generating questions and client opt-ins, is the recipe for success. And if you are group, you can run this across several markets/locations with our syndication tools!
This is the campaign of the year because if you are working closely with your clients to track their results (sales, consultations, ticket sales, etc.), you can show the true value of the current campaign, and easily sell the next one!
Best Advertiser Lead-Gen Campaign
Winner: Michigan College Guide Giveaway | Detroit Free Press
The Michigan College Guide has been a recurring sponsor, but this year they decided to include a Scholarship Sweepstakes as part of their guide. Sponsorships were created as a multi-tactical strategy to target this client’s audience and drive engagement.
This promotion fostered meaningful engagement between each sponsor’s target audience and the Michigan College Guide. Their promotions unlocked a data goldmine of first-party data, paving the way for smarter audience engagement and market segmentation
The client stated, “revenue was up 25% which we can attribute to the college guide promotion we added this year.” And the USA Today Promotions team said “When you add a promotion – your campaign results are automatically and tangibly better.”
Finalists:
- Golden Ticket Staycations | NRG-Lincoln
- Midland RockHounds Ticket Giveaway | KMID-TV
- Fremont Ford Final Yard Toy Drive/Tag Your Trophy | County 10
- Win Wick’s Pies | Federated – Fort Wayne
- Mow Your Grass Off | KNOX Radio
Best Editorial, Promotions & Programming Campaign
Winner: 12 Days of KELOLAND+ | KELO-TV
The team at KELO-TV was looking for fun ways to promote their CTV Channel and drive downloads during the holidays. So, the team picked up 12 Roku devices and 12 days KELOLand was born. This multi-day sweepstakes engaged 900 people, drove 5,700 entries, 600 newsletter opt-ins, and most importantly, a 15% uptick in downloads – full achieving their goal for the promotion.
- What’s in our Garage | KXRA-FM
- Women To Watch | APG Media of Maryland/DC
- Thot-ful Thursdays | KOPW-FM
- Best BBQ Bracket | Chattanooga Times Free Press
Best Audience Builder Campaign
Winner: Chicago Pizza Madness Tournament | WGN Radio
This was the exact type of promotion we always suggest running if you’re looking to grow your audience – a fun barstool topic that people will love – like a pizza bracket! AND they ran it in conjunction with March Madness! It included 128 pizza restaurants across the Chicagoland area in 4 brackets and one final bracket. They made sure to include their newsletter opt-ins on each of the brackets and were able to pull in nearly 4,000 new opt-ins.
- Filtrete Yourself | USA Today
- Power Trip: Kendrick Lamar & SZA | KOPW-FM
- Twelve Days of Giving | WLUK-TV
- Winterfest Weekend Sweepstakes | Sun-Sentinel
Best Recurring Revenue Campaign
Winner: Pro Football Pick’em | Sheridan Media
This was a nominee last year, and is taking the win this year! The Sheridan media team runs the Second Street ProFootball contest year after year. They say that it provides them with reliable, steady dollars from September to February for their small market.
Their recurring sponsor, First Northern Bank, views this promotion as so successful, that they will never give it up! And the results speak for themselves, as Sheridan Media drove $25,000 in revenue this year, a 20% increase YOY!
- Awards of Character | USA Today
- Hello Happy Mama Contests | Kern County Family Magazine
- Free Trip Tuesday | KTVI-TV
- Raptor Auto All-Star Team of the Month | WQHK-FM
Best Data Strategy
Winner: Jingle Bucks Giveaway | Federated – South Bend
A simple quiz during the holiday season to promote their “My Deals” site ? Not even close…this promotion was intentionally built as a data-first initiative. By structuring the quiz as a survey, the Federated – South Bend team were able to capture detailed, self-reported insights directly from participants: what they purchased in the past, what prevented them from buying, and most importantly, what types of local businesses would motivate them to purchase in the future.
They used the responses to actively segment the participants into targeted audience groups based on stated interests. This segmentation now enables highly targeted, relevant campaigns moving forward, improving performance for both consumers and participating advertisers, and creating ongoing value long after the contest has ended.
Combined with significant new email, text, and blog opt-ins, the campaign strengthened their owned audience, enhanced their ability to personalize future promotions, and positioned My Deals Michiana as a smarter, more responsive marketplace for local businesses.
- The Ultimate Ticket Fix in 2026 | KBBK-FM
- Park Place Mall Giveaway | KVOA-TV
- OnPath Credit Union Grand Opening Sweepstakes | WWL-TV
- Allegiant Inaugural Gulf Shores Flight Giveaway | USA Today
Best National Sweepstakes Campaign
Winner: Car Payments for a Year | The Greenville Sun
The Tennessee-Western North Carolina Region of Adams MultiMedia, including the Greenville Sun, was able to secure $11,850 in revenue from this national sweepstakes. However, we also love the larger story Adams was able to tell here – in 2025, 98% of their 16 regions ran this national sweepstakes, all securing a local sponsor. Because of this, they were able to add over 5,000 new opt-ins and nearly $50,000 in revenue. This is an amazing example of what prioritizing national sweepstakes and creating an organization-wide plan can do for your company.
- Ditch Your Debt | WBYR-FM
- Miley Legal National Sweepstakes Bundle | WBOY-TV
- $15K Cash Giveaway | Folio Weekly
- Crary Thankful: $15,000 Holiday Giveaway | Leighton – Grand Forks
Best Branded Content Campaign
Winner: Fire Prevention Week | Federated – Fort Wayne
This sweepstakes, sponsored by the Allen County Department of Environmental Management, ran in conjunction with Fire Prevention Week. It’s purpose was to educate Federated – Fort Waynes’s audience about how to prevent house fires and the proper way to dispose lithium ion batteries. with questions on the registration form. Not only was the Federated – Fort Wayne team able to partner with another department of Allen County, but they also secured $3,500 for this campaign.
- Color Your Crew Contest | Leighton – Alexandria
- Mid-South Fair Food Quiz | WREG-TV
- Power Your Future Quiz |Columbus Dispatch
- Twilla Pillow Sleep IQ Test | KSL.com
Best Syndicated Promotion
Winner: Proudly Canadian, Proudly You | Black Press Media
This campaign included 6 separate sweepstakes that included over $17,000 in prizes. Each sweepstakes was syndicated down to publications within the Black Press Media group as a cohesive, organization-wide campaign. In total, these sweepstakes over 1.3 million entries, 300,000 total newsletter opt-ins, and 36,000 sponsor opt-ins. This campaign exceeded expectations and the team is currently finalizing another similar campaign for 2026.
- Pizza Hut Estate Auction | Federated – Fort Wayne
- Project Home Improved | USA Today
- Vala’s Season Passes | NRG – Omaha
- Remarkable Women | Nexstar Media Group
Best Niche Ballot
Winner: Cory’s Fish Fry Face-Off – KFGE-FM
This was KFGE-FM’s first year attempting a fish fry bracket. Many of the local fish fry places got so into it, they began creating their own promotional posters and “bribing” attendees of their fish fries to vote with free ice cream sundaes. The KFGE-FM team was even invited to the winning Fish Fry and bestowed custom shirts to commemorate their win.
The team also tied this promotion in with our annual fishing trip, helping them sell out their bus and make over $10,000!
- Michiana’s A-List | Federated – South Bend
- Long Island Beauty Awards | Beauty Affair
- Top Small Businesses in Sacramento | USA Today
- Restaurants Celebration | 225 Magazine
Best ‘Best Of’ Ballot: Small Market
Winner: Best of the Pines | The Pilot
The Pilot team hadn’t increased their rates in many years, and they were nervous about how businesses would respond to this. So, they countered this by offering Early Bird Rates for the first time, and it was a HUGE success. 86% of nominations packages were Early Bird packages, and 64% of the voting packages were Early Bird packages.
In 2025, the Best of the Pines reached 8,000 new people who had never interacted with a previous promotion. It also allowed The Pilot team to collect 5,000 new opt-ins for their news and events email lists.
The presenting sponsor’s primary goal was to increase awareness about their new interactive retail golf lab that’s open to the public. By having a couple of interstitial ad spots, they received 280,000 impressions in a 2 month period and nearly 900 clicks on their ads. They were a first time presenting sponsor and they signed on to renew their sponsorship for 2026, increased their annual ad spend, and asked to increase their presenting sponsor package for 2026.
- Best of the Four States | Zimmer Radio
- 2025 Best Of Amarillo Community Choice Awards | Amarillo Globe-News
- Best of Denton | Denton Record-Chronicle
- Best Of Flag | Arizona Daily Sun
- Best Of Baldwin | Gulf Coast Media
- Best Of The Skagit Valley | Skagit Publishing
- Best of Western Kentucky | WKDZ/WHVO/WPKY
Best ‘Best Of’ Ballot: Mid-Size Market
Winner: Best of the Best | Chattanooga Times Free Press
Each year the Chattanooga Times Free Press team works on making the best of the best section and advertising packages better and better. They are continuously discovering new ways to grow revenue, highlight their program, and promote winners throughout the year. This year, they secured a very impressive $698,000 in revenue and put on and their largest event ever!
- Best of the Grand Strand 2025 | WMBF-TV
- Southern Colorado’s Best of the Best | KXRM-TV
- Best Of Sun Coast | Adams MultiMedia of Florida
- Best of the Upstate Community Choice Awards | Greenville News
Best ‘Best Of’ Ballot: Large Market
Winner: 2025 Palm Beach County Community Choice Awards | Palm Beach Post
The Palm Beach Post is a well oiled, Best Of machine at this point. They were able to secure nearly 2,400 premium sponsor opt-ins, 1,300 promotions opt-ins, and $694,851.00. Plus their winners’ event was one to remember with nearly 700 people in attendance.
- 2025 Best of Hawaii | KITV-TV
- Best Of Jax 2025 | FOLIO Weekly
- TribLive Best of the Best | Trib Total Media
- A-List 2025 | St. Louis Magazine
Best Photo Contest
Winner: Kradle What You Love Photo Contest | USA Today
USA Today‘s client, Kradle, aimed to boost brand awareness of their products, grow their social media following, and increase their number of email subscribers. The USA Today team decided to curate a pet photo contest that received 2,810 total entries, with 2,677 unique participants, and 1,852 new email opt-ins. Social media engagement included 110 Instagram visits, 109 Facebook visits, and 54 TikTok visits, helping to boost brand visibility across platforms. In total, USA Today was able to secure $25,000 in revenue.
- Harry Pawter & The Magical Menagerie | The Pilot
- Bug Buck Fever | Commonwealth Broadcasting
- Annual Wrapping Paper Contest | Chattanooga Times Free Press
- Tattoo Nightmares | WTRF-TV
Best Photo Gallery
Winner: Love Thy Neighbor Home Improvement Giveaway | KWKT-TV
The Love Thy Neighbor campaign was all about helping those in need. Sponsored by Gage Construction, users submitted nominations of those in need of help with home repairs. One winner was selected each month for a free home repair.
Gage Construction yielded HUGE results from this promotion. They received notoriety within the community and community leaders and new residential and commercial business.
The program generated over $28K in revenue and the KWKT-TV team secured a $30K renewal for the next 12 months. The client is so pleased with this promotion, that he has expressed interest in continuing with this giveaway for several years!
- Kindness is Contagious | The News Journal
- Show us your Bass | NRG – Wausau
- Slice of Summer | KEZI-TV
- Stretch Across Nebraska | News Channel Nebraska
- Senior Spotlight | WCBI-TV
Best Poll
Winner: Buffalo National River & DOGE Poll | Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette
This poll allowed the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette gauge their audience’s opinion on important current events like the closing of a ranger stations at the Buffalo National River and how they felt about the Department of Government Efficiency’s recent initiatives. It also served as a huge audience driver, pulling in over 300 opt-ins for their 4 recurring newsletters.
- Mom’s Stress Poll | KRXP-FM
- Puffling Name Poll | Monterey Bay Aquarium
- Chick Fil A Poll | Commonwealth Broadcasting
- Game of the Week | KUSA-TV
Best Sweepstakes
Winner: Florida Hurricane Preparedness Giveaway | Sarasota Herald-Tribune
The Sarasota Herald-Tribune resides in Florida where hurricane preparedness is a huge initiative. They decided to reach out to multiple sponsors that reside in the hurricane preparedness industry to put on a sweepstakes during hurricane season geared towards driving awareness of their sponsors’ services and growing the social media and email lists for all sponsors. Not only was the Sarasota Herald-Tribune able to deliver on these goals, but they also brought in $184,539 in revenue!
- Bourbon & Beyond | USA Today
- 98 Degrees of Hot Sauce | KFGE-FM
- Tacos & Tequila Festival | KOPW-FM
- Roll A Pair To Win A Pair | Leighton – Detroit Lakes/Perham
- Goodwill Garage Sale Sweepstakes | WQHK-FM
- 2025 Allentown Fair GRANDSTAND Sweepstakes | The Times News Media Group
- Guess Joplin’s First Snowfall Contest | KIXQ-FM
Best Quiz
Winner: City Of Spokane Stormwater Quiz | KXLY-TV
The KXLY-TV team designed this quiz as an interactive way to test viewers’ understanding of stormwater issues and responsible water practices.
The quiz provided their sponsor, the City of Spokane, with valuable insight into the community’s understanding. By identifying specific knowledge gaps, the City of Spokane can now focus future education efforts and funding where they will have the greatest impact.
For years, the City had relied on PSAs. This campaign transformed a traditional awareness effort into a two-way conversation with the community, delivering both education and actionable data for the city. And it also generated $10K in revenue for KXLY-TV!
- Will You Survive Your Next Wildlife Encounter? | Sheridan Media
- What’s Your Smokey Mountain Vibe | AL.com
- Otter Personality Quiz | Monterey Bay Aquarium
- What ‘The Pitt’ Character Are You? | Pittsburgh Magazine
- Light of the World Personality Quiz | K-LOVE
Best Voting Bracket
Winner: Food Fight: Italian Restaurants | St. Louis Magazine
The St. Louis Magazine team really are the masters of voting brackets with their Food Fight brackets that they’ve now been running for years. Their St. Louis audience looks forward to participating – and also seeing the winners so they know the best places to go in town!
This specific bracket not only pulled in hundreds of opt-ins for both St. Louis Magazine and their sponsor, but it also allowed St. Louis Magazine to generate useful data for their sponsor by asking questions like What factors influence your decision to play a fantasy game? or What are your favorite parts of fantasy sports? And they secured $5,000 in revenue.
- Fish Fry Frenzy Bracket | NRG – Wausau
- Elkhart County Burger Battle/Tournament of Tacos/Wing Wars | WAOR-FM
- Sidesgiving Voting Bracket | WDEF-TV
- Hines Furniture Athlete Of The Week | The Sumter Item
Most Creative Promotion
Winner: The Ultimate Leap | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Rev: $83,500
This is the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel second year running this sweepstakes, giving the chance for a fan to do the Ultimate Leap! Every time a Green Bay player scores a touchdown, the players leap into the stands in the endzone. Fans from near and far want to perform this fun tradition, and came in droves to enter this sweepstakes.
This promotion ignited dynamic engagement with each sponsors’ target audience. The sponsors’ investments resulted in additional brand exposure, customer growth and several priceless moments.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel team saw a 35% participation increase YOY with over 2,000 opt ins – plus $83,500 in revenue!
- My Deals Dream Wedding Era | Federated – South Bend
- Waltdogs | NRG – Lincoln
- Nashville Creator Awards | The Tennessean
- 41Days Of Christmas in July: Back to School Edition | WMGT-TV
- Shorty’s Countdown to Calving | Sheridan Media
Booked It Again
Winner: Spring & Summer SweepSteaks | USA Today
In 2024, the USA Today team won Best Advertiser Lead-Gen promotion with a sweepstakes sponsored by this client. The results were so staggering that the client bought two more promotions in 2025!
The USA Today team ran two sweepstakes for them, one in the spring and one in the summer. Again, the results were massive for the client, driving $103,689 in sales from leads secured from these two sweepstakes!
- McWilliam & Walden Inc and Yokohama Tire Giveaway | KGET-TV
- Sabrina Carpenter Flyaway | KQKQ-FM
- Ultimate Valentine | Federated – Fort Wayne
- Beef for the Holiday | Sheridan Media
Best Small Market Program
Winner: The Pilot | Southern Pines, NC
The Pilot just has an amazing program that delivers year after year. Those in small markets that are just getting started wit promotions or are looking to amp things up – use The Pilot as your guide!
Their cutest pets photo contest has a new, creative theme each year, and we are are always so excited to see it! This year it was adorable – Harry Pawwwter.
They do the same with their Best of the Pines and are asked every year ‘well what is the theme going to be next year?!’ It keeps their program fresh and businesses and their audience alike looking forward to it. Their 2025 presenting sponsor, who was a first-time presenting sponsor, has already signed on to renew their sponsorship for 2026 and increased their annual ad spend with them, in addition to asking to increase their presenting sponsor package for 2026
Overall, in 2025, The Pilot secured over $400,000 in promotions revenue.
Finalists:
- KFDX-TV
- Erie Times-News
- NRG – Wausau
- Leighton – St. Cloud
Best Mid-Size Market Program
Winner: Federated – Fort Wayne | Fort Wayne, IN
The Federated -Fort Wayne team has a laser focus on ROI and measurable results. They’ve stated that “promotions provide exactly what advertisers are looking for that may not come from traditional advertising. Promotions provide leads, list growth, and zero-party data that leads to activation and ROI for advertisers.”
Because of their tenacity and understanding that promotions drive real results for their advertisers, the Federated – Fort Wayne team strives to include promotions in every advertising package they offer. This has lead to 65% of radio revenue in Fort Wayne coming directly from Second Street promotions. And their overall promotions revenue in 2025 was $1.3 million!
- Spartanburg Herald-journal
- KOLR-TV
- NRG – Lincoln
- The Post & Courier
Best Large Market Program
Winner: Columbus Dispatch | Columbus, OH
The Columbus Dispatch team ran over 50 promotions in 2025, from entertainment, to home and improvement, to retail categories. They ran promotions like their incredibly successful Community Choice program, lead gen campaigns, and more resulting in over $1MM in revenue for 2025. They have a team mindset around promotion success – and included promotions in 75%+ of pitches!
- KTVI-TV
- KUTV-TV
- KUSA-TV
- St. Louis Magazine
Groupwide Strategy
Winner: Gannett
2025 was a standout year for the USA Today Promotions team. Overall, they secured $32MM in revenue, which also helped them clinch their win of the company sales champion award Q4 2025 for the highest percentage of revenue growth of any division in all of USA Today Co!
Their best of ballot program was 22% over budget and promotions were up 15% YOY!
In Q1 2025, 44% of all sales reps sold promotions. The goal this year is 100%! That is dedication. The promotions team turned internal sales leaders who weren’t believers in promotions into FANS – and that was accomplished by driving RESULTS for their advertisers and sharing those results month after month.
They have revenue from Local, Regional, and National Sales Channels, and are constantly evolving their sales structure, strategy, packages and how they report results to their advertisers.
The USA TODAY Co. team saw revenue growth each quarter in 2025 in custom lead generation promotions and dramatically increased sales of recurring revenue promotions
USA TODAY Co. ran Community Choice in 145 markets with 95 event markets recognizing 70,000 businesses, selling 13,000 packages and having 36,000 event attendees.
They have a database over 3MM active subscribers to their promotions audience, and generate sales from multiple channels including national, sports, local, their digital marketing solutions agency
And last fall, Rebecca Capparelli, VP of Promotions, won the GREAT award – the highest honor inside USA TODAY Co. which recognizes an individual who embodies Grit, Resilience, Excellence, Achievement, Transformation in all that they do for our company and their colleagues.
The USA Today Promotions team truly are a master class in client success, retention, lead generation, and REVENUE!
- Federated Media
- Adams MultiMedia
- NRG Media
- Nexstar Media Group, Inc.
- Carpenter Media Group
- Leighton Media
- Evening Post Publishing
Breakout Partner of the Year
Winner: Leighton Media
Leighton Media is a radio group with stations across Minnesota and North Dakota. Their stations all fall in small to mid-size markets, so this is yet another group doing big things with out large market audiences!
In 2025, the Leighton Media team:
- Ran 625 promotions across 6 markets/40 stations
- Collected 17,000 new opt-ins
- Secured 1,000 hot leads for customers
- Interacted with 73,000 people
- Submitted 34 awards nominations
They have recurring sales trainings with Julie every quarter – and these are mandatory, group-wide trainings to ensure every market is learning and adding to their program.
Because of their determination to focus on promotions revenue, they Leighton Media team secured nearly $120,000 in 2025.
Second Street Promotions Hall of Fame
- Chris Zoeller | The Post and Courier
- Alessia Alaimo | Wick Communications
- Jim Dean | Forsyth County News
- Matt Tyree | USA Today Company
- Michelle Campbell | Idaho State Journal
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Julie is the Senior Customer Success Manager at Second Street and a former client in local media. Her best advice for driving the most success with your revenue and audience engagement strategy is to include promotions in every business initiative.