A highly valued grand or first prize may be offered with any number of second, third, fourth, etc. Usually as one descends the prize scale, more prizes are awarded with a lower value. One promoter advised that although prize awards changed every year, its current promotion included money, cars and television sets as major prizes while lesser prizes included stereos, computers and health club memberships. Another promoter stated that in twenty years of promoting sweepstakes, it had awarded 10 million dollars in prize money to the winners of its sweepstakes. The most popular prizes, according to the Direct Marketing Association of New York, are cash, automobiles, travel packages, or technical equipment such as televisions or personal computers.
Companies get people's names in different ways.
Many mailing lists are composed of names taken straight from telephone directories. Other lists are developed with names of people who buy mail order merchandise. The lists of names collected are often identified by certain characteristics. For example, a sweepstakes promoter for a mail order house would probably request a rental list of names where people demonstrated a tendency to purchase items by mail. The goal of any sweepstakes promotion is to promote a company's product to consumers.