Sweepstakes, Contests or instant winner games

The most important factor in deciding which prizes to use for a promotion is the desirability of the prizes by the promotion's audience. If you know your audience, and know what interests them, that's the best way to begin the prize selection process. In general, Travel , Cars and Electronics are always desirable prizes. Big money is also a popular prize, but carries some caveats...its expensive, hard to illustrate, has no "Trophy Value" and can easily be over-shadowed by a local lottery prize that is frequently in the tens of millions in value.