January consistently delivers strong wellness participation. Audiences are motivated, open to new routines, and more willing to engage with promotions tied to self-improvement and healthy habits.
What changes after the New Year isn’t interest in wellness – it’s selectivity. As routines settle, participants gravitate toward promotions that feel easy to engage with and fit naturally into everyday life. That makes January an important launch moment, but also a valuable opportunity to understand which engagement approaches people are willing to participate in once enthusiasm levels out.
Case in Point: Dick’s Sporting Goods “New Year New You” Sweepstakes
As part of its Start Your New Year Off Right campaign, Dick’s Sporting Goods launched the “New Year New You” sweepstakes to capture early-year wellness intent through a simple, low-friction promotion.
Participants completed a short entry form and shared a New Year’s pledge for a chance to win one of ten $500 Dick’s Sporting Goods gift cards. Optional social sharing helped extend visibility without increasing participation complexity.
By inviting a single, intentional action at a moment when audiences were already reflecting on personal goals, the sweepstakes aligned naturally with early January behavior and captured meaningful early participation.
January Strategy
January promotions are valuable not just for participation volume, but for what they reveal about engagement behavior.
- Use early participation to understand motivation
January entries reflect what people are willing to engage with when interest is high and routines are still forming. - Pay attention to how people participate, not just that they do
Entry completion, timing, and optional actions (like sharing or adding context) offer insight into which mechanics feel natural. - Treat simple formats as signal generators
Low-friction promotions help surface preferences and comfort levels without forcing long-term commitment too early. - Carry what you learn into Q1 planning
Patterns from January can inform how promotions are structured, paced, or extended as participation becomes more selective.
On the Blog
January often delivers strong participation. Our latest article looks at how wellness promotion behavior evolves after January and which engagement structures continue to perform as participation becomes more selective.
Read the full article on the US Sweepstakes Blog.
Let’s Get to Work
January promotions provide a valuable view into participation behavior, especially as audiences move from early-year motivation into everyday routines.
At US Sweepstakes, we help brands plan and manage promotions that are built for this moment – with clear structure, compliant execution, and operational support that holds up beyond the initial launch. From concept development and rules drafting to entry management, winner verification, and prize fulfillment, our team ensures promotions run smoothly from start to finish.
If early-year promotions are part of your strategy, contact US Sweepstakes and let’s build a promotion that holds up over time.
