Advertising Agency in Utah: The Prize Mailer, Element by Element Under Utah Code 13-28

Updated November 2026 · Written and maintained by the Progression Agency strategy team

A dealership, a home show or a vacation club mails a piece that tells Utah households they may have won, and invites a call to find out how to claim. Under Utah’s Prize Notices Regulation Act, that piece is a prize notice: its envelope may not say the reader was selected, each prize needs its verifiable retail value and odds printed beside it, and any fee or sales pitch goes in bold type the statute measures. An advertising agency in Utah lays the mailer out to those lines before it goes to print. Progression works from New York, plans Utah promotions remotely and holds proof reviews on site when a client wants one.

Selected, printed on the envelope

A mailer arrives with a bright line across the front telling the household it has been selected. It is the line a campaign wants most, and it is the one line Utah’s statute keeps off the outside of the envelope.

Section 13-28-4(6)(a) says a solicitor or sponsor may not place on an envelope containing a written prize notice any representation that the addressee has been selected or may be eligible to receive a prize. The line has to move inside, in the form the rest of the section prescribes.

• Keep the outside to the return address and a plain call to open.
• Move any selection wording inside, where the rules apply to it.
• Proof the envelope before the letter, not after.
• Check every sample envelope the printer sends back.

What an advertising agency in Utah reads in the Prize Notices Regulation Act

Utah Code Chapter 28 of Title 13 is the Prize Notices Regulation Act. A prize is a gift, award or other item or service of value. A prize notice is a notice given to an individual in Utah that represents the individual has been selected or may be eligible to receive a prize, and either conditions receipt on a payment or donation or requires or invites the individual to make a contact to learn how to receive the prize.

Two kinds of notice fall outside it: a notice given at the individual’s request, and a notice informing someone that they were awarded a prize from an actual prior entry in a game, drawing, sweepstakes or other contest, if they are awarded the prize stated. A solicitor is the person who represents that an individual has been selected or may be eligible; a sponsor is the person on whose behalf a solicitor gives the notice.

The Division of Consumer Protection investigates and assesses fines. Questions about a particular piece go to the Division or to counsel.

What makes a mailer a prize notice?

A representation that the reader has been selected or may be eligible, and either a payment condition or an invitation to make contact.

Does the Act cover the real winner of a contest?

Not when the notice tells someone who actually entered that they won, and they are awarded the prize stated.

The mailer, element by element

The table reads a mailer in the order a person reads it, from the envelope to the eligibility lines. Each row gives what 13-28-4 asks, the exact form or type size, where it sits and what the agency checks at proof.

Value and odds beside every prize

The statute puts the value and the odds in immediate proximity to each listing of the prize in each place the prize appears, in the same size and boldness as the prize.

• Repeat value and odds wherever a prize name repeats.
• Match the type size and weight to the prize name exactly.
• Set the odds after the print quantity is final.
• Check every panel, flap and insert.

Ten point bold, and page one

Three items must be in not less than 10-point boldface: the fees line, the sales presentation information and the restrictions and eligibility limits. The presentation information goes on the first page.

• Measure the type, do not trust the design file.
• Put the presentation box above the fold on page one.
• Print the restrictions where the cross reference says.
• Photograph the printed proof to confirm the type size.

What the envelope may not say

Nothing on the outside that says the addressee has been selected or may be eligible to receive a prize. The rest of the rules apply to the piece inside.

• Keep headlines for the inside of the piece.
• Do not use a teaser line that implies selection.
• Check the back of the envelope as well.
• Ask counsel about borderline phrases.

Budget lines for a prize promotion

A prize promotion has two budgets. The agency’s work is quoted after a written scope, and the media, print, postage, mailing lists and prizes are quoted by their sellers.

Pricing depends on scope and is set in the written proposal. Published prices are subject to change. For the direct mail side, see our direct mail marketing page and our promotional marketing agency page.

Verifiable retail value, worked out

Section 13-28-2(6) defines a prize’s verifiable retail value as a price at which the solicitor or sponsor can demonstrate that a substantial number of the prizes have been sold by someone else in the trade area where the notice is given. If that cannot be shown, the value is no more than 1.5 times the amount the solicitor or sponsor paid for the prize.

The plain advice is to keep the receipts and the comparison prices in the job file, with the date of each. A value that cannot be shown is a value that cannot be printed.

• Save the receipt for every prize purchased.
• Keep screenshots or quotes of comparison prices in the trade area.
• Print the lower of the two when both exist.
• Update the file when the prize changes.

Odds written the statute’s way

Section 13-28-4(2)(b) asks that the odds include, for each prize, the total number of prizes to be given away and the total number of written prize notices to be delivered, in Arabic numerals, in the form “…(number of prizes) out of… written prize notices”.

The print run fixes the second number, so the odds line is set after the quantity is final. A late change to the mailing list changes the line.

• Freeze the quantity before the odds are typeset.
• Write the odds for each prize separately.
• Use Arabic numerals only.
• Recheck the line after any change to the list.

No payment before the written notice

Section 13-28-3 says that when a solicitor represents that an individual has been selected or may be eligible to receive a prize, the solicitor may not request, and the solicitor or sponsor may not accept, a payment in any form before the individual receives a written prize notice with all the required information.

Call scripts and landing pages ask for nothing until the written notice has reached the person.

Can a caller take a deposit on the first call?

No. The statute says a payment in any form, so a deposit counts, and none may be requested or accepted before the written notice reaches the person.

• Train callers to ask for no payment on the first call.
• Keep checkout buttons off the landing page until the notice is confirmed.
• Log the date each notice was mailed.
• Refuse a payment that arrives before the notice.

The prize comes before the pitch

Section 13-28-5 says that when a prize notice requires or invites a sales presentation to claim a prize, the presentation may not begin until the solicitor tells the individual which prize, if any, has been selected for them and, if a prize has been awarded, delivers it, or the item chosen under 13-28-6 if the prize is unavailable.

The event run sheet puts the prize desk at the door, not the exit.

Where does the prize desk go?

At the door, so every guest learns which prize, if any, is theirs before the presentation begins.

• Put the prize desk at the entrance.
• Tell each guest which prize, if any, is theirs before the pitch starts.
• Have the prize in hand, not on order.
• Log each hand-over with a time.

When the prize runs out

Section 13-28-6 covers the case where a prize promised in a written notice is not available. The individual chooses one of three items.

If a voucher is not honored within 30 days, the solicitor delivers the verifiable retail value in cash, a money order or a certified check, and the sponsor pays if the solicitor does not. Order enough prizes for the response the campaign plans.

• Order prize stock to the high end of the planned response.
• Have a second prize of equal value ready.
• Hold funds for the cash option.
• Track vouchers by date so none passes 30 days.

Mailers dressed as bills or official letters

Section 13-28-4(6) also bars language or design that would lead a reasonable person to believe the notice comes from a government agency, public utility, insurance company, consumer reporting agency, debt collector, accounting or law firm, unless it does.

It also bars saying, directly or by implication, that the number of eligible individuals is limited or that the individual was separately selected for a particular prize, unless that is true. A limited or specially selected line has to be backed by a record.

• Use the sponsor’s own letterhead and colors.
• Avoid a bill layout, a meter graphic or a window envelope look.
• Keep a record behind any limited number claim.
• Remove any line that suggests personal selection unless it is true.

Salt Lake City advertising agency work past the mailbox

The Act speaks of written prize notices. Whether an email, a text or a landing page is one is a question for counsel or the Division. A different Utah statute shapes websites; see our page on website design for Utah solar retailers.

The plain advice from an advertising agency in Salt Lake City: carry the same value, odds, fee and presentation lines on every channel the promotion uses, so there is never a second version of the offer. For regional context, see our marketing agency in Utah page.

Do the same lines go on email?

If the email makes the same offer, carry the same lines. That avoids two versions of the offer.

• Use one master offer sheet for every channel.
• Copy the exact statutory forms into each channel.
• Ask counsel whether a given piece is a written prize notice.
• Update every channel when the offer changes.

Fines, misdemeanors and private suits

Section 13-28-7, as amended in 2026, subjects a violator to a cease and desist order and an administrative fine of $100 to $5,000 for each separate violation.

Who can seek penalties?

The Division assesses administrative fines. On referral from it, the attorney general or a district or county attorney may seek injunctions, restitution and penalties.

These are the Act’s provisions, stated as written. A proof review before print is the practical answer, and legal questions go to counsel.

Proof sheet before the print run

Ten checks settle most of the risk. The card lists them. See our promotional marketing agency page for the wider promotion rules.

Frequently asked questions