Gifting iTunes Apps for Teen Event Prizes

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Apple has recently enabled the gifting of iTunes Apps. With tons of cool apps available and at great prices, iTunes apps make great giveaway/ raffle prizes for your teens. The SF Chronicle offers that "When you visit the App's page in iTunes, you now have the option to "Gift this App." You can just send the app via email to one or more people and Apple will deduct the cost of the app from your credit card on file or your account balance."

Super simple. All you need to do is have your teens include their email addresses on their raffle card and email them the link if they win. Traditionally, giveaway prizes often involve small plastic trinkets, which we all know have an entertainment value of about 36 seconds. Even if you were able to find some neat trinkets for under a dollar, you still can't beat the value of a .99 cent app or music download. Doodle Jump or a plastic bracelet? There's no comparison really...and only one of them will end up in a garbage heap.  Apps are greener, cooler, and have an incomparable entertainment value.

What you will need:

• An iTunes account for your youth organization
• An email address to connect to your iTunes account
• A credit card (iTunes gift cards cannot be used to send gifts)
• A form to hand out to your teens that asks for their email address, name and phone number, and requested app/ song/ downloadable content
• A list of approved apps/ songs you are awarding 

Quick Guide to gift iTunes Apps:

1. Determine your budget and how many iTunes apps/ songs you want to giveaway. Alert your accounting department that you will be using a credit card. (You CANNOT use iTunes gift cards to credit your account for gifting songs or apps)
2. Set up a new iTunes account for your youth org and connect it to an email address.
3. Create a double form (so you and the teen will have a record of the reward) that your teens can fill out. It should list their name, phone number, email address, and requested iTunes download, and your contact info if they have problems receiving the iTunes gift. 
4. Once you award the iTunes prizes, have your teens fill out the form. Make sure they write their email in clearly.
5. Find the download that you want to gift, and click the arrow to the right of the Buy button, in the drop down menu, choose the Gift option.
6. On the "Give a Gift" page, you'll need to fill in your teens (and your) details, such as names, email addresses, and a personal message. Click ok and confirm.
7. Your teens will receive an email alerting them that they have been gifted with an iTunes download, when they click on the link it will open up their iTunes program immediately and the download will start.
8. If your teen loses the emailed iTunes gift, you can resend it via your Purchase History or the iTunes Store.

Here are some favorite teen apps for giveaway ideas:

Angry Birds
Tap Tap Revenge: Justin Bieber 
Doodle Jump
Bejeweled
Scoops
Plants Vs Zombies
ZombieSmash
Tetris
The Sims 3
Final Fantasy I + II