THE PROMOTION MARKETING ASSOCIATION last month announced the Reggie Awards finalists that were to battle it out in New Orleans for Gold, Silver, Bronze and Super Reggie prizes. It’s the 16th year of the Reggies, which shine a spotlight on the star promotions of the year. Entries shot up 55 percent in ’99, making this year’s pool of nominees the largest since 1983, according to Reggie Awards chairman John Zamoiski.
Here are the programs that rose to the top of the barrel.
National Consumer Promotion over $1 million Free Fryday On Friday, Jan. 2, 1998, Burger King visitors got a free order of small fries with no strings attached in Free Fry Day. The promo is believed to be the largest one-day sampling event in QSR history. Hasbro’s Mr. Potato Head was licensed as the spokesperson for the revamped fries in a campaign that integrated merchandising, a touring Fry Mobile, premiums, and Burger King’s largest TV ad campaign ever. Results included a 5.6 percent increase in french fry sales for the month. Client: Burger King Corp. Agency: Alcone Marketing Group
Chew the Clue Seeking to build sales and reinforce a cool, on-the-edge personality, Starburst Fruit Chews rolled out a Chew the Clue contest that asked consumers to identify a mystery flavor. At least one mystery fruit chew with a unique white wrapper was included in every pack. All consumers who guessed correctly got a free pack of Chews. All callers to a toll-free line were eligible for prizes including one of 35 trips to Hawaii. Single packs posted a sales increase of 20 percent. Client: M&M/Mars Agency: Thomas J. Paul, Inc.
Magic Moments In November and December, Visa USA paid for cardholders’ purchases if their transactions took place during pre-selected one-second intervals. Merchants such as Best Buy and Dell Computer provided overlays adding more Magic Moments and other prizes. Consumer usage grew by 21 percent over the same period in 1997 and sales volume grew by 19 percent. Client: Visa USA Agency: Frankel
National Consumer Promotion Under $1 million Professional Secretaries Week Avery Dennison enlisted tie-in partners like Mrs. Fields Cookies, Flowers USA, and Sears for a Professional Secretaries Week promotion designed to increase office products sales in the commercial channel. Account-specific direct mail was sent to six million offices offering a free gift pack worth $75 with purchase and a sweepstakes dangling 570 prizes. Avery gained an 18-percent dollar-sales increase over the previous year. Client: Avery Denison Agency: Frankel
Red Hot Rookie Schick leveraged its NBA sponsorship by nicknaming its new Protector razor “The Red Hot Rookie.” Ads featured NBA players speculating about the identity of the unknown “player,” and consumers tuned into the Schick-sponsored NBA Rookie Game in February to learn his identity. Internet and FSI sweeps, signage in high-traffic New York City venues, and a celebrity challenge shave-off event supported the program. The Protector captured the No. 1 spot in men’s razor dollar share in February. Client: Schick Division, Warner-Lambert Co. Agency: Market Growth Resources
What’s Wrong with this Episode? In an April Fool’s Day watch-and-win promotion for The Drew Carey Show, viewers were asked to identify “mistakes” in the episode. Participants who detected the most mistakes earned prizes including a trip to Cleveland and a pool table used in the show. The show won its time period and ABC won the night in ratings. Client: ABC Television Agency: The Agency @ MCA
Local, Regional, or Target Promotion Over $500,000 Wisk/Petty In a promotion for Wisk Detergent, Unilever reproduced three of Richard Petty’s legendary race cars in small scale and put them into specially marked packages of Wisk and Wisk Bleach. The cars were offered as self-liquidators with Wisk Liquid detergent. The Southeast regional effort was supported by FSIs, radio, print, P-O-P, and direct mail. The brand doubled or tripled market share for all participating accounts. Client: Unilever-HPC-USA Agency: The Championship Group
Rolling Steakhouse Tour A-1 created a Rolling Steakhouse Tour featuring three custom-grilling vehicles that distributed portions of steak basted or marinated in the sauce. The tour doled out more than 500,000 samples at retail stores and festivals. Client: A-1 Steak Sauce, Nabisco Agency: Contemporary Marketing, Inc., Dugan, Valva, Contess, Inc.
Eat, Drink, & Be Merry Kahlua offered consumers a 750-ml bottle of the coffee liqueur packaged as a gift with the Kahlua White Russian Brownie – a confection specifically created for the promotion by Sara Lee. Food store sales jumped 13 percent while liquor store sales grew 24 percent. Client: Allied Domecq Spirits USA Agency: Vertical Marketing Network
Local, Regional, or Target Promotion Under $500,000 Soak It Up Summer Guinness provided all you needed for a “jammin’ Jamaican evening” in a campaign for Red Stripe beer. P-O-P materials on-premise and authentic huts off-premise ingrained the idea of Red Stripe as steeped in Jamaican culture. Client: Guinness Bass Import Co. Agency: North Castle Partners Advertising
Night With Champions Punch Cigars tapped boxing as an ownable brand-builder and ran a Night With Champions effort in major markets where retailers offered a premium of a custom video: Punch: The Greatest Knockouts in History. Consumers received invitations to meet boxing great Larry Holmes and trainer Angelo Dundee by buying commemorative wooden boxes of Grand Cru cigars – just in time for Father’s Day. Client: Villazon & Co. Agency: Diamond Group
Healthy Heat Summer Tour The Healthy Heat Summer Tour featured a trailer with pop-out styling salon to demonstrate ThermaSilk’s new line of shampoos, conditioners, and styling products. The tour helped distribute 218,000 shampoo conditioner samples. Client: Helene Curtis Agency: GMR Marketing
Multi-Channel Integrated Promotion Involving Consumer and Trade Tango Night Kobrand’s passion fruit-and-cognac Alize brand found affinity with the tango and sent a male/female dance team into 12 markets for on-premise Alize Tango Night events. More than 75,000 consumers sampled. Alize sales were up 46 percent nationally in 1998. Client: Kobrand Corp. Agency: The Idea Foundation
Get Ready To Fly Tommy Hilfiger’s boys/kids division teamed with Nintendo for a campaign targeting kids during back-to-school season. Nintendo used the Hilfiger logo in one of its games and Hilfiger designed exclusive Tommy Nintendo sports merchandise. Nintendo displays were featured in Hilfiger departments at major stores. A gift with purchase provided a hacky-sack and consumers got a rebate on Nintendo sports titles with the purchase of Hilfiger clothing. Client: Tommy Hilfiger/Nintendo Agency: Westcott Marketing, Inc.
Rocket Tour Partnering with Iwerks, Saban Entertainment/Fox Kids Network and Bandai America created a four-minute virtual reality thrill ride based on the new Power Rangers in Space TV series. The ride was used in a Power Rangers in Space Rocket Tour at Wal-Mart locations, and Fox Kids Network hosted its first watch-and-win sweeps. Client: Saban Entertainment Agency: In-house
Business-to-Business Promotion Office Product World Tour Boise Cascade harked back to the 1970s for an Office Products World Tour using visual and music themes from the decade. Flyers came in the form of a double album complete with liner notes heralding products at “hot” prices and time-sensitive free offers. The office products giant captured 22 percent more sales of promoted products compared with the previous year. Client: Boise Cascade Office Products Agency: Louis London
Local Power To pitch distribution of CNBC and MSNBC programming, NBC Cable unrolled Local Power, in which cable operators were targeted with solicitation kits and an incentive program providing awards based upon level of involvement and number of subscribers. Operators earned points redeemable for merchandise. The effort earned a 60-to-1 return on investment. Client: NBC Cable Agency: Promotion Development Group
The Loan Zone The Loan Zone and Trade Zone campaigns were created to reward bank employees for achieving specified goals. Sales forces and managers could win Sony products while support staff played an instant scratch-and-win game. Client: Washington Mutual Agency: McCracken Brooks
Barking Up the Right Tree Taco Bell named PMA’s Marketer of the Year. At a time when QSRs are grappling to score big-time entertainment tie-ins, Taco Bell Corp. wins awards by promoting from within.
The Irvine, CA-based fast feeder earned PMA’s Promotion Marketer of the Year honors for 1998 by turning its own ad-mascot, Dinky the Chihuahua, into a self-liquidating giant as popular as any toy on the market.
“Taco Bell has demonstrated to the industry a consistency of vision, leadership, and promotion innovation,” PMA committee chair Bonnie Carlson says of the winner. “We see in their popular Chihuahua campaign a promotion that is multi-generational, representative of their positioning, and revenue-generating not only for product but premiums as well.”
The chain has moved more than 20 million Dinkys, with no end in sight. A new version of the dog with a rose in its mouth had romantics packing themselves into stores before Valentine’s Day.
“Taco Bell has a firm commitment to a marketing strategy that will not only boost revenues but engage the public in a positive and fun way,” says chief marketing officer Vada Hill, who was slated to pick up the award last month at Update ’99.
International or Global Promotion Press To Win Consumers played an instant-win game using Energizer’s new battery tester system by pressing the tester on the battery to see if they had won. Interactive P-O-P helped secure large volume sell-in of pre-pack units. Client: Energizer Canada Agency: Ventura Marketing Group
World Cup Sponsorship MasterCard International used its sponsorship of the World Cup as a rallying point for the brand and a platform for business and consumer promotions. The card created a sponsorship manual and special World Cup art work for use in communications with members. Soccer great Pele was signed as a spokesperson and appeared at special events. Employees, cardholders, and key business customers were proffered soccer match tickets and travel packages. Affinity card designs and a premiums program rounded out the campaign. Client: MasterCard International Agency: Advantage
Stampin’ the Future The Postal Service’s Stampin’ The Future Worldwide Design Contest increased the visibility of postal administrations as education organizations and played up the fun of stamp-collecting. Kids entered the contest to create illustrations expressing their visions of the future.
Four winners had their illustrations printed on millions of stamps and received Pentium computers and trips to the World Kid’s Congress. Kids from 31 countries, including more than 120,000 in the U.S., participated. Client: United States Postal Service Agency: Ventura Associates
Intractive Promotion Moms who bought any 16 Gerber products received a gamepiece to win instantly and to enter a grand prize drawing in which two college scholarships worth $250,000 were available. Gamepieces were printed instantly at checkout. Direct mail was sent to 10 million households. Client: Gerber Products Co. Agency: In-house
Get Ready to Fly Hilfiger and Nintendo’s promo earned kudos in this category for the 1,000 permanent interactive Nintendo 64 displays placed in Hilfiger clothing departments at major stores in 125 markets. Client: Tommy Hilfiger/Nintendo Agency: Westcott Marketing, Inc.
MVP Leveraging its NFL sponsorship to promote its phonecards, Sprint FonPromotions used an interactive 800 number with a sweepstakes featuring a trip to the Super Bowl. The company direct-mailed a Most Valuable Promotions “playbook” to 5,000 brand and agency managers. Callers could hear an historic NFL play and enter a sweeps to win free phonecards or a book with promo ideas specifically for the caller’s brand. Client: Sprint FonPromotions Agency: Promotion Mechanics, Inc.
Direct Response Promotions Celebrate the Century In its ongoing, two-year Celebrate the Century program, the Postal Service looks to reinvigorate philately by giving consumers the chance to vote on stamp designs and collect winning designs in a special edition series. Voters’ names are captured and they receive direct mail offers for commemorative stamps and premiums. Having run half its course, the campaign includes an in-school program, direct response, print, and national TV spots. Client: United States Postal Service Agency: Draft Worldwide
Mail Connects With Customers The Postal Service used a direct-response campaign to promote the importance of mail in a bank’s overall marketing mix. Decision-makers received a transparent envelope containing post cards addressing different business objectives that mail can help accomplish, along with a peer-to-peer letter. Responders to print ads and direct mail got a highly targeted resource kit and a book on the subject of earning customer loyalty. Client: United States Postal Service Agency: Wunderman Cato Johnson
Rooster. It Lasts To push its Rooster smokeless tobacco, U.S. Tobacco targeted 58,000 known competitive adult consumers in priority markets with a direct effort that sent items including five full-size samples, premiums, a $1.50 discount check, and survey cards. Client: U.S. Tobacco Co. Agency: MCA
Cause-Related Promotion Semipostal Stamp Program Postal Service promoters sure didn’t mail it in this year, snagging four Reggie nominations. The Breast Cancer Research Semipostal Stamp – the USPS’s first-ever fundraising stamp – was issued July 28 with a promotion that involved partners American Express, Lifetime Television, WNBA, WINABC, Kaiser Permanente, and the LPGA and boasted a three-tiered media strategy. Sales are running far ahead of a two-year goal, with $3.6 million collected so far for research. Client: United States Postal Service Agency: Draft Worldwide
Get Up, Sign Up The Light on Human Rights: Get Up, Sign Up program employed a Web site where people could learn about Amnesty International, and featured co-branding with partners such as Web search engine Excite and The Body Shop. A chain e-mail was created containing an invitation to follow a link to the Web site and sign the petition. The goal was to collect at least five million signatures, affirming support for the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. More than 10 million names were collected. Client: Amnesty International Agency: Highway One Communications
Restoration of America’s Log Cabins Strengthening Log Cabin’s rustic image, Aurora launched an effort to let consumers contribute to the restoration of National Park log cabins, pledging $1 million to the parks over four years. It revamped the syrup bottle and offered cabin holiday ornaments in a tie-in with Cream of Wheat. The brand earned permanent signage in parks visited by millions. Client: Aurora Foods Agency: QLM Associates
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