Until this year, judging for our annual PRO Awards always took place on one intensive day. After receiving 176 entries last year, we decided to spread out the process for 2001 over two days, thereby alleviating the burden on our gracious judges and giving them more time to vet each entry.
Next year, we may have to expand the process to three days, because the number (200-plus), the complexity (a total of 44 in the Best Multidisciplined Campaign category), and the quality of the entries continue to increase.
This year’s finalists are presented on page 46, and winners will be announced Oct. 23 at PROMO Expo. But I’m devoting this space to some other entries that deserve a little recognition as well, either for the campaign as a whole or for one particular component. Call them the Honorable Mentions.
Can You Handle a Whiskey-Drinking Woman?: The name alone provided intrigue in a three-market test campaign for Windsor, Ontario-based Hiram Walker’s Canadian Club handled last winter by the A Team, New York City. On- and off-premise P-O-P and events (along with radio advertising) challenged consumers to enter to play poker against actress Tia Carrere for a shot at $500,000. The promotion served up double-digit sales increases in the test markets — reversing a previous decline — and will roll out nationally.
Back to School with ‘N Sync: Oreo’s sponsorship of the boy band’s summer 2000 tour was leveraged to the hilt for East Hanover, NJ-based Nabisco by Carlson Draddy & Associates, Westport, CT. An on-pack sweeps offered a free concert at the winner’s school, while a local-radio effort dangled a private performance at the Orlando House of Blues. A foodservice overlay promised donations to VH1’s Save the Music charity for every case sold into schools. Oreo sales rose 19 percent while single-serve tray pack sales jumped 43 percent.
SPY kids: Kiddie fare is rare at Miramax Films, so the studio made the most of this spring 2001 release by playing with McDonald’s, American Isuzu, Frito-Lay, RadioShack, Payless ShoeSource, and eight other partners, and getting them to share resources to strengthen what would be $50 million in support. The film’s success ($100 million-plus box office) has Miramax — and partners — talking franchise.
Healthy Beginnings: The name here was literal: To introduce Prevnar, Madison, NJ-based Wyeth-Lederle Laboratories’ pneumococcal vaccine, EinsonHealth, Paramus, NJ, used a partnership with Scholastic Inc. to get teacher kits into preschools and daycare centers and, from there, to get family guides into homes. Parents who asked their doctor about the drug earned a free Scholastic book; healthcare centers received books for patients. The fall 2000 launch was the most successful in company history, with Prevnar sales reaching $470 million in the first year.
The Eight O’Clock Whole Bean Coffee Experience: Snail-mail marketing is dead — long live snail-mail marketing. Looking to encourage trial for Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea’s private-label-plus coffee in winter 2000, Target Marketing & Promotions, Boston, scored an 11-percent redemption rate on a $1-off coupon sent to 300,000 whole-bean buyers from the grocer’s own database.
Shoe Thousand Tour: Who needs ferris wheels? Chicago-based Marketing Werks brought to life Shoe Carnival’s tagline — “The world’s most unusual shoe store” — with an inflatable theme park boasting a 22-foot-tall Vans hi-top sneaker slide, a New Balance moon bounce, and a Fila pop-a-shot (thereby ingratiating the Evansville, IN-based chain with three suppliers). The tour produced a 56-percent increase in grand-opening sales compared with the previous year.
Box Tops for Education: Minneapolis-based General Mills’ six-year-old in-house program garnered support from 60,000-plus grade schools in 2000. That’s more than 60 percent of the nation’s K-8 schools. The company donated nearly $16 million.
Venastat: The Kendrew Group, New Canaan, CT, took radio merchandising to the max in a campaign for Ridgefield, CT-based Pharmaton Natural Health Products’ horse chestnut seed oil. Participating stations in 30 markets found spokespeople to provide on-air testimonials, presented Venastat Outstanding Woman awards to locals, and hosted live broadcasts from key retail accounts.
Dinner Unplugged: Einson Freeman’s support for Richmond, VA-based Reynolds Wrap included door hangars in key markets and delivery of recipe books to couples when they applied for marriage licenses. Sales during the primary promotional period, which also featured an FSI, print ads, on-pack brochures, and the launch of dinnerunplugged.com (with a related sweeps) produced a 4.9-percent sales lift.
Bennigan’s Blarney Blast: To make sure that the Plano, TX-based chain’s annual St. Patrick’s Day instant-win game was communicated to all patrons, promo shop Promotion Partners, Dallas, worked with printer Promo Edge, Neenah, WI, to deliver a napkin band that could carry the gamepiece.
Sometimes, complexity is a simple thing.
Network
