Live from PROMO Expo: Washington Mutual Tops PRO Awards

Chicago—Washington Mutual and Opts Events took the spotlight at PROMO's PRO Awards ceremony last night, winning Best Overall and Best Idea or Concept awards for Spotlight on Teachers.

Fifteen other campaigns took home trophies from the annual competition, sponsored by PROMO. Court TV won three awards; the NFL and Nestlé USA each won two.

Washington Mutual bought out all the tickets on Broadway to celebrate its entry into New York City, then gave them away to 14,000

Washington Mutual takes teachers to Broadway

teachers who had been nominated by students. Washington Mutual gave away 28,000 tickets for Saturday matinees and hosted a pre-curtain rally in Times Square with Broadway stars, New York City's Deputy Mayor and Washington Mutual execs lauding teachers. The bank won so much goodwill that by the time the final curtain fell, 56% of New Yorkers knew the brand name (up from 18%) and 42% of them liked Washington Mutual's commitment to community.

Opts Events, San Francisco, coordinated Spotlight with two other launch events, Walk on Home (four simultaneous walk-a-thons to support affordable housing) and Home of the Free (an exhibition of middle schoolers' photos of civil servants at work).

Other winners: Nestlé USA and Frankel won Best Multidiscipline Campaign and Best Campaign Generating Brand Volume for Wonkaah!, a summer sweeps awarding a coast-to-coast roller coaster ride via several theme park tie-ins. Candy boxes were gamepieces; winning boxes screamed when opened. Scream events at retail supported. Sales jumped 57%, an incremental $6 million.

National Football League won Best Use of Event Marketing (Five or Less Venues) for NLF Kickoff Live From Times Square. NFL wanted to boost season kick off ratings 3% to 5% and get viewers as excited for the opening game as for Super Bowl. NFL teamed with New York City to host a Times Square party with concerts (headliner was Bon Jovi), a fashion show (designer NFL jerseys) and Broadway performances. Game ratings jumped 16%, and 500,000 people came (NFL expected 100,000).

Separately, NFL won Best Creative for its 2002 Playoffs campaign. TV spots star actor Don Cheadle raving about football; Coors, Masterfoods and Pepsi-Cola Co. ran Playoff-themed ads. Wal-Mart ran exclusive Playoffs programming in its 2,400 stores, and National Amusements ran Playoff promos in 100 theatres. Games drew 163.3 million viewers and topped prime-time ratings. NFL handled both efforts in-house.

Court TV won Best Use of Event Marketing (More than Five Venues) for Mobile Investigation Unit. Court TV wanted to leverage the popularity of Forensic Files to boost visibility and ratings for the whole network.

On the road with Court TV

A multi-station traveling exhibit toured museums and malls in 21 markets where visitors solved a family-friendly mystery using forensics. There were 300,000 visitors, and awareness of the link between Forensic Files and Court TV jumped 33%. Suzuki and Discover Card committed $1.5 million to sponsor the 2003 tour, and Children's Museum of Manhattan commissioned a Mobile Investigation Unit exhibit of its own.

Separately, Court TV won Best Small Budget Campaign (Under $50,000) for Forensics Day: High school students in five cities shared a science lesson, solving a simple mystery with forensics. The 600 students were in Loews theatres across the U.S.; the teacher, forensics expert Scott Rubin, led the digital-conference lesson from the big screen. Network ratings rose 33%, and teacher participation in Court TV's online curriculum program rose 12.5% to 4,500 schools.

Lastly, Court TV won Best Business-to-Business Campaign for its Upfront Skit that "interrupted" sales presentations for upfront ad sales. The pitch began with a dry Powerpoint show that "broke down;" actors portraying Frank Lee Forensics and Trace Evidence burst in and saved the presentation. The stunt doubled upfront ad sales. The Michael Alan Group was the agency on all of the promotions.

Hewlett Packard and AMP won Best Mobile Marketing Program for Bringing It Home. To enhance its user-friendly image and drive home-use sales, HP toured 300 venues (many of them retail outlets) with three custom-designed trailers outfitted like a house, where visitors could test-drive HP equipment in a comfy environment. The 39-week tour hosted 340,000 visitors and boosted image (based on consumer surveys) and incremental sales.

Lexus and Power Pact LLC won Best Use of Direct Marketing for Lap of Luxury. Lexus needed to clear out 2002 models in two Southern markets, so it courted in-market prospects (half of them drove competitors' brands) with a test drive offer: Women who drove a Lexus got a $60 day spa gift certificate (buyers got $320 in spa credit). The 700,000-piece mailing prompted 237 sales, nearly five times Lexus' goal.

A day at the spa in exchange for a Lexus?

Meow Mix Co. and LIME Public Relations & Promotions

won Most Innovative Communication Strategy for Meow TV, programming for cats that ran on Oxygen Network (with ad time included) for one month. A cat-shaped Meow Mobile toured eight cities to find adult and child "voices" for the show. (Two winners fly to New York City for the premiere.) Meow Mobile toured 50 retailers through summer to boost awareness. The effort helped position Meow Mix as a cat lifestyle brand, and the company sold for $433 million, four times the value of its 2002 divestiture from Ralston Purina.

Sony and Brand Buzz won Best Use of Interactive Media for Make Your Mark, a film-making competition executed online. Entrants submitted storyboards online; Sony and film-expert judges chose 10 finalists. Consumers voted for the top three, who won Sony equipment and a director-mentor to make their short film. All three premiered at South by Southwest Film Festival and appeared online. The campaign boosted Sony's image as a creativity enabler to 60% (among people exposed to the campaign) vs. 53% of those not exposed to the effort.

Schwan's and Noble & Associates won Most Effective Long-term Campaign for Take Flight with the Red Baron, giving rides in Red Baron's antique bi-planes to foodservice directors who made high-volume purchases of personal-size frozen pizzas for school cafeterias. Students who bought Red Baron got mini bi-planes; directors who met volume requirements earned membership and trips to the American School Foodservice Association meetings—and a ride in Red Baron's plane. Sales were 154% over projections, and the number of schools doubled to 620 for the second flight in 2002.

AT&T Wireless and Einson Freeman won Best Campaign Generating Brand Awareness and Trial Recruitment for American Idol Sponsorship. AT&T used its second-year sponsorship of the hit TV show to boost text-messaging among the lucrative 18-to-35 crowd. To spur trial, AT&T arranged with Fox TV for viewers to vote for American Idol contestants via cell phone; a sweeps to "live like an idol" drove frequency by making any text message a sweeps entry. Party kits at retail drew new subscribers. Fifteen percent of American Idol votes were cast via text messaging, and 33% of promo participants had never sent a text message before.

Fisher Price and Eric Mower & Associates won Best Campaign Generating Brand Loyalty for Little People First Birthday Club. A redesign made these popular toddler toys safe for 12-

Happy Birthday baby

month-olds, so Fisher Price leveraged parents' excitement for baby's first birthday to bring families into the franchise earlier. Members got a birthday kit with invitations that use baby's picture, coupons for Little People paper goods and an offer for a members-only toy. Direct mail got 4.5% response and e-mail got 25% response; sales rose $6 million.

Kodak and Idea Connections won Best Account-Specific Campaign for Wal-Mart/Kodak Veterans Day Promotion. Wal-Mart shoppers who brought in a photo of a local veteran used Kodak's Picture Maker to create one large photo for Wal-Mart's Wall of Honor, and a wallet-sized photo to wear in a "Badge of Honor" distributed by Wal-Mart. The effort drove traffic for Wal-Mart, trial of Picture Maker for Kodak, and local goodwill for both.

Aventis Oncology and Power Pact LLC won Best Dealer or Sales Force Campaign for Connection Cards, a three-year-old program that provides doctors with gift packages to give breast cancer patients. The kits have note cards, long-distance phone cards and discounts for wigs and taxi service. They open the door for Aventis sales reps to tell doctors about its chemo drug Taxotere. Aventis distributed 60,000 kits in 2002; 98% of sales reps said doctors like the kits (up from 94% in 2001).