Stove Top is trying a unique approach to promotion marketing: heating bus shelters in Chicago to conjure up cozy feelings and thoughts of eating warm stuffing.
Ten shelters is busy sections of the Windy Cindy will be heated over the next month and will serve as locations for brand reps to hand out samples. As the heated air warms people a poster alerts them to the promotion that reads: “Cold, provided by winter. Warmth, provided by Stove Top.”
“We wanted to break through to consumers in an innovative way to remind them of the warm, delicious taste Stove Top has to offer—especially now that the winter temperatures are dropping,” Ellen Thompson, brand manager for Stove Top, said.
Print ads will also be placed in 40 additional bus shelters (no heat). Some 40,000 samples of Quick Cups instant stuffing, a new product for Kraft, will be passed out at the 10 heated shelters, she said.
The campaign was estimated to cost $100,000, according to published reports.
Quick Cups are available in two varieties, chicken and cornbread and are available nationwide with a suggested retail price of $0.99.
Some of the locations for the heated shelters include the bustling areas of Michigan Avenue and State Street.
JCDecaux North America, the company that builds and maintains the shelters, is providing the heating systems.
The promotion summons up another that ran at bus shelters that was exactly positively received.
The California Milk Processor Board thought that wafting the scent of chocolate chip cookies through bus shelters in San Francisco as people waited for their buses might encourage them to think about drinking milk. Concerns over the allergic reactions and others abruptly shut the promo down.
We are, however, talking about downtown Chicago in December. A little heat will likely be much appreciated.
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