In January, the Promotional Products Association International, Irving TX, hosted its 45th annual PPAI Golden Pyramid Awards ceremony at PPAI EXPO in Las Vegas. The Pyramid Awards recognize the best use of promotional products in a marketing campaign. Here is a look at 10 of the most noteworthy programs culled from the 28 winning entries for 2003.
COMPANY: Advanced Medical Resources Inc.
CATEGORY: Internal program less than $10 per recipient
Talk about maximum ROI. Faced with a projected loss of $300,000 in 2001, Advanced Medical Resources knew motivated employees were the only answer and the company launched a program designed to ensure it would turn a profit, no matter how small. The program, titled “Just One Dollar,” launched last January with a themed memo holder distributed to each member of the sales team and support staff. Each month, a new promotional item was unveiled at a company meeting. Items ranged from basketball stress relievers to transparent piggy banks to word search puzzles. The final item was a 2002 stemmed champagne glass, presented at year-end. Instead of losing $300,000 in 2001, Advanced Medical Resources posted a $569,000 profit for the year, a whopping 99,214 percent return on the total cost of the program.
COMPANY: Wells Real Estate Funds
CATEGORY: Internal programs $10 or more per recipient
Can there ever be such a thing as too much success? Wells Real Estate thought so, as executives felt the company’s rapid growth had infringed on its family atmosphere. To reunite six divisions that were becoming more isolated from each other, Wells introduced the monthly “Catch a Wave” promotion. To start, executives tapped one employee in each division for their enthusiasm and “Well’s spark.” The nominated employees received full-size surfboards, which they signed. The employees then visited the other divisions to select an exemplary colleague. The six surfboards were signed and passed along from division to division at the end of each month. To boost excitement and promote involvement, promotional items ranging from surfboard key rings to Frisbees to beach bags were placed on each desk every Friday morning during the week before the surfboard event. At the end of the year, the six surfboards were returned to their original divisions with signatures from all over the company as reminders of company unity. Wells Real Estate claims it received 100 percent participation from its employees.
COMPANY: Union Pacific Railroad
CATEGORY: Employee incentive programs $10 or more per recipient
To bolster safety awareness among its 6,200 Southern Region employees, Union Pacific Railroad distributed a direct mail piece to each employee’s home. The mailer featured a photo frame magnet with a postcard and the message, “Be Safe. It’s right for you and me.” The company reinforced the message at work with posters, floor decals, light post banners, and flags as daily reminders. Managers also presented scratch-off game cards to employees exhibiting safe workplace behavior. Prizes — many of which featured the “Be Safe” logo — included Swiss Army knives, insulated lunch coolers, stainless-steel thermoses, binoculars, color TVs, and customized Fossil watches. The campaign generated a 30 percent reduction of on-the-job injuries in the first seven months of 2002.
COMPANY: 3Dlabs Inc.
CATEGORY: Business-to-business programs $10 or more per recipient
To introduce a new high-end graphics card (and lessen the possible sticker shock of the relatively high price), 3Dlabs wanted to show that its new product had claws. Based on the card’s “Wildcat” name, 3Dlabs distributed stuffed wildcat dolls with a real cat collar imprinted with the 3Dlabs wildcat logo. One hundred toys were sent to industry partners and press. Each kit featured the cat’s tail hanging out of a hole in the back of the bag and a bell fixed to the cat’s collar to announce the product’s arrival. Printed materials and a CD backed the ad headline, which read, “Everyone Wants a Wildcat.”
COMPANY: National Shooting Sports Foundation
CATEGORY: Goodwill programs less than $10 per recipient
To boost safe handling, storage awareness, and safety education among the more than 60 million firearms owners in the U.S., the National Shooting Sports Foundation embarked on a two-year mobile tour that stopped at shopping malls, state fairs, sporting events and community safety days. The organization also conducted a mobile classroom on firearms safety and received radio, TV, and print coverage. Promotional items distributed during classes included decals, banners, key tags, magnets, pens, and wearables. The promotion also included a “hero item” with a free, imprinted gunlock that was presented to individuals as a reminder of firearms safety. The campaign raised enough support to earn a $4.9 million Congressional grant for the launch of a similar child safety firearms program and far surpassed its initial projected audience of 10 million people by reaching an estimated 77 million.
COMPANY: Ardesta LLC
CATEGORY: Goodwill programs more than $10 per recipient
In an effort to establish itself as the “go to” company in the “small tech” industry of nanotechnology, Ardesta LLC had to think small. The company developed a press kit targeted to 75 national and local reporters that featured a custom-printed slide with the Ardesta message printed so small it could only be viewed through a small microscope provided with the kit. Billed as “The World’s Smallest Press Release,” the campaign generated a 42 percent response rate among the target audience.
COMPANY: Dover Federal Credit Union
CATEGORY: Consumer programs $10 or more per recipient
To build support for its “Kid’s Making Cents Club,” Dover Federal Credit Union invited more than 1,700 children of its existing members to a Grand Opening event. Children who became members themselves received a membership folder that contained a custom coin saver holder, account passbook, coloring book, pencil, and a flyer outlining the account details. Existing account holders also received promotional items such as child-sized sports bottles, stickers, activity books, reflective bicycle spoke sliders, T-shirts, and piggy bank key chains when making deposits. New signups also received a follow-up invitation to Dover’s annual meeting where they were rewarded for setting up a savings accounts with their choice of a fanny pack or teddy bear. Within nine months, Dover had opened 869 new accounts. The program is ongoing.
COMPANY: Waste Management Inc.
CATEGORY: Sales incentive programs $10 or more per recipient
Recognizing that even non-sales employees can generate qualified customer leads, Waste Management Inc. developed a company-wide sports-themed promotion dubbed “You Make The Call.” Three hundred program administrators were appointed as “coaches” and received a promotional package that included a lanyard and whistle. Team members who scored 100 percent on a training quiz received a company pen and an imprinted duffel bag and members who reported qualified leads could also win instant prizes ranging from a NASCAR cap to a sports bag or cooler imprinted with the company logo. Each month, five names were drawn to win a leather jacket with the sports team logo of their choice. The program exceeded initial projections and boosted the company-wide closure average to 17 percent.
COMPANY: Xerox Corp.
CATEGORY: Tutorial programs $10 or more per recipient
To add some fun to the usually tedious product training process, Xerox created a program that invited reps to “Catch the Color Bug.” The company distributed training flash cards that made up an insect study “Field Guide.” The cards featured specific bugs and drew an analogy between their individual characteristics — such as speed, color, power and flexibility — and Xerox printers. Within 45 days of the product launch, Xerox managed to train 2,500 distributor sales reps.
COMPANY: San Antonio Youth Education Scholarships Foundation
CATEGORY: Not-for-profit programs $10 or more per recipient
With the goal of selling 38 corporate tables and generating $75,000 at a fundraising event, organizers mailed potential guests with teaser packages displaying the theme, “Party ‘Til The Cows Come Home.” Promotional materials capitalized on the “cow theme” with invitations arriving in a custom cow-print box packaged on a bed of straw. Event T-shirts, response cards, envelopes, tickets and programs all bore the cow theme. Custom wine bottles with cow-print bandanas served as centerpieces on corporate sponsor tables at the event. Each guest also received a custom labeled bottle of chocolate milk mix and each table featured a labeled cowbell that attendees could ring during the auction. The promotion sold 42 corporate tables (up 30 percent from the previous year), attracted 520 guests, and generated $90,000 for the foundation.
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