Donna's Promo Talk - Promotional Marketing that Creates Excitement and Gets Results

PMA '09 Wrap Up - The UK's Give a Few Bob Campaign

With being out of town last weekend and most of this past week I'm just now getting caught up around the house. I always enjoy visiting Chicago, however, I do regret that I didn't get a chance to do any shopping at all. I usually at least make it to Nordstrom's on Michigan Ave. and purchase a new pair of shoes. So I'm sorry I didn't do my part to help the economy. With hotel prices still high you can't afford to spend that extra night to have a little downtime.

Anyhow, I thought the PMA and the team did a good job of putting together this year's two-day conference. It had a little bit of everything for both the brands and the agencies. Yes, the number of attendees was certainly down from previous years, but that's to be expected. Having a smaller number of people though really made for a more intimate gathering and a good opportunity to meet those that where there and have some interesting discussions. I met some really great people who we've already found each other on LinkedIn and Twitter.

The keynote luncheon on Day 2 of the conference was very interesting. It was a tribute to the Globes and featured three different speakers that enlightened us Americans that yes, marketing does go on outside of the U.S. I wanted to take a moment here to tell you about the "Bob" phenomenon, which was a great example of an integrated marketing campaign which won quite a few awards. It was created by The Communications Agency from the UK and was presented to us by Robert Prevezer.

The task at hand was to raise awareness of prostate cancer in the UK and drive donations to the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation. The challenges were that there was a tiny budget, not an easy topic to talk about among the reserved Brits and they were to integrate into the campaign a dead comedian, Bob Monkhouse, who died of the cancer.

The big idea the agency came up with was to bring Bob back to life in a TV ad and integrate him into all the communications of the ‘give a few bob’ campaign. They planned to have Bob himself tell the story for us. So they created this amazing film called ‘bring Bob back’ in which they used archive footage, a body double and voice artist to basically bring Bob back to life.

Next they developed an exclusive media partnership with The Sun that included articles in the printed newspaper, ads online along with premiere rights of the film. The TV exposure and news coverage the campaign received from all the press was incredible and an online donation website, www.giveafewbob.org, went viral with over 4000 targeted applicants.

Retailer WHSmith got all of their 723 nationwide locations involved displaying posters and badges. A direct mail piece was also created that included Bob on the envelope with a "Direct Male" label that was sent to a targeted list. Newspaper ads were placed and movie theaters were integrated into the campaign with screening of the film in all Vuecinemas, plus POS in their foyers, ads online at the Vue website and an email blast that was sent to Vue’s 280,000 database.

Outdoor ads were donated by both Clear Channel and JCDecaux. Other out-of-home media channels were utilized such as taxis that included exterior messages as well as tip-up seat posters with a donation mechanic in the interiors of 250 London taxis. The London Underground featured 4,000 tube cards and Ambient  Media donated the truck advertising and provided this funny bumper sticker.

This truly integrated campaign resulted in the following:

• £3.5million media value from a total budget of less than £50,000
• An estimated 83% of the UK population has seen the campaign an average of 4 times
• There was a 228% increase in the charity’s donor base
• A rise in the number of regularly monthly donors by 580% 
• Traffic to the charity’s website increased by 2000%
• The PCRF annual income shows an increase of 70% year on year - $1 million donations

But much more importantly, Mark Emberton MD FRCS (Urol.) Senior Lecturer in Oncological Urology at the Institute of Urology, a Trustee of the Charity commented "I have seen a marked increase in patients being tested and diagnosed with the disease as a consequence of having seen the Bob campaign…it’s saving lives”

The campaign won numerous awards. The top lesson from ‘Bob’ to pass on is: make it simple for the consumer...get one great idea and then execute it consistently through every available communications medium using one message, one look. Thanks Bob for reminding us all and thanks again to the PMA for inviting me.

Adidas New Zealand Takes Top Promotion Award at CANNES

The Cannes Lion 2007 awards were given out last week at the 54th Annual International Advertising Festival. The winning ads were awarded Bronze, Silver and Gold Lions and the Grand Prix was awarded to the best of the Gold Lions. During the festival week participants viewed over 25,000 ads from around the world in categories such as film, press, outdoor, interactive, radio, media, direct marketing and sales promotion.

Last year they added the PROMO LION award category for the first time. Their definition of sales promotion is "activity designed to create immediate activation and/or offer for the sale of a product or service. This may be effected using sampling, tie-ins, competitions, events, in-store advertising (POP materials), PR, exhibitions, direct marketing, and other promotional marketing methods in ways that build/create brand equity with consumers and customers, are sustainable and distinctive." They go on to say that the LION will be awarded to "the freshest creative ideas that are intrinsically linked to brands and achieve measurable results." So it does appear that the CANNES LIONS do put most of their emphasis on creative.

With that definition of promotion setting the stage for the PROMO LION, it somewhat answered my question as to why they weren't any interactive promotions, such as online sweepstakes, games or contests, on the list of winners. Cannes did include digital media in the list of "Use of Media" categories, but they had a separate category just for Interactive, so maybe they were entered there. I did look and there were many CYBER LIONS awarded and quite a few that looked a lot like promotions. Nonetheless, it is gratifying to see that on a global scale promotion is defined as building and creating brand equity.

So with that quick review on the Cannes LIONS (I, needed to know) here's what we have in the PROMO Category this year. The Grand Prix was given to "Bonded by Blood" for Adidas/NZRU out of Auckland, New Zealand. The entry was for a ruby shirt which fell under the "Clothing/Footwear and Accessories Category.

Adidas's objective was to create an emotional bond between the All Blacks Rugby squad and their fans while growing sales of All Blacks apparel by 15%. For the past several years they have produced a commemorative poster that announced the squad. This year they not only created a limited-edition poster that featured the players, but also included their DNA. Each of the 40 players donated some of their own blood which was embedded into the paper during the printing process. 8,000 posters were made available to those fans that purchased an All Blacks jersey. Each poster came with a certificate of authentication and the "Making Of" was shown in stores on plasma screens and on a promotional website which you can view here.

All 8,000 posters sold out and sales of Adidas All Blacks apparel exceeded the goal at a 24% increase. The promotion received many media mentions on TV as well as in print. It goes to show that those fans down under are passionate about their teams. I guess I'm not the target audience for this so I don't quite get it, but yes it is a highly creative idea. The agency that developed the campaign was TBWA/Whybin from Auckland and the funny part is the Executive Creative Director's name is Andy Blood. He told the NZ Creative Blog "I am shocked, stunned, and completely mind blown" about winning the Grand Prix.

We only had one US PROMO LION winner, "That Girl Emily" for Court TV which won the Best Integrated Promotional Campaign Category. This promotion also was a Reggie finalist this year and I recognized it since I remember voting on it as a judge for PMA's Reggie Awards. Deep Focus was the agency that entered at Cannes and The GEM Group is listed as the Reggie Award agency. The challenge here was to create a buzz around the launch of a new TV series for Court TV, Parco PI.

They created "Woman Scorned" billboards which played on the adulterous content of Parco PI and were supposedly purchased by Emily who was trying to get back at her cheating husband. Social media was the channel of choice to further the exposure and buzz. So even before the billboards were placed, the "That Girl Emily" blog was started which told the story from Emily's point of view about her cheating husband, Stephen, and the "fourteen days of wrath" she would enact upon him.

The fictitious Emily got over a million hits to her blog and was seen in viral videos tossing out Stephen's belongs onto the street. The campaign stressed the payoff of hiring a private detective like Parco PI. It received extensive media coverage and became a model for viral marketing. You can see the surveillance video on PMA's website.

It's getting harder and harder to put our marketing efforts into specific categories as the lines are becoming more and more blurred. Promotional marketing today is being implemented in all types of media...Online, TV, Radio, Outdoor, Print. So what happens is that promotion doesn't always get the credit it really deserves. But recognition is increasing and the industry continues to grow so it must be doing its job - increasing sales and building brands.

Missing Birds Take Super Reggie Award

The Reggie Awards are given out anually by PMA to the top promotional marketing campaigns of the year. They were presented last Thursday evening at the end of PMA's 2-Day Annual Conference during a fun and entertainining event held in the Crystal Ballroom of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Chicago.

I looked up the history of the Reggie's on the PMA website and found this explaination of their name - "The Reggie - is derived from "cash register." It was chosen because "nothing happens until a sale is made." I thought in keeping with the theme of the Conference, "This Changes Everything", perhaps we should consider changing  the name of these awards so that they're more current with the growth of online sales. We still use "shopping carts" online, but not registers.

Anyway, I was thrilled with the judges final choice for this year's Super Reggie winner, St. Louis radio station KTRS "Missing Birds" campagin which was created by The Schupp Company. I had the honor to be one of the first round judges this year and this campaign was in the category that I judged - "Local/Regional Market  Promotion Under $1,000,000". It was one of my favorite which I had given high scores to.

I found some similarities with the "Missing Birds" and the "Wild Wooly" campaign, the winner of a local ADDY Best Of show award that I wrote about in a post a couple of weeks ago. They both show how the use of great creative combined with the buzz of social media can build a brand and connect with the targeted audience. Here's what the Missing Birds did:

KTRS was about to announce that they had become the Official Radio Station of the St. Louis Cardinals ending a 52 year relationship with a local competitive station. KTRS wanted to promote this in a big way and create a buzz in the community, but on a small budget.

They focused on an outdoor billboard campaign that featured six outdoor locations each with two boards in sequential order. The lead board was just a generic Cardinals message that gave ticket info and the following board promoted KTRS. For 10 days the boards remained up with little-to-no attention.

Then the lead Cardinals board was altered on all six locations to look as if it had been “vandalized” and the Cardinal Birds had literally been ripped off of the board. For four days, the “stolen” birds popped up all around town and on the internet but remained missing. This caused a media controversy that resulted in lead stories on every St. Louis TV and radio station, as well as in the major newspaper. To increase the buzz factor, KTRS incorporated online social networks such as MySpace.com, eBay, blogs, forums while offline they had stagings of random bird sightings throughout the city to further fuel the chatter.

Finally, the “stolen” Cardinals “re-appeared” affixed to the KTRS board with a new spray painted  “graffiti” message communicating that the “Cardinals have moved”. The campaign created enourmous buzz around St. Louis for a few weeks. It generated over milions of impressions since it was covered by all the local media...TV, radio, newspaper and online.

KTRS did indeed meet their objective which was getting everyone in St. Louis to know that they were now the new home of the St. Louis Cardinals. They quickly grew from the 19th overall station in the market to the 5th. The St. Louis Cardinals also benefited. Three weeks after the promotion, they had to stop selling 2006 season tickets for the first time ever. Of course, it also helps when you are the current World Series Champions.

Also, there were Gold, Silver and Bronze Reggie's awarded in all of the 14 categories. You can see a complete list of the winners posted on Promo Magazine's Website. You can see a detailed description of all the finalists at PMA Reggies Awards webiste as well.

So, congratualtions to all this year's winners. If any of you have some ideas for new names for the "Reggie's" please pass them on and I will submit them to possibly be considered for next year's awards.