Enhanced Productivity
PPAI’s 2000 Pyramid Award winners prove there’s power in premiums.
Each year, Dallas-based Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) conducts its Pyramid Awards program to recognize the year’s best premium-based marketing campaigns. PROMO herein presents case studies on 12 of the 26 campaigns honored with Pyramid Awards in January at the PPAI Expo in Dallas.
FAST TRACKING
Gold Winner, Employee Incentive Program less than $10 per recipient
Having designated 1999 as the “Year of Speed,” KFC National Management Co., Louisville, KY, set out to ensure that employees would stay in the racing spirit.
Attendees of the organization’s annual operations meeting all received racing jackets featuring embroidered “Colonel Speed Flag” logos on shoulders and larger “Speed Team” logos on backs to get everyone in the team spirit. Giveaways of die-cut keychains and imprinted car mirrors livened up coaching workshops at the meeting.
KFC awarded quarterly incentives to top-performing employees, and at year’s end gave away American Express gift certificates, auto enhancements, and a Corvette with a two-year lease to the top performer.
Employee-to-customer service times increased from 58 percent to 74 percent for the year, trouncing the initial goal. Customer complaints dropped by 20 percent. Strategies Ltd., Appleton, WI, handled.
FROM DUSK TILL DAWN
Gold Winner, Consumer Program less than $10 per recipient
To ease daily readers and advertisers (not to mention employees) through its transition from an afternoon to a morning newspaper, The St. Cloud Times in Minnesota sought to make sure it appeared receptive to their needs.
The paper set up weekly question-and-answer sessions with management in which employees received gifts of appreciation including coffee mugs, baseball caps, and T-shirts.
Two weeks before the shift, the newspaper held a VIP reception for city dignitaries, vendors, advertisers, and government officials. During launch week, it ran a Buzz Breakfast effort, delivering the paper, breakfast, and goody bags filled with a host of premiums to city officials and drive-time disc jockeys. TV, radio, and billboard ads supported.
Single-copy sales increased 2.1-percent after the changeover, a significant upswing in the struggling newspaper industry. Image Builders, St. Cloud, handled.
FIT TO A TEE
Gold Winner, Consumer Program less than $10 per recipient
A T-shirt giveaway may sound hopelessly old-fashioned for a cutting edge dot-com, but that was the awareness-building strategy chosen by Dallas-based iChoose.com, an e-commerce service which tracks the Web-viewing habits of customers, to boost critical mass.
As part of its Great Online T-Shirt Giveaway, iChoose shipped huge novelty T-shirts to radio and television stations; had 84 employees set a Guinness World Record by squeezing into two giant-sized tees during half-time at a Dallas Mavericks basketball game; and gave away regular-sized shirts to anyone who download software from the Web site.
By the end of the campaign, iChoose had shipped 50,000 free shirts, more than triple the original goal. Downloads shot up by 58 percent just three days into the campaign. The Miller Co., Colleyville, TX, handled. (Editor’s Note: iChoose.com closed down last December.)
SOUNDS OF SUCCESS
Silver Winner, Consumer Program less than $10 per recipient
Looking to boost subscriptions to “premium” cable channels and its own WorldGate Internet service, Tacoma, WA-based cable provider Click! Network turned to the world of music.
New customers were offered Cinema Classics 2000, a custom-made CD featuring tracks from famous films. The premiums were delivered in person by technicians when they arrived to install the service, or were mailed to existing customers who got upgrades or signed up for the Internet service.
The program generated response rates of 1.4 percent for new subscribers and 1.8 percent for customer upgrades, exceeding the original goal by 78 percent. ImprintStore.com, Tacoma, WA, part of the Adventures in Advertising network, handled.
FAN FAIR
Silver Winner, Consumer Program less than $10 per recipient
To encourage children to visit numerous vender booths at the annual country fair in Vancouver, WA, local newspaper The Columbian developed a colorful paper fan dubbed “Passport to Fun.”
In a repeat of a program run in 1999, kids took the fans to participating merchant booths to obtain a stamp, then returned to The Columbian’s information center to receive a free pencil, ruler, or tattoo and an entry into a drawing for a $1,500 travel certificate.
The fans helped bump fair attendance from 2,000 in 1999 to 12,000 in 2000. The number of individual organizations and booths that signed on as “passport stations” more than doubled from 10 in ’99 to 25 last year. Wild n Wooly Marketing, Vancouver, WA, handled.
BE OUR GUEST
Gold Winner, Consumer Program $10 or more per recipient
Vermont’s Stowe Resort and Spa ushered in 2000 with a campaign designed to get well-to-do New Millennium revelers back for New Year’s 2001.
The effort began with a direct-mail piece to New Year’s guests soon after Thanksgiving that contained a “Countdown to the Millennium” CD and a letter from the resort’s president thanking them in advance for their business. At check-in, guests received Fuji single-use cameras to help them record memories of their stay, then were hit with an avalanche of other premiums over the weekend: picture frames, playing cards in a wood case, wine and gourmet chocolate truffles, toy-filled backpacks, and dominos in a velveteen pouch.
The hotel generally receives no on-site rebookings, but the special treatment prompted 40 percent of guests to make reservations for the 2001 holiday before they checked out. One in five later wrote thank-you letters. Purple Elephant Promotions, Essex Junction, VT, handled.
GIVE TO RECEIVE
Silver Winner, Business-to-Business Program less than $10 per recipient
Looking to open new accounts and generate a 15-percent sales boost from targeted dealers and contractors, Atlanta-based Mingledorff’s — a wholesale parts distributor for the heating, venting, and air conditioning industries — sought to stay in constant contact with prospects.
Efforts began with letter of introduction from the company president, then continued with monthly deliveries of premiums including fishing lures, marble letter openers, laser pointers, steel pocket knives, folding travel clocks, and pocket tape measures. Each gift came with a letter describing how it reinforced the company’s business philosophies.
During the 11-month effort, Mingledorff’s recruited about 350 new accounts and scored a 25-percent increase in sales. Corporate Specialists, Inc., Norcross, GA, handled.
EARNING THEIR STRIPES
Silver Winner, Business-to-Business Program less than $10 recipient
To introduce its newly designed Zebra Air Bag, Canfield, OH-based Shippers Paper Products executed a three-legged direct-mail campaign.
The first mailer featured a soundcard bedecked with zebra stripes that played sound effects from a stampede (signifying what was sure to be a rush for the new product). The second contained a striped can with “The Zebras Are Coming” as a tagline and a zebra-shaped squeeze toy. The third carried sales letters and product information in a similar motif.
The packaging perked customer curiosity and boosted awareness for the new product, leading to more than 300 calls from prospects and ultimate sales that beat goals by $500,000. The Edge Promotional Products, Columbia, TN, handled.
TONGUE TWISTERS
Silver Winner, Business-to-Business Program less than $10 per recipient
Last year was a heady time for Six Flag’s Ohio theme park in Bainbridge, which set a record by opening four roller coasters in one season. So Six Flags launched a major promotional blitz to increase attendance at its annual Media Day, held before the park’s grand opening.
A collection of four plastic beverage coasters (one for each new roller coaster) shaped like music records were sent to members of the press. Each coaster featured a four-color label with a logo and a description of the ride.
Media Day 2000 drew 250 journalists from 60 different media outlets, compared with 100 journalists and 30 outlets in 1999. Traymore Marketing, Twinsburg, OH, handled.
CANDID CAMERA
Gold Winner, Business-to-Business Program $10 or more per recipient
One of the most common complaints from marketers is that retail managers often fail to display P-O-P. But Burger King, Miami, used a cool contest to ensure that its franchisees hung materials advertising a new Frozen Coke drink near drive-thru areas.
Miami-based BK shipped an ice-blue camera carrying the Coke logo and the product’s “Freeze” tagline. Managers were encouraged to have their pictures taken next to the P-O-P to be mailed in for judging, with the most creative shot earning $500. That let the chain verify who was complying.
The program generated a 20-percent response rate. Lighthouse Marketing and Winning Promotions, Marietta, GA, part of the Adventures in Advertising network, handled.
GOURMET PIZZA
Bronze Winner, Business-to-Business Program $10 or more per recipient
Radisson Hotels Worldwide, Minneapolis, needed a campaign that would attract busy business executives to a focus group, then make them happy they came.
The first task was accomplished with an invitation in the form of a pizza-shaped puzzle. Once assembled, the puzzle provided the time and location for the meeting. Upon arrival, attendees saw a display of the thank-you gift they would later receive: an ornate gift basket containing all the ingredients needed to make pizza, a slicer, a cooking brick, Biscotti cookies, and a jazz CD to play while preparing the meal. All items bore the Radisson imprint.
Radisson’s typical direct-mail efforts get response rates between five percent and 10 percent. This one gained a tasty 36 percent. Gary Rugoff Sales, Dallas, handled.
THE DOCTOR IS IN
Bronze Winner, Sales Incentive Program $10 or more per recipient
Looking to bump convenience store sales by 10 percent, Plano, TX-based Dr Pepper/7 Up last summer created a continuity program for its merchandising display catalog.
The effort began with direct-mail pieces shipped to regional sales managers, who were encouraged to return their enrollment forms by the requested deadline to receive an imprinted sport shirt. The shirts arrived with the catalog and a poster displaying the prizes that could be won throughout the campaign. Managers who ordered and displayed merchandise accumulated points that could be redeemed for a variety of prizes.
The effort drove sales up 33 percent, more than triple the goal, as 78 percent of sales managers participated. Above & Beyond Incentives, Irving TX, handled.
