Readin’, Writin’, and Sellin’

Marketers have a new study guide to reach schoolkids, one that is far more sophisticated than the old days of book covers and posters. Brands are learning to create curriculum-based programs when possible or appropriate, bring mobile tours to schools, infiltrate locker rooms and sports fields, and sample, sample, sample.

Some rules still apply — avoid controversial subjects, for example — but schools are generally more receptive to marketing efforts than in the past.

“Ten years ago, schools were more or less acting as gatekeepers,” says Rod Taylor, senior vp at CoActive Marketing, Great Neck, NY. “They were suspicious of manufacturers coming into schools to do business. But still, if you make the approach from a very heavy-handed brand standpoint, they will toss you out.”

Tight budgets opened doors. School leaders “are becoming more open to commercialism and thinking about how they can reduce budgetary problems,” says Derek White, executive vp of Alloy, New York City, and general manager of Alloy’s Cranbury, NJ-based division 360 Youth.

Marketers’ new challenge is savvy students. “Young consumers are more sophisticated and spending more money than ever,” White says. Any in-school effort must be smart.

Unilever BestFoods ventured into schools — and teen-marketing — for the first time last spring to sample new Ragu Express pasta.

“We found that it’s better to target teens directly rather than sending random samples to the house,” says brand manager Robyn Rothke at Englewood Cliffs, NJ-based Unilever BestFoods.

Brands with an obvious education connection often can integrate into curriculum — if they win over the teacher.

“Teachers like content and substance more than flashiness and glamour,” says Libby O’Connell, historian in residence at the History Channel, New York City. “A lot of marketers are trained to get an initial impact with color, but teachers would just as soon have materials in black and white so that they can Xerox it.”

That’s why O’Connell hires teachers for the History Channel’s education initiatives, not marketers. But most brands aren’t suited to a curriculum pitch.

“Household products don’t come up very often in reading, writing, and arithmetic,” says Taylor. “You have a tough time getting the product in the classroom, and it’s impossible to get a lot of branding in.”

That has prompted Procter & Gamble, Safeway, and others to target schoolkids through health and fitness messages.

More Than Wheaties

Safeway bolstered fruit and vegetable sales when it brought the Washington, DC-based Produce for Better Health Foundation’s 5 a Day program into schools last spring. The Pleasanton, CA-based grocer and six of its seven supermarket chains teamed 16 produce partners (including Fresh Express, Sunkist, and Del Monte) with 5 A Day for the Eat Like a Champion campaign encouraging children to eat five servings a day. The program recruited 14 professional U.S. Soccer stars as spokespeople.

Approximately 1,500 Safeway stores adopted a local school. Students toured the produce section and teachers were given packets that included a 21-day wall chart to track each student’s daily consumption with soccer stickers. Kids who ate five servings each day scored a soccer player bookmark.

“Something as simple as a bookmark got them motivated because anything from the teacher has enormous trophy value,” says Taylor.

Safeway produce departments displayed extensive P-O-P items; eatlikeachampion.com had recipes, player stats, and a sweepstakes awarding 10 $1,000 and 20 $500 scholarships. The three-week program reached nearly 500,000 kids. CoActive handled.

“It worked because the cause is bullet-proof,” says Taylor. “No one could [complain that] we were trying to sell kids more produce.”

Singing For Money

Oscar Mayer Corp. last year extended its popular Talent Search (the touring Weinermobile hosts auditions to sing its famous jingle) with School House Jam, a joint program with the National Association for Music Education, Reston, VA. Music teachers grades K-5 submitted videos of their school choruses singing one of three Oscar Mayer jingles (including one in Spanish). One school from each state was awarded $10,000 for music education, and the brand’s eight Weinermobiles visited the winning schools to present checks and host parties. The grand-prize winning chorus will sing the jingle in a TV spot premiering at the end of this month.

More than 2,400 entries were received and 65,000 children were touched by the promotion, says Tom Moe, senior associate brand manager for Madison, WI-based Oscar Mayer. “Music programs are typically an under-funded area, so what it meant for them was something special,” Moe says. 141 Communicator, Chicago, handled the effort for Oscar Mayer, with p.r. assistance from Weber Shandwick, New York City, and contest administration from D.L. Blair, Garden City, NY.

The program was communicated to teachers via a direct-mail campaign that included all the materials needed to enter the contest, as well as posters and a lesson plan exploring the history of jingles in pop culture. Ads in an educational trade publication via J. Walter Thompson, New York City, supported.

School House Jam will be reprised this year and run from September to May (last year’s kicked off in January) to give teachers more time to enter.

Sweating for Recognition

Procter & Gamble’s Old Spice Red Zone deodorant courted high school football players with a national sampling and awards program recognizing the best offensive and defensive players within the red zone each week (See “Best Promoted Brands,” pg. 49). At the end of the season, 50 players were presented with National Red Zone Player of the Year awards, per nominations by their coaches.

The effort kicked off during the preseason when Cincinnati-based P&G sent kits containing samples of the deodorant, water bottles, clip boards, towels, playbooks, training charts, and player progress cards.

“Catch Your School in the Red Zone” advertisements were posted from August to November at the top 1,000 participating schools and a full-page ad in USA Today in February featured the winners. 360 Youth handled.

“This is a great example of a big company that spends a lot of money in traditional advertising getting more interested in school-oriented promotions,” White says.

Mouths of Babes

Brands with less focus — or funds — can do general sampling that’s targeted by nature. “We have sampling rights at Loews Cineplex theatres, but you can’t get the demographic isolation factor there that you can in school,” White says.

Unilever distributed one million Ragu Express samples in 715 junior-high schools in the five major markets last spring.

“We found that students are eating lunch any time between 10:30 and noon and are starving by the time they get home at 3:30. They want real food fast,” says Rothke. (The product was handed out at the end of the school day so kids could microwave it when they got home.) 360 Youth handled the creative and distribution; p.r. shop Hill and Knowlton, New York City, helped put together a contest overlay dangling tickets to a concert and meet-and-greets with a teen band. Entrants wrote a song praising Ragu Express.

Through October, Stamford, CT-based Mott’s, Inc. distributes one million samples of new Fruit Blasters to grades three, four, and five along the East Coast. Fruit Blasters flavored applesauce in a squeeze tube hit shelves in March; sampling began in May (August PROMO). Optional surveys are distributed with some of the samples. Posters support the effort a few weeks beforehand. Kaleidoscope Marketing Group, Charleston, SC, handles with creative assistance from Ryan Partnership, Westport, CT.

“Fruit Blasters is the first product that really targets kids six to 12, so this is a great way to reach them and get their feedback,” says Pam Edgecomb, product manager for Mott’s sauce.

Mobile tours also make school stops. Last year The History Channel brought its Time Machine, a 48-foot mobile museum featuring interactive looks at U.S. history, to 150 schools and festivals in 50 cities, and hits the road again this month.

For some marketers, buying TV spots is the most efficient way to get into the classroom. New York City-based Channel One Network (owned by PROMO parent Primedia) reaches eight million school children a day through its 12-minute broadcast sent to 12,000 middle, junior, and high schools via satellite. Two minutes of commercials fund Channel One News.

Ads don’t encroach on academic studies, says Channel One’s president-ceo Jim Ritts: “We don’t try to tie other marketing material into the classroom.”

Channel One’s Web site frequently hosts sweeps and movie ticket giveaways, which are sometimes plugged during commercials. The station teamed with pop singer Michelle Branch last year for a contest promoting volunteerism. Students sent in videotapes of their volunteer efforts; the winning student’s school scored a concert with the artist.

After all, it’s work, then play.