Nine days before the 1997 Super Bowl XXXI held in New Orleans, Stella Foods, makers of Frigo Cheese string cheese, decided to join the branding circus of other companies competing for promotional exposure during this wildly popular primetime television event.
Working against the clock, the PR team at New Orleans-based Keating Magee scored a media touchdown - locally and nationally - with a goofy promotional hook, "String Head Hats." The "String Head" concept played off the Green Bay Packers' known as the "Cheese Heads" who were pitted against the Denver Broncos that year.
The String Head gimmick caught on quickly in New Orleans, particularly in the French Quarter where Super Bowl festivities took place. Visitors, partygoers and vendors wore the hats, generating high visibility for the brand throughout the city.
But the campaign's biggest coup was the national exposure it garnered on Fox Network's morning show a few days before the game. A four-minute segment, which reached 20 million viewers, featured the Fox news anchor sporting the cheese hat and demonstrating the art of eating string cheese.
Hitting the Ground Running
When Stella Foods contacted Keating Magee about launching a PR campaign less than two weeks before the Super Bowl, the agency went into high gear. In less than 48 hours, the Keating Magee team got creation of the hats approved and developed (using a theater costume design company), and found vendors to handle the last-minute assignments for T-shirts and banners. The cornerstone of the campaign was the hats made of foam and designed to look like a block of string cheese.
Perhaps the biggest and quirkiest challenge was finding a cool storage place for 22,000 packets - or 1,700 pounds - of string cheese earmarked as product samples. Using ice-packed insulated shipping boxes from a nearby seafood market, Keating Magee transformed its conference room into a huge refrigerator-like storage area for four days, says Jennifer Keating Magee, the agency's CEO.
To steal some of the media spotlight away from the hundreds of brands promoted during the Super Bowl, including Nike, Miller and Kraft, the campaign focused on making the hats a cool, hip and fun way to enjoy the game and all of the pre-game festivities, says Ann Christian, Keating Magee's media relations specialist.
The $15,000 campaign costs included:
- Shipping hundreds of hats, media kits and samples to national and local media hyping the latest in "cheesewear."
- Securing a space for Stella Foods at the three-day outdoor festival sponsored by the local Fox affiliate and Coca Cola.
- Compiling a list of highly-visible people in New Orleans and encouraging them to wear the hats. Targets included horse-and-buggy drivers, personnel from the Hard Rock Cafe, the Natchez riverboat staff and guests invited to the mayor's Super Bowl breakfast.
Spreading 'String Head' Spirit
Although creating fun was a key goal, generating extensive exposure was the bottom line objective, says Magee. In all, the String Head gimmick generated the equivalent of more than $147,000 in print and television advertising.
They also met that their goals by generating buzz The cheese spirit spread throughout the French Quarter among thousands of visiting fans who wore the hats to "stand out," says Christian. The hats weren't just worn at targeted events, but were sported by the "String Head Trio" band and acrobats performing for fans at the Green Bay Packers tailgate party.
"The agency was able to jump on wild and exciting local opportunities that exceeded our expectations given the short lead time," says Christine DeYoung, Stella Foods' marketing director.
The air play earned on Fox's national morning show also exceeded the agency's expectations, says Magee, who was initially concerned that Stella Foods would get lost in the "Super Bowl [branding] shuffle."
String cheese mania spread to Milwaukee and Madison, Wis., where the campaign garnered local market coverage.
(Keating Magee, Jennifer Keating Magee, Ann Christian, 504/523-2121; Stella Foods, Christine DeYoung, 847/267-3272)
Keating Magee
Founded: 1981
Headquarters: New Orleans
Employees: 16
Billings: $9 million
Clients: BellSouth, Mobility Inc., Hotel Intercontinental New Orleans
Web Site: http://www.kml.com