Hoping to generate excitement over its newest product, Toshiba Information Systems Inc. created an innovative marketing campaign from July to September 1996 designed to get its name in users' minds in time for the launch last week of Virtual Office Manager, a resource site (http://www.officemanager.com) for small, busy offices.
People have certainly heard of Toshiba, but it's not known for its copier and fax machines, nor for its comprehensive Web site. The Top Copy Challenge offered a copier and fax machine to winners who came across http://www.toshiba.com during the course of the promotion.
Created by the Electronic Imaging Division of Toshiba, Irvine, Calif., PR firm Geltzer & Company, Inc., and Internet management agency, Internet Outfitters, both in New York, it was Toshiba's first online sweepstakes, to drive Web traffic and create brand recognition.
Online Marketing
Internet Outfitters (IO) used online banners on Internet search engines such as Yahoo!, Excite and Lycos to advertise the contest. When users typed certain keywords, such as "contest," "copier," "fax" and "Toshiba," one of four different banners would appear.
IO researched which words would be most popular among users by running a test on each possible keyword and narrowing down the choices by the most hits per word. Toshiba's Internet marketing budget is $100,000 every six months, but company officials wouldn't disclose how much was spent on the promotion.
When users clicked on the banners, they would come to Toshiba's site and find a description of the contest. Users could enter to win a new Toshiba 1550 copier, valued at $3,500 and a Toshiba TF421 fax machine, worth $2,500, by filling out an on-screen entry form. Players were tested on their ability to match pictures of items such as copiers, fax machines, animals and babies in the least amount of moves.
The form asked only basic questions, such as name, address and daytime telephone number. It was used to create a mailing list for Toshiba to send out future press releases, according to Charlene Throntveit, marketing services coordinator of the Electronic Imaging Division.
With over 100,000 visitors to the site and over 20,000 entrants, Throntveit said, "it was definitely a success. The number of entrants exceeded our expectations. For money spent, it's great, and you open yourself up to a huge audience."
Benjamin Chang of San Francisco won the copier and Barbara Murray of Miami walked away with the fax machine, but both played for fun, not expecting to win, but figuring, "since I'm already here, why not enter?"
David Eldredge, vice president of Geltzer & Company, said that most of the PR effort for the contest was to set up and prepare for the Office Manager launch. G&C decided on the timeframe for the contest and the launch, and sent out press releases after the contest announcing the winners and setting up a photo opportunity in each of the winners' hometowns. A few weeks later, G&C rewrote the press release on the winners and sent it out nationally to dealer trade, PR trade, business and Internet-related media.
G&C's aim wasn't to get coverage in the top 20 newspapers, but to make the Toshiba name heard, in association with the Web. Most of the PR activities were done after the contest, since the Toshiba site is its own PR medium, and preparing for "part two of the promotion -- the Office Manager launch," said Eldredge.
"We wanted to lead into our next phase, as a means to get name awareness so when people get the press releases announcing the Office Manager launch, they'll remember that Toshiba is active on the Web...when we hit them with the new release, a dawn of recognition will come over them," said Eldredge.
The Office Manager is set up like an office building, with different floors, "hosts" to lead a user around the site, to places like the Copy Room, Break Room and Mail Room, and links to resources such as supply stores and online shopping sites. The site is up and running, located at http://www.officemanager.com. (Toshiba, 714/583-3633; Internet Outfitters, 714/998-5550; G&C, 212/575-1976)
Online Tips
Bob Hennessy, vice president of operations at IO, said that those heading online marketing/PR campaigns should always:
- Rotate their banners on the search engines, to make sure each one is viewed by a different audience each time;
- Use keywords that relate to the market, product and are widely used; and
- Keep close tabs on the number of hits generated by a key-word, so they can be quickly changed if the numbers start dropping.