After a prolonged absence from the kids' toy market, Meccano, Inc., makers of Erector Set construction toys, had a public relations task with an unusual urgency.
The Paris-based company had been absent from the U.S market - and from kids' minds - for 10 years. So when it set out to reintroduce the toy five years ago, the company needed to figure out how to get the product into the hands of kids, parents and teachers, while creating a "do-good" image that would create positive media coverage - all on a $25,000 budget.
The company needed positive media coverage for another reason: to help it gain some market share. Since Erector returned to the market, the growth in the construction toy category has been explosive, and Erector has been pitted against new competitive toy products such as K'nex and Construx.
The company has picked up speed since 1991, selling 2 million sets in 1994, and has captured 10% market share in the construction toy category.
When Erector came back into the marketplace, the company found that it had 90% adult recognition of its product. Part of its public relations challenge was how to get the company's message for the '90s across to the media in a credible and newsworthy way.
"To appeal to today's kids, toys must be considered cool," said Phillipe Besnard, president, Meccano. "Although the basic building principles that have made the Erector Set popular will never change, the new action features make it more fun."
The company responded in 1995 with a multi-pronged marketing approach that would place Erector Sets into schools across the country in an educationally-oriented contest. Meccano hoped that the contest would not only reacquaint a new generation of kids to their Erector Set product line, but would attract positive, national media coverage of their company.
Erector's marketing approach was the creation of an annual Erector Chalenge. In 1995, the company ran the Erector Auto Challenge contest, involving kids ages 8-14. Overall, the contest involved 6,000 kids in more than 250 schools around the U.S. to design and build models of environmentally-friendly cars of the future. Through a classroom effort, kids were invited to first submit their ideas to Erector in the form of an essay and design for such a car.
Early on, the contest was mentioned in USA Today, a placement resulting from a company-issued press release.
Ultimately, 40 classes were selected as finalists, and received four Erector Sets of 2,560 pieces each in order to build a 3-D model. The building of the model took place over a period of time in the classroom, and gave the media an opportunity to cover the story as a work-in-progress.
The educational nature of the contest provided the media with various angles, including kids and the environment, kids building a better future and the corporation in the classroom.
Similarly, another feature of the contest was a component that facilitated classroom discussion regarding safety issues in the car, such as wearing a seat belt. That angle proved interesting and credible to the media, said Ronni Heyman, director of marketing and PR.
There were other components that successfully caught the media's eye as well. The accompanying public relations campaign involved hiring car racing champion Mario Andretti, who unveiled the 12 models that were eventually selected as winners at the 1995 New York Auto Show. To attract further media attention, a life-size Indy-style race car made from thousands of Erector pieces was put on display. Pairing the contest with another event with a similar theme (autos) proved to be a wise strategy.
"The media needs a reason to write about [an event]," said Heyman. "The culmination of the contest with the auto show gave them a timely reason to write about us."
Erector's presence at the show caused ABC-TV's "Good Morning America" morning show to do a five-minute spot on Erector's exhibit, and the contest and the event at the auto show got covered nationally in papers including The New York Times. Overall, the contest generated 90 print features and 35 TV features.
Heyman notes that, though justified, the media observes carefully when corporations enter the classroom. By launching a responsible and ethical school-based educational marketing campaign, a company is prepared if the media approaches it with questions regarding the role of corporations in the classroom, she said.
Another media angle to emphasis is the local one. Make sure the local media is apprised of your campaign, she advises.
"People love to read about local kids doing good," said Heyman. "Local is where the punch is."
The choice of spokesperson is also critical to the image a campaign will project. "Your spokesperson has to reflect the right educational values," said Heyman. And in terms of whether the program is a boost to the bottom line, seeing the direct sales impact from the campaign, which was held in January through April, is difficult, since Erector makes most of its sales in the fourth quarter. (Meccano, Phillipe Besnard, Ronni Heyman, 212/213-9313)