CLIENT: Miller Brewing Company
PR
AGENCY: Flowers Communications Group
CATEGORY: Event Marketing
BUDGET: $400,000
TIMEFRAME: September 2003
In the urban African-American community, there is a significant
degree of entrepreneurship among young professionals aged 21-30 --
particularly in such categories as fashion, music, film and
restaurants -- so much so that Black Enterprise dubbed these
budding Spike Lees or Russell Simmons "hiphopreneurs."
This is why, back in 2000, Miller Brewing Company wanted
to expand its program of community action and to assimilate its
newly acquired Olde English 800 brand. Long- term PR partner
Flowers Communications Group (Chicago) came up with the idea
of targeting a series of business seminars at such consumers.
"We wanted to have a program that focused on
above-legal-drinking-age African American consumers," says Larry
Waters, director of multicultural relations at Miller Brewing
Company. "While we already had programs aimed at this market, we
wanted to give more recognition to the company as well as to Olde
English 800, which had no brand history with Miller. We also wanted
to distinguish ourselves from everyone else in the
alcoholic-beverage industry."
D. Michelle Flowers, CEO of Flowers Communications, adds: "When
Miller acquired Olde English, it wanted people to know that it
would be marketed responsibly, like all its other portfolio brands
(which hadn't been done by the previous owner)." It also wanted to
increase trial (sales) as well as make sure the brand fitted in
with Miller's image. To do that, Flowers says, Miller wanted a
program that would resonate with the consumer base, that would
provide marketing opportunities and that would strengthen the
relationship between the brand and the African-American
community.
Historically, Miller had always had a positive image in the
African-American community, working with many non-profit groups,
including One Hundred Black Men, the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People and the National Urban
League. "Miller is involved and committed from a community
point of view," says Adorn Lewis, senior vp at Flowers
Communications. "Because this was a new brand, Miller needed to
upgrade it to the quality and image of its other brands."
Research, consisting of focus groups and telephone surveys, had
provided further evidence that entrepreneurship was important to
this demographic, and helped Flowers determine their business needs
and how to structure the seminar. "Research showed there wasn't
enough being done to support entrepreneurship among
21-to-30-year-olds," Flowers says. "So we thought, 'Here's where we
can really make a difference.'"
She adds: "African Americans are naturally entrepreneurs, but we
were able to provide a more structured and formal environment to
help them hone their business skills, regardless of which business
they were in. That's one of the beauties of this program: it's not
category exclusive."
The original seminar series, Flowers created, titled "Keep It
Real," proved so successful that Miller decided to expand it in
2003 to cover all its brands, and not just Olde English. Hence, the
"Miller Urban Entrepreneurs Series and Business Grants Competition"
was born, expanding the goals of the original program.
"It was the same program, but we just changed the title so it
would benefit all brands," Flowers says. The tagline "Your Life.
Your Time. Your Business," proved to resonate particularly
well.
The primary objective, Waters says, was to have a program that
focused on specific markets, that was interactive and that targeted
national markets. A secondary audience was the community at large,
which might have pre-existing perceptions of the company. It also
had to engage at least 1,000 seminar attendees, increase grant
application inquiries via the Web site and toll-free numbers by
50%, and increase grant entries for the competition by 20% compared
with the previous year.
The series comprised a seminar with panelists and a separate
competition in which people entered their business plans for
judging by the likes of editors at Black Enterprise and the
dean of a top business school. Black Enterprise also had
done extensive research showing how important entrepreneurship was
to younger people -- even those with Harvard business degrees --
who didn't want to enter corporate America.
Once contacted, most speakers were eager to participate. "Once
they know what the program is about, they want to get involved,"
Flowers says. "They recognized this trend and the importance of
entrepreneurship to the African-American community."
The target audience in such urban centers as Chicago, Los
Angeles, New York City, Atlanta, Detroit and Washington, D.C., was
notified via publicity, the internet and mailing lists supplied by
non-profit organizations and from Flowers' own mailing list. The
seminar was designed to be small and intimate to aid networking and
speaker interaction.
"Because we tried to reach as many people as we could, the most
difficult thing was trying to keep it small and effective to
provide a quality experience for those who did participate,"
Flowers says.
Lewis explains: "You could have several thousand people, but it
would have a different texture and tone. We wanted to keep it small
because our surveys show people truly value interacting with talent
and asking questions."
The day-long seminars ran on Saturdays in each of the six
markets during September 2003, covering everything from how to
license a product to the sourcing of capital. Keynote speakers,
including business mogul Russell Simmons of Rush
Communications along with activist and former rapper Sister
Souljah, president of Souljah Story, offered advice and
shared their personal stories about entrepreneurship. In addition,
the editor-in-chief of Black Enterprise hosted a panel on
"The State of Urban Business." Immediately after the luncheon,
there was a Q&A session, and the day culminated with a
reception and a concert.
The second part of the program involved Miller's sponsorship of
a national business-grant competition in which budding magnates
submitted their business plans. In 2003, Miller committed $150,000
to it, awarding six $20,000 and twelve $2,500 grants.
The brewer also hosted a breakfast reception for the winners at
its Milwaukee headquarters, and they heard Miller's president and
CEO, Norman Adami, speak. "He's a strong proponent of
entrepreneurship, so he talks about this with great passion and
speaks with each winner to learn more about their businesses,"
Waters says. "To have the president so actively involved is a
testament of the program's value."
Results, Flowers says, included local TV and newspaper coverage;
national coverage by Bloomberg Small Business, CNN,
and AOL's "Black Voices;" network news and business shows;
and "extensive" coverage in African-American magazines and
newspapers. This added up to more than 50 million media placements
and more than $400,000 in advertising value in 2003, according to
Flowers. In addition, business-plan entries increased by more than
24% compared with the previous year, and more than 1,000 people
attended the seminar series. To date, the program has awarded
$450,000 to 40 participants.
"This reaffirmed the need to develop high-quality programs that
support entrepreneurship, especially when it come to younger
people," Flowers says. Waters points out, "This has helped us
demonstrate Miller's overall commitment to the African- American
urban community, and it has given us the opportunity to establish a
very strong relationship with our partnering non-profit groups,
which have also supported us with other relationships that have
spun off."
When the program started, it was one of the first to focus on
younger entrepreneurs. "This emphasizes the importance of having a
plan and a guide in developing a successful business," Flowers
says. "Entrepreneurship is nothing new, but it's important to
realize that step one is having a solid plan. Hopefully, because of
this, the next generation of entrepreneurs will have stronger
infrastructure."
Contacts: D. Michelle Flowers, 312.986.1260, [email protected];
Adorn Lewis, 312.986.1260, [email protected]; Larry
Waters, 414.931.4541, [email protected]
Mutual Respect Paves The Way
Key to the success of the program was the close collaboration
between not just MBCo and Flowers Communications, but also Black
Enterprise and the many local non-profit organizations in the Top
20 markets upon which Flowers called to help set up the seminars.
"We have a great agency-client relationship...almost since I first
opened my doors back in 1991," Flowers says. "We trust one another.
They value our opinion and have confidence in us, and we aren't
afraid to come to them with new and exciting ideas. It's a great
model relationship."