The Challenge
The corporate office of Wendy's Old Fashion Hamburgers, in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) and the Downtown Athletic Club of
New York, wanted to boost the awareness of its High School Heisman award without advertising.
The award honors two high school students who not only excel in athletics, but also take part in community service and get good grades. But with an NCAA ban on attaching
scholarships to the award, nominees were less drawn, the media showed little interest and principals didn't bother submitting nominations.
The Strategy
Wendy's originally hired Ketchum to generate media interest on a national level. But Eric Oberman, the agency's account supervisor for the award, felt pitching the local press
where the nominees lived would be a better way to build awareness.
"It's sheer numbers," says Oberman. "You have a better chance at getting media pick-up when you have 12,000 kids who are nominated for the award than you have pitching the
press about the 12 national finalists. So the strategy was to start early, create awareness as soon as the kids are nominated and build from there."
Ketchum relied on Wendy's field marketers who already had relationships with their local press.
"The media partnership could be anything from them getting the exclusive announcement if their local student wins the award to interviews with the nominee on one of their
shows," says Oberman.
To generate interest in the award, marketers provided profiles of local nominees to potential media partners.
"The releases went out to local, major dailies down to community newspapers," says Pam Stockoff, director of special events and projects for Wendy's.
Oberman's team also packaged the promotion well, which helped immensely in hooking the media. At the award's ceremony, the only two-time winner of the Heisman trophy, Archie
Griffin celebrated his silver anniversary of winning the prize the same evening the winners of the Wendy's award were announced.
Sideline Strategy
Local restaurants also played a role in boosting awareness by placing posters of the local nominees in their dining rooms. Stores with outside marquees also touted the news
to spread the word to those just driving by.
"The promotions inside the restaurants helped a little," says Oberman. "What really made the promotion take off was word of mouth."
The Play by Play
Placements in the local media got people talking. Neighboring principals, athletic directors and school counselors would read or hear about nearby students getting positive
press for their high schools and wanted the same attention for their facility.
"It put high schools on the map for all the right reasons," says Oberman. "Lately, there's been so much tragedy surrounding our educational system that good news about it
stands out."
With a five-month window for nominations school officials had time to see the press other schools were getting and respond by nominating their own students.
The Score
Gauging the increase in awareness was done two ways.
- Participation: For 1999, the program received 12,000 nominations, a 12% jump from last year's total of 10,000.
- Impressions: The program picked up 1,550 media placements in 1999, compared with 1,100 the previous year. Media impressions for '99 also bested '98 totals as impressions
went from 146 million to 200 million.
The Budget
Ketchum was paid $150,000 for its involvement with boosting awareness for the award.
The Work Load
Three people worked the promotion from the Ketchum side. Oberman headed it with the help of two assistant account executives, Jaymie Gustafson and Gaby Vizcino. Other members
of the agency were brought in to assist with specific projects, like associates in Ketchum's New York City office were brought in to pitch the national media.
During the crunch period between August and December the team put in a total of about 750 hours. Since the award is ongoing, the effort to improve it is also ongoing, but has
eased. Outside the fall period, work on the award goes down to about 10 hours a week for the group.
(Oberman, 312/228-6839; Stockoff, 614/764-3559.)
The More To Pitch The Better
Big things can come in small packages. Here's the number of pitch opportunities afforded to Ketchum once it expanded its focus to encompass the local media. Once a nominee
advanced to the next level, Ketchum was ready to re-pitch that media with the news.
Nomination Level: 12,000 local markets
State Finalist Level: 1,020 local markets
State Winners Level: 102 local markets
National Finalists Level: 12 local markets
National Winners: 2 local markets
Ketchum
Founded: 1923
Employees: 1,500 in 29 global offices.
Total Income (1998): $125 million
Income for Chicago Office (1998): $8 million
Clients for Chicago Office:
Consumer: Borden, Kraft Foods, Miller Brewing, Quaker Oats, Roto-Rooter, Ralston
Purina
Corporate: Arthur Andersen, Visa, Northwest Mutual
Technology: PeopleMover.com, @link Systems, Quotesmith.com, Navigation Technologies
eKetchum Capabilities:
Web site Registration
Strategic Linking
Online Sponsorships
email newsletters
opt-in email
multimedia