2000 Platinum PR Honarable Mention
The Case
Magnetic Poetry rose to become a staple of pop culture in the mid '90s, but by 1999, sales of the tiny make-your-own-poetry word tiles had plateaued. Kohnstamm Communications
was challenged to reignite the product's popularity on a $275,000 budget, which included $120,000 for PR.
The Strategy
To spark consumer and media interest, Kohnstamm aligned Magnetic Poetry with another cultural icon that was celebrating a renaissance of sorts: the newly redesigned Volkswagen
Beetle. After securing a donation of three new Beetles for the campaign, the firm planned an 11,218-mile tour that would bring the "Poetry Bug" to elementary-age kids, parents
and teachers via schools, libraries and other venues in 37 U.S. and Canadian cities.
Gaining access to the kids' market via schools wouldn't be easy, however, as most schools were wary of partnerships with commercial-based organizations. Kohnstamm timed the
tour to coincide with National Poetry Month (April) in order to emphasize Magnetic Poetry's commitment to education. The team then used its co-branding relationship with
Volkswagen to leverage donations of literary resources worth $1 million from 10 sponsoring publishers, as well as a gift worth more than $30,000 for the American Library
Association's "Born to Read" program.
Poets Wanted
While cruising into town in a magnet-coated car would surely spark kids' curiosity (as well as reporters'), the Kohnstamm team sought drivers who would give each event an extra
kick. The firm recruited six actors from improv groups in Madison, Wis., to serve as EMTs (Emergency Metaphor Technicians). "We needed people who had a theatrical background and
could hold the attention of an entire auditorium of kids," says agency president Josh Kohnstamm. "More than half [of the EMTs] were men, because we wanted to be sure to have male
role models to convince boys that poetry could be cool."
Donning white lab coats and sneakers, the EMT drivers set out on a mission to "infect" kids with a love of language. At each stop, the EMTs used stethoscopes to check for
poetry in young students' hearts. The doctor-poets also challenged kids with word games, and plastered young poets' faces and arms with temporary word tattoos reminiscent of
chicken pox.
Media Wanted
While National Poetry Month was, by no means, a well-known literary celebration, it served as a good peg to capture media interest. It helped that Magnetic Poetry's founder,
Dave Kapell, was outspoken on the subject of poetry education, and ruffled a few feathers by criticizing the academic community for its failure to make poetry more accessible to
all people.
Media kits distributed to more than 2,500 press outlets featured tour details, curriculum ideas for poetry in the classroom, and scoop about an online poetry contest co-
sponsored by Scholastic.
Two unanticipated news events put a slight crimp in the campaign's media aspirations. Both the Columbine shootings and the first air strikes in Kosovo occurred in April as
thePoetry Bug tour hit full speed. "If we hadn't done advance work to alert the media in December and January, I don't think we could have pulled off the media coverage we got,"
Kohnstamm says. An analysis of local and national TV news coverage later found 17 out of every 24 minutes of programming during the month of April were dedicated to Kosovo or
Columbine, leaving little time for human interest stories. (Although PR NEWS suspects that in some cases, the two tragedies may have helped Kohnstamm's mission, as
assignment editors may have been watching for happy stories to balance out their coverage.)
Infectious Results
In the end, the Poetry Bug tour made 110 stops, touching 1,500 teachers, 42,000 parents and 56,000 students, as well as some 500,000 additional consumers who interacted with
the poetry bugs en route. The campaign also contributed to a million hits on Magnetic Poetry's Web site, logged in March and April of 1999.
Media impressions topped 75 million, with 238 minutes of local and national broadcast airtime, coverage by eight major news services, 91 newspapers and 39 magazines.
Highlights were seen and heard in USA Weekend, the New York Times, the "Osgood Files," Canada's "Much Music" and two Voice of America stories.
Although he says it's difficult to track the campaign's impact on sales, Magnetic Poetry president Mike O'Halloran says he believes sales have been strongly influenced by PR.
"We don't do much advertising," he says. But in the five years Kohnstamm has been working with Magnetic Poetry (since 1994), company revenues have grown from $1 million to $8
million.
(JoshKohnstamm, Kohnstamm Communications, 651/228-9141, http://www.kohnstamm.com)
Ode to Media
By Kohnstamm
In St. Paul a PR firm you will find
That doesn't treat the media folk kind
Not a sharpened elbow in sight
Nor forked tongue with which to slight
For sure they are legends in their own mind!
Bug Gets Bonus
The Poetry Bug tour ended up serving more than a charitable purpose for Volkswagen, according to Josh Kohnstamm. "As people came up to play with the word magnets, it gave them
a more intimate familiarity with the new VW and broke a barrier. VW has since used the campaign as a way of talking about the new Beetle."
Kohnstamm: Small, But Well-Versed
Founded: 1991
HQ: St. Paul
Staff: 9
Revenues (1999): $830,000
Weirdest project ever: Media relations for the world's first ergonomic
pooper-scooper.
Bonus: Gained Barnes & Noble account as a result of pushing National
Poetry Month.
Campaign players: Todd Boss, AE; Laura Bright, Asst. AE;
Grace Baldridge, PR intern; Ricka Kohnstamm, principal; Josh Kohnstamm, president;
Dave Kapell, former president, Magnetic Poetry; Michael O'Halloran, president,
Magnetic Poetry.