blue ribbons - THE MEDIACENTER

BLUE RIBBONS
Sales Pro
Pr motion Ideas
www.mediacenteronline.com
brought to you by THE MEDIACENTER
July 2010
BLUE RIBBON DREAMS
WCIA-TV in Champaign, Illinois originally began airing this
promotion as a way to better showcase the Illinois State Fair.
However, as it has grown, one of the more primary aspects
is the dedication and effort put forth by Illinois’ Farm Youth.
In addition, State Fair Officials also asked WCIA to focus on
the importance of the Auction of Champions. The end result
of all these themes is the Blue Ribbon Dreams promotion.
In the past, the program has included pre-taped reports
about the road young farmers take to get their prized
animals to the championship ring at the State
Fair. WCIA also runs as much live coverage
as possible to give viewers the sense that
CRAYOLA 100 BILLIONTH CRAYON
they are right there as the animals are being
Here is a promo that stations can adopt in
auctioned. Other features have included live
conjunction with local companies who manufacture
interviews with the Governor, who presides
products and may be coming up on an anniversary.
over the auction each year, and two special
Crayola recently manufactured their 100 billionth
personalities that brought their personal
crayon. They added “Blue Ribbon,” a brand-newtalents to the project.
once-in-a-lifetime color to their 96 Big Box. People
then looked everywhere for a specially marked
The promotion for the program consisted
Crayola inside a 96 Big Box. If they found it, they
of a minimum of 20 on-air 30-second and
won one of more than a thousand great prizes.
15-second promos that lead up to the
event along with talent mentions in WCIAThen, if they found one of ten gold-wrapped Blue
TV’s newscasts. The promotion spots are
Ribbon crayons, they came to Easton, PA, for
specially designed with each sponsor’s logo.
the Crayola Color Jam where they participated in
In addition, WCIA provided area newspapers
a drawing to win the 100 billionth Crayola crayon
and radio stations details regarding the show
itself, which they traded in for a $100,000 bond.
to further assure audience awareness. The
total investment was $4,000.
There was even a website that Crayola created
in which they asked
kids to guess where
the
gold-wrapped
Blue Ribbon crayons
would
be
found.
Those who came
closest would receive
an assortment of
Crayola products with
a retail value of $50.
Sales Promotion Ideas
www.mediacenteronline.com
BLUE RIBBONS
brought to you by THE MEDIACENTER
July 2010
LET’S GO FISHING
Dietrich Distributing of Scottsbluff, New England,
faced the marketing challenge of creating increased
awareness of its Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer. The
Scottsbluff station created an on-air campaign
for Dietrich called “Let’s Go Fishing.” It involved
a two-minute segment, which started: “Let’s go
fishing. Brought to you by Pabst Blue Ribbon and
Dietrich Distributing.” The segment itself featured
local fishing conditions throughout the area, and it
concluded with a 30-second Pabst commercial.
To secure Dietrich’s sponsorship of the campaign,
the station created an on-air promotional campaign
called “Blue Ribbon Catch of the Week.” Viewers
were asked to send in snapshots of their catch,
stories involving fishing or anything that might relate
to the fishing experience. The station received
hundreds of entries, including anglers who came
to the television station to have their pictures taken
with their fish. Winners were awarded Pabst Blue
Ribbon merchandise, and Dietrich promoted the
contest with point-of-sale material.
BLUE RIBBON DINING
Dietrich was delighted with the results of the
promotion. It did, in fact, increase the number of its
displays throughout its retail market - even in areas
that previously had been extremely difficult to crack.
The station gained a very happy new-to-television
advertiser that looked to repeat the program in the
next year.
A South Carolina station created a promotion
focusing on the fine restaurants and dining
experiences in their state. The station provided
a generous promotion schedule supporting
the campaign. Also, two restaurants were
featured per 30-second announcement which
were subject to approval by both parties. Each
sponsor received a certificate and window decal
to be recognized as part of the “Blue Ribbon Dining”
elite in the Carolinas. The station offered three levels of
participation: Package 1, 20 10-second announcements,
$1800; Package 2, 40 10-second announcements, $2400;
and Package 3, 75 10-second announcements, $3000.
The announcements ran with a 5-second opener, a
10-second commercial, restaurant number two’s 10-second
commercial, and a 5-second closer. The announcement
covered all dayparts.
Sales Promotion Ideas
www.mediacenteronline.com
BLUE RIBBONS
brought to you by THE MEDIACENTER
July 2010
JUST SAY NO COLORING BOOK
A Lufkin, Texas station generated $25,000 by selling
schedules along with advertising and coupon space on
the back pages of an anti-drug coloring book for children.
An artist was hired to create illustrations to go along with
captions like, “If someone offers you drugs, call for help.”
Clients were offered quarter-page, half-page and full-page
sales packages.
The books were distributed to grade schools and were
made available at client locations. A coloring contest was
held, and each participating child received a “blue” ribbon.
The entries were displayed in local shopping malls.
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