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IPRN in Dubai: Day Five

We heard more presentations from our members. Jonathan Choat, chairman of Nexus Choat in London, specializes in food and drink, and his 28-employee agency represents some of the biggest brands in the world: Cadbury Schweppes, Weetabix, Macallan Scotch, Burger King. Jonathan presented his campaign for the market leader in prepared sushi sold in UK grocery stores. Rather than push the brand, the campaign sought to raise the level of UK consumers’ awareness of sushi, using a celebrated chef, a sumptuous 12-page spread in the nation’s premier food magazine, public demonstrations, a contest with trips to Japan, truly wide and deep media coverage, etc. A combination of PR and paid advertising gave the campaign’s media sponsors (Japan Airlines, a soy sauce brand, etc.) recognition. The results were not only millions of media impressions, but increased sales of the client’s product.

Karin Ponten of Stockholm, with five employees, showed her campaign for two entrepreneurs who wanted to increase sales of their kayaks. With a modest budget of 10,000 Euros, Karin achieved remarkable media coverage with the theme “Explore your city by water.” The clients also started a kayaking center that was a retail outlet combined with a hang-out and resource center for water sports aficionados, giving tourists and residents free use of kayaks for a morning or afternoon. Sales soared. The campaign ran during the beautiful, but short, Scandinavian summer. Most of the stunning photos used in the magazine and newspaper stories were supplied by Karin’s photographer, showing that media in Sweden are far more amenable to using client-supplied art for editorial coverage than in some other countries.

Ales Langr in Prague outlined his creative and humorous campaign to introduce a new class of beer to the country that has the highest per capita beer consumption in the world. This beer, both a light and a dark brew with high alcohol, was positioned as a drink to enjoy after a meal, a dessert beer as it were. The challenge was not to cannibalize sales of the client’s many other brands, including Pilsner Urquell.

Ales found a 16th century treatise on beer written by a famous Czech scientist and created the legend of a “lost” recipe that was miraculously rediscovered in 2007. The campaign kicked-off with massive media coverage of the first tasting of this ancient, but new, beer, with an actor paying the part of the 16th century scientist. All the presenters and assistants wore late Middle Ages costumes and encouraged guests to try the beer through playing a series of historically accurate games. The brand was then rolled out to the country’s restaurants and bars, with incentives by the brewery for the owners to carry the beer for three months. Sales outpaced expectations.

Susanne Senft from Vienna gave a recap of her campaign for a shade manufacturer that made patio umbrellas, roll-down shades and window coverings. First, she took the existing collateral which looked as if it were done by five different designers, and unified the look and feel with very modern, clean design and high-quality photography and models. The main campaign was centered on home and garden fairs, which distributors attend on Thursday, followed by the general public on the weekend. The campaign sought to increase the number of distributors carrying the products while stimulating sales by the general public. The products were positioned as “green” energy solutions, lowering inside temperatures in hot weather and retaining warmth in cold months. The year-long campaign succeeded by all metrics applied, including reducing the cost of customer acquisition from more than 12 Euros each to about half a Euro.

Sonia Madeira of East-West PR in Singapore presented a campaign to increase attendance at an economics conference. The previous agency’s efforts had stagnated (a major multinational brand) and the client wanted results. Sonia negotiated an inkind media sponsorship for East-West which increased her fee by 100,000 Singapore dollars. As with most special events, the campaign took up massive amounts of staff time, but attendance shattered all records. From an agency morale point of view, young staffers were very proud of their efforts, especially when hearing speeches they had written being given by the Prime Minister and other high government officials.

PRx presented its campaign for Orchard Supply Hardware’s 75th Anniversary, the centerpiece of which was a state-wide school garden program sponsored by OSH. Each of the chain’s 86 California stores would sponsor an elementary school’s garden, giving a $1000 store credit for supplies and dedicating an expert nurseryperson to work with the teachers, parents and students in developing and maintaining the gardens.

The campaign’s goals were to re-energize the OSH brand, increase brand loyalty in the face of competition from big-box hardware stores such as Home Depot and Lowe’s, get OSH employees more involved with their communities and positioned as the “answer” people, gain significant media coverage with prominent OSH signage and increase sales.

Working with the California Department of Education, PRx branded school garden and hands-on learning curriculum materials with the OSH anniversary logo and enlisted the department’s aid in soliciting schools to apply for the grants. The OSH school gardens program and the grant application form were featured on the Department of Education’s Web site, as well as on OSH’s site.

More than 300 schools applied for the grants, and PRx and OSH chose the 86 winning schools.

• PRx publicized the school project regionally, with kick-offs in Northern California (Redwood City) and Southern California (Los Angeles)
• PRx publicized OSH school garden projects in medium and small cities: 62 of 86 schools received media coverage or 72%
• PRx supported OSH staff with FAQs, garden guidelines and more, served as liaison between schools and OSH corporate
• PRx interfaced with CA Dep’t. of Ed. on academic issues and collaborated with UC Davis
• California First Lady Maria Shriver issued a statement of support and appreciation to OSH’s CEO Rob Lynch
• PRx sent a survey to each participating school, with a 62% response rate
• 84% of schools rated OSH’s support as “good to far more than expected”
• 94% of schools plan to continue their gardens
• 86% of schools have been able to leverage their OSH grant to secure other funding and support
• 40% of schools claimed measured gains in test scores
• 68% of schools rated the OSH Garden experience as outstanding, with another 24% rating it worthwhile…92% positive rating
• OSH was named “the leading pioneer in school gardens” by CA Dep’t. of Education

Thus ended the case studies, all of which were entered into IPRN’s “Project of the Year” competition. The members voted their preferences, and the results were announced at our farewell banquet: Ales Langr won the consumer category for his beer campaign, Alberte won the corporate social responsibility category for the Spanish environmental city campaign, and PRx and OSH won the grand prize, the Project of the Year Award, becoming the first IPRN agency ever to win the award twice (having won in Buenos Aires in 2002 for the Silicon Valley Homeland Security Summit).

After a convivial dinner with excellent food and drink, we all went back to our hotel, many of us planning to leave the next day.

Tags: dubai, international public relations network, iprn, public relations, Silicon Valley, silicon valley public relations