Breakfast. The most important meal of the day, and for 99 percent of America, also the most skipped.
Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but you get the idea. Brains need fuel to work well, but unfortunately brains also hate doing anything in the morning because “No eaty, only sleepy five more minutes pwease?” So what do you do when a major food company hires you to convince the world that breakfast is worth waking up for?
Well, you could always try what Joseph G. Scott, MAS, vice president of Scott & Associates Inc. did. Combining creative packaging and design with practical distribution of breakfast-themed items, Scott created an extremely successful promotion that not only earned his client network TV coverage, but was significantly profitable for his company as well.
Promo Marketing: Could you briefly describe a promotion of yours that you consider one of your best?
Joseph G. Scott: A client of ours, [A Fortune-100 food company], wanted to send a large amount of printed collateral to 750 media outlets promoting a study proving that students do better academically when they have had breakfast.
PM: What was the promotion’s goal? What did you do to make the goal happen?
JGS: To get coverage via as many media outlets as possible. We did the creative, graphics, copywriting, photography, sourced the promotional products, assembly and fulfillment.
PM: What kinds of items did you use in the promotion, and why?
JGS: A CD printed with a photo looking down on a bowl of cereal (contained the press release and collateral), a very nice blue acrylic and stainless steel bowl, a spoon that protruded through the CD’s hole. It looked exactly like our client’s best-selling cereal, ready to be enjoyed.
PM: What made this a profitable promotion for you?
JGS: It was priced for the value to be delivered, not cost-plus.
PM: What was the best decision you made with this program? What was the worst?
JGS: [Best decision?] To put the CD in a bowl, with the cereal and blueberry print. Worst decision? Shrink-wrapping all of the boxes—quite the pain in the butt!
PM: Did you run into any problems with the promotion, and if so, how did you overcome them?
JGS: No, after the shrink-wrapping, everything went smoothly.
PM: Any other advice or insight you’d like to give related to this promotion?
JGS: When you have strong creative anything is possible—we got them coverage in seven major newspapers and a spot on Good Morning America.
Want to be considered for a future edition of My Best Promotion? Contact Michael Cornnell at [email protected] or (215) 238-5449 for a list of questions and other details.
