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Iris Dorbian
Winner: The Parenting Group – Parenting’s Family Road Trip
Targeting moms and the advertisers trying to reach them, the Parenting Group launched a unique contest marketing platform entitled Parenting’s Family Road Trip, which combined brand exposure, compelling online elements and in-book promotion.
Winning a Trip
The program, which kicked off in July 2008, invited readers and online visitors to enter for the chance to win an all-expense paid road trip for their family. In-book advertorials in Parenting magazine and an online resource center on the magazine’s site featured road trip planning advice, as well mentions of the 2008 program sponsors, which included Shell, The Weather Channel, State Farm and Dunkin Donuts. Products and services of each sponsor were used by the winning family during their trip.
Bon Voyage
After 850 families submitted photos and essays, the entries were narrowed down to 10 finalists. In November 2008, Parenting invited their online site users to vote for their favorite family. Following a tally of 31,000 votes, The Bentz family of Gilbert, Ariz., were named the winners of the contest, becoming the 2009 Family Road Trip family. The Bentz family documented their trip through photos, videos and journals, which included sponsor integration with brands and locations they used on the road. Their road trip memories were featured in the July 2009 issue of Parenting and on Parenting.com. Due to overwhelming positive response, the program will continue in 2009—10 finalists will be announced in October and the winning family and their road trip will be featured in the July 2010 issue of Parenting magazine.
Bumpy Road Ahead
The biggest challenge of the program was the timing (the actual trip took place a month before the closing date of the issue that featured the Family Road Trip advertorial). “Parenting had to anticipate which potential sponsors to include on the road in the hopes that content garnered over the course of the trip about their brand would inspire them to commit,” says James Kane, group marketing director for The Parenting Group. “This was overcome by preparing the family with all potential sponsor products and services (as well as outlining how to document their interaction with these products) in the event that one of these potential sponsors signed onto the program.”
The Outcome
The Family Road Trip Web site was an immediate hit, receiving nearly 1 million page views throughout the promotion and over 200,000 entries for a gas card sweepstakes that ran in conjunction with the Family Road Trip contest.
Mom Knows Best
A key takeaway for the Parenting Group was learning firsthand the premium advertisers place on having real moms become brand ambassadors for their products. “By asking the family to document their opinions and interactions with brands via photos, text and video,” notes Kane, “we generated the real-life product endorsements that Parenting’s advertisers value most, while engaging potential sponsors with mom’s use of their products.”
Honorable Mentions:
National Geographic Global Media – Purell Hands-On Explorer Challenge: Purell partnered with National Geographic for its annual Hands-On Explorer Challenge, a program that targeted kids interested in exploring and told them it’s OK to “get their hands dirty” as long as they use Purell. With promotional tools such as a microsite on NGkids.com, photo scrapbook and activities, along with ad pages in NG magazine, Purell received great exposure and eager children were offered the once-in-a-lifetime experience of an adventure into wildlife.
Reader’s Digest: Reader’s Digest Presents the Dove Self-Esteem Contest: When Dove asked Reader’s Digest to provide a unique, high-impact concept that would resonate with both the magazine’s “Life Well Shared” message and Dove’s self-esteem platform for women, Reader’s Digest offered Dove its back cover, an offer the magazine had never made before. With high-impact units in the magazine, a self-esteem hero contest on ReadersDigest.com, and the promotion of Dove’s sponsorship of The Women, the program generated 998,366 online impressions, received 22,118 votes, and 2.3 million readers from the New York Post, all while inspiring women to look and feel their most beautiful.
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