Case Study kids ages 5 to 14 Kids Draw Marketers Outside the Box - and the Lines

Selling to Kids, April 14, 1999

Combine a contest, birthdays and a shot at creativity with an aggressive marketing campaign, and kids will come. Binney & Smith and Hallmark, its parent company, discovered this last year with the "Kids Card Contest" for four age groups between 5 and 14.

This year, the companies distributed 50% more kits and received 62% more entries than in 1998. And the promotion spent only half the time in the stores, says Michelle Buckley, a Hallmark spokesperson. Part of this year's boost - especially in the targeted cities - can be attributed to a seven-cities bus tour that stopped at schools and retail facilities in the cities.

Buckley also credits longevity and word-of-mouth for the hike in response. The Expressions from Hallmark line had been in the stores for a year by the time the second contest hit so they had gained brand awareness, she says.

Brand awareness is also why marketers expected the same or better success with less time in the stores. Last year, the contest kits were in the marketplace for the whole month of March; this year, the kits were available just for March's first two weeks.

More Kits, Entries, Press

The contest invited kids to design a card for a chance to win trips, a $1,000 cash prize, a $500 school grant and a place in the Expressions For Hallmark card line. The "Free Entry Kit" included two blank cards, an envelope and a Crayola coupon. Buckley wouldn't reveal the cost of the campaigns but says "the contest's success can be measured in three ways":

* Kits distributed: 2 million in 1998 and 3 million this year;

* Entries received: 35,000 last year (after a month in the stores) and 56,703 this year after only two weeks;

* Total media impressions: including broadcast and print, the campaign garnered 74 million through August 1998 for last year's campaign. Broadcast included the appearance of one of 12 winners on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," "The Howie Mandel Show," Paxnet network and Nickelodeon.

This year, the contest netted twice the pre-contest-deadline magazine coverage that last year's did, in publications such as Glamour, Self, Parents and Essence. It's too early to measure all of the media impressions for 1999.

Of last year's media impressions, Buckley attributes 28.8 million, more than a third, to a camera-ready press release placed on NAPS (North American Precis Syndicate), similar to PR Newswire. Last year, Hallmark also sent releases announcing the winners to the top 25 daily newspapers and Sunday supplements.

This year's winners were chosen only last Thursday, says Julie Wood at SJI Inc. of St. Louis, the promotion and marketing agency that worked on the program, so it's early to compare the two numbers.

Hallmark's goals for the contest were:

* To encourage creativity in children and to promote a brand (Expressions from Hallmark) that was new at the time of the first contest; and

* To act as a natural extension to Hallmark's growing kids' product line that includes a line of 99-cent cards, some of which come with puzzles or crayons.This year, Hallmark also used a toll-free number for the contest. It took orders for 4,700 mail-in requests, "but we were encouraging people to go to the stores."

* Binney & Smith's goal was to drive usage of Crayola.

Taking a Show on the Road

To meet those goals, Hallmark sent the cross-country "Express" bus tour to at least one retail facility in each of seven major cities: Los Angeles, Phoenix, Dallas, Kansas City, Chicago, Washington and New York.

The company also arranged to stop at a school in six of those cities. When the bus rolled around, ten kids from each school worked on an oversized card (4' x 6') for an hour or two before an assembly to the whole school, at which a local sales rep gave a presentation and distributed entry kits to the students. The oversized cards were displayed on the outside of the bus, with the school and city prominent on them. Each school got $500 for participating.

At the events, kids met Tip the Crayola mascot and could design their cards on the spot, another effort Buckley cites for the boost in entries. The year before, kids had to take them home to work on.

(Michelle Buckley, Hallmark, 816/274-5768, Stacy Gabrielle, Binney & Smith 610/253-6272, Julie Wood, SJI 314/231-1331 ext. 228.)

Hallmark

Employees: 19,200

Revenue: $3.7 billion

HQ: Kansas City, Mo.

Kids Card Campaign: David Smith, retail promotions manager, Diane Blake, director of marketing promotions

Binney & Smith

Employees: 2,100

Revenue: $600 million

HQ: Easton, Pa.

Kids Card Campaign: Monica Migliazza, consumer promotions administrator; Karen Barger, director of promotions and merchandising