Situation . . : :
The American public has little knowledge of a key Albertsons' www.albertsons.com partnership – America's Best Classroom. The community program is a partnership between Albertsons, Unilever / Bestfoods www.unilever.com and the National Park Foundation www.nationalparks.org that funds $200,000 in scholarships for at-risk kids in Boys & Girls Clubs of America chapters. The scholarships send kids to experience and learn in America's Best Classroom – our National Parks system.
Albertsons, one of the world's largest food & drug retailers, assumes management and coordination of this complex national program for 2002 and asks Scott Peyron & Associates, Inc. to manage the campaign.
Strategy . . : :
Analyze 15 U.S. markets for their potential as project host communities. Match market selections with the "footprints" and business priorities of the partners. Identify target markets as focus of media relations campaign.
Coordinate national advertising campaign supporting the program in all 15 markets.
Coordinate work of project teams in Denver; Orange County; Seattle; Portland; Sacramento; Phoenix; Salt Lake City; Chicago; Dallas; Philadelphia; Sacramento; Spokane, Tulsa; Orlando and Tampa.
Introduce the Albertsons program to selected Boys & Girls Clubs chapters with nationwide teleconferences. Secure the chapter's involvement and launch program execution. Help match partners and Boys & Girls Clubs with managers within National Park Service for program finalization and launch.
Employ PR team's proprietary media relations tools to target journalists with likely pre-disposition of interest in the program.
Design and complete "Adventure Send-Off" events at Albertsons stores in six target communities. In working with media, present the first-hand experiences of Boys & Girls Clubs kids who have never been outside of their inner city environments – at spectacular outdoor classrooms from Mount Rainier to Biscayne National.
Carry out prioritized PR campaign to gain "earned media" in the clients' selected large U.S. media markets.
Outcome . . : :
America's Best Classroom reaches millions more consumers than ever before. More than nine million media impressions are secured by the PR effort in 2002.
Value is added to Albertsons' storefront send-off events to increase media coverage and it results in dramatically increased TV and print coverage. Albertsons "visuals" and its program leadership – as well as the participation of key partners – are reported in virtually all news stories. (In Seattle, experts from REI present hiking/climbing workshop with Boys & Girls Clubs kids bound for Mount Rainier National Park. In Washington, D.C., Boys & Girls Club kids from the Dallas area met and lunched with officials from the Department of the Interior and toured our National Monuments).
Among the media successes: The Dallas Morning News joins Collin County Boys & Girls Club for tour of National Monuments in Washington, D.C. and creates weeklong story out of the kids' experience. The Spokesman Review publishes journal entries and photographs by Spokane-area Boys & Girls Club kids about their experiences in scenic Glacier National Park.
