Campaigns

Consumer

A leading national food supplier invested heavily in local charities such as scholarships, blood drives and summer sports camp for youth. Yet it seemed that only program recipients and their families were aware of the commitment the corporation and its franchises had made to the community.

Parker Group was brought in to educate and attract the broader public to the charity programs. We wrote an assessment plan to help evaluate which programs merited individual news campaigns. We then ran a highly targeted communications campaign to promote the client's annual college scholarship program. The campaign involved photo shoots with 11 regional mayors and news stories crafted specifically for individual editors of the area's daily and weekly newspapers.

This targeted campaign resulted in a placement rate that was three times the norm for local media. It also increased community awareness that local franchisees supported the educational goals of people in their neighborhoods. Compared to the previous year, so many more customers requested scholarship application forms that one-third of the company's retail outlets had to order more forms.