The Challenge
Imagine a nine-year old preferring a book to a video game. The world would be more intelligent. Perhaps even less violent. Definitely more creative.
Bellatazza came to us wanting a springtime campaign that accomplished several goals - increase traffic to their Web site, spark creativity, and raise money for S.M.A.R.T. (Start Making A Reader Today), a local non-profit organization that pairs adult volunteers with youngsters. Bellatazza has always been a socially conscientious company. It's part of why we love collaborating with them. The free java doesn't hurt either.
We knew the campaign had to be interactive, inspiring, unique and measurable. Throughout our early brainstorming conversations, SMART's mission to cultivate children's love of reading kept coming up. How do you turn kids on to literature? How do you turn adults on to literature for that matter? Make it accessible and fun. You shouldn't have to read War and Peace to claim a love of all things literary.
The Solution
You Too Can Haiku :: an online haiku contest. A traditional form of Japanese poetry, haikus conventionally follow the syllabic pattern of 5-7-5. Pretty simple and straightforward. You don't have to be the next Kobayashi Issa to write a good haiku.
Bellatazza loved the idea and immediately jumped on board. Haikus entered are judged by the community at large, and the top 10 winners receive a $50 Bellatazza gift card. Bellatazza will also donate $500 to SMART at the end of the contest.
Because Bellatazza is well known locally, we designed the advertising pieces to reach people when they were going about their daily lives - shopping, walking around downtown, eating. We wanted to generate awareness for the contest in a way that reinforced Bellatazza's image as a community member as opposed to a company doing business in our community.
We designed a colorful, eye-catching poster like "roommate wanted" posters with tear-off tags running along the bottom. Instead of a phone number, the tags had a unique URL directing people to Bellatazza's Web site. We postered all over town and explained to business owners the concept behind the contest so they could be spokespeople for the campaign. We put up posters to the Boys and Girls Club, a middle school and several other coffee shops. We won't mention any names but one of them starts with STAR and ends with BUCKS.
Java jackets replicating the poster accented Bellatazza's already colorful coffee cups. With the new java jackets, the cups stand out even more.
The Results
A grand total of 123 haikus were entered, and more than 1400 votes were cast. Bellatazza's site received 26% more hits during the two and a half month contest than it did in the two and a half months preceding. More importantly, the number of unique visitors increased 26%. Repeat visitors increased as well. Overall the contest was a great campaign, reinforcing Bellatazza's commitment to our community and raising awareness for a wonderful literacy program.
"We postered all over town and explained to business owners the concept behind the contest so they could be spokespeople for the campaign."