How To Promote Name Recognition
by Raleigh Pinskey

More Information About the Author: Click Here for the Raleigh Pinskey Home Page

One of my 101 alternative marketing strategies that maximizes your biz-ability through viz-ability (sm), and more specifically increases name recognition in your marketplace involves contests, awards and the ever popular seal of approval. All very effective tools for getting name recognition by way of publicity, also referred to as free advertising.

The concept of contests, awards and the seal of approval provides you with name recognition whether you`re targeting the consumer marketplace, or the business-to-business arena. The great thing about them is you can participate on a grandiose level or on a limited budget. The key is that the strategy works in promoting name recognition.

The first scenario deals with the consumer marketplace.

Imagine yourself stepping up to the microphone, opening the envelop and gleefully announce to the crowded auditorium: "The winner of the Anne`s Dairy Cream Foundation college scholarship to the University of Maryland is.... Thea Berlin!" And as you present the tearful recipient with an oversized cardboard tuition check and a letter sweater with a big 1995 WINNER: ANNE`S DAIRY CREAM SCHOLARSHIP AWARD, cameras flash, Channel 2, 4 and 7`s news cameras roll while a reporter presses a tape recorder in your face wanting to know, "How you and Susan feel at this moment?" The story appears on the front page, TV footage appears on all channels, on all four daily news broadcasts, and radio news reports the event all day, every hour on the hour.

Within the next few weeks you and Susan are guests on local radio and community TV talk shows. You`re invited to speak at the Chamber of Commerce and service clubs. Depending on the size of your town and the scope of the outreach, your scholarship promotional gesture could reach hundreds to millions of people with name recognition totaling much more than just a one dimensional fleeting message of "buy my product." And of course you expand the life of the name recognition campaign by putting the winner`s picture over the counter and on the menu jackets.

Let`s examine this marketing gift a little closer. If you did a direct mail piece to each newspaper subscriber and each member of the radio and TV audience, how much would your hard costs be? If you bought the time on radio and television that was given as coverage to the promotion, how much would that have cost you? And if you had invested in the same size ad the picture and story coverage gave you, how much would that have cost you?

Trust me, the cost would be in the high hundreds of thousands of dollars. The point I`m making, and what I really want you to understand is: the only dollar amount you need to know here is that the cost of all this hundreds of dollars of time and space, because you implemented this visibility marketing strategy, will cost you nothing. That`s right, it`s free.

And since the award ceremony was part of a campaign, the media coverage probably included Phase 1: the announcement that begins the annual award search; Phase 2: the announcement of the semi-finalists; and Phase three: the presentation ceremony for the winner.

As you are aware from your own experience of being solicited for tickets and program ads for award banquets, not all awards need be as involved as this one, nor do all awards need to have contests attached to them. The award can be as simple as choosing a category of excellence and awarding a plaque on behalf of your appreciation. Honor a member of the community who has unselfishly contributed their time and effort; someone who has shown bravery; a teacher, a care-giver, a hero. The seal of approval can be given to a safety product, an environmental product, a nutritional product. There are no restrictions as to who can give or receive an award or a seal of approval. It`s all in the eyes of the beholder, you.

** Jazz flutist Herbie Mann recognizes a non-musician whose contribution of service and creativity enhances the Jazz community. The award is a statue of Kokopelli, the Native American of creativity and fertility, the symbol Mann also uses for his record label. A double name recognition whammy.

** Actor Charlton Heston announced to the world he was too close to his life to pick a title for his autobiography and invited all to contribute their input. The award, a personal appearance with Chuck and a signed copy of the book.

** Twenty+ years ago a biology teacher, wanting to pass along his appreciation of birds to his students, created a bird call competition. The winners receive a cash prize and for the past several years the winners have appeared on the David Letterman show.

Check the Guiness Book of World Records for great contests and awards.

The second scenario targets an example of name recognition within the business-to- business community.

An advertising client wanted to solicit accounts of a newer and smaller nature, and hadn`t been able to succeed using the standard cold call approach. My company created a non-invasive strategy based around the formation of strategic alliances and co-venture marketing relationships.

The vehicle we created for this campaign was an art contest titled "My Favorite Place In Town Is:" In order to involve the adult business population we targeted the children. The art contest was a co-venture with the schools, choosing as our map elementary grades 1 through 6. Through school supervision we were able to facilitate the contest, getting the children to draw, as best they could, a park, a building, a tree or their mother`s lap, if that`s what their favorite place was.

Now here`s where the business-to-business angle comes in. We listed every business type that could be useful to the project, and sent our client out to engage their participation in this adventure/co-venture. Our list considered places to display the drawings, taking our client to meet with malls, banks, and buildings with large ground floor lobby space. To get our client introductions to the downtown businesses we created an art walk, using store windows to display the entries. Graphic artists were engaged to make signs, paper companies to donate the drawing paper and stationary, art supply houses for the brushes, paints, etc. Video companies were approached to make a documentary of the project. We needed secretarial help, copy places, answering services, business machines......you name it we listed it.

For judges we organized a panel from community members who couldn`t supply tangibles. And to cover all the bases, the panel included members of the news media. Of course we also enlisted the help of every service club, the Chamber of Commerce. If needed we were fully prepared to approach the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and the Police Athletic League.

As part of the contest we planned a way to raise funds for the participating schools. So 365 winners were selected because we planned to create a calendar. The printing, paper, layout design and distribution were all donated.

Advertising specialty companies produced posters, T-shirts, mugs and anything else that could display the designs. Even a fabric company came forward and created a line of bed linens and bath accessories.

Since proceeds were going back into the schools, catalogue costs were donated and businesses were encouraged to buy the products as holiday and year round gifts. Stores were solicited to sell the products and the catalogue. Credit card companies were requested to insert the catalogue announcement in their billing, and restaurants to include the marketing insert with their meal checks.

The campaign was hugely successful. Massive amounts of media attention was logged all through the year-long campaign, culminating in a picnic honoring the 365 winners, the non-winners and the entire community of participating companies. Of course the food and entertainment was donated.

The newspaper dedicated a page listing all the participants, and the TV stations aired the documentary several times.

As a result of the business my client received they co-ventured with us and opened a division specializing in visibility marketing for new and small business. This specialization provided my company with an angle to promote the venture as experts in this genre, establishing the two companies as spokespersons on the subject.

This leads me into the subject of my next column where I will explore strategies that will establish you as spokesperson in your field. Yet another wonderful way to maximize your biz-ability through viz-ability. Until then, Promote and Prosper.

101 Ways To Promote Yourself, You Can Hype Anything, and the audio series, The Zen Of Hype, How To Do Your Own PR.