Recognizing Marketing’s Finest
Here we present all of this year’s winning submissions, highlighting a different category each week.
PR – COMMUNITY OUTREACH /
Distributor Less Than $100M
Wiseway Supply
50th Anniversary Campaign
To celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2022, Wiseway decided on a charitable effort and picked the Alzheimer’s Association of Cincinnati and UK (University of Kentucky) Sanders-Brown Center on Aging because the founder of Wiseway, Biz Cain, passed away from the disease.
The tagline “Whoo’s In?” was chosen and Wiseway team members, customers, friends, and family were encouraged to support the efforts by:
1. Purchasing a plush owl for $20 at any of the company’s 10 locations
2. Joining the Wiseway Team “HOOT, we be steppin’ ” for the Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Cincinnati
3. Raising funds or donating to the Alzheimer’s Association or the UK Sanders-Brown Center on Aging
The marketing team brought awareness to the fundraising efforts by setting up booths to advocate for the fight against Alzheimer’s at local events, through digital marketing, and via a blog.
FROM THE JUDGES: “They put this effort together in such a way that it really stoked interest,” said the judges. “The personal connection makes it that much more meaningful. Nicely implemented and promoted.”
Distributor $101M to $400M
Schaedler Yesco Distribution
SYD Employee Charity Fund
In 2019, the team at Schaedler Yesco developed the SYD Employee Charity Fund. Each year employees nominate the charities they would like to be considered for donations from the fund. The nominations are then announced and the staff votes. Votes are tallied and the top four are announced as the year’s recipients.
Fundraising for the fund is done throughout the year and includes a variety of initiatives: SYD Expo fundraising; Superbowl Squares (making a donation for a square); a March Madness Bracket (making a donation to participate); two summer BBQ fundraisers hosted by a retired SYD staffer; employee fundraisers (from spices to jewelry, employees with side businesses ran fundraisers for the fund); a silent auction with baskets donated by employees; raffle and shirt sales at the company picnic; fundraising at the customer golf outing; and a year-end raffle and mug sale.
FROM THE JUDGES: “This is a perfect demonstration of this category,” said the judges. “From doing a really nice job tying the campaign into their branding to giving their branches autonomy, it’s really good community PR.”
Distributor $401M to $700M
Summit Electric Supply
Hatsgiving
For 2022, Summit’s Hatsgiving initiative focused on local food pantries by getting its suppliers, customers, and associates involved in food drives.
Seven supplier partners were invited to participate, with seven different cobranded hats produced and distributed to service centers across Summit’s service area. Customers who purchased $50 worth of a partner brand and brought in a nonperishable food item received a hat.
Details of execution included:
• Explaining the promotion to service center managers and asking them to select a local food pantry
• Creating posters and flyers for display in Summit service centers
• Sending emails to the customer base explaining how to get a free hat while helping their local community
• Developing a landing page on summit.com that included promotional details and highlighted participating food pantries
• Facebook ads targeting electrical professionals in the service area
• Setting up an intranet page so associates could stay up to date with the promotion
FROM THE JUDGES: “Summit knows how to do PR,” said the judges. “They linked to the brand—which is both brand building and revenue generating. They also know their audience: Their customers like hats.”
Distributor More than $700M
Sonepar USA
Earth Week
For Earth Week 2022, Sonepar launched its second annual tree-planting initiative to incentivize customers to help rebuild forests, save paper by purchasing online, and utilize sustainable products and service offerings in a weeklong campaign.
The campaign had both internal and external targets:
• Internal: Associates were engaged with office events promoting sustainable choices—including supporting a local farm-to-table restaurant to cater lunch, gifting associates a plant from a local nursery, and pledging to donate $10,000 to plant trees in a national forest.
• External: A landing page on the website featured sustainable products and services customized to each company and ended with a call to action to purchase online to plant a tree (one tree would be donated/planted for every online order that was placed on the website during Earth Week).
Earth Week was promoted to customers digitally via email, branch TV, a web banner, a cross promotional email banner, an outlook banner, and social media posts. Manufacturer partners had the opportunity to partner with Sonepar companies via co-branded collateral.
FROM THE JUDGES: “Sonepar made it easy for customers to embrace sustainability and put action behind their words,” said the judges. “The result was good metrics, and they met their goals with 10,000 trees planted.”
Supplier Less Than $250M
Intermatic
Support for Ukraine—Supply Drive
Soon after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Intermatic’s marketing team learned about the work of contract-employee Oleksandr Musiievych. A native of Ukraine, Musiievych was part of a small group that had started taking weekly flights from Chicago to Krakow, Poland, to deliver essential supplies to the front lines.
After conversations with Musiievych, the Intermatic team felt it could best support his efforts by leveraging the power of the company’s employees and their local communities. Working in tandem with the HR department, the team developed a plan to communicate Musiievych’s story and put out the call for donations of essential supplies to support future trips oversees.
To communicate the story, an interview with Musiievych was filmed over Zoom and supported with in-person interviews from internal stakeholders. The interviews were then combined with footage from the war and of Musiievych picking up a shipment of supplies to create a short video and article that summarized the project.
Using these assets, Intermatic shared a variety of email communications and social posts that gave a call to action for the supply drive. In addition to garnering support from employees, Intermatic coordinated with building management at its shared corporate campus to help solicit donations from other organizations and local businesses.
FROM THE JUDGES: “Intermatic created many assets to tell the story and did an effective job linking it to the company,” said the judges. “It’s a very personal story that has been effectively linked to Intermatic.”
Supplier More Than $250M
Legrand
Legrand + Building Homes for Heroes
As part of its commitment to sustainability and corporate responsibility, Legrand’s Better Communities program endeavors to enhance employee and community welfare through partnerships and projects that help people enjoy healthier, more productive, and more rewarding lives.
To best leverage its organizational strengths, the Better Communities program has three focal areas as the organizing principles for volunteerism, donations, and partnership: better homes, better schools, and better recovery.
It was in relation to better homes that Legrand put its commitment to community welfare into action at the recent Electrical Wiring Systems Division Sales Meeting, which brought together more than 400 reps from Legrand’s sales organization (including agency partners), as well as its marketing and product teams.
In advance of the meeting, the “Building Homes for Heroes” microsite was set up so attendees could donate online. The site was integrated into the meeting app, and signage throughout the venue had QR codes that directed attendees to it. An employee-staffed credit card machine station was also on-site, enabling another touchpoint for donation and for the meeting’s attendees to ask questions and learn more about the organization. Lastly, attendees also had the opportunity to support the effort by donating for a chance to win raffle prizes provided by Legrand vendor partners. Legrand matched all donations dollar for dollar.
Promotional and communication elements included a pre-event email campaign to all meeting attendees, inclusion of a module in the meeting app, text and push notification messages to meeting attendees, a custom video, and an on-stage large check presentation.
FROM THE JUDGES: “This is a really well-supported effort,” said the judges, adding that Legrand “took it to that ‘final step’ by communicating the message with a comprehensive campaign.”
PR – COMMUNITY OUTREACH / – Honorable Mentions
Wholesale Electric Supply Co., Inc.
McCulloch Industrial Technology Center
Van Meter Inc.
Operation Give Birds
Atkore
Atkore Community Outreach
Tagged with awards, Best of the Best, marketing