APRIL 30, 2009

Cheerios’ Perfect Promotion

Sometimes, I hear about various corporate marketing promotions and think to myself, “What could that company possibly have been thinking? Why would anyone respond positively to that type of outreach?” (The recent Kohl’s TV campaign comes to mind – wow.) But sometimes, I have the complete opposite reaction: I find that a marketing effort is so on target that, in retrospect, it seems obvious.

Yesterday, I read about just such a promotion in MarketingDaily. Cheerios, as part of its seven year-old Spoonfuls of Stories program, has been working with Simon & Schuster to feature more than 35 million paperback editions of selected books from the publisher’s children’s division free in boxes of the cereal. The goal of the program is to encourage parents and children to enjoy reading together, as well as get great books into kids’ hands, according to Cheerios Marketing Manager Jeff Hingher.

As a mom to five-year olds, I’ve purchased my fair share of Cheerios over the years. And I remember reading a book to those five-year olds that I got from a Cheerios box – a classic about a family reunion called The Relatives Came, by Cynthia Rylant. One particular illustration in that book made one of my daughters, who was two or so at the time, laugh with glee whenever she saw it, which is a sweet memory for me. Thank you, Cheerios!

Cheerios has also used the promotion to help identify up-and-coming authors. Starting in 2007, it launched a new-author contest that allows undiscovered authors to submit their books to Cheerios for a chance at a $5,000 prize and consideration for publication by Simon & Schuster. The first winner will be published in hardcover this summer after a paperback run in cereal boxes this spring.

So why is this a successful promotion?

• Cheerios perfectly targeted its audience. Cheerios are a mainstay in any toddler’s house – what better way to reach out to parents who are always in search of good books to share with their kids?
• Offering new books on a regular schedule attracts repeat buyers (and deters defection to store brands or other competitors).
• The brand earns goodwill for doing a good thing – promoting reading and family time.
• Simon & Schuster wins by getting its products in the hands of parents, who buy books as birthday presents and, like I did, may need to replace the paperback copies that come in the cereal box.
• Cheerios and Simon & Schuster also win by reinforcing the promotion through an interactive contest to identify new talent.

I also like that Cheerios is using mommy bloggers and book bloggers to get the word out about the promotion and the author contest via giveaways of Cheerios’ Spoonful of Stories books.