SZPR
Company: SZPR, Carlsbad, California
Company Description: SZPR is a full service award winning marketing and public relations agency with offices in Boston and Hawaii. SZPR is known for its innovative fresh, insightful communications campaigns that include gorilla, grassroots, online and traditional media relations tactics. Over the past four years, SZPR has grown over 2,000%, which now has national clients such as Dreyer’s Ice Cream and Hilton.
Nomination Category: Media & Marketing Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Communications Campaign of the Year
Nomination Title: SZPR's Own The City PR Campaign For Dreyer's Ice Cream
communications campaign (up to 500 words):
1. SZPR's Own the City PR Campaign for Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream
2. The campaign was initiated April 2007 and ran through September 2007
3. Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream approached SZPR with the desire for a regional program
to strengthen their relationship with local communities and bring more tangible
experience to their various product offerings. They wanted to become top of mind
as a snack food for a wide demographic from kids to working professionals. SZPR put
together a grassroots "Own the City" campaign 4-prong campaign that could be
duplicated, reach different market segments and exported to other markets. To
target working professionals we staged the "Rocky Road Lunch Break Challenge" which
partners with chambers of commerce and business associations to host a city-wide
scavenger hunt with corporate teams competing to win a Dreyer's Ice Cream cooler
for their offices. Sampling stations were set up all over the city as people race
around sporting Dreyer’s T-Shirts to win. To target kids and families we established a
“Dreyer’s Get Well” promotion through children's hospitals that distributed tonsillectomy
kits and awarded Dreyer's fruit bars, coloring books and other goodies to kids who had
just had their tonsils removed. SZPR also launched a "Little Heroes" campaign in
collaboration with the San Diego Padres. Communities nominate kids who have done something
kind and brave in the community and the winner gets to throw the first pitch at the
Padres game featured on the game TVs wearing a Nestle t-shirt. The winner’s family
was also awarded free Padres tickets and parking passes for the game. In an
effort to reach out to college kids and the art community, SZPR staged a Nestle Mural
Painting Contest. They approached a key customer, Hawaiian Saved Ice who had a very visible
building in need of revitalization that was in a highly trafficked area next to the
boardwalk and beach in San Diego. The owner agreed to partner with NESTLE® to
create a mural to help liven up the storefront. SZPR collaborated with Platt
(Media Arts) College, San Diego to distribute flyers and promote a contest for art students
to design and paint an ice cream mural. The prize for the winning design was a $1,000
scholarship. The results have exceeded Dreyer’s expectations and goals and
garnered over 90 million public and media impressions. According to Diane McIntyre, Public
Relations Manager, “SZPR has been a true partner to Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream,
integrating a hugely successful media plan that increased brand sales results.
Their execution was flawless and produced results more than three times our initial
goal.” Because of its tremendous success Dreyer’s has asked SZPR to run the campaigns in
New York and Orange County.
4. The campaign team included Sarah Znerold, Jennifer Borba and Jamie Werner
To view a summary of supporting materials including event photos, media clips, and
results achieved. Cut and paste the following link to your browser:
The file “OTC 07 Final recap” is probably the quickest way to view a summary of the
campaign.
ftp://szprguest:123456@szpr.com/Stevies
To view sample media clips from the communications campaign click on the links
below:
The Street Story:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/entertainment/street/2007/08/i_scream_you_scream_w
e_all_scr_1.html
San Diego Union Tribune, Signonsandiego.com:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070629/news_lz1mc29hero.html
At just 25 years old, Sarah Znerold founded SZPR in 2002 and has grown revenues
over 2,000%. She now has a client roster of 20 names including Dreyer’s Ice Cream
and Hilton and 15 employees. Her creative campaigns have generated coverage in
USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Newsweek, Glamour, and countless others.
Sarah donates over $20,000 in pro-bono services annually. Her awards include, PRSA
Bernays Awards, MarCom Awards, Print Communicator Awards, San Diego
Metropolitan’s “40 under 40” Award, YWCA Tribute to Women in Business Award, 944
Magazine’s “10 Movers and Shakers Under 30” and Stevie’s “Best Young Entrepreneur
Award.”