Competitors Team to Push Games
4/5/99
Triangle Business Journal, (Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, NC)

By Pat Youden

Raleigh - For a nonprofit organization with no advertising budget, the 1999 Special Olympics World Games has managed to reach national prominence, with advertisements for games running in Time, Newsweek, People, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated.

The cost of the advertising campaign would have been well over $1.5 million if the Special Olympics had to pay for it.

Most of these media placements were donated, said Tina Wilson a spokeswoman for the World Games.

"It's great we didn't have to spend any money," she said. "We don't have an advertising budget."

The ad campaign for the games was created mainly by donations of time and creative efforts.

Three local companies, which usually are competitors, joined forces to provide much of the time and talent for the campaign. Ad agencies Rockett, Burkhead & Winslow of Raleigh and MRPP of Cary have worked with Capitol Broadcasting Co., which owns a local television and radio station, to spread the word that the Special Olympics are this summer.

Rockett Burkhead was instrumental in getting the Special Olympics into the national magazines and a large direct mail campaign. They also developed the logo for the games, based on an illustration by Boston artist Gayle Kubaker.

"All the magazines donated the space," said Brian Hoyle of Rockett Burkhead, who has worked extensively on the ad campaign for the games. "We shattered all records for public service placement."

Capitol Broadcasting was very helpful in coordinating a radio campaign to recruit volunteers for the games, said Wilson. "Rob Hankin worked with us in coordinating a weekend recruitment campaign that was very successful," she said.

Sheila Ogle, president of MRPP and chairwoman of the Special Olympics communications committee, spearheaded the radio advertising campaign. Along with MRPP vice president Sue Toth, Ogle set up meetings for media representatives in Raleigh, Charlotte and Atlanta.

"We told them the story of the Special Olympics and got the representatives behind this idea so that they in turn could get their stations behind it," said Ogle.

The result was a public service announcement, produced by Rockett Burkhead and digitally transmitted to more than 6,000 radio stations nationwide. The California company that provided the digital transmission, DGS, also donated its services.

Ogle estimated that her company contributed the equivalent of more than $30,000 in staff time, travel time and expenses, postage and mailing and luncheons for the media representatives.

Direct mailer ADVO of Raleigh also worked with Rockett Burkhead to contribute to the campaign, donating space in a direct mailing that reached more than 35 million households in 35 states.

Why run nationwide ads for a North Carolina event? Would people come to the Triangle just for this event?

"Some people might," said Hoyle of Rockett Burkhead. "But the real purpose of the ads is to help develop athletes and volunteers. Joe Smith in California might not come to Raleigh for the games, but if he calls his local radio station for more information, they will put him in touch with the local Special Olympics organization in California."

This would generate interest in the games, for people who might want to participate or volunteer. Another purpose of the public service announcements is to change public opinion of the Special Olympics.

"In the past it was perceived as a good cause with a related sporting event. The emphasis was on the cause," said Hoyle. "We want people to see it as a sporting event with a cause-related component. We want people to know that these are real athletes."