Boxtops for Education Back to School Promotion in Pictures

Last Sunday August 7, 2011 Boxtops for Education ran a tightly coordinated back to school promotion in my market, and probably yours as well. It featured dozens of ads in my local newspaper promoting many of its supporting brands. This post includes a representative number of scans of the ads I spotted in the paper, all of which are now found the Alden Keene Cause Marketing Database.

Boxtops for Education was founded by General Mills, but has been adopted by other non-competing brands. The biggest presence overall was General Mills’ themed FSI (Free Standing Insert), which, in my market, had 12-pages of coupons. Mainly it was General Mills strongest brands, Yoplait, Big G Cereals, Progresso, Nature Valley, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, etc. There was at least some Boxtops for Education branding on 11 of the 12 pages in the FSI. The FSI cover is on the left.

Yoplait, so closely associated with Susan G Komen for the Cure was one of the brands in the FSI, and indeed some cartons of Yoplait carry the Boxtops seal during much of the year.

Avery, the office products company, used its corner of one page of the OfficeMax flyer to promote its partnership in Boxtops for Education, a co-branding approach that grocers and packaged goods companies have utilized for decades.

Avery also used an FSI, only in this case to promote its heavy duty binders.

Walmart used both sides of its one-page insert to trumpet General Mills, including some items that were featured in the General Mills themed FSI and a handful that weren’t.

Another Boxtops partner brand is Ziploc from SC Johnson. The creative in this FSI was a bit of a head-scratcher for me. This is a back to school promotion. Where’s the mention of using Ziploc bags and storage containers for lunch at school?

Finally, to give you an idea of the depth of coordination the promotion required, here’s a flyer from a small local grocery chain called Maceys.

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