Background
Bristol-Myers Products provided funds for a new national technical assistance program called “Meals-On-Wheels America” (MOWA) to help local agencies in 20 cities. This enabled MOWA to expand and deliver meals to homebound elderly on holidays and weekends. Consumers supported MOWA by redeeming coupons in newspapers through a free standing insert (FSI) offer and in retail outlets.
Our role was to implement a national and local market media relations program to generate awareness about MOWA among consumers and encourage redemption of the FSI. The local MOWA agencies designated representatives as the media spokespeople. The head of the NYC Department of Aging was the program’s national spokesperson.
Results
We arranged more than 100 media interviews in 20 cities so that millions of Americans learned about the worthwhile program and supported it.
We also arranged a live segment on NBC’s Today Show with the NYC Department of Aging’s Director on Thanksgiving Day crediting Bristol-Myers Products’ philanthropic effort. Civil rights activist Rosa Parks was featured as she served meals in Atlanta.
Due to our success, the next year we provided media relations services in 10 other markets.