From PR Week, August 2, 1999.
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PR Week
New Product
Devouring the Y2K Bug
By Aimee Grove
Client: Knudsen’s Candy (Hayward, CA) and Silicon Valley Confection.
PR Team: In-House and Attention Business Communications (Pleasanton, CA)
Campaign: Y2K Chocolate Bug Debut.
Time Frame: May 1999 to December 1999.
Budget: $5,000.
Pitching a timely product that lends itself to eye-catching photography – especially for the art-starved gray pages of the business press – doesn’t necessarily take strategic planning or substantial funds. In fact, sometimes all it takes for a low-profile mom-and-pop business at a tiny upstart firm to generate major league buzz is the right mailing list and edible samples.
That’s what Knudsen’s Candy Company and Silicon Valley Confectioners learned when they launched a chocolate novelty product called the Y2K Bug.
Strategy
When Rich Yacco and Al Abrahams, founders of Silicon Valley Confectioners, approached Knudsen’s Candy Company President Dave Knudsen last March with the idea of mass producing a chocolate beetle to play on the Y2K hysteria of the approaching millennium, Knudsen says he believed they had a hook that would sell.
“Usually I turn these kinds of things down, but these bugs looked so cute and the idea seemed so timely, we decided to go ahead and do it,” recalls Knudsen, whose family-owned and operated business has been producing candy for wholesale and retail sale for more than 25 years. To tie in with the product’s timely theme, Yacco and Abrahams crafted the tagline, “Eat it while there’s still time.”
Now it was simply a matter getting the candy bugs in front of the press. For this, the two companies pooled resources and enlisted the help of Barbara Lewis, President of Attention Business Communications, who had worked with Knudsen in the past.
Tactics
Three press releases were crafted for the media relations effort. First, Lewis drafted a general product intro release for the Y2K Bug, which was accompanied by a photo of the product and distributed nationally via business wire. The wire service sent the release to business print and electronic media and distributed it for an additional fee over the specialized Y2K wire, which carries news and features surrounding the millennium.
Approximately a week later, Lewis developed a second release for the candy, food, marketing and grocery trades that announced the new product showing at the upcoming All Candy Expo in Chicago. A third release targeted key tech journalists, business media and local TV, radio and newspaper contacts identified by Yacco and Lewis. An ice-packaged chocolate bug accompanied both releases. In all, approximately 100 chocolate bugs were sent out.
Results
Within weeks of the mailings, newspapers in both companies’ backyards ran highly visible profiles spotlighting one or the other company as well as the bug itself. For example, the Contra Costa Tri-Valley Business Times ran a story on the front page showing David Knudsen holding a tray of the bugs along with a full story inside.
Similarly, the June 24th San Jose Mercury News ran a photo and profile on Yacco and Abrahams on the front cover of the Silicon Valley Life section. The Hayward Daily Review carried a captioned photo of the product and several candy industry trades ran items as well. The biggest hit to date, however, stemmed from a story by a Reuters reporter who cited the bug at the All Candy Expo. Based on this wire report, CBS This Morning showed the Y2K bug during the first week of July. CBS Radio also ran an item in an Eye on Y2K segment.
Sales have also been affected by the media coverage with orders pouring in from such places as the U.S. Department of Energy, Fry’s Electronics, and 7-Eleven parent company The Southland Corporation.
Future
Obviously the lifespan of a campaign tied to the Y2K bug is limited. However, Lewis plans to prolong the publicity at least through December. “We’ll probably send out a follow-up press release talking about the orders received after the show and the overwhelming response to the product,” she says. In addition, Lewis says a pre-holiday publicity push is in order. “We will do a press release aimed at the general consumer telling them where they can buy these bugs as presents,” says Lewis, who also plans to target food editors and reporters putting together holiday gift guides.
And what about Silicon Valley’s Yacco and Abrahams? Fueled by the success and attention generated by the Y2K bug, the two plan to roll out several new products with different themes as early as November.