Hy-Vee Donates SMART Boards to Local Schools
Iowa-based supermarket chain Hy-Vee and Procter & Gamble, in partnership with Sara Lee, have donated more than 200 SMART Board Interactive white board systems to schools within Hy-Vee markets.
The donations are the culmination of Hy-Vee’s SMART Points program – a cause-marketing platform conceived of by Blue Chip Marketing Worldwide – in which consumers earned points by purchasing $20 worth of P&G products at any of more than 200 Hy-Vee stores. If they purchased $5 worth or more of Sara Lee bakery items in the same transaction, their points were doubled. These points were then donated to the school of the consumers’ choice.
The schools with the most points per student were awarded a SMART Board system valued at $1,500. In addition, consumers who donated the most points to a winning school received a MacBook laptop computer for their child. There was one winning school or student for every participating Hy-Vee store.
“Hy-Vee is committed to building a brighter future for the children in the communities we serve,” said Jon Wendel, Hy-Vee executive VP for supply chain and marketing. “Thanks to the SMART Points program, as well as the generosity of our partners Procter & Gamble and Sara Lee, thousands of students now have access to some of the best learning tools available.”
Ryan Sullivan, Blue Chip director of retailer marketing, said: “SMART Points is a great example of a program that benefits all parties involved. When retailers are able to implement campaigns that add value for their shoppers and their manufacturers, and at the same time benefit the community as a whole, everyone wins.”
The SMART Points program ran from Sept. 1 to Nov. 30; delivery of the SMART Boards and MacBooks to the winners was completed in February. More than 3,000 schools participated in the program; nearly 16,000 sets of points were donated to schools and ads for SMART Points on Facebook received more than 23 million impressions.
Promotional elements for the SMART Points campaign included POS materials; school awareness kits; a custom microsite that tracked in real time when points were added to increase consumer interaction and engagement; e-mail blasts to the SMART Points website database; and full-page Hy-Vee circular ads.
Northbrook, Ill.-based Blue Chip Marketing Worldwide developed and managed the campaign and also created many of the promotional elements.
Hy-Vee Inc. is an employee-owned corporation operating 230 retail stores in eight Midwestern states.