CHRISTMAS SMILES

SJ Public Relations serviced Coca Cola by promoting its community relations efforts and securing favorable coverage in Spanish-language media.

OPPORTUNITY

SJPR has worked with the Coca Cola for close to a decade in reaching the diverse multicultural communities that make up Chicagoland.

Our market insights identified a significant way to impact low income communities during the holiday season with a memorable Christmas program that would bring out the best of Coca Cola and put a smile to our children’s faces …during the seasons spirit of giving.

After a bit of additional research we developed and implemented an annual toy/product donation program for Chicago’s inner-city population.

STRATEGY

SJPR solicited the help of the clergy at approximately 50 churches throughout Chicagoland and developed the first annual ”Coca Cola’s Christmas Toy Giveaway which helped to serve as distribution points. We then secured the participation of KB Toys who provided us toys at half cost in effect doubling our funds to procure toys. We provided cash coupons to our Clergy/Ambassadors based on their approved list of low income families and they procured the toys for their parishioners.

One hundred percent of the funds were converted directly into toys, which were given away by Coca Cola during several on-site gift-giving events throughout Chicago before Christmas Day.

Additionally, SJPR secured the volunteer assistance of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago, as well as numerous Coca Cola volunteer Santa Claus impersonators to participate in the Toys give-away program.

To provide community wide awareness, we orchestrated a Media Relations Campaign with the print and broadcast media and enlisted a partnership with local TV to run our 15 sec. TV PSA’s.

RESULTS

Over the course of 15 years, coca Cola’s toy donation program provided over 150,000 inner-city children with an invaluable reason to look forward to the Christmas season. Each year, with each one of the 10,000 plus toys that are given away, Coca Cola reinforces it’s corporate responsibility among the media, clergy, and the community in general.

SJPR has created a partnership with the media who has embraced our program and provided us with local coverage and thousands of dollars of pre-publicity for Coca Cola’s Christmas Toy Giveaway program.

The smiles of our children are priceless…