Pet Calendar Breeds Success
For the last four falls, our newspaper has put together a very successful and profitable pet calendar for NIE. The process takes an entire year, so now is a great time to start. But know what you are getting into–this is a massive project.
Phase One
We begin with a contest, running a half-page ad soliciting readers for photos of their pets throughout the months of August and September. Based on voting results, 13 pets are chosen to grace the calendar–12 on the inside and one grand-prize winner in color on the cover. The ad includes information on what types of photos to submit (clear, sharp, color snapshots), the cost of voting (25 cents per vote) and details on the voting process.
To entice pet lovers to donate–and just because it's a great cause–we also advertised the fact that a portion of the proceeds would benefit the local Humane Society. We donate 10 percent of our final earnings to that office. You can decide to donate less or more depending on what your NIE goal is. Frankly, we've always really needed the money, so giving them more wasn't prudent.
We asked a local pet store to donate a $100 gift certificate to the grand-prize winning pet.
Advertising sold approximately $3000 worth of advertising on the calendar. The department sold 72, 2 columns x 2" ads within the calendar and on the back page of the calendar.
 A successful pet calendar can be put together with much hard work. |
Phase Two
The contest began with the first round of voting. This round determined the top 20 pets. We've done this with the final 13 in the past, but there's not as much incentive then. Since we had 278 pet photos entered this year, we made the decision to run all 278 over a three-week period. We featured about 70 photos in each full-page ad, and ran four separate sets of photos. The photos end up looking like little thumbnails, but they work just fine for our purposes.
The pet photos are arranged alphabetically by owner's last name. A ballot was designed at the bottom of each page. The voting deadline was extended one week after the last set of photos ran so that those pets featured last would still have ample time to receive votes.
During the last week of voting, I run updated tallies each day in the newspaper, showing which pets are ahead. This tactic helps to spur on the friendly competition between pet owners and resulted in about $2500 last-minute dollars for the fundraiser this year.
Phase Three
Once the 20 finalists are chosen from the preliminary round, their photos are featured in a half-page ad run throughout late October and early November. The readers are asked to vote–this time for which pet should be featured on the front cover.
Again, during the last week of voting, updated tallies are included to spur more votes.
The pet calendar contest has garnered anywhere from $6,000-$8,000 for our NIE program each year.
Phase Four
The composing department designed the calendar, and our sister newspaper printed it for us. We hired a local print shop to stitch and trim the calendars. The print shop needed about two weeks lead time for project completion. Calendars were inserted in the newspaper to all subscribers and single copies (distribution date has varied but we usually attempt to insert at some point before Christmas).
Tips & Ideas
• We had NO success ordering an overrun and attempting to sell them to make extra money (even with $1 going to the Humane Society). VERY few sold at all, and it ended up being more trouble than it was worth.
• It's important to get the staff enthused about the project and make them feel appreciated. We were overwhelmed with the response our first time through, and the staff was really overwhelmed by how many people were coming in at all times of the workday.
• Pairing with the Humane Society really seemed to help but don't be surprised if people ask why you aren't giving all money to them. Really emphasize the NIE program, so no one will think they're giving money to general newspaper funds.
• Ending the contest in early November is ideal, since the advertising department will be going crazy with Christmas promotions shortly after that.
• For future pet calendars, we intend to have our final set of pets narrowed down to at least 15 (probably 20), instead of 12. Some pet owners were content just knowing their pets would be in the calendar, so they didn't continue to vote once that was secured.
• Be ready. Once the community gets behind it, folks begin calling several months ahead to make sure their "Fluffy" is in the running. (I had people calling as early as March to submit photos; I return all photos to them with notes about when we begin accepting them).
• Make sure to advertise that the pet photos cannot be returned for any reason. Trying to keep track of all of them after the contest is crazy, and asking for self-addressed stamped envelopes is interesting, too. (Several folks send in small envelopes for photos that might be 5 x 7 or larger!?) Just making it clear that they should send a copy and not their only one is important. That way when it's all done, you can just toss the photos or save them for future promotional materials about the contest.
It's a fun project, but it's also a time guzzler. Make sure you're committed to it before you begin. And as with anything you do at your newspaper, make sure everything has been approved by ABC. Don't just take my word for it.
Emily R. Workman is NIE program director at The Benton County Daily Record & the Northwest Arkansas Times, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Northwest Arkansas Edition. Visit the Web site for NIE tips and suggestions at www.nwanews.com/nie.
Company Sharing
We're doing a great job communicating at our papers. Lee's NIE coordinators meet every other month via conference calls to share best practices, discuss revenue-generating plans and get new ideas from guest speakers. I am proud to say that I spoke to the group on my first NIE conference call and shared some Indiana thoughts and events. This forum has helped us establish an excellent networking avenue to share with each other, our successes and challenges. Added exposure to the Lee's NIE Handbook, also helps with the NIE'ers general questions and gives us a focus how to better plan our year.
Michelle Juehring, our NIE Coordinator, recently did a survey of our 2001-2002 NIE school year. Here were our findings:
Circulation:
• 6,813,641 newspapers were delivered to 186,444 students and 7,551 teachers in 8,381 classrooms;
• 13,973 newspapers were delivered in the home delivery program and 101,221 newspapers were delivered in the college residential program
Debbie Jachim
The Times, Munster, Ind.
Chat Room for Teachers
A year or more ago, we set up a chat room that we use for education. We have done follow-up "chats" with teachers from classes and count their time towards credit they earn, and we've also had a meeting or two in the chat room, when all parties could share information without having to meet at a specific location. We only open the chat room for specific dates and times when we have a specific purpose. It's been successful, though, and has allowed teachers the opportunity to share ideas with one another, something they don't get much time or opportunity for. Our State Office of Education liked the idea. It has also introduced a number of teachers to the Internet and taught them how to access a Web site.
To do this required us to buy specific software, but we were able to work it into our NIE budget. The other option available to us was a bulletin board system, where teachers could post messages and respond to other messages. It was less expensive and easier to set up, but we wanted real-time interaction. By doing the chat room on specific dates, we were able to have someone from our NIE office monitor the discussions; and since we haven't had the chat room open all the time and have only given the address to teachers involved in classes, it hasn't been a problem. 
Carolyn Dickson
Deseret News, Salt Lake City (72,000)