GOLD

Papermate, "World’s Most Stolen Pen," PHD (Pan-regional)

Only a very small percentage of people actually buy pens which is a big problem for PaperMate. Yes, PaperMate enjoys robust brand awareness but it is not such a big deal in a sleepy category where few consumers are buying pens. Most people adopt the mentality of “Why would I buy a pen when I can just steal one from the office or a hotel?” Let’s be honest we all do it. Only a small percentage of the world actually buys pens. Why? Because people steal pens from other people or places – office co-workers, hotels, banks, and restaurants, etc., thus leading us to develop a campaign extending from this human truth. InkJoy by PaperMate is a revolutionary new pen and it is worth stealing. This led to the idea of “The World’s Most Stolen Pen/Office Crime Watch” project. PaperMate sought to raise awareness for this new product by helping to prevent InkJoy theft through raising awareness of the issue in a humorous fashion. The campaign sought to give people tools to organize, report and protect their new beloved pen from the most common office crime. The message was placed in murder and mayhem environments. If you tuned in to any television crime drama, like Rizzoli & Isles, you were likely to see a PaperMate InkJoy ad. PaperMate also sponsored TNT’s ‘Life as a Drama Week’ featuring custom vignettes. This broad reach tactic was supported online where in addition to behavioral targeted display advertising they implemented paid search efforts such as the ‘Catch a Coworker’ Facebook App and Promotion. The app allows office members to report a stolen PaperMate InkJoy, create a police composite style sketch of the suspect and gave them a chance to win. All the communication pushed to the PaperMate Facebook page where people could learn more about InkJoy by interacting with the story, sharing it and entering to win great prizes. Through the Twitter Hashtag: #StolenPen, they tapped into existing stolen pen conversations that were already happening online to grow PaperMate’s Twitter following. Utilization of something so relatable allows for mass appeal. This campaign was able to connect with consumers in the US and other countries without changing strategy because everyone has been in this situation of needing a pen – regardless of the language spoken. An easily relatable message placed in environments that enriched the communication led to the sale of 17MM pens in one quarter alone, January net sales were 12% above forecast and PaperMate whose market share was stagnant grew by a full 6 points from a 30% share to 36% share of this lucrative market.