WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — A joint promotion conducted last fall by Procter & Gamble and Hy-Vee here resulted in the donation of 125 Smart Boards to schools throughout the Midwest, said Patrick Calhoun, sales manager, North Central Region-Fabric & Home Care, P&G, who worked with Hy-Vee on the program.
“Schools want and need Smart Boards,” said Calhoun, who explained the program during a workshop last week at the Food Marketing Institute Show in Las Vegas.
A Smart Board, which costs between $3,000 and $5,000, is a large interactive whiteboard that can be employed as an instructional tool instead of a traditional blackboard. A projector displays a computer’s video content on the whiteboard, which also acts as a touchscreen accepting input from a finger or a pen.
“During an economic downturn, people can’t give money to schools or churches but they want to shop at businesses that do give,” said Jay Marshall, vice president of Center Store for Hy-Vee, at the FMI workshop.
Under the program, every $20 spent on P&G products at Hy-Vee accrued 100 “smart points,” which were printed out on coupons by Catalina checkout printers. Shoppers could then donate the points to the school of their choice on www.hyveesmartpoints.com. The schools near each store with the most points at the end of the program received the Smart Board. A running tally of point leaders was maintained on the site.
P&G sales at Hy-Vee were up 10% during the promotion, said Calhoun, adding that the average transaction for purchases with P&G products was $125 compared with the overall store average of $42.
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