M & I Sponsor Activation

M & I Corporation is a sponsor of Summerfest, the World’s Largest Music Festival. Geiger was contacted to develop integration of music and its sponsorship of Summerfest into a promotional activity to engage M & I employees. Geiger & Associates offered creative concepts, researching trends and matching the target audience and culture with the activity.  For employee day at Summerfest, a M & Idol contest was conducted for employees. Employees were contacted to sign up for the opportunity to be selected as the first M & Idol, with finalists competing on stage at Summerfest atthe M&I Classic Rock Stage area. Geiger negotiated to arrange for a meet & greet opportunity for the finalists with American Idol contestant Danny Gokey, who was appearing at Summerfest the same day as the M & Idol competition.

Geiger created the concept, developed communication documents to employees, negotiated agreements with partners to execute the promotion, and executed all events. Auditions were held using professional sound and lights, Master of Ceremonies, and a panel of judges from the professional music industry. The contestants were then pared to finalists, and the same format was used at Employee Day.

Results:

• Employee participation in the activity doubled from past experiences.
• Largest attendance at Employee Day at Summerfest, and largest audience of all stages on the grounds for the time period.
• A video was produced of the auditions and finals.
• Professional photographer recorded the activity and the Gokey appearance.
• Comment from M & I executive:

o   Great job on Sunday!  Everything worked out so perfectly, and I know that's because of all your advance planning.  ,,,, two senior executives who were in attendance both said it was a wonderful event.........with very talented employees.

• Pre Summerfest hospitality reception with Les Paul;
• Discovery World exhibit

• Radio remote with play list to include Les Paul guitar- playing musicians
• Viewing of the video
• Opportunity to record a greeting for inclusion into the video
• Appearance by Les Paul
• Building lighting

• Three(3) press releases were sent by M & I to major publications. 6,000 websites ran at least one of the press releases.
• In addition, Daryl Stuermer placed the release on his website, darylstuermer.com, as well as the band Genesis website, genesis-music.com
• Radio partners 97.3 the Brew and 95.7 also placed on their website as well as recorded mentions for placement on their broadcasts.
• Radio station also appeared at the Building lighting with an interactive game, trailer and played music from Les Paul guitar players.
• Local television stations covered the building lighting and Les Paul appearance.
• A 23 minute video was produced and played at the Discovery World exhibit.
• The employee competition at Summerfest filled all available timeslots, and will be repeated in subsequent events.

(Gallery) A promotion was developed at a major Milwaukee Festival where top chefs in the area would create dishes made from beef. The chefs prepared the food on stage, were miked for explanations, and created samples for 100 persons in the audience. The dishes were judged by three (3) professionals. The recipes were then made available on-line at the Beef Council site. In addition, a booth was set up during the festival for information dispensing and additional sampling.

The promotion succeeded in getting exposure for creative ways to cook with beef, allowed sampling on site, and created visibility for the WBC. Over 200,000 persons attended this 3-day event.