When Sandra Alexander, a marketing rep for cosmetic firm darci by Di Caprio, sent out a press release announcing the firm's new makeup brush cleaner in September 2011, she never dreamed that the product would find itself in the Oscar gift bags of Hollywood's elite at last year's Oscar ceremony.

Upon reading the press release, a representative from an agency that specializes in the entertainment industry reached out to Darci Henry and Lisa Di Caprio, to see if they would be interested in contributing their new brush cleaner to the gift bags for Oscar nominees in the top five categories of the 2012 Oscars.

At first the pair ignored the call, but after receiving a second call telling them their product would be great for the celebrity swag bag, they decided to get involved. "Make it as unique as you can," was the only request the agency made. The women brainstormed about how best to build around this opportunity, and ultimately won raves and press coverage, including mentions in Lucky magazine and Philadelphia Business Journal for the cleverly designed gift packaging, which centered on the founders' mission statement, "The Beauty of Believing in Yourself." Henry and Di Caprio, divorced mothers who overcame personal adversity, became best friends and started darci by Di Caprio to support themselves, become independent and inspire others to do the same.

The women chose boxes that looked like hollowed-out books bearing the tagline, "Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover." The box contained the brand's signature brush cleaner, with limited-edition Kabuki brushes (no animal hair was used and the product was cruelty free-certified by PETA) as well as a towel with the brand's logo to dry off the brushes.

A card insert read,  "You can't summarize your career with one performance, define a character with a single facial expression or take one look at someone and understand who they are or how far they've come. On the surface, your makeup brushes may seem clean. But look a little closer and you may find a different story." The gift box also contained a mini movie script and a short video on a USB drive telling the story behind the brand.

Appearances on talk shows and morning shows to discuss the Oscar gift bags reached almost 3 million viewers. The press that darci by Di Caprio received resulted in increased traffic in their PA-based store, plus the addition of four new wholesale accounts, including Beauty Cirque, New Beauty at Fred Segal, and two major online retailers, www.beautysak.com and www.dermstore.com.

Alberta Pork wanted chefs to share their passion for pork, as well as their recipes on how to prepare this meat. The Passion for Pork campaign, which began in April 2012, included a website and over 900 television spots. This created major awareness for the website with 300-400 visits a day. However, as soon as the television campaign stopped, the daily hits dropped to 50-70 visits a day.

To reinvigorate the interest in pork at the consumer level, Alberta Pork reps contacted their distributor partner, who suggested an embroidered chef coat and flexible cutting boards imprinted with the Passion for Pork logo to be given away at various events. As distribution of the cutting boards was underway, a few people provided feedback that they planned to use the cutting boards as place mats.

One event was a high-profile dinner in Edmonton that attracted more than 1,400 diners where chefs clad in their logoed chef coats prepared favorite dishes from the region. The Passion for Pork cutting boards were set out as place mats so people could take them home afterward. The promotion went over extremely well.

The campaign also went viral. Alberta Pork started receiving fun and crazy photographs of people posing with the pig cutting boards in a variety of costumes and locations. Alberta Pork is using the photos on its websites and promoting them through social media to increase demand for the boards. Website visits have again increased and at a much lower cost than buying television spots.

Do you have a campaign that needs a boost? Your distributor partner can help you utilize products that may have more than one application, like the cutting boards doubling as place mats. This will give your company logo greater exposure.

Most major beer corporations know if they want to rule the market, it’s about time they begin catering to Hispanic consumers. After all, the buying power of Hispanics has reached $1.2 trillion, which in 2012, was larger than the entire economies of all but 13 countries in the world, according to the UGA Selig Center Multicultural Economy study.

So, employees in Miller’s Hispanic marketing department reached out to Dean Schwartz, owner of Miami-based SOBO Concepts to create authentic tangible campaign elements. Schwartz, who has worked in the Latin American sector his entire career, also runs a popular Latino fashion merchandise store. “They came to us and said that we seemed to have our finger on the pulse of this Hispanic market, so they wanted our help,” Schwartz says.

Miller needed a design for a soccer jersey in honor of the World Cup, so SOBO’s team of artists went to work. They created an Aztec-like emblem for the front of the jersey and a playful name for the back: Ben Frias. “We’re all about figuring out ways to relate to the target audience,” says Schwartz. “One of the most important things is being relevant to consumers.”

After the jersey was a success, Miller came back for more. This time, they wanted a product that celebrated the Hispanics’ love for wrestling. Since soccer is a large part of the Hispanic culture as well, Miller planned to give the item out at soccer games in West Coast cities with heavy Hispanic populations.

SOBO created a “luchalibre” Mexican wrestling mask in the form of a “chivas” to promote Miller’s sponsorship of the Chivas Guadalajara soccer club, whose mascot is a goat. Luchalibre, a term used in Mexico for professional wrestling, is characterized by colorful masks, so the product had to be authentic. “The key was understanding the roles wrestling and soccer play in the community,” says Schwartz. “They wanted to target males, ages 21-35, so we created a recognizable, but creative product. In the Hispanic market, you can talk the talk, but you also have to walk the walk when it comes to knowing what consumers want.”

Miller also supports education in the Latino community, contributing a portion of its Texas and Oklahoma sales to Adelante, a national nonprofit organization committed to providing resources to Latinos seeking to achieve a higher education.