|
2500
people flock to Super-Couponing Workshop in
Charleston, South Carolina... the largest coupon
event ever held in the United States!
Jill
Cataldo's column, "Super-Couponing Tips,"
is read by over 20 million people each week,
appearing in newspapers around the country.
Charleston's oldest newspaper, The Post And
Courier, approached Jill about hosting a large,
live Super-Couponing event for its readers,
thousands of whom enjoy her column each week
on Wednesdays in the paper.
Aiming
to host "the largest Coupon Extravaganza
in the country," The Post and Courier teamed
up with Piggly Wiggly Supermarkets to sponsor
the workshop, which was held at the North Charleston
Performing Arts Center. Jill worked both with
the Post and Courier and with Piggly Wiggly
to customize her presentation to feature information
about the newspaper, as well as the supermarket
chain.
Several
months prior to the class, Jill traveled to
South Carolina and spent a few days shopping
at Piggly Wiggly and becoming familiar with
the chain's policies and promotions. In preparation
for the Charleston Super-Couponing workshop,
Jill then worked directly with Piggly Wiggly
to incorporate information about the store's
loyalty program, sales and coupon policies into
her presentation.
Both
the Post and Courier and Piggly Wiggly did an
incredible job of promoting the event, with
co-branded promotion in newspaper print ads,
advertisements in Piggly Wiggly's weekly grocery
circulars, and television commercials.
 Tickets
to the workshop were free. To receive
a pair of tickets to the event, readers of The
Post and Courier had to take one of the newspaper's
print advertisements for the workshop to any
local Piggly Wiggly supermarket. When the cashier
scanned the barcode in the ad, the workshop
tickets printed directly from the Catalina coupon
printer at the register.
With
such heavy promotion running for the event,
the 2500-seat auditorium sold out within nine
days. All 2500 tickets were distributed at Piggly
Wiggly supermarkets far sooner than anticipated
--which posed an interesting problem... the
television commercial for the event had to be
pulled off the air! The commercial was scheduled
to run for an additional two weeks, but all
of the tickets were distributed so quickly that
there was no need to continue telling shoppers
to obtain free tickets at Piggly Wiggly stores.
On
the day of the event, the Post And Courier ran
a sticky-note ad campaign on the front of the
newspaper reminding readers to attend and thanking
them for the response to the event. The Post
and Courier and Piggly Wiggly were offering
free coupon wallets to the first 500 people
in the door. While Jill's Super-Couponing workshop
was not scheduled to begin until 11:00am, attendees
began lining up prior to 8:00am!
 During
the hours before the event, The Post and Courier
and Piggly Wiggly hosted an expo in the outer
area of the Performing Arts Center, with booths
offering on-the-spot newspaper subscription
signups and Piggly Wiggly loyalty card registrations.
Food manufacturers, including Smucker's and
Snyder of Hanover, were on hand offering free
product samples and coupons to a very savings-enthusiastic
audience. Local business, department stores
and vendors sponsored giveaways and prize packages
as well.
On
March 12th, 2011 at 11:00am, Jill took the stage
to an enormous crowd and presented her Super-Couponing
workshop, customized for the Charleston audience.
While her standard workshop features sale examples
from retailers around the country, for this
workshop, Jill added numerous slides, sales,
and examples featuring Piggly Wiggly's loyalty
rewards promotion, "Greenbax," which
function like cash for shoppers' future trips
to the store. She also taught specific coupon
usage strategies in compliance with Piggly Wiggly's
coupon policy. Everyone in the audience went
home with a copy of The Post and Courier's "My
Charleston" magazine, which contained a
coupon worth 5 Greenbax at Piggly Wiggly. The
attendees were thrilled, not only that the entire
event was free but that, via the Greenbax, they
also "made" $5 to attend. The event
exceeded all expectations!
Watch
a news video report below:
While
her weekly audiences number in the 300-400 attendee
range, Jill also enjoys holding large-scale
Super-Couponing workshops like this one. Two
weeks after this event, a pair of Super-Couponing
workshops co-sponsored by Indiana's The Times
newspaper and the Northern Indiana Home and
Garden Show drew over 2,000 people each day.
But the Charleston Super-Couponing "Extravaganza"
currently holds the record both for the largest
Super-Couponing workshop attendance and the
largest coupon-related event in the country!
Read
The Post And Courier's news report on the event
|
