CASE STUDY: AMP | Coyne PR Secures “Blanket” Coverage for AMP Energy around 2010 Winter Olympics

ISSUE:
AMP Energy, the premier energy brand of Pepsi-Cola North American Beverages, wanted to do something special for AMP Energy athlete and snowboarder Hannah Teter at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. It wouldn’t be as easy as that sounds, though.

Coyne PR researched official media regulations for the Olympic Games and uncovered the International Olympic Committee’s Rule 41, which forbids athletes from participating in any sport-related campaign run by a non-Olympic sponsor. Since PepsiCo was not an Olympic sponsor, the team decided to focus on Teter’s passions, rather than her performance, to eliminate any risk of violating the IOC guidelines.

IDEA:
AMP Energy and Coyne PR concentrated on what Teter said motivated her most—helping the villagers of Kirindon, Kenya. To support Hannah’s dreams of bringing the kids and families of Kirindon clean water and working sanitation—and to provide her a feeling of tranquility within the athletes’ village—AMP Energy created the AMP Energy Juice Quilt, a four-color, 95-by-99-inch queen duvet, which featured an image of Hannah performing her signature ‘Method Grab’ trick amidst images of the children of Kirindon. To further show its commitment to Hannah and Kirindon, AMP Energy also donated $20,100 (2010) to the village.

Coyne PR devised a multi-tiered media strategy to ensure that AMP Energy’s relationship with Hannah Teter resonated in Vancouver.

IMPACT:
The media activation included leveraging Hannah’s 2008 gold medal performance and her passion for the kids of Kirindon to secure exclusive, pre-Games interviews with the country’s top daily newspaper, USA Today, and with the official morning show of the Olympic Games, NBC’s “Today Show.” Additional coverage was secured in Yahoo Sports!, the New York Daily News and regional placements in markets where snowboarding has a strong following: Salt Lake City, Utah, Reno, Nev. and Burlington, Vt. After the Games, Coyne PR leveraged Hannah’s silver medal performance in Vancouver to secure snowboard giveaways with targeted blogs including Asylum.com, Candystand.com and AOL’s Lemondrop.com. In all, more than 14 million media impressions were secured.