• by Ross Fadner , January 12, 2004

Yellow Pages has struggled to crack the consumer packaged goods ad market for years and now, in a truly unconventional media buy, a major packaged goods marketer is giving it a try. But instead of placing its brand message inside directories, the marketer will wrap its message around the books themselves. Beginning this month, the recipients of Sprint's more than 600,000 residential phone directories in Las Vegas will receive a copy of their 2004 Yellow Pages wrapped in bright red bags bearing the message from Kellogg: "This is what 6 lbs. feels like. Lose it."

That ad goes on to state that replacing two meals a day with two bowls of Special K for two weeks could yield a six-pound weight loss.

"We chose Las Vegas for the campaign simply because the Las Vegas Yellow Pages weighs exactly six pounds," said Margaret Meharg, vice president-business development, at SMG Directory Marketing (SMG DM), the Yellow Pages media unit of Starcom MediaVest Group.

Meharg said the concept will really hit consumers when they pick up their bag containing the six-pound Yellow Pages. They will feel just how heavy six pounds is, and will realize how easily they could lose it.

SMG DM usually makes media buys for directory advertisers, but for this project they opted for a more creative approach. SMG DM also worked with sister agencies Starcom Worldwide and Leo Burnett USA to produce the initiative, which Meharg admitted is "more of a direct marketing than directory marketing tactic."

This isn't the first unconventional media collaboration produced by Starcom for Kellogg. In October, Starcom unit Relay Sports and Event Marketing, Starcom Worldwide, and Leo Burnett USA produced several "mock" marathons across seven different U.S. cities to promote Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Granola Bars and Bites.