Marketing: Contests for Customers

A quick look at how a new PR firm used a contest to gain recognition for the agency and local entrepreneurs.

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Nobody said attracting new business couldn't be fun. When start-up Paragon Public Relations, in Evanston, Ill., was hungry for clients last year, the agency's founder, Deborah Mersino, held a contest. She sent 120 press releases to business editors nationwide, saying the company wanted to honor "an unknown entrepreneur." Entrants simply had to describe in five sentences or fewer why they deserved to be selected. The announcement caught the attention of three newspapers and a magazine, and 69 entrepreneurs entered. One wrote a poem; another composed a song. "I figured that since small-business owners are inherently creative, this campaign would get them to take notice," Mersino says. The winner received a $5,000, six-month contract with Paragon. The runner-up, a Chicago company, got a $1,500 contract, which paid off immediately: the company was covered by every radio station in Chicago, a monthly business magazine, and a local newspaper, says Mersino. For Paragon, the result was lots of press and credibility as a new agency.

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