DANVILLE, Calif., Jan. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Trainer Communications, a leading provider of strategic communications and public relations services for high-growth technology companies and start-up initiatives, today announced that it has won a Gold MarCom Creative Award in the category of Promotion Campaign: Special Event for its buzz event for online bookseller Alibris. The MarCom Creative Awards recognize the highest quality, creative excellence, and resourcefulness; Trainer was one of only 50 companies from a pool of 5,000 applicants to receive an award. An international competition for marketing and communications professionals, the MarCom Creative Awards is part of The Communicator Awards program, one of the largest, oldest, and most respected competitions in the communications field.
Online bookseller Alibris turned to Trainer Communications to generate awareness of its Internet-based textbook sales business and to incentivize students to switch to online textbook purchasing. Trainer conceived and executed an Alibris-sponsored mock protest on the University of California's Berkeley campus to challenge publishers for inappropriately raising the costs of textbooks. College students were recruited to protest the high cost of textbooks and to distribute flyers and bookmarks advertising Alibris. The flyers and bookmarks included a textbook cost comparison chart and a $5 coupon. As a further incentive, Alibris donated 10 percent of total sales related to the event to a campus-affiliated, nonprofit, pro-literacy program called Bears United in Literacy Development (BUILD).
Trainer's award-winning strategy generated significant press exposure for Alibris before, during, and after the mock protest. Outlets that covered the event included KTVU (FOX TV, Oakland), KGO (ABC TV, San Francisco), KTSF (Channel 26), KGO Radio, KQED radio, KPFA Youth Radio, Bay City News Wire, Ventura County Star (CA News), World News (a Cantonese newspaper), Student Resource Guide (a U.C. Berkeley publication), DallasNews.com, KRON.com, National Hispanic Corporate Council, PR Newswire, Yahoo!, RBC Dain Rauscher, and Quote.com.
"We were most impressed with Trainer's ability to develop, in a very short time, a very creative event that drew attention to our online textbook service, received great coverage, and helped establish good rapport with Cal students," said Jeanie Bunker, vice president of sales and marketing for Alibris.
"We are proud to have been selected for this honor from among a highly qualified field of 5,000 applicants. This award recognizes our expertise at applying out-of-the-box creativity to a promotional challenge to stimulate broad media interest in our clients," said Susan Trainer, president of Trainer Communications. "With limited time to plan before the start of the school year, we leveraged U.C. Berkeley's protest history to successfully throw a targeted event that created immediate attention for Alibris among the media and the student communities."
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