Culligan

February 25, 2010 by Chris · Leave a Comment 

Challenge

Hey Culligan Man! Culligan was a highly recognized brand that had lost some of its luster.  Additionally, this water company was mainly operated by 1,500+ independent dealers throughout the country who had gone through several corporate ownership takeovers during the past decade…and had grown skeptical of change.  This profitable company was now going through another corporate purchase by US Filter and the new ownership group needed to get the Culligan dealer network on board and show how it was going to make a positive change.

Solution

We put together and executed a plan to influence water-hungry young adults and positively impact the dealer network through an involvement with college football.  The focal point of this plan was securing the title sponsorship of water conscious Southern California’s Holiday Bowl and activating the Culligan Holiday Bowl platform to impact multiple channels. Football themed advertising and a heavily branded game broadcast helped build branding while traffic-driving consumer promotions and turn-key dealer merchandising kits impacted sales.  Dealer and customer incentive programs dangled trips to sunny San Diego as further leverage.  And it was Culligan water that teams were using on the sidelines to hydrate for their biggest game of the season!

Results

US Filter used the announcement of the new Culligan Holiday Bowl at their first national dealer meeting and immediately got a standing ovation from their highly influential dealer network.  This kicked off a list of successes for this project.   New and exciting promotions helped to energize the brand and draw increased interest from consumers, dealers and retailers. Culligan entertained over 3,000 guests at the game as a result of successful dealer incentives, retail/consumer promotions, employee recognition awards and customer entertainment programs.  As a bonus, the first Culligan Holiday Bowl drew a national TV audience of over 6 million viewers…a bowl record.

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