News
Mangan Holcomb Retains Keep Arkansas Beautiful Marketing Contract
Agency, Anti-Litter Organization Continue Longtime Relationship
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (October 14, 2009) – On July 1, Arkansas advertising agency Mangan Holcomb Partners kicked off a new two-year partnership with the Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission (KAB), marking the 11th year of a successful relationship of educating Arkansans about the harmful effects of litter. Following a competitive Request for Proposals process, KAB voted unanimously to rehire Mangan Holcomb Partners to manage the state agency’s marketing communications.
“Based on the set of scoring standards established by the commission, it was clear that Mangan Holcomb was the superior choice to handle our marketing needs,” said Robert Phelps, director of KAB. “The commissioners reviewing the written responses to our Request for Proposals recognized the firm’s track record with our mission, as well as its overall creativity and expertise in advertising and public relations, and scored the Mangan Holcomb proposal against its competitors accordingly.”
Mangan Holcomb Partners has represented KAB since 1998. Two other Arkansas advertising agencies submitted written proposals for the KAB contract.
“Our many years of service to the commission have given us expertise that no other agency in the state – and possibly the nation – has about communicating to the public the harmful effects of litter and the positive impacts of recycling and beautification,” said Sharon Tallach Vogelpohl, a Mangan Holcomb principal and the KAB account supervisor. “KAB is well-known among its peers in other states for its innovative and effective programs, several of which have served as best-practice models for the national Keep America Beautiful organization and its other state affiliates.”
In 2008, Mangan Holcomb conceptualized and launched the “Shine: Keep Arkansas Clean & Green™” campaign for KAB. This new public awareness/education campaign says to Arkansans: “When you plant a tree or recycle, you shine. When you pick up litter or report litterers, you shine. When you take environmental responsibility for your community, you shine. Imagine how brightly Arkansas will shine when we all work together.”
The campaign launched in April 2008 around Earth Day and has been featured statewide on television and radio stations; in newspaper, magazine and outdoor advertisements; and in point-of-contact materials at the state’s Welcome Centers, Highway Rest Areas and state parks. Several key partnering agencies and organizations are helping spread the “Shine” message, including the Arkansas Broadcasters Association, Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Arkansas Municipal League, Arkansas Outdoor Advertisers Association, Arkansas Press Association, Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department, and Department of Arkansas Heritage. The “Shine” message has also influenced the branding of the Great Arkansas Cleanup, the Great American Cleanup™ in Arkansas, the Arkansas Shine Awards and the first Clean & Green Symposium held in Little Rock in November 2008.
Since joining forces in 1998, KAB and Mangan Holcomb have produced many award-winning public awareness/education campaigns to educate Arkansans about the harmful effects of litter. In 2008, the promotions campaign created by Mangan Holcomb for KAB’s Great Arkansas Cleanup won the 2007 Best of Show Prism from the Arkansas Public Relations Society of America. Mangan Holcomb and KAB won four other Prism Awards in the competition, including the fourth consecutive Public Service Prism for the Great Arkansas Cleanup. Each year, the Great Arkansas Cleanup attracts just over 20,000 community volunteers statewide who pick up more than 4.5 million pounds of litter from the state’s roadways, shorelines and public areas.
In 2007, KAB won a first-place Rogers Awards from Keep America Beautiful for a TV spot featuring an Arkansas “celebrity,” the Fouke Monster, the subject of the 1970s cult movie classic The Legend of Boggy Creek. Mangan Holcomb conceptualized and produced the spot. The Rogers Award recognizes creativity in radio and TV advertising among Keep America Beautiful affiliates; the 2007 Rogers Award was KAB’s fifth in 10 years.
In 2005, KAB and the agency launched a campaign to promote the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department’s toll-free Litter Hotline, only the eighth such hotline in the nation. The campaign featured an animated TV spot with an original jingle intended to help Arkansans remember the Litter Hotline number and then easily and anonymously report littering offenses. The Litter Hotline campaign was a multiple Arkansas PRSA Prism Award winner and a two-time Keep America Beautiful Rogers Award winner. In its first year, the Litter Hotline received 5,164 reports of littering, far out-pacing the Highway Department’s goal of 1,500 calls. To date, the hotline has received more than 30,000 reports of littering.
Other commendations for marketing communications over the past decade have come from the American Advertising Federation’s 10th District, Arkansas Advertising Federation, Arkansas International Association of Business Communicators, the national Silver Microphone Award and The Creative Group (Telly Awards).
About Keep Arkansas Beautiful
As a certified state affiliate of Keep America Beautiful Inc., Keep Arkansas Beautiful works to inspire and educate individuals to reduce litter, recycle and keep Arkansas beautiful. It operates as a division of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism and is overseen by a nine-member commission appointed by the governor. KAB is funded by 1 percent of the one-eighth-cent conservation tax and, by utilizing volunteers, returns to the state a cost benefit of $6.85 in community service for each program dollar spent. For more information, visit KeepArkansasBeautiful.com.
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