2020 Promo Campaign Awards
Best Distributor Self-Promotion
✶ Winner: Monarch & Company (asi/275403)

When Monarch & Company launched its “Pun Intended” campaign in January, the Chicago-based distributor had no idea how much laughter would be needed in the months following.

Every year, Monarch chooses a word to be the company mantra – 2020’s is “intention.” Based off that, the company developed the “Pun Intended” campaign to stay in front of clients and supplier partners all year long with a funny yet motivational desk calendar.

“We were looking to show appreciation for our clients while highlighting our values, personality and creativity,” says Anna Nguyen, partner and COO of Monarch. “We wanted to create artwork that inspired and that we could reuse throughout the year in different ways. We do all of our design work in-house and worked with the team to come up with the final puns.”

Sourcing the wooden base from Powhatan, VA-based Moslow Wood Products (asi/44511) and the drawstring bag packaging from Kaufman, TX-based Numo (asi/74710), Monarch sent out 300 desk calendars. Approximately 75% of recipients thanked the distributor with calls, emails and social media posts, and one recipient even asked for pricing to replicate the gift for their own promotion. When the coronavirus pandemic began and people transitioned to working from home, Monarch adapted by posting the calendar pages on Instagram, offering them as Zoom backgrounds and transforming the product into a printable version.

“It provided a touchpoint at the beginning of the year and a reason to have our top 10 clients let us in their office for face-to-face time, allowing us to deepen our relationships and meet new contacts,” Nguyen says. “It’s also commonly posted by our clients at the turn of each month.”

The second part of the “Pun Intended” campaign was Monarch’s first interaction with its top 40 clients after the pandemic hit. The distributor partnered with a local bakery and created word scramble cookie decorating kits, which included cookie letters, icing and sprinkles. Playing off February’s pun, recipients were encouraged to “Bake It Happen.” “We wanted to use our platform to give back to a business in the community and create an immersive experience that our top clients could share with their loved ones,” Nguyen says. “It has been the most successful campaign we’ve had to date in terms of responses received and the ability to reuse assets to continue the life of the campaign.”

Monarch & Company’s “Pun Intended” self-promo featured a fun calendar and an at-home baking kit for use during the pandemic.

The kits accomplished several goals: giving back to a local business during such a troubling time; connecting Monarch with clients in a compassionate way; and demonstrating the company’s ingenuity for when clients were ready to resume their advertising efforts. According to Nguyen, it’s the first campaign in company history to receive a 100% response rate from recipients. There were heartfelt calls and emails thanking Monarch for thinking of its clients during a frightening period, which boosted company morale.

In terms of social media, it was the most shared campaign in company history. Clients tagged Monarch in their Instagram stories and sent photos of their families completing the decorating experience. In a boost from the desk calendar giveaway, this time two clients requested pricing to replicate the cookie kits for their own promotion. Monarch has since documented the results of the campaign in a blog post to inspire other clients to reach out to their colleagues and customers.

“‘Bake It Happen’ is a fun metaphor for choosing to focus only on the things we can control, something everybody needed to be reminded of during the COVID-19 outbreak,” Nguyen says. “We were so proud to give back to our community while delivering such an impactful and purposeful campaign to our clients.”