BACKGROUND
Since 1913, the Stanley brand has been building durable, rugged products that last. Passed down from generation to generation, the Stanley vacuum bottle is an icon. You might remember your father carrying a Stanley Classic thermos to the construction sight, or you might even remember carrying your own (Stanley brand) Aladdin lunch box to school. Today, Stanley continues to deliver superior food and beverage gear for rugged, active lifestyles.

Introduce Stanley’s Stainless Steele Bottles to a younger 18-34 year-old market. Communicate the environmental importance of reusable water bottles VS disposables. Dispel the myth that bottled water is healthier and tastes better than tap. Enlighten as to the astronomical cost of bottled water to tap. Deliver a program that produces quantifiable sales results, which exceed the program costs. Create customer loyalty that, like Stanley products, will last a lifetime.

SOLUTION
The Spitfire Solution always focuses on the triple bottom line: People, Planet, Profit. Our recommendation: Stanley’s Bottled-Less Water Program.

Dig wells throughout the near 90-degree Bonnaroo music/camping festival, and make fresh cold filtered water available to all 80,000 attendees for free. Co-brand a limited edition Bonnaroo bottle that is a ‘must have’. Sell it as part of the on-line ticket buying process, via pop up window that features the bottle imagery. Communicate that the bottle sales help fund the wells, while driving home the message that Stanley is providing free filtered water to all, regardless of container used. Donate $1 per bottle sold to a global non-profit that provides free safe drinking water systems for those less fortunate than ourselves, and make Bonnaroo a living sample of their work. Sell the Stanley bottle on site at all well locations. Conduct Water Taste Test Challenges throughout the event grounds which prove that virtually no one can tell the difference between bottled spring water, bottled municipal water, local hotel water, and the Stanley well water.

RESULTS
Spitfire created a home run deal with Bonnaroo by pitching a unique and well-researched program, rather than a buying an existing sponsorship. Bonnaroo had been looking for a way to decrease waste as part of their commitment to sustainability. Spitfire delivered a long-term Greening solution, through a highly visible and interactive program, which they simply could not pass up.

The ‘Stanley Bottled-Less/Less-Bottles Water Program’ earned Stanley one of the highest levels of exposure offered by Bonnaroo, at approximately 20% of a comparable sponsorship’s price. In addition, by selling the co-branded bottle as a ‘pop up’ element in Bonnaroo’s on-line ticket purchase process (as well as at numerous locations on-site) Stanley sold 4,800 ‘limited edition’ Bonnaroo branded bottles. This resulted in more than $100,000 in sales that did not compete with their retailer’s ability to sell the normal Stanley line both locally and nationally.

By developing an on-site-only bottle distribution system, Spitfire was able to save Stanley and their customer from shipping costs, reduced energy and packaging waste by eliminating thousands of individual shipments, and enabled Stanley to make a personal connection with every one of their new customers at the event. Spitfire handled the ‘will call’ distribution with not a single customer complaint.

On site the wells were easy to find (giant blue mushrooms, thanks to Bonnaroo), and had more than 60 spouts flowing with cold, delicious filtered water. Because the average attendee typically purchases 24 disposable bottles of water at a summer festival, Bonnaroo attendees saved significant cash and Stanley earned unbeatable ‘heart-share’ (customer loyalty) by offering access to free clean drinking water to all (what many strongly feel should be a basic human right). Concurrently, fans were able to watch themselves eliminate 136,800 disposables from entering the waste stream at Bonnaroo alone, through a large, live ‘ticker’ sign that showed the 24 disposable bottles saved as each fan picked up their new reusable bottle. The message was clear – if we could make this kind of impact at just one event, imagine what we could do if we ditched disposables over our lifetimes…

To engage and educate the public about water myths, Spitfire created an entertaining on-site activation, which included the Stanley Taste Test Challenge. By conducting hundreds of these popular public challenges adjacent to all the wells on the grounds, Spitfire helped Stanley prove that virtually no one could tell the difference between bottled spring water, bottled municipal water, local hotel water, and the free Stanley well water (only 30 people got it right and won a bottle – far fewer than should have, based simply on the law of averages alone). Fans were further engaged with jaw dropping statistical challenges. American’s spend 16 billion dollars on bottled water each year. The cost of drinking tap? Just 48 cents per person.

To further promote the program, Spitfire contacted many of the bands to enlist their advance PR support. At the event, Spitfire distributed chilled and pre-filled well water bottles to the Bonnaroo bands - not through standard gift bags that seldom reach the actual band members - but through hand-to-hand contact on the side of the stages, as each band awaited the start of their performance. This resulted in a number of bands promoting the Stanley program on stage, most notably Erykah Badu, who was holding and drinking from the Stanley/Bonnaroo bottle throughout her entire performance, projected on the tremendous screens for all to see.

In summary – the Stanley program was a great success. The 97 year-old heritage brand was reintroduced to a new younger audience. The Bonnaroo attendees (and those that follow news), were educated on the world’s overwhelming disposable bottle problem, and were provided with a solution that they hold in their very own hands. By building wells at Bonnaroo, Stanley in turn ‘modeled’ the work of our non-profit partner Global Water Challenge, who builds safe water distribution systems in the most desperate locations globally. While nearly everybody who took the Taste Test Challenge was sure they could win it, just about everyone walked away with the knowledge that they could not in fact taste the difference between bottled, tap, and even well water. Of course, Stanley received a lot of recognition and also sold a whole lot of bottles. But possibly best of all, Stanley left a lasting legacy throughout the Bonnaroo grounds, by building sustainable wells that just may last as long as Stanley has. 

People, Planet, Profit.  Interested in a home run program too? Spitfire is bursting with unique ideas and we have the contacts and expertise to make them happen. Drop our CEO a line!