Gannett Broadcasting’s WTSP-TV in the Tampa-St. Petersburg DMA has run its Tools for School supply drive with sponsor Publix Super Markets for the past 11 years. Collection boxes are placed in more than 130 supermarkets in a nine-county area. Consumers can purchase supplies and drop them in the box.
The project runs for three weeks each summer. “The purpose is to collect school supplies for our needy and homeless children,” said Programming Coordinator Ellen Parent Lasher. “Supplies can be purchased anywhere, but many of the area supermarkets offer package bags of supplies that folks can purchase at the store and drop into the box on their way out.”
ReMax Realty jumped onboard last year to sponsor another Tampa Bay 10 initiative. “On the 10th of each month, Tampa Bay’s 10 News features stories about breast cancer research and treatment” that tie in with a program called Lifetime Friends, which encourages women to participate in breast self-exams,” Ms. Lasher said.
ReMax and co-sponsor H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute are mentioned in welcome kits given to women who join the program. Additionally, monthly e-mail is sent to the “Lifetime Friends.”
WFTS-TV, the Scripps Howard Broadcasting-owned ABC station, has been successful at creating mail drops and circulars that give advertisers value-added, said VP and general manager Sam Stallworth. “We have different packages that include the circular and spots on TV that range anywhere from $5,000 to $100,000.” One such circular was dropped into half a million homes the week before the Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers front and center.
TV revenues for the Tampa-St. Pete area are expected to rise to $280.7 million in 2003, up from $269.9 million in 2002, according to BIA Financial Network, which also predicts the market will grow 4.9 percent from 2001 to 2006.