Magical entertainer and consultant Joe M. Turner designed and developed the illusion show portion of the Coca-Cola/RIF StoryTraveler national tour, a three-year partnership committed to providing classroom libraries to communities in need.

The following news stories are examples of the media coverage that the Coca-Cola/RIF StoryTraveler promotion has received. Additional items will be added as other stories appear throughout the promotion.

Update! The Coca-Cola/RIF StoryTraveler tour was awarded a Silver "Reggie Award" by the Promotion Marketing Association. These awards are given each year to outstanding promotional campaigns in a variety of categories. The StoryTraveler promotion was nominated in the "Cause-Related Promotions" division.

Click here to view a selection of photos from both school and retail locations of the StoryTraveler tour.

StoryTraveler Visits Jackson, Mississippi
photos by J.D. Schwalm for The Clarion-Ledger
September 25, 2002

X Marks the Top
Promo Magazine
April 1, 2002

A trio of campaigns touting the launch of Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox racked up five awards for two agencies in the Promotion Marketing Association's 2002 Reggie Awards.

New York City-based PMA announced its list of finalists in early February (judging took place in January), then unveiled their placement as Gold, Silver, or Bronze winners at the association's annual Update conference in Dallas last month.

The following is a description of the finalists. The standings by category will be published in May.

RIF StoryTraveler CMI, East Rutherford, NJ, for Coca-Cola Co.
As part of its Harry Potter-inspired education initiative, Coke partnered with Warner Bros., Scholastic, Inc., and Reading Is Fundamental for a three-month RIF StoryTraveler Tour. CMI conducted 739 reading events in 41 states, visiting schools, community centers, retail outlets, migrant worker camps, Native American reservations, libraries, and hospitals to encourage reading among kids. Shows, which were hosted on customized Coke route trucks, featured storytelling, puppet shows, magicians, and other activities. Participants received free books and bookmarks. The tour reached 222,000 children and nearly twice as many adults, and will be revived this year.

NEIGHBORS TRAVELING BOOK SHOW VISITS MEIJER
Derek Ali
Dayton Daily News
10/04/2001
(Copyright 2001)

Reading Is Fundamental, Coke working to boost reading among kids

ENGLEWOOD - Carla McCluskey drove from Dayton to make a routine stop at the Meijer store in Englewood, but before she could make it through the doors, her daughter insisted upon a stop near a makeshift stage outside. A big truck decorated with images of owls, a lighthouse and bold splashes of greens, blues, yellows and browns should have tipped her that something different was happening near the south entrance to Meijer at 9200 N. Main St.

About 30 feet away, a group of children sat with eyes glued to Joel Chakkalakal as he brought life to storybook characters and performed magic tricks. "We came here to shop and we saw this and this is the first place she wanted to come," said McCluskey as her daughter, Victoria, 4, sat nearby on an Oriental rug. Chakkalakal, tour manager for CMI Marketing, a New Jersey-based marketing and promotions company, and his team visited the Meijer stores in Englewood and Dayton last week as part of the RIF StoryTraveller program sponsored by Reading Is Fundamental and the Coca-Cola Co.

"They've created 15 StoryTraveller vehicles to evoke the magic and power of reading among kids," said Gretchen Gallman, assistant tour manager. "We're doing that by giving away books to every child and doing imagination-sparking activities - puppet shows, magic shows and storytelling."

The goal is to pass out about 1,000 books donated by Troll Books and Scholastic Books at each stop. "We're just trying to get kids excited about reading again," Gallman said. Fifteen StoryTraveller vehicles began rolling to locations all over the country at the beginning of September. The tour ends in December. "It's a three-year program," Gallman said. "This is only Year One. Over the course of the times, it's going to get millions of books in the hands of kids."

So far, the RIF StoryTraveller truck has made four stops in Cincinnati, two in the Dayton area and three in Columbus. Stops are scheduled in Illinois, Wisconsin and Minneapolis. Like McCluskey, other parents and grandparents said the StoryTraveller program caught them by surprise.

"I was just shopping over here, and they approached me about it, and asked if I wanted to come over, and I said `sure,' " said Sara Shields of Brookville, whose 4-year-old daughter, Madelin, also sat on the rug. "It's wonderful. I think reading is real important," Shields said. "I've been reading to her since she was itty-bitty."

She enjoyed the StoryTraveller team's approach because "it's a more fun way to do it. . . Their attention span is short. Sometimes I'll be reading to her and she'll go to something else."

Eight-year-old Ashton White of Union, who came to Meijer with her grandmother, Lynda Brown, selected Capt. Underwear, published by Scholastic as her free book "because my brother has it and it might be fun to read." Daytonian Alicia Martin, who stood gripping her son, Zacchaeus, 2, by the hand, said, "I think it's nice to encourage kids to read. It's definitely drawing the attention of the kids and the parents who come to shop."

While the StoryTraveller rolled into the local Meijer without fanfare last week, Bruce Eddins, community marketing manager for Coca- Cola, said, "We usually do a campaign to get the information out to local schools, recreation centers and youth organizations." Eddins said the company worked with Meijer this year, but it's unclear how it will work next year, or even if there will be a stop in the Miami Valley.

"Next year, we might do something different. Across the United States, we do retailers as well as schools."

Caption: PHOTO CAPTIONS: CHRIS STEWART/DAYTON DAILY NEWS GRETCHEN GALLMAN of CMI Marketing in Atlanta helps twins Gudy and Emely Hrigues of Dayton pick out free books in a program sponsored by Coca-Cola and Reading Is Fundamental.

WAVING THE FLAGS FOR PBS
November 9, 2001
Lewis Lazare
Chicago Sun-Times

Add the StoryTraveler program to the list of marketing projects Coca-Cola Co. has launched to tie in with the Nov. 16 release of the film "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."

Coke, the global sponsor for the new motion picture, tapped CMI, a lifestyle marketing agency and a division of Clear Channel Entertainment, to develop the StoryTraveler program. The project entailed converting 15 Coke route trucks into venues for puppet shows and magicians, as well as a book dispensary.

The reconfigured trucks are heading to parks, malls, community centers and schools in cities nationwide. Each child who views a show at one of the StoryTraveler units will be given a free book to take home. Coke has made reading one of the key themes of Harry Potter sponsorship.

A StoryTraveler truck is scheduled to arrive in the Chicago area Nov. 23.

MAGICIANS AID READING
M. Elizabeth Neal
The Atlanta Journal - Constitution
Gwinnett: GwinEtc.
01/04/2002
(Copyright, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution - 2002)

Gwinnett magician and corporate-training consultant Joe M. Turner played a key role in a recent promotional partnership between Coca- Cola and Reading Is Fundamental, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging youngsters to read. Coca-Cola teamed up with RIF to fund and produce a national reading promotion. Turner was selected by CMI (a division of SFX/ClearChannel) to design and write a magic show for one element of the promotion, a national tour called StoryTravelers.

Fifteen StoryTraveler trucks crossed the country this fall performing interactive storytelling, puppet shows and magic shows with the theme "Reading Takes You Places." The trucks visited schools, Wal-Marts and other community locations, distributing free books to children at each stop. The second round of the cross country tour will get under way in August, Turner said.

The magic tricks performed in the promotional tour are technically easy, Turner said. "None of the performers had previously studied magic. Only about half of them had any significant theater experience, and we had only two days to conduct the training for our part of the show," he said. "Besides selecting effects that were fairly easy to learn, the biggest challenge was to develop scripts that could hold the kids' attention while delivering all the messages that the corporate sponsors wanted to include."

In addition to designing and writing the show, Turner also located suppliers for the necessary apparatus. Additional creative assistance was provided by magicians Amos McCormick of Jackson, Miss., and Scott Horn of Suwanee. Additional information is available at www.joemturner.com, www.livethemagic.com and www.youth development.coca-cola.com.

PMA REGGIE AWARDS 2002 - Silver Winner
Brandweek
Coca-Cola/Rif StoryTraveler
Category: Cause-related promotion
Marketer: Coca-Cola Co., Atlanta
Agency: CMI, Atlanta

As the largest cause-marketing initiative in its history, Coca-Cola's new Positive Youth Development program has quite a story to tell. The soft-drink giant partnered with Warner Bros., Scholastic and Reading is Fundamental to address the need for increased reading in America.

The result was the RIF StoryTraveler, a 13-week national promotion that encouraged reading among children from pre-K through grade 6 via a variety of interactive, inspirational and motivational tactics. RIF StoryTraveler conducted more than 700 reading events in 41 states and 436 cities, visiting schools, community centers, retailers, Head Start programs, migrant-worker camps, Indian reservations, libraries and hospitals. Using the ubiquitous Harry Potter stories as its creative theme, the tour consisted of 15 StoryTraveler vehicles: custom-built Coca-Cola route trucks with an activity stage and book cover graphics.

While on the road, the tour distributed a free book to each child present, along with free reading brochures to adults at each event. The literacy campaign garnered publicity with plenty of local coverage at major stops.

Because of the success of the program, the partners plan another excursion this year. They have quite a story to tell.

Published: March 18, 2002

PROMO XTRA! March 19, 2002
BMW FILMS WINS 2002 SUPER REGGIE

BMW of North America earned "Promotion of the Year" accolades as winner of the Promotion Marketing Association's Super Reggie award. ew York City-based PMA unveiled the winners of its annual Reggie program in Dallas last Thursday as part of its Update conference. Woodcliff Lake, NJ-based BMW earned the honors for "The Hire," an innovative series of five short films presented at bmwfilms.com. The campaign won a pair of Gold Reggies on its way to the top prize.

The following is a full list of winners. For a description of the campaigns, read PROMO's March issue or visit promomagazine.com.

Cause-Related Promotion
GOLD: "Truth Outbreak Tour"
Marketer: American Legacy Foundation
Agency: Arnold Brand Promotions

SILVER: "Coca-Cola/RIF StoryTraveler"
Marketer: Coca-Cola
Agency: CMI

BRONZE: "Ben & Jerry's Citizen Cool"
Marketer: Ben & Jerry's Homemade
Agency: Centra Marketing & Communications

To find out more about how Joe M. Turner can help your business stage more effective exhibitions, hospitality suites and corporate meetings, contact him today.