ICCFA KIP Awards Provide Some Free Press (but you have to be a member to benefit)

I was so pleased to see Oregon Memorials in Hillsboro, Oregon, being featured in the March 2008 edition of the Washington State Funeral Directors Association newsletter. The news feature on page 26 talked all about Oregon Memorials having received an honorable mention in the ICCFA’s “Keeping It Personal” award for their highly personalized memorial, which was created to memorialize a young boy who passed away much too soon. Word for word, the majority of the news feature seemed very, very familiar to me. Why? Well … it’s because I was the one who wrote up the original ICCFA press release sent to Oregon Memorials this past February 2008

I have often wondered about each ICCFA KIP winner and how their publicity efforts fared regarding their KIP wins. I did meet two KIP winners a the ICCFA 2008 convention and they both had not-so-good PR stories. One KIP winner has provided her employer’s marketing agency with the localized version of ICCFA press release. In speaking with her I learned that the agency had “done nothing with it.” Not a thing! The next KIP winner actually had her publicist send out the ICCFA press release mentioning her product as a KIP winner. The publicist sent the press release out using an electronic distribution service for press releases. When I asked her if any other media opportunities had come up after her publicist sent out the release, she replied that she had not received *one* call.

The KIP winner above who received no responses to her press release distribution … there are other factors here at play that I will address in a future blog posting, because simply sending out a press release and waiting for something to happen is just *not* how it works. Again, I will address this dilemma in the near future.

For now, I want to specifically address the ICCFA KIP awards. Each year, ICCFA has the KIP award contest for its membership. ICCFA recruits 4-8 objective, neutral judges to judge the entries. These judges have nothing to do with the death care industry so their opinions provide fresh perspective and insight. There are four KIP categories:

• Event
• Most Personalized Memorial
• Best Practices/Personal Touch
• Most Innovative Product (for suppliers)

It costs a whopping $25 per entry, per member to submit an application entry (yes, you do have to join ICCFA as a member to participate).

KIP winners and honorable mentions receive the following:

Grand Prize Winner

• Highlighted on the cover of ICCFA Magazine and featured in the KIP Award Winners section as Grand Prize winner
• Free registration to ICCFA’s annual convention
• ICCFA-generated, individually localized press release for use by Grand Prize winner in their local media outlets
• Included in ICCFA’s press release to be sent out to national media announcing all contest winners
• Publicity presented with award certificate at ICCFA’s annual convention
• KIP Award Submission displayed prominently at the KIP Awards booth at Convention
• Provided with KIP Winner ribbon to wear at convention
• Promoted as Grand Prize winner in ICCFA’s bi-monthly e-mail newsletter, ICCFA Wireless (click here to see the winning announcement)

Other Winners and Honorable Mentions

• Highlighted in ICCFA Magazine’s KIP Award Winners section
• ICCFA-generated, individually localized press release for use by each winners in his or her local media outlets
• Included in ICCFA’s press release to be sent out to national media announcing all contest winners
• Publicity presented with award certificate at ICCFA’s annual convention
• KIP Award Submission displayed prominently at the KIP Awards booth at Convention
• Provided with KIP Winner ribbon to wear at convention
• Promoted as category or honorable mention winner in ICCFA’s bi-monthly e-mail newsletter, ICCFA Wireless (click here to see the winning announcement)

No, I am not a walking advertisement for the ICCFA KIP Awards. Well … in second thought, maybe I am! I actually administered the ICCFA KIP Awards for 2007 and I was shocked that only 25 entries were submitted! I think they had said in previous years, they may have had as many as 40 or so entries but in my opinion, even that is a bit low. Why? Well think about it. For $25 per entry, you get all the FREE, industry-wide press as outlined above! Hire any professional PR agency or publicist and they will be charging you $50-$125+ per hour without any guarantee of achieving the same massive, industry-wide visibility and exposure.

Again, in the end, you just can’t beat this type of PR and free press for $25 per entry. I really hope those funeral homes, crematories and cemeteries out there who are doing good things and are active in their communities will consider entering for KIP 2008. You just can’t get anymore bang for your buck than these industry recognition awards. And if you stumble upon this blog post and are not a member of ICCFA, you may want to consider becoming a member. Or if ICCFA membership is not for you, then get involved in your local or state associations. Learn what other PR opportunities may exist through those vehicles.

The bottom line is that when a golden PR opportunity comes along at such a great price, you just can’t beat that with a stick!