To enter the contest, customers were asked to submit a photo of their current kitchen. I wanted to reinforce the photograph idea in the signage, so I included a variety of "ugly kitchens" made to look like old-fashioned snapshots. And, in thinking about the contest, where we are asking customers to show us the ugliest part of their home. In a way, to be proud of something you shouldn't be proud of.
I figured humor was the best way to approach this, in the vein of the "Your mama" jokes, or the "You know you're a Redneck" jokes.
The idea of this method was that the same theme could be applied to a series of radio ads, reiterating the message from the signs, with a Rodney Dangerfield-like voice. This would make the radio ads interesting and reinforce the visual of the signs in the store. The Ugly Kitchen Contest radio commercials were not used, but a :05 tag was added to our standard "boilerplate" advertising spots.
In our post-contest tracking, a very small percentage (less than 2%) gave radio as the medium through which they heard about The Ugly Kitchen Contest.
