Engagement Is Key: Staples Misses With Boring Pitch

A few days back, I got the below text from a PR-person trying to push a crowd-sourcing initiative on behalf of Staples. The project itself, an EcoEasy Challenge for students, actually seems quite interesting combining environmental issues with business. I like that combination.

Obviously, they want me to write about the competition, but unfortunately for them, I now use this as a case on how not to approach bloggers. In general, I do not mind getting standard press releases, but this one is just too boring. This is the intro I got.

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Hi Stefan,

A desk chair that controls office power consumption and a 100 percent recyclable writing instrument, college students are finding ways to help green businesses with ideas for eco-friendly office supplies.

Through the 2nd Annual Global EcoEasy Challenge, interested students can submit a 1,000 word description of their unique idea for a new, more environmentally preferable design of an office product. Designs may use environmentally preferable material or present a new product promoting sustainability.

Staples will invite up to eight finalist teams to Washington, D.C. in April, 2011, to present their product idea to a panel of judges.  The judges will award the grand-prize winning team with $25,000 and two runners-up will receive $5,000 each.

Below is a press release with more details.

Thank you for your consideration.
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It simply did not engage me. The lesson here is that companies need to do better than this in order to activate innovation bloggers who can be effective partners on spreading the word on your open innovation and crowd-sourcing initiatives.