With a return on investment topping 3000%, the “Stay More, Save More” campaign Rawle Murdy completed with Wild Dunes Resort is tough not to notice. And now, two top industry groups have done just that. In just two weeks, the campaign was recognized with a Spark Award from the Charleston American Marketing Association and a Bronze Adrian Award from the Hospitality, Sales & Marketing Association International. The campaign was also featured earlier this year on The Today Show…a placement that resulted in the single largest booking day in the resort’s history!

Rawle Murdy’s “You Can’t Say No To A Free Turkey” video has all the bloggers talking. What started out as a humorous video made in hopes to spread virally through social media channels became a TV spot because Piggly Wiggly, well, just couldn’t say no. Love it or hate it, people are talking about cheesy pick up lines and free turkeys!  Check them out at Ad Rants, Ad Pulp, Agency Spy, The Digitel and Ads of the World.

The Post and Courier – Melissa K. Flynn, vice president and director of brand and relationship management for Charleston-based Rawle Murdy, has been named the 2010 president of the South Carolina chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. The chapter has more than 215 public relations practitioner-members.

The Post and Courier Business Review (CHARLESTON, SC) - Talk about getting inside your customer’s head.

Bruce Murdy, president of Charleston advertising and marketing firm Rawle Murdy Associates Inc., this year struck a highly unusual bargain with a major client, the supermarket chain Piggly Wiggly Carolina Co, Inc. He agreed to divide his time for six months platooning between his day job and the Pig’s internal team as the locally based grocer restructured its marketing department.

Looking to lift sales and fill the void left by the departure of its marketing chief earlier this year, Piggly Wiggly asked Murdy, whose firm has handled that account for 22 years, to serve as its interim marketing director until replacement Christopher Ibsen came on board in September.

Murdy found a staff that didn’t know what people in other departments were doing. They weren’t used to sharing information between ad, research and internal communication divisions. No one had accepted responsibility for the chain’s Web site and e-mail marketing. ‘The biggest challenge I had was changing culture,’ Murdy told the trade publication Advertising Age recently.

What did he do about it? He installed a digital marketing head, moved people around, asked staff for ideas that could be implemented right away, patched communication between marketing and management and reworked the grocer’s media strategy by moving back to mass-media channels, including TV. Sales began to increase.

Piggly Wiggly CEO David Schools doesn’t recommend the ad-coach arrangement for everyone, but he said it worked because it was based on trust from many years of working together.

Omaha, Neb. — ConAgra Foods’ Parkay® brand has launched a new, free iPhone application that uses an innovative new voice-to-animation technology to bring the brand’s iconic “Talking Tub” to life. In the just-released application, voice recognition commands the Talking Tub to say “Parkaaaay” and “moo” when the user says words like “butter” or “milk.” The first-generation application is available for free at: http://tinyurl.com/ParkayApp.

Fans of the brand and nostalgia buffs alike will certainly recognize the famous connection between “butter” and “Parkaaaay” from television ads launched in the early 70s. The “moo” and “milk” banter refers to a recent television ad titled “Barn” which touts a new formulation of Parkay table spread made with real nonfat milk. In the ad, a farmer is startled to hear an unusual moo coming from inside his barn, and he discovers the Parkay Talking Tub in one of the stalls. The voiceover calls out that the new Parkay is made with milk “for a fresh and creamy taste.”

“This new iPhone application is a fun and quirky way for fans and consumers to interact and connect directly with the Parkay brand and the iconic Talking Tub,” said Jeff Muench, senior brand manager, ConAgra Foods. “There has always been a great deal of nostalgia and fanfare surrounding the Parkay Talking Tub, and we hope this new iPhone application helps reinvigorate the brand and gets people talking and laughing.”

Marketing firm Rawle Murdy spearheaded the project using voice-activation technology licensed from design firm Creaceed.

“The explosive popularity and adoption of new media provides a great opportunity for classic icons like Parkay to re-connect with consumers – and create a new generation of fans,” said Bruce Murdy, president, Rawle Murdy.

The Parkay Talking Tub was first used in television advertising in 1973. Over the years, the tub has appeared in advertising with celebrities such as Laurel and Hardy (1982), Deacon Jones (1983), William Daniels (1990-91), Crystal Bernard (1997) and Al Franken (1999).

About ConAgra Foods

ConAgra Foods, Inc., (NYSE: CAG) is one of North America’s leading food companies, with brands in 97 percent of America’s households. Consumers find Banquet, Chef Boyardee, Egg Beaters, Healthy Choice, Hebrew National, Hunt’s, Marie Callender’s, Orville Redenbacher’s, PAM, Peter Pan, Reddi-wip and many ConAgra Foods brands in grocery, convenience, mass merchandise and club stores. ConAgra Foods also has a strong business-to-business presence, supplying potato, other vegetable, spice and grain products to a variety of well-known restaurants, foodservice operators and commercial customers. For more information, please visit us at www.conagrafoods.com.