The first National Rental Month in April 2000 generated perhaps the largest concentrated promotion of the equipment rental industry ever. In terms of mass-media exposure, proclamations of rental month by local and state politicians and events that gave consumers reasons to visit rental stores, it was a success.

What's more, it stimulated the early spring rental business in many stores. "Our business is up over 70 percent for this month," reported Mike Hickerson, Mike's Rent-All, Portland, Ind., "partly due to the advertising locally and the open house during the promotion of National Rental Month." Some 140 people attended a mid-month open house at Mike's Rent-All. The mayor of Portland signed a proclamation, helping create excitement and educate the community about the benefits of rental. And a large print ad promoted both the open house and new items in Hickerson's rental inventory.

The real success of a promotion such as National Rental Month (NRM) occurs at the individual store level, where an A.R.A. member benefits directly from a combination of the association's national media exposure and the member's own efforts.

In response to an early May "Flash Fax," more than 225 members responded to a survey about their participation in National Rental Month.

About 90 percent displayed the NRM banners that A.R.A. had mailed to all members, and more than 82 percent displayed the free counter cards they had received.

Almost 30 percent promoted a special price or a discount offer during April, and nearly 12 percent participated in the promotion in which they gave a free, personalized work jacket to contractors who placed an order of $300 or more.

Just less than 10 percent of survey respondents said they put on a promotional event or product demonstration, and about the same percentage got their mayor to issue a proclamation in observance of NRM.

Nearly 4 percent of members in the survey said they combined forces with other members to put on a special promotional event.

Here's a "spot check" of what members did to observe National Rental Month:

Lori Mattheiss, Taylor Rental Center, Berkeley Heights, N.J., reported, "We had a great response from [local] cable TV ads." The ads ran during home-improvement programs and on The Weather Channel, Family Channel, The Learning Channel, MSNBC and Discovery, she said. Begun in April, the spots continued through May and June.

"People came in all the time and said, 'We saw your ad.' The campaign cost about $5,000 total," Mattheiss said.

"Just the fact that people saw [the ads] is a great payoff. But one of my guys went to a community meeting the other day, and brought back three leads. We're out there a lot, and it pays off," she said.

The Rental Association of Canada, Saskatchewan chapter, combined a rental promotion and support for a charity, which involved virtually every member in the province. A.R.A. Region 10 Director Doron Broadfoot, The Rent It Store, Saskatoon, described how it all came together under the leadership of chapter President Albert Emel, AGG Rental Centre, Saskatoon:

"A committee of members in Saskatoon and other towns in the province decided to tie in customer appreciation with a rental-awareness show in every locality that we could. We approached the Children's Wish Foundation of Saskatchewan, intending to donate dollars for their cause and piggyback on the exposure they naturally draw," Broadfoot explained.

Events were held on Saturday, April 15, in Saskatoon, Regina and elsewhere in the province, he said. In Saskatoon, the event was held in a public park. "Everybody (from all the city's rental businesses) contributed equipment. The Children's Wish Foundation sent volunteers. We had food, barbecue, popcorn, candy floss. We asked for donations for the food, and those moneys went to the Children's Wish Foundation," Broadfoot said.

"The weather didn't cooperate the day of the event," he reported, "so we had a smaller crowd than we'd hoped, about 150. It was better attended in Regina. We all wore jackets and vests with the RAC logo and the name of our rental business."

The Saskatchewan event earned more than $500 to benefit the charity. "We intend to do another promotion [next year]," Broadfoot said. "It gets all the rental operators together on a non-competing basis. It gets the rental message out. And, hopefully, we can do some good for the Wish Foundation and the community."

In neighboring Manitoba, members of the RAC chapter all purchased magnetized signs for their pickups and delivery vehicles, reported Ed Dwyer, C&T Rentals & Sales, Winnipeg, chapter president. The large blue-and-yellow signs proclaimed "National Rental Month" above the A.R.A.-RAC slogan, "Renting: The Smart Way To Get Things Done."

Stephanie Smith, who works at Marion Rent-All, Marion, Ohio, appeared on a local radio talk show, Morning Magazine, to promote NRM and her store. In March, "I called the station, told them about National Rental Month and how excited we were about it, and made an appointment for an interview" during April, Smith said.

The day of the show, Smith went to the radio station for a live, 15-minute interview. "We started out talking a little bit about the history of A.R.A. I got a lot of background information from A.R.A.'s public relations department," she said.

Smith outlined important information for consumers to keep in mind when renting equipment. "Get the job ready before you rent the equipment. Time out equals time paid. Things like that," she said. "I told them we always walk through the use of the equipment with them. We want the rental to be safe. I gave them lots of tips." As the interview progressed, she was pleased to see surprise register on the interviewer's face. "He learned a lot," she said. "He came up with even more questions" than they had planned before the interview.

Along with the practical information, Smith reminded listeners about Marion Rent-All's specials for National Rental Month. The radio interview added exposure to the advertisements the store was running on radio and in the newspaper. "We also mentioned A.R.A.'s Web site in our ads. If we didn't have what a customer was looking for, we'd direct them to the A.R.A. Web site to help them find it from another member.

"Next year, we plan to do more," Smith added. "Involve the mayor. We did a lot [of planning] in the last week or so before National Rental Month. But we plan to do more, earlier, next year. We're going to add TV next year."

On April 5, Miller's Rentals, Edison, N.J., unveiled newly remodeled facilities at a private party for about 80 guests. The Edison mayor's wife cut the ribbon to open the new facility as guests drank champagne, ate hors d'oeuvres and toured the new store. Edison Township TV also videotaped the event, owner Steve Kohn reported, and the store shared the party with the world by displaying photos of the event on its Web site at <millers-rentals.com/premier_cocktail_party.htm.>.

Rachel Fitzgerald, J&F Reddy Rents, St. Louis Park, Minn., had as much fun as her guests when she invited the St. Louis Park Sunrise Rotarians to the store for a breakfast meeting and equipment demo. She is a Rotarian, and asked Mayor Jeff Jacobs, a fellow Rotarian, to issue a proclamation promoting National Rental Month; they staged a presentation at the beginning of the meeting.

"Then we had coffee and donuts and went through the whole store," Fitzgerald said. "In the yard, we had a Bobcat for them to drive and about seven of them did. We also had a 42-foot boom lift set up, and about five guys went up. It was really fun to see them out there with the equipment.

"I think [the promotion] went pretty good. Many Rotarians are good customers, and the event gave them a chance to see more possibilities. A few guys couldn't make it, and they're still asking, 'Can I come over and drive [the Bobcat]'?"

In Elkhart, Ind., The Grand Event Party Rentals used NRM to promote a drawing for a DVD player. The local newspaper ran ads and an article covering the mayor's proclamation of NRM in Elkhart, as well as the store's promotion. Ads on a local radio station admitted that National Rental Month is "not as exciting as National Eat Ice Cream Month. But if you've got an event coming up, The Grand Event Party Rental wants to help you celebrate." Owner Dave Harbaugh was pleased with the results of his promotional efforts.

Virgie Kitchens, Tomball Tool Rental, Tomball, Texas, took a straightforward approach to promoting NRM. The Kitchens are members of a number of civic and business organizations. At a meeting, she said, "We just stood up and said, 'This is National Rental Month, and we rent this, this and this, and we'd like you to come by and see us'.

"It worked out pretty well."

Dover Rent-All, Dover, Del., conducted its second annual Family Fun Fest on April 15 in conjunction with NRM. "We had a very good fun fest," said David Clapp, "even though it rained. We put up tents and put up the inflatables under them." An estimated 500-600 persons - "based on how many hot dogs we consumed," Clapp said - enjoyed refreshments, games, prizes, a clown and a remote broadcast on a local radio station.

This event provides a means for local nonprofit organizations to raise visibility in the community. Despite the rain, Clapp said seven groups as diverse as the YMCA and Read-Aloud Delaware participated. Each group staffed a game, and used the opportunity to hand out literature promoting itself.

RentalMax, Downers Grove, Ill., participated in the contractor's jacket giveaway promotion in a big way. "We made up our own posters, bought a jacket to display at each of our 12 stores and bought extra banners so we could display them inside and outside each store," said owner Terry Hagy.

Although the in-store promotional effort cost RentalMax a substantial amount, Hagy felt it was worth the expense for the payoff in building customer relations. "The free jacket giveaway was fine. There were no negatives. The customers were pleased to get something for free."

But his success with the promotion was the result of his company's own efforts. The results "were pretty much what we were able to drive at the retail environment. Out of all 12 stores, only one jacket redemption came from a coupon that appeared in the [national construction] magazine. All the rest came from coupons we made up ourselves," he said."It's a building block," Hagy continued. "After five or six years [of promotional efforts], people will realize April is National Rental Month."

The A.R.A. produced new television commercials to spotlight National Rental Month and demonstrate all the possibilities available to consumers through equipment rental. The spots promoting both general tool and homeowner equipment rental and event and party equipment were broadcast on The Weather Channel, three other cable television networks and the syndicated Martha Stewart Living program through April and beyond.

One hundred spots were broadcast on The Weather Channel between March 27 and April 30. Broadcast between 5 a.m. and 11 p.m., the 57 general tool/homeowner spots were intended to reach light contractors and general consumers; the 43 event/party commercials targeted homeowners looking forward to outdoor entertaining. While most of the spots were broadcast during general programming, a number appeared during the "Weekend Forecast" or "Weather Central" features.

At the same time, A.R.A.'s commercials were being broadcast on The Learning Channel (TLC), Lifetime and Home & Garden Television (HGTV). On TLC, the party/event spot ran during the popular Wedding Story program, and the tool-rental spot aired on Home Again with Bob Vila and Hometime.

Meanwhile, the party commercial was broadcast during April episodes of Next Door with Katie Brown on the Lifetime network. It was also seen on Martha Stewart Living programs during the weeks of April 10 and 17.

Beginning the week of March 27 and running through the week of May 15, the tool-oriented spot was aired more than 140 times on HGTV. It appeared during Designer's Landscape, New Yankee Workshop, Grow It, Breaking Ground, Hands On, This Old House Classics, Gardening by the Yard and amid general programming.

A.R.A.'s National Rental Month spot won a national Telly award in the 21st annual advertising industry competition. This year, about 14 percent of the approximately 12,000 commercials entered in the competition were judged "winners." With its win, A.R.A. joins such prestigious award winners as American Airlines, Coca-Cola, McDonald's and General Motors.

On the print side, articles promoting National Rental Month and offering consumers tips about renting appeared in more than 80 newspapers in at least 10 states, with readership of more than 7 million, according to a news tracking service. Major markets receiving that coverage included New York City; Chicago; Philadelphia; Columbus, Ohio; Omaha, Neb.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Mobile, Ala.; and Des Moines, Iowa.

Among magazines, in addition to the rental industry publications of the U.S. and Canada, NRM was covered in Construction Equipment and all 16 member magazines of Associated Construction Publications.

The governors of 27 states signed proclamations declaring NRM in their states. Those states were Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin.

In his proclamation, Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening noted, "Equipment rental and equipment rental facilities give people the option to accomplish things that might not otherwise be possible or financially feasible "

James Gilmore, the governor of neighboring Virginia, also observed, "The state-of-the-art equipment that is available to rent saves the consumer money while solving equipment and supply needs, and when the event or project is complete, they can return the equipment while keeping the results "

In addition to the proclamations, letters of support were received from the governors of Minnesota, Montana, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Washington, and from President Clinton.

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