New Contest Offers Customers Chance to Have Their Sharpie-Designed Backpack Reproduced and Sold in Office Depot Stores Nationwide
BOCA RATON, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun. 29, 2009--
Office Depot® (NYSE:ODP), a leading global provider of office products
and services, and Sharpie®, one of the world’s most recognized
brands of permanent markers, today announced “Project Backpack,” a
national contest that will allow customers to submit images of their
Sharpie-designed backpacks for the chance to win $10,000 in prizes,
including the opportunity to have their backpack design reproduced and
sold in Office Depot stores nationwide during the 2010 back-to-school
season.
Customers can enter the contest by creating a design on one of four
Office Depot canvas backpacks that can be purchased ($14.99 each;
available in blue, pink, olive and green khaki, that will include two
free individual Sharpie markers of your choice) from a participating
Office Depot store, or by downloading an official contest template from www.myprojectbackpack.com.
After designing the backpack using Sharpie markers, participants can
upload a photo or scanned image of their backpack to www.myprojectbackpack.com
along with their official entry form.
“Students rely on Office Depot for their back-to-school products and
solutions during the entire school year,” said Wade Eveleth, Senior
Director of Merchandising for Office Depot. “We are excited to launch
this contest with Sharpie and provide everyone with a really fun way to
show off their creativity by designing a backpack that will be on store
shelves for the 2010 back to school season.”
“Sharpie’s large assortment of permanent markers and pens makes Sharpie
the perfect partner for this program,” said Ed Cooper, Vice President of
Sales for Newell Rubbermaid Office Products. “The wide range of colors
and tips sizes will inspire a lot of creative ideas and designs. Office
Depot’s Project Backpack is a great way to get people excited about the
possibilities, with Sharpie as the advocate for self-expression.”
Entries must be received by 11:59 pm CDT on September 19, 2009. A panel
of judges will select the top ten finalists whose designs will be posted
back to www.myprojectbackpack.com
where the public will vote on the official winner. The grand prize
winner will receive $5000 and will have their backpack produced during
the 2010 school season, the first runner up will receive $3000 and the
second runner up will receive $2000.
For more information, please visit www.myprojectbackpack.com.
About Office Depot
Every day, Office Depot is Taking Care of Business for millions of
customers around the globe. For the local corner store as well as
Fortune 500 companies, Office Depot provides products and services to
its customers through 1,604 worldwide retail stores, a dedicated sales
force, top-rated catalogs and a $4.6 billion e-commerce operation.
Office Depot has annual sales of approximately $14.5 billion, and
employs about 42,000 associates around the world. The Company provides
more office products and services to more customers in more countries
than any other company, and currently sells to customers directly or
through affiliates in 48 countries.
Office Depot’s common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange
under the symbol ODP and is included in the S&P 500 Index. Additional
press information can be found at: http://mediarelations.officedepot.com.
About Sharpie®
For more than 40 years, Sharpie has been the popular brand of permanent
marker associated with the autograph experience. Newell Rubbermaid’s
Office Products Group, maker of Sharpie® markers, is a worldwide leader
in the manufacturing and marketing of writing instruments, art products
and office organization and technology products, including such well
known brands as Paper Mate®, Sharpie®, DYMO® Parker®, Waterman®, EXPO®,
uni-ball®, and Rolodex®, among others. Visit www.sharpie.com
or http://blog.sharpie.com
for more information and creative ways to use Sharpie markers.
Source: Office Depot
Office Depot
Jason Shockley, 561-438-0037
jason.shockley@officedepot.com
