Meow Mix Returns to Prime Time with Game Show
Meow Mix is making a comeback to TV, this time with its very own game show. And it’s searching for some cats and their owners to sit in as contestants.
The company has kicked off an eight-city tour to find contestants to participate in “The Meow Mix Game Show.” The 30-minute show, which will air at 8 p.m. ET Nov. 15 on GSN, pits felines and humans against other teams vying for a chance to win $1 million and $100,000 for a feline-related charity in their community.
More than 100 people and their cats attended the Chicago audition last weekend. Auditions are also slated for June 21-22 at Helen Mills Theater in New York. Other try-outs include Tampa, FL, Dallas, Denver, Portland, San Francisco, CA, and Los Angeles through Aug. 3. People who participate will receive a free sample of the product.
A full schedule is available at www.MeowMix.com.
A panel of judges will select one team from each market with the most points to be show contestants. During the taping, pet owners will be quizzed on general feline knowledge, which include such categories as nutrition, behavior, anatomy and the role of cats in pop culture. The show will also feature interactive challenges where people and their pets must work together.
If the $1 million prize is not awarded, the top team will take home $25,000 and a $2,500 donation to a local cat charity. The second-place winners will receive $15,000 and a $1,500 charitable donation and third-place winners get $10,000 and a $1,000 donation. All finalists will receive a year’s supply of Meow Mix Wholesome Goodness cat food, a new line of dry and wet food.
“It’s a tongue-and-cheek spoof off everybody’s favorite game shows,” said Matthew Glass, CEO of Grand Central Marketing, the agency that developed the concept and is handling the tour and show production. “It’s a little bit of “The Newlywed Game and “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” with some “Jeopardy.”
The game show builds off last year’s event, The Meow Mix Acatemy, an 11-city tour that got people to think, and act, like their cat. That effort drew more than 50,000 people (Promo Xtra, Oct. 30, 2007).
http://promomagazine.com/eventmarketing/news/meow_mix_acatemy/index.html
“Last year was all about teaching people to better understand their relationship with cats,” Glass said. “This year, the next step is to test those learnings.”
The latest campaign is designed to foster a better relationship with people and their cats in a Meow Mix fashion of entertainment and fun, said John Bell, client service director for TracyLocke, AOR for Meow Mix, which is handling the brand strategy and retail execution. The effort is part of brand’s “Think Like a Cat” concept.
“At the end of the day, the brand stands for fun,” Bell said. “We want to make sure that holds true.”
In a supporting cause marketing effort, Meow Mix will partner with a local shelter and donate one pound of cat food for every team that auditions in each market, Bell said.
The show is the third for the brand. In 2003, Meow Mix launched “Meow TV,” a 30-minute program for cats and their owners on the Oxygen Network. And in 2006, it launched a reality show called “The Meow Mix House,” which included three-minute segments of content on Animal Planet.
Online marketing and radio spots help promote the campaign. TracyLocke will also support the effort with direct mail and coupons, in-store experiences of the game show format and samples of Meow Mix products.
Agency.com handles the online efforts for the campaign.
