Boxing Days

Kellogg Co., Battle Creek, MI, returns to in-pack premiums for the first time since 1995 with Sesame Street Mini-Beans, a line of 24 plush dolls that will be inserted into 25 million boxes of eight different brands starting this month. The dolls represent the highest-value premium in the company’s history.

TV and in-theater advertising, FSIs, and p.r. will support the effort. Leo Burnett Co. of Chicago handles advertising, and Chicago-based Brigandi & Associates handles the promotion.

In addition to the toys, the boxes will carry games, quizzes, and cut-out activities. Kellogg will distribute an additional 50 million packages featuring Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie, along with a collector’s edition box of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes sporting Big Bird. The characters come via Kellogg’s first promotional deal with Sesame Street producer Children’s Television Workshop, New York City.

The effort “heralds a renewed era of commitment to caring for kids and bringing fun back to the [cereal] category,” says John Cook, president of Kellogg North America. It also signals a major promotional push for 2000 after a 1999 in which Kellogg’s cereal sales sagged and the company lost share to rival General Mills. Kellogg has vowed to eliminate heavy price promotions, commit more dollars to brand-specific advertising, and eschew costly new-product launches in favor of building brand loyalty for existing cereals.

In addition to the Sesame Street tie-in, the company will prettify Special K boxes with supermodel Cindy Crawford, gas up Frosted Flakes packaging through a tie-in with Fox Family Worldwide’s new NASCAR Racers TV series, and team up with NBA star Grant Hill to launch 3 Point Pops.

Disney Channel joins with Champs Sports and a roster of sister companies for an All-Access Jersey Sweepstakes to plug The Jersey, one of the cable net’s three first-run series.

A watch-and-win sweeps held over the first two weekends of January dangles a trip for four to the Super Bowl in Atlanta and a three-day jaunt to Walt Disney World in Orlando after the game. Additional perqs include a part in the half-time show, a $250 gift certificate to Champs, a ride in a Disney World parade with the Super Bowl winner (if the chosen player is agreeable), and a replica jersey. Promo spots on Disney Channel direct kids to Champs and ZoogDisney.com for entry forms. Radio Disney is offering a similar prize package to listeners. The Creative Couch, Los Angeles, developed the promo.

Five first-prize winners receive Sony Playstations and a complete list of videogame titles from 989 Sports. Like Champs, Sony and 989 are partnering with Disney Channel for the first time.

The tie-in with Champs gets Disney Channel retail penetration for about three weeks via P-O-P, employee buttons, and promotional spots on the chain’s in-store TV network. A gift-with-purchase overlay doles out The Jersey-branded phonecards with 10 free minutes for any licensed jersey purchase.

The promo is part of Disney Channel’s increased commitment in 2000 “to target promotional partners for our own series,” which also include The Famous Jett Jackson and So Weird, says vp-marketing Adam Sanderson. With sister network ABC carrying the Super Bowl this year, and the NFL having contributed to the series (which drops two teens into professional sports scenarios via a magic football jersey), “this was just screaming out at us,” says Sanderson. “There admittedly is a glut of Super Bowl promos out there. But we had a way to really get inside the event.”

It takes more than a bag of chips to fill up Super Bowl fans. Coca-Cola and Kraft Foods kick off an in-store blitz Jan. 2 in an end-run around Pepsi-Cola and Frito-Lay’s “Power of One” combo. Themed Bring Your Favorites Together, the campaign puts Kraft’s DiGiorno and Tombstone pizzas, Oscar Mayer, and Velveeta cheese on display with Coke.

A sweeps breaks Jan. 16 and gives away 34 Super Bowl parties with big-screen TVs, nosh, and maid service. One national FSI supports. (There’s no TV support.) Ryan Partnership, Chicago, handles for Kraft; BEN Marketing, Stamford, handles for Coke.

Universal Studios Home Video, Universal City, CA, has teamed with Web portal Lycos, Inc., Waltham, MA, for an offline and online campaign supporting six upcoming video releases. In Get Lucky, consumers who rent one of the six titles see a two-and-a-half minute trailer highlighting an online sweeps at Lycos.com offering such prizes as ski equipment and trips to High Cascade Snowboarding Camp and Lake Tahoe. Viewers are provided with a code that gets them into the sweeps.

The effort runs in video stores through March 31 and features Universal releases The Red Violin, American Pie, K911, Dudley Do Right, Mystery Men, and Bowfinger. After the P-O-P comes down in stores, the game will continue on Lycos.com through June, says Eric Friedberg at Cohen Friedberg Associates/Comp, Framingham, MA, which handles. De-signed to generate more than one billion impressions, the campaign is supported by full-page ads in magazines including Spin and Entertainment Weekly.

Nabisco Biscuit Co. has launched NabiscoWorld.com, a free amusement park where visitors can play online games such as Oreo Adventure, the Ritz Ball Toss, NabiscoWorld Mah-Jongg, and SnackWell’s Golf. The site features six themed “lands,” each sponsored by a Nabisco brand, and is designed to appeal to kids and adults.

High scorers on games have the chance to win prizes including a $25,000 Toshiba home theater system, videogame machines, and Nabisco products. “This site combines advanced Shockwave technology with America’s favorite brands for a thrill ride that people of all ages will enjoy,” said Nabisco Biscuit senior vp marketing Tom Hernquist.

The site is developed by Skyworks Technologies, Inc., Hackensack, NJ, the same outfit responsible for helping Nabisco unit LifeSavers Co. score such a hit with the similar candystand.com.

Kraft Foods aimed straight for Hispanics via an eight-week holiday tie-in with Readers Digest Selecciones that carried a meal-solution theme and offered $8 in coupons.

The Spanish language magazine featured an advertorial and a front-page sticker and was sent to 300,000 targeted subscribers. An additional 200,000 copies were distributed through end-aisle displays at food stores in 12 markets, and 500,000 went out in Kraft sample-pack door hangers. Agency Bravo Group, Miami, handled.