Curious George Game Gets Multi-Million Dollar Boost
Namco Bandai Games America, Inc. is rolling out a multi-million dollar marketing and promotional campaign with a host of partners to generate buzz around its new video game Curious George, which hits stores today.
To help support the launch of the Curious George title, Life Cereal is touting an exclusive mail-in DVD offer on more than 17 million boxes of Life brand cereal through March. In addition, Dole has teamed up with Namco Bandai Games for a cross promotion of Dole bananas. Under the partnership, Dole’s logo appears in the film and video game. In return, Dole will feature the video game on its 10,000 in-store displays, said Senior Marketing Manager Kim Morgan, an independent consultant who worked on the marketing campaign. 206 Partners, Seattle, handles.
“This is a good way for us to work with Universal and its partners to show [consumers how] to bring the movie home in a fun and interactive way,” Morgan said. “The promotions are a good way to capitalize on brand awareness and hopefully create a positive association for our product.”
For its part, Cold-Eeze is launching an online sweepstakes with its Cold-Eeze and Kidz-Eeze cold medicine offering consumers the chance to win a trip for four to Universal Studios theme park. Consumers can enter online at Coldeeze.com.
Fifty first-prize winners will receive a Curious George Game Boy Advance game; 15 second-prize Winners will receive a Curious George merchandise prize pack. The sweepstakes is open to consumers 21 and older and runs through Oct. 31. Online materials and print ads support. The Quigley Corp., Doylestown, PA, handles internally.
Likewise, ice-cream maker Carvel is offering a sweet promotion tied to the video game, promoting a sweepstakes on 1.2 million Carvel cake products in 9,500 stores nationwide that sends the grand-prize winner on a trip to Hollywood. Consumers who also buy Monkey Crunch Carvelanche will receive a free curious George George collector’s cup.
Consumers can obtain a game piece inside specially marked packages of Carvel products. One grand-prize winner gets a trip for four to a Universal Pictures premiere in Hollywood and four passes to Universal Studios Hollywood theme park. Seventy-five first-prize winners get a Curious George video game for PlayStation 2 and 25 second-prize winners will receive a Curious George gift pack.
The sweepstakes runs through June 30. In-store P-O-P and online materials support. Match Point Marketing, Pittsburgh, handles.
Also this month, Namco Bandai Games will team up in a co-advertising initiative on more than 1 million pieces of Curious George toys.
In the Curious George video game, players assume the role of the curious monkey as he sets off for the adventure of a lifetime. The game is available for PlayStation 2, the Xbox video game system, Nintendo GameCube, Game Boy Advance and PCs.
Curious George is based on Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment’s animated film of the same name. The film, set for release Feb. 10, details the adventures and misadventures of the loveable monkey and the friends he meets along the way.
