Dodge Ball

It started as a nice little party for families – you know, those folks in the Dodge minivan that you hate to get behind on the highway. But just mention “Universal Studios,” and all of a sudden everyone wants in.

So DaimlerChrysler appended its invitation list, and now all Dodge owners are invited to the honeymoon promotion between Dodge and Universal Studios.

The June 17-19 Dodge Adventure, a trek to Universal’s new Islands of Adventure theme park in Florida, is the first campaign in the automaker’s multi-million dollar alliance with Universal Studios, signed in January. The deal encompasses Universal’s films, new media properties like Web site animalhouse.com, and consumer products, as well as theme parks in Florida and Hollywood.

A DaimlerChrysler rep calls Dodge Adventure “a tiny element of our relationship, but the first one” to reach consumers. The theme parks are the core of the alliance, and the futuristic Islands of Adventure gives Dodge “a halo of high technology,” says Warren Benjamin, Universal Studios senior account director of corporate partnerships.

The campaign started as the Caravan Adventure, breaking in January with an unusual direct-mail offer to minivan owners: Family trips to Islands of Adventure the week it opens in June. But this isn’t your usual sweepstakes. Consumers don’t win trips, they register with Dodge for discount tickets, accommodations, and a Dodge-only party one night in the park.

Dodge mailed invitations to 3.5 million Caravan owners, with a PIN on each letter. The invite promised that the first 5,000 families to call and book trips would get in. It’s a join-the-club approach reminiscent of General Motors’ Saturn Homecoming and Jeep Jamboree, but with better rides and more cotton candy.

“Dodge researched the idea up and down to see if owners were interested in an Orlando vacation, and then they built the promotion around the research,” Benjamin says. “You don’t have to be the 10th caller or a sweepstakes winner to go.”

Then the phones started ringing, and Dodge had second thoughts.

The offer was originally tested only among Caravan owners, but after the first flight of direct mail, Dodge vp Jim Julow wanted to open it up to all Dodge owners. After all, Islands of Adventure is geared to a wide audience of teens and adults as well as families. Dodge wanted to give its owners an exclusive, not exclusionary, deal. “We didn’t want to set a caste system for Dodge owners,” says Scott Russell, senior vp-customer relationship management at Dodge’s agency, Ross Roy Communications.

In March, the company mailed a second flight to another 1.7 million owners and ran ads in USA Today, in its quarterly owner’s newsletter, and on the Web. By early April it had sold just over 10,000 tickets, and expected to sell another 10,000 by the April 30 deadline. Travelers get a welcome packet a month before the trip with their itinerary, tickets, and a $250 coupon book. For $399, a family of four gets three-day passes to Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida; early morning admission and preferred seating at shows; a character autograph session; one free lunch; assorted travel packs; and the coupon book, good throughout the park. Dodge figures the package is worth $1,038, so owners get a 60 percent discount.

Dodge tapped the owner loyalty segment of its marketing budget to buy travel packages from Universal. Then it added some goodies and cut the price tag even more. “People have shopped it, and they can’t beat the price,” Russell says.

Consumers still have to make their own travel and lodging arrangements. Three groups handle those logistics: long-time Dodge partner Carlson Travel Cos., Universal Studios Vacations, and the Orlando Visitors Bureau, the latter of which catches calls referred by Dodge’s toll-free reservation line.

Universal formed Universal Studios Vacations this year to sell its parks as a destination rather than a day trip. The service will book visitors outside the park until its first hotel, Portofino Bay, opens in September. Universal plans to add a hotel a year in its parks: The Hard Rock Hotel opens next year, and Tahitian-themed lodging is planned for 2001. In the meantime, “we have no trouble getting heads in beds,” Benjamin says.

Yes, but will they get 20,000 Dodgers into the park? In early April, Benjamin was optimistic that they’d get close. “If we get more, we’ll all be patting ourselves on the back.”

Dodge may pat itself anyway.

“Whether people come or not, we still get credit,” Russell says. “People still get the message that Dodge wants to do something nice for them.”