In Knots
Though substantial by general packaged goods standards, Dr Pepper’s $140 million ad budget hardly forms a large enough sling for the Plano, TX, company to play David to the twin Goliaths, Coke and Pepsi. But Dr Pepper marketers 1/2gured they’d passed the cola kings on the outside when they worked a tie-in deal with NASCAR and landed the lead sponsorship of a Busch Series car co-owned by NBA legend Julius Erving and former NFL running back Joe Washington.
“We saw Coke and Pepsi spending a bundle for its NASCAR sponsorship, but we didn’t see any Winston Cup or Busch Series cars with a soda brand on the hood. We figured we’d be the only one,” says Dr Pepper spokesman Mike Martin. “Then, in just the last month, Coke signed as a sponsor with Dale Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. for an exhibition race series in Japan, and Pepsi signed on with Jeff Gordon.”
It isn’t easy competing against two of the biggest, richest brands in the world, but the old Doc keeps on plugging, and it makes constant use of tie-in promotions to fuel its marketing machine. Its NASCAR-tied Thirst to Win campaign, which will award 10 show cars identical to the one used by Dr Pepper, will run May to July next year. First up on the brand’s ’99 promotional calendar, however, will be a new-and-improved rerun of a 1/2rst-quarter ’98 tie-in that set promo response records for partner Fox Television Network.
Find Love on Wednesdays is a watch-to-win program involving both Beverly Hills 90210 and Party of Five. Surprisingly, the shows’ demos reach into the mid-30s age group, and so does Dr Pepper’s. “Most soft drink brands focus on the 18 to 24 group; we go after 12 to 34,” says Martin.
Jennifer Love Hewitt from Party and Ian Ziering from 90210 will serve as spokespersons for the February-through-April promo in spots running on Fox. Watch-to-win grand prizes will be trips to romantic destinations including San Francisco, Rome, and Rio de Janeiro. Instant win prizes in an under-the-cap retail overlay include $5,000 cash, Sony Watchman TVs, compact disks, and T-shirts.
Dr Pepper is looking to improve upon results of its ’98 Fox tie-in, which involved only 90210 yet drew 17.5 million callers during the airing of a one-hour episode in April. That topped Fox’s previous record for a call-in promo by three million rings, according to the network.
Following the Find Love drive period – as Dr Pepper terms its promotional runs – the soft drink brand will drive right into Thirst to Win. In addition to the 10 grand-prize autos, the under-the-cap contest will award 25 vacation trips to NASCAR Busch Series races plus a variety of racing wearables and Dr Pepper merchandise. NASCAR-themed $1 coupons will be on 24-packs, and 55-cent coupons on 12-packs.
FOUR – AND MORE – ON A DEAL For back-to-school, Mervyn’s California debuted two new teen-oriented departments: Gear for boys and e-factor for girls. It needed a blowout promo that would drive teen traffic to the shops, and it came up with a solid concept for how to draw them: Mix free phone time with pop music. But that could get expensive.
Earlier in the year, Mervyn’s – which operates 268 department stores in 14 states – had run a promotion that was at once one of its most successful and cost-effective. The Key-pers program offered up a free collectable keychain with $50 purchase in youth-oriented departments. A different limited-supply keychain was offered up each week during a six-week run, and Mervyn’s got tie-in partners to supply three of them. (Levis, for instance, offered a glow-in-the-dark flashlight chain; Lee Jeans a mini-skateboard.)
“It was an incredibly successful traffic-builder. We ordered approximately 80,000 of each keychain and we ran out of all of them,” says Mervyn’s spokeswoman Susan Anderson. “We had signs up in the stores promoting the offer, and we had to have little stickers made up that said, ‘Sold Out.’ It was like Beanie Babies.”
Looking for an encore success with teens, Mervyn’s agency Davie-Brown, Santa Monica, put together a program that included a vendor (Sprint Fonpromotions), another retailer (Sam Goody music stores), and four different record labels.
With a minimum $50 purchase in either the Gear or e-factor departments, customers received a 10-minute prepaid phonecard that pictured different recording artists on four subsequent weeks: Lisa Loeb, robyn, Dakota Moon, and Next. When cardholders dialed the toll-free activation number, they heard sample cuts from new releases by the artists on the card. They were then invited to visit Sam Goody and use the $2 coupon they received in their free phonecard packages.
The entire program was put together in about 60 days – fairly speedy considering all the partners involved. “It helped that we also do a lot of work for Sam Goody,” says Davie-Brown svp Mark Owens. “We depended on another company, Aaron Walton Entertainment, to negotiate with the record labels, which got small royalties.”
While early results didn’t match those of the Key-pers promo, Owens says all parties walked away happy. “Mervyn’s drew a lot of attention to their new departments, Sam Goody built traffic, and the artists got to sample their new releases to their key listeners. Even Sprint got branding on the card.”
THRIFTY’S NIFTY VIDDY OFFER For years, rental car companies have glumly hitched rides on Airline frequent flyer programs, practicing the dull craft of customer rewards-as-commodity, and doing nothing in the way of de1/2ning or separating their own brands.
That all changed last April, when Budget Rent a Car introduced Perfect Drive, a customer loyalty program driven by a tie-in with Callaway Golf that awarded frequent renters clubs and other links-related equipment. Business renters signed up in droves and, within a month, Hertz jumped in with #1 Awards, a nearly identical knock-off of Perfect Drive.
So where does that leave the car rental companies stuck in the frequent-flyer doldrums? Thrifty Car Rental sought solace in a tie-in with Blockbuster Video. Customers who rent a Thrifty car receive a Blockbuster Value Card good for one free movie rental at participating Blockbuster stores. Frequent flyer club members have the option of taking two Value Cards in lieu of their miles.
It’s an offer consistent with the Thrifty name. While free video rentals don’t approach a Bobby Jones putter in yearn-for quotient, at least the reward is immediate. Budget and Hertz customers must complete five rentals before getting a putter – a plan aimed at business travelers. Thrifty is taking what the competition is giving it, pointing its rewards at casual renters as well as frequent customers. It also gains access to more of those targets by spreading the Thrifty name in some 4,000 Blockbuster outlets.
“By af1/2liating with a major retailers like Blockbuster, we get tremendous market coverage,” says Thrifty spokesperson Chris Payne.
Thrifty has been limited in the amount of in-store signage it was able to grab in Blockbuster, which has been plastering stores with POS for its Titanic video promotions. So last month Thrifty and Blockbuster introduced an online promotion called LA or Bust – Get the Show on the Road.
Via magazine ads and in-store POS, consumers are directed to either thrifty.com or blockbuster.com to go on a virtual road trip and treasure hunt. Those who successfully gather all the clues left for them on the game, which runs through December, will be entered in a drawing for a trip to the fifth annual Blockbuster Entertainment Awards in Los Angeles.
LA or Bust ties in with the Blockbuster Awards voting campaign, which invites some 50 million customers to vote for their favorites in 49 movie and music categories.
“Our business is perceived as a commodity product,” says Payne. “We have to do things to break ourselves out of that mold.”
MADE IN THE SHADES Ever heard of Britany Spears? If you plan on spending any time in the mall this holiday season, you soon will.
The Jive-Zomba recording artist just placed her first record on the charts and, this month through Christmas, will be appearing on POS signage at 2,000 Sunglass Huts, some 1,200 of which are mall-based. Consumers who make $70 purchases or higher at the Huts receive a sampler CD featuring Spears and six other Jive-Zomba artists.
“The timing for this promotion is impeccable. The music industry does 40 percent of its business in the five weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas,” says the man who put together the deal, BMG Entertainment senior director of marketing Scott Richman. “This will give Britany Spears, whose career is really heating up, added exposure out on the mall floors. You couldn’t buy this real estate.”
BMG, the global entertainment company, owns the Arista, RCA, and Windham Hill record labels, the homes of chart-toppers as diverse as Dave Matthews Band, Puff Daddy, and Clint Black. The charge of BMG’s marketing group is to 1/2nd alternate means of exposure for artists in a world crowded with musical acts, cable networks, and radio stations.
“Stores and restaurants have become valuable alternative media outlets for us,” says Richman, “and we in turn help them create excitement.”
Sunglass Hut got a taste for the power of entertainment tie-ins during Ray-Bans’ smash hit Men In Black promo two years ago. “That put them on the map as far as being able to do co-pros,” says Richman. “They really see the value for their young customer base in linking with a music company. We’re already talking about things for Q1 and Q2 ’99.”
BMG, which sports a more-the-merrier philosophy on tie-ins, is involving AT&T’s Lucky Dog dial-around service in the Sunglass Hut promo in selected markets.
