New Crest Tooth Whitener Focus of Tonight’s Apprentice
Procter & Gamble is the latest mega brand to get hired on The Apprentice, introducing on tonight’s show its newest Crest tooth whitening flavor.
The theme of the show revolves around the two teams given the task of promoting a new flavor, mint vanilla, in Crest’s Whitening Expressions line, around New York City. Toward the end of the show, a 15-second spot airs talking up the new flavor and prompting viewers to go to Crest.com to enter an essay contest. Participants, in 100 words or less, write in about how they would have promoted the new Crest toothpaste flavor.
“We’re giving the average viewer an opportunity to voice their armchair opinion of what they would have done on the show,” Ken Zinn, interactive-marketing manager for both Crest toothpaste and toothbrushes, said yesterday.
The winner of the contest gets to attend the taping of the final show and a night’s stay at a Trump hotel. Samples of the toothpaste will be sent to all participants in the contest, which begins tonight and ends Oct. 15. The four-week contest allows Crest to get some extra mileage beyond the one-hour show.
“It extends the brand beyond product placement on a TV show and it allows the viewer to continue to engage with the brand,” Zinn said.
In addition to the TV ad, the contest is supported by online ads and search engine optimization.
The contest, “extends the reality experience from contestants to people’s living rooms,” said Josh Linkner, CEO of ePrize, Farmington Hills, MI, which handles the contest.
On the first episode of The Apprentice, the two teams of would-be apprentices had to develop a new toy for Mattel that would test well with young boys. The Mattel logo showed up throughout the show and the prototypes developed by the teams were designed overnight by Mattel. The toy designed by the winning team, a remote-controlled car, will be produced by the toy maker and is expected to hit store shelves early next year, selling for $30.
