Play Mates: Marketers file into school two by two.

Pssst. Nickelodeon is playing in your kid’s classroom.

So is Nintendo.

Not to mention Sony, Kraft Foods, Nabisco, Keebler, and Kodak.

The onslaught begins this month as marketers vie for the estimated $21 billion parents will shell out on back-to-school shopping. There are a handful of new partnerships this year – Nabisco and Sony, Keebler and Nintendo – and at least one established couple that sets the pace for the marketplace: Kraft and Nickelodeon.

Kraft and Nick have set the gold standard for joint promotions, especially through coordinating display and media activity, and using fresh ideas.

“There’s almost an uneasiness to please each other” after five years together, says Kraft director-strategic alliances Deb Sawch. “There’s a fluency and intimacy that lets us be very spontaneous with ideas, but every year is a new year, and we want to please each other.”

The two break a reported $50-million campaign themed Smell-O-Vision this month that will be flagged on 100-million packages of Kraft Kids products including Macaroni & Cheese, Oscar Mayer Lunchables, and Post cereals. Since it’s the fifth go-round for Kraft and Nick, it makes sense they’re targeting the fifth sense: smell. Thirty million packages have scratch-‘n-sniff cards and 3-D glasses on- or in-pack. Ten million boxes of Post cereals and special 10-packs of Kool-Aid have scratch-‘n-sniff puzzles that kids smell when they see a nose icon on-screen. Jell-O yogurt has stickers and Polly-O string cheese mini-games, both with scratch-‘n-sniff cards.

Nine smells range from vanilla to pickle and are linked to Nick’s shows, not Kraft’s foods. “Nick is very careful to distinguish between its programs and our products,” Sawch says. “The smells are what Nick chose, and we just followed along.”

Smell-O-Vision is a “natural progression” from last year’s 3-D Nogglevision blitz. “We wanted to ratchet up the interactive element, and the smell technology was available,” Sawch says. “To smell along with your TV? That’s so hilarious.”

There are also the more pedestrian 3-D glasses on Lunchables, Mac & Cheese, and Kool-Aid Bursts to watch new shows like Rocket Power and Cousin Skeeter and old favorites like Wild Thornberries. Kids watch for an eyeglasses icon on-screen. An instant-win sweeps for Lunchables gives away trips to Paramount’s Great America theme park. Mac & Cheese has a mail-in offer for commvee binoculars, named for the Thornberries’ adventure vehicle.

The promo runs through September via Nick and EastWest Creative, New York City, but the premiums last longer: Kraft’s first-ever promotional Web site, Kraftsmellovision.com, has games using the 3-D glasses and sniff cards. “This is the first time we’ve gone full-blown into this medium,” says Louise Labrie, Kraft manager-kids marketing group. The site is up through October with games but no additional promos.

Elsewhere, Nabisco teams with Sony for the first time after two years of “Cool School Bus” joint promotions with Hasbro’s Tiger Electronics unit. An estimated $15 million-to-$20 million July-through-October sweepstakes gives away 200,000 prizes, but it’s the grand prize that’ll make some kid big man on campus: A truck crammed with 33 PlayStation gaming kiosks and Nabisco snacks will visit the winner’s school for a day. (Nabisco delivered a school bus full of Tiger toys to the winner’s school for the last two years.)

Sweeps info appears on 28 million Nabisco boxes – and all promo elements drive kids back to the package, the only place that gives the necessary phone number. Kids call the toll-free number to enter; one in 10 calls is an instant winner. Prizes range from free single-serve snacks and PlayStation dog tags to Sony CDs and PlayStation hardware and games. Carlson Draddy & Associates, Westport, CT, handles.

“Back-to-school is the biggest merchandising event we have,” says Auriel Watts, Nabisco group manager-consumer promotions. “It’s one of our biggest [promotion] efforts all year.”

Nabisco courted Sony to get prizes like PlayStations and CDs of Sony Music artists Tatyana Ali and B*Witched. Then Nabisco ratcheted up the prize structure with a first-ever “ultimate prize” and 100 grand prizes, up from 50 last year and 17 in `97. “We wanted to make it easy to win,” Watts explains. For retailers, “we plussed up the display, with real kids instead of cartoons, and partners.” Sell-in “wasn’t a tough one. Retailers expect big things from Nabisco at back-to-school.”

Apparel marketers expect big things this year from Nintendo, which won accolades (including PMA’s Super Reggie) for a ’98 Tommy Hilfiger tie-in that put gaming kiosks in department stores. The tie-in goes one better this fall with Nintendo 64 kiosks and Game Boy Color units in 1,100 locations. The introduction of Game Boy Color – the first hand-held system with a color screen – taps Tommy appeal: Shoppers who buy $50 in Tommy threads get a dandelion-yellow, Hilfiger-logoed Game Boy Color for $57.50 (retail price sans logo is $80). The offer began July 24 via Westcott Marketing, Redmond, WA.

Separately, Nintendo and Keebler run “Ernie’s Escape to Color” July 18 through Sept. 15, their second joint back-to-school promotion. An instant-win sweeps on nearly 20 million packages gives away 10 grand prizes of two Game Boy Colors, a library of games, and a Game Boy camera and printer. In-pack game pieces have heat-sensitive windows that kids cover with their thumbs to reveal if they’ve won. Smaller prizes include color-changing T-shirts, Nintendo gear, and Keebler products. Ten-second tags on Chips Deluxe TV spots, print ads, and displays in 10,000 stores support, with “Ernie and Mario front and center,” says Keebler vp-marketing Mike Jurgenson. FCB Impact Promotions, Chicago, handles.

At least kids will be well-prepared for study breaks.