Raising the curtain
DOLE FOODS IS BRINGING props along for this field trip. Next month Dole begins a three-market run for “Five a Day the Color Way,” a theatre production that will play in 60 schools. It’s part of Dole’s 11-year-old nutrition education program tied to the 5 A Day program from Produce for a Better Health Foundation. “You need to get very creative to communicate to kids,” says Dole Director of Promotions and Special Events Marty Ordman. If reviews are good and budgets allow, Dole may add markets and a retail tie-in for the 2003-04 school year.
Dole is the latest marketer to tap live theatre to reach families. Ford Motor Co., Procter & Gamble, and Target Corp.’s Mervyn’s travel this spring with tours based on TV properties.
Theater has always made for good p.r. stunts — heck, Virgin Worldwide CEO Richard Branson even did a striptease for Virgin Mobile, backed by the cast of The Full Monty (October PROMO) — but a longer run gives deeper brand exposure and interaction. Family shows are a particularly popular venue for marketers eager to reach kids.
Nabisco Teddy Grahams and P&G’s Crest are title sponsors of Nickelodeon’s Dora the Explorer Live! show opening in April. (P&G’s Pampers and retailer Mervyn’s are associate sponsors.) The Latina lead character of commercial TV’s top-rated preschool show made the tour an easy sell, says Nickelodeon Senior VP-Marketing Pam Kaufman. “Diversity has always been a mission for us, and now the Hispanic market has become extremely important to a lot of companies.”
Crest came to Nick (on-air and on-stage) via parent Viacom’s recent $350 million deal across several Viacom properties. Dora the Explorer’s TV ratings with moms and Hispanics appealed to Crest, says Kaufman. Dora tour sponsors plan on-pack and P-O-P support at retail; in-theatre activities vary by venue.
“Sponsors all want to be in the show, but we don’t do product endorsements,” says Kaufman. “With a live show, you could probably bend the rules, but it just feels blatant.”
Auburn Hills, MI-based Ford hosts lobby and intermission games as title sponsor of the February-August run of Blue’s Clues Live! — Blue’s Birthday Party (a joint production of Nick and Clear Channel Entertainment, both New York City). Blue is “spokes-dog” for Ford and Nick’s Clue in to Safety campaign about seatbelt and home safety, so lobby displays (some with a Windstar minivan) and games teach safety. The current tour includes auditions in some cities that let one child per venue perform onstage with the cast.
Sponsors also like getting tickets for retail trade customers. Treating the trade to a show or meet-and-greet often translates to added display support, once grocers see shoppers’ enthusiasm for the shows.
Live-show sponsors must buy ad time on the cable network. For Nick, shows are “a great marketing vehicle — it’s great for properties to be out there locally,” says Kaufman.
Clear Channel’s Seussical the Musical has no national sponsor, but some promoters bring in local retailers, media outlets, and museums to host lobby activities before a performance. Seussical star Cathy Rigby and cast read to kids in the lobby before the show.
Dole takes the stage as it refocuses marketing on product usage and shifts away from entertainment tie-ins. (Last up was Disney’s Lilo & Stitch, a good match for pineapple with its Hawaiian setting.) Westlake Village, CA-based Dole commissioned the extended skit to reinforce its position as a nutrition leader and to boost foodservice sales: Dole may offer the show to school foodservice directors who meet purchase requirements.
National Theatre for Children, Minneapolis, produces Dole’s play. National Theatre owns the show, along with 90 more it has produced; Dole gets a nod as sponsor during performances and in classroom materials. Two actors play five roles as hero Fiona Farnsworth saves Five a Day Land (that was Dole’s idea) from The Painter, a disgruntled drop-out from Fruit University who’s turning fruits and veggies gray. It’s a fast-paced 25 minutes that drives home Dole’s four messages.
“We want to drill down on how important it is to eat enough fruit and vegetables and be active, to battle kids’ obesity epidemic,” says Amy Myrdal, senior manager of Dole 5 A Day.
Myrdal gave National Theatre four points and a setting, then reviewed four pitches from the writers. “I loved all four, so I gave the scripts to my friends to choose,” she laughs. (Among the also-rans: Foodzilla and Agent 005 A Day, a James Bond wannabe.) Three drafts later, the only change Myrdal asked for was banana plants instead of apple trees on the backdrop. (Dole doesn’t sell apples.) “I look at the script for clear statements to kids without oversimplifying it,” she says. “We want the message clear, but not so simple that it’s misleading.”
Teachers get workbooks two weeks before the performance, and can download more materials from National Theatre’s site playworks.com. Dole gives teachers a CD-ROM, too, and materials at dole5aday.com. Dole may court a retail partner to bridge workbook activities in-store.
Myrdal coordinates input and funding from Dole’s four fresh-produce divisions. Many items don’t have separate marketing budgets, so they rely on an umbrella message. Past school programs gave away cookbooks, magnetic charts (to track servings), songs, and a play kit for kids to stage. Dole’s five-year-old Creative 5 A Day Teacher Award adds a Disneyland trip to its prize pool this year; winning teachers also get a local lunch in their honor, with a “produce market” that party-goers shop for free.
Nutrition education is a fraction of Dole’s marketing program. “I don’t know if we’d ever completely roll [the play] out, but we could rotate it to different regions,” says Ordman.
The approach has legs. Two years ago, Shop-Rite joined healthcare group Americaid Community Care for an in-store scavenger hunt that kids completed after seeing a nutrition-themed play at school.
Schools are hungry for this kind of program, says National Theatre founder Ward Eames. The U.S. Department of Agriculture requires all schools that get federal funding to give nutrition information to kids. Dole is National Theatre’s first packaged goods client. The 24-year-old troupe got its start with safety and conservation shows for public utilities, then nutrition and anti-tobacco shows for healthcare companies and co-ops like the Mid-Atlantic Dairy Council. The theatre began pitching CPGs last fall via Marketing Director Tom Harris. Natural Ovens, Oconomowoc, WI, is slated for an April show and sampling of its whole-grain breads. Productions average $80,000 to $120,000.
National Theatre has turned down brands that don’t belong in schools. General Mills’ Lucky Charms wanted a show starring its leprechaun, but Eames couldn’t swallow a nutrition message for a high-sugar cereal. “You don’t want to be a huckster in the classroom,” says Eames. “There are hundreds of good-for-you brands around, more than we could ever work with,” like Mills’ own Wheaties and Cheerios (which Eames has courted).
