Return Engagement
Summer may be right around the corner, but the marketers at Time Warner, New York City, are already thinking about October.
Time Warner is bringing Scooby-Doo back for his third straight Halloween promotion, this time backing the initiative with a reported $65 million-plus in marketing support from a getting-longer-by-the-minute partner list. The company is putting the final touches on a Halloween initiative that will back the straight-to-video release of Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invader from its Warner Home Video division.
The effort will be the “biggest Halloween promotion yet,” says Phyllis Ehrlich, vp-promotions sales and marketing with Atlanta-based Cartoon Network, which will turn October into a month of all things Scooby-Doo. Special movies and marathons will run throughout the month, as will themed content on the company’s dedicated Scooby-Doo Web site.
For this year’s pumpkin-palooza, Time Warner has filled its plate with a group of partners signed to help hype the video, which is due in stores Oct. 3.
PepsiCo’s Pepsi-Cola and Frito-Lay arms will join on co-branded P-O-P efforts, but will execute other components separately: Pepsi, Somers, NY, will slap glow-in-the-dark stickers on 60 million packages offering a plush Scooby with proofs of purchase. Packaging will also carry a coupon good for $3 off the video, a buy-three-get-one-free offer on Warner Bros. DVD titles, and a $50 rebate off the purchase of a Toshiba DVD player.
Frito-Lay, Plano, TX, which will use the tie-in to push its Doritos and Lays brands, was still developing the program at press time. But the effort will reportedly employ a premium or self-liquidating offer. Frankel & Co., Chicago, will handle for both Pepsi and Frito-Lay.
Miami-based Burger King joined the party in early April and naturally will run a kids’ meal initiative, this one featuring eight premiums offered throughout October. The effort may also include a rebate on the video and possibly some kind of “Scooby Snack” on the menu. Equity Marketing, Los Angeles, will handle.
M&M/Mars, Hackettstown, NJ, isn’t tying directly into the video release, but will aid the cause by featuring Scooby images and riddles on 50 million bags of fun-sized candy (those miniature 13-ounce bags commonly handed out to trick-or-treaters). Brands participating in the effort include M&M, Milky Way, Snickers, and 3 Musketeers. P-O-P in 100,000 stores will support, as will a “Find Scooby and Win Cash” sweeps component in which candy multipacks will feature instant-win gamepieces. DraftWorldwide, Chicago, handles.
The promo partners may also tie into Cartoon Network’s month-long Scooby tribute with branded content on the cable channel’s Web site, says Ehrlich.
The evergreen Scooby-Doo now appeals to a few decades’ worth of consumers. The character just won Cartoon Network’s “Cartoon Campaign 2000,” an on-air effort that had viewers calling in to select their favorite toon star (March PROMO). Sales of licensed Scooby merchandise have skyrocketed over the last two years, led by strong success with direct-to-video releases.
Releasing a Halloween Scooby video backed by huge marketing muscle has become as regular for Time Warner as Jason turning up alive in a Friday the 13th sequel. Last year, the company backed the release of Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost with a reported $55 million in promo support provided by partners Sun-Maid Raisins, Welch’s, and General Mills. Sun-Maid ran an instant-win game on five million snack-size packages. Welch’s threw Scooby images on one million jelly jars and General Mills on four million Count Chocula cereal boxes. In 1998, partners including Wendy’s, MCI, Lego, and Campbell Soup Co. joined in on a $50 million campaign for the release of Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island.
Five months until this year’s promotion breaks, and Ehrlich says plans are already in the works for Scooby’s Halloween 2001 campaign.
Now that’s scary.
