Care Bears Celebrates 25 Years with Dodge Giveaway
American Greetings Care Bears brand is celebrating its Silver Anniversary with a sweepstakes offering the chance to win a new car.
The company is testing fans’ knowledge about the Care Bears brand and 1980s know-how in an online trivia game. The promotion ties in with the re-release of the classic The Care Bears Movie on DVD, which hit stores yesterday.
Fans enter at CareBears25.com. Also on the site, consumers can find Care Bears facts, listen to Care Bear series songs, download wallpaper and send branded e-cards. One grand-prize winner will receive a 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan. The sweepstakes kicked off yesterday and runs through June 20.
“The goal is to get moms to our Web site to experience the whole nostalgia around the Care Bears brand,” said Michele Schuessler, Care Bears’ brand manager.
The sweeps will be promoted with on-pack stickers in the DVD and 800,000 bag stuffers at Carlton Card Shops.
American Greetings Properties, AG’s intellectual property and outbound licensing division, and its partners plan to spend $15 million on marketing and licensing for the Care Bears brand this year, Schuessler said.
To hype up the sweeps, costumed Care Bear characters participated in the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Chicago last Saturday. During the event, teams handed out flyers while Care Bears-wrapped cars drove around city streets touting the 25th anniversary.
TV spots and print ads in parenting publications will also support the campaign. Marketing Resource, handles sweepstakes fulfillment.
In a separate development, AG Properties is inviting fans to submit photos of themselves with their own Care Bears in an online contest. The top submissions will be considered for possible inclusion in the closing credits of Oopsy Does It, a new feature film due out in August. More than 800 images have been submitted for the so far. The contest ends March 31.
“This is another element we have to bring back that nostalgia,” Schuessler said.
American Greetings relaunched the Care Bears brand in 2002. Since then, the company has sold 70 million plush toys and generated $2 billion in worldwide retail sales, Schuessler said.
