After years of occupying third place among the Big Four television networks and seeing its audience grow as old as Dick Van Dyke’s shtick, New York City-based CBS stormed back to the top last year thanks in large part to the success of Survivor, the smash-hit reality series.
Survivor was one of the most successful events in TV history, in large part due to the masterful job CBS did in marketing the series from the day it was first greenlighted to the moment its $1 million winner was named.

It’s no surprise then, that Survivor also scored the Super Reggie as the best campaign of 2000 in the Promotion Marketing Association’s annual Reggie awards program (March PROMO), which culminated last month with a special ceremony in Chicago. CBS earned a Gold Award for Best Multi-Channel Integrated Promotion Involving Consumer and Trade before walking off with the grand prize.

What CBS’s marketing campaign lacked in true promotion (the overall effort would be better classified as p.r.) it made up for in sheer control: the marketing team was involved from the start, kicking off the hype machine with an aggressive contestant search (including guerrilla campaigns in health clubs and at the New York City marathon) and juicing up advertisers with lucrative product-placement opportunities. Of course, the series also earns kudos for the scores of Survivor-esque — if not CBS-sanctioned — promotions it inspired throughout the year.

In addition to the 16 contestants, Survivor’s island of Palau Tiga was populated with such brand sponsors as Bud Light, Visa, Ericsson, Dorito’s, Dr. Scholl’s, and the U.S. Army — many of whom tailored promotional activity to the sponsorship. One episode’s “Challenge” winners earned a crate of goods from Target that was dropped in from a plane on a huge Target parachute. Pontiac launched its new Aztek with custom spots, an online sweepstakes, and a free car to ultimate winner Richard Hatch.

In accepting the award, CBS senior vp-marketing and events Anne O’Grady thanked promotion shop DVC Group, Morristown, NJ, for its behind-the-scenes work on the network’s efforts.

Since the show set a summer-time TV record with 125 million viewers, there’s no shame for any promotion marketing campaign to have taken a back seat to Survivor: A rundown of the other Reggie-worthy efforts follows.

NATIONAL CONSUMER PROMOTION OVER $6 MILLION

Gold: Sears is Your Ticket On Stage with Christina Aguilera

Agency: Einson Freeman, Paramus, NJ

Client: Sears Roebuck & Co., Hoffman Estates, IL

To liven up its back-to-school efforts targeting girls, Sears returned to the teen pop well (it rode the Backstreet Boys tour in ’99) through a sponsorship deal with Christina Aguilera that added a tie-in with Levi’s to the party slate.

With the purchase of select Levi’s merchandise, shoppers scored exclusive Aguilera CDs featuring codes providing access to online chats with the singer; to drive repeat visits, three different CDs were offered over a three-week period. The partners added a cause component through local nonprofit organization Do Something, awarding 50 “youth empowerment” grants to teens making a difference in their communities. National TV spots in English and Spanish supported. Aguilera’s cachet helped store sales double in key markets.

Silver: Fleetwood Homes Presents the Neal McCoy 24-7-365 Tour

Agency: Frankel, Chicago

Client: Fleetwood Homes, Riverside, CA

Battling an industry-wide sales slump, mobile house maker Fleetwood Homes tapped into a unifying element among its potential customer base: country music. The company signed on as tour sponsor for singer Neal McCoy, employing a variety of at-concert signage and putting the singer on all P-O-P materials. Entry forms for a sweepstakes offering the chance to win a private concert with McCoy were available only at participating Fleetwood retailers. At concert venues, ticket holders received souvenir gamepieces driving them to retailers to see if they’d won prizes. Entry forms for a second sweeps dangling a new home were inserted into McCoy’s August CD release, which was also handed out free to consumers who took tours of in-stock Fleetwood homes. The program generated $1.5 million in value-added media. Orders from commercial retailers doubled.

Bronze: Be the Ultimate Pokémon Master

Agency: DraftWorldwide/KBA, Chicago

Client: Kellogg Co., Battle Creek, MI

To boost consumer awareness and multiple purchases across its portfolio, Kellogg’s hopped on 2000’s hottest children’s property. Children were invited to collect 24 different in-pack Pokémon premiums. A watch & win game offering a raft of related prizes was communicated on-air during episodes of the Pokémon cartoon series. FSIs, TV spots, and print ads supported. An ultimatepokemonster.com Web site featured interactive games and e-cards that let kids themselves spread news about the promotion (and earn an entry into an online sweeps for every card they sent). The campaign scored a double-digit gain in retail display activity. Merchandise sales increased 30 percent over the same period in 1999. Volume sales of a promotional Pokémon cereal were four times larger than initial projections.

Silver: USPS/Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Agency: Frankel, Chicago

Client: United States Postal Service, Washington, DC

Known for innovative grassroots campaigns (November 2000 PROMO), USPS went the borrowed-equity route last holiday season, transforming post offices into Whovilles with a host of P-O-P and turning every piece of mail into movie advertising via Grinch-themed cancellation stamps. The Postal Service teamed with fellow Grinch partner Visa on a sweepstakes offering cardholders a chance at a free purchase or a $1,000 gift card, and also lent a hand to First Book, a nonprofit literacy organization running a book-donation drive (see description below). TV, radio, and print ads supported. USPS reported an overall jump in priority mail sales and a one-day record on Dec. 18, when more than 314 million stamped cards and letters were processed.

Bronze: Miller Genuine Draft Blind Date

Agency: The Zipatoni Co., St. Louis

Client: Miller Brewing Co., Milwaukee

The Miller Genuine Draft brand enlisted Zipatoni to add spice to its 13-year-old mystery-concert sweeps, which had been hurt by numerous copycat campaigns. Looking to boost interest among the core 21- to 27-year-old audience, the agency created a campaign leveraging the brand’s “Genuine Opportunity” TV spots and featuring partnerships with local radio stations for tickets and merchandise giveaways. On-premise, game cards gave patrons one-in-four chances to win instant prizes while interactive kiosks provided entries into the sweeps and the opportunity to e-mail friends about the event. An off-premise sweeps and a promotional Web site supported. The 2000 concert was Webcast live. The campaign helped MGD build brand recognition to 75 percent among the core audience and dispense 90 percent of the concert’s tickets on-premise.

LOCAL, REGIONAL, OR TARGET/ETHNIC MARKET PROMOTION (Budget over $500,000)

Gold: Cartoon Cartoon Fridays

Agency: RPMC, Calabasas, CA

Client: The Cartoon Network, Atlanta

To promote its Friday night line-up of original cartoons and strengthen relationships with local cable system operators, Cartoon Network again embarked on a road show that this time hit 13 cities for a night of screenings and other activities. Radio spots and an on-air sweeps drew attention to the events, which began with smaller parties during the week and culminated with Friday-night extravaganzas at which more than 1,000 kids watched cartoons on a 35-foot screen from inflatable beach chairs. (Refreshments were provided by sponsor Coke’s Hi-C brand.) Local cable operators ran sweepstakes and invited special guests. An average of 4,500 visitors turned out for each Friday night stop on the tour, which overall generated more than 16 million impressions.

LOCAL, REGIONAL, OR TARGET/ETHNIC MARKET PROMOTION (Budget under $500,000)

Gold: Alice Wicked Wonderland Tour

Agency: In-house

Client: Electronic Arts, San Mateo, CA

To create buzz for the December 2000 launch of videogame title American McGee’s Alice (a take on the Lewis Carroll classic, Alice in Wonderland) Electronic Arts found an unconventional yet budget-saving way to impress fickle gamers. A traveling Alice in Wonderland tour was targeted to 18- to 24-year olds who enjoyed techno music and clubbing. Led by a DJ, the tour visited clubs in six markets with music, imagery, and Alice-themed special effects with a psychedelic flavor. Fan kits containing demo videos and a $5 coupon good at Best Buy were handed out. Radio spots, Web advertising, and ads in alternative magazines supported. Online game site Gamers.com ran a sweeps. More than 12,000 people partied with the tour, which generated 4.5 million print impressions and passed out 50,000 coupons.

Silver: Motorola V2397 Launch

Agency: The Zipatoni Co., St. Louis

Client: Motorola, Schaumberg, IL

To boost holiday sales of its V2397 phones while positioning itself as a hip brand among teens, Motorola tied into MTV’s Total Request Live, tapping host Carson Daly as spokesperson and allowing viewers to use their phones to vote for their favorite videos via text messages. The company worked with MTV and Arista Records on a gift-with-purchase offer for a TRL messenger bag complete with compilation CD. A sweeps overlay dangled a trip for two to the show’s set. Trade marketing (including private parties for AT&T sales reps) and P-O-P along with national TV, regional radio, and print ads supported. The launch exceeded goals, gaining P-O-P placement in all 15,000 AT&T retail locations (a first for Motorola) and generating sales expected to surpass expectations.

Bronze: Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas National Campaign

Agency: In-house

Client: Universal Pictures, Universal City, CA

To turn Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas into the movie-marketing event of the 2000 holiday season, Universal sought to strike alliances with eight blue-chip corporate partners who would understand the need to retain the property’s spirit in all communications. The studio ultimately scored deals with Hershey’s, Nabisco, Kellogg’s, Sprite, Visa, Wendy’s, USPS, and Ziploc. It even added a cause overlay with nonprofit First Book. Those partners helped generate 99 percent pre-opening awareness for the film through more than 4,000 TV spots (11 different ads), 238 million FSIs, more than 350 million product packages, and six billion-plus pieces of mail. The Grinch became the highest-grossing film of 2000 with a box-office of more than $260 million.

BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS PROMOTION

Gold: Sheepstakes

Agency: In-house

Client: Cartoon Network, Atlanta

To introduce its latest original cartoon, Sheep In the Big City, to the advertising and cable communities, Cartoon Network developed a sampling and direct mail campaign. The effort began with a “blast” telephone message to 1,500 targets using the voice of the series’ narrator to inform them that they’d soon receive a special package. The next day, a video of the show arrived along with information about Sheepstakes, a sweeps giving away a trip to Ireland. To become eligible for the drawing, recipients had to call a toll-free number and answer questions based on the video within one week of receiving the package. The promotion generated a 20 percent call-in rate.

Bronze: USG Rock Tour

Agency: DDB Worldwide, Chicago

Client: United States Gypsum, Chicago

USG’s success in the drywall category (32-percent market share) is so strong the company’s Sheetrock brand has become the generic term for the product. To change that perception and introduce a new formulation, USG and DDB devised the Rock Tour, which kicked off with a direct-mail piece to contractors that included a sample and a utility knife so recipients could immediately test its improved qualities. A NASCAR sponsorship (one of the company’s most valuable marketing tools) was played up on communications, with top customers receiving tickets to races. Radio spots and ads in trade magazines supported. The effort boosted recognition of Sheetrock as a brand from seven percent to 46 percent, while recognition of USG as the manufacturer jumped from 19 percent to 41 percent.

INTERNATIONAL OR GLOBAL PROMOTION

Gold: The Simpsons Global Fanfest

Agency: In-house

Client: 20th Century Fox, Los Angeles

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Simpsons, Fox devised a year-long umbrella campaign that attracted 32 partners around the globe including Pepsi, Burger King, Nestle, 7-Eleven, Wal-Mart, Kmart, and Virgin Records. One key element was the relaunch of thesimpsons.com Web site, where more than 350,000 people registered to compete in a trivia game called Bart Bowl, more than 215,000 signed up to receive free Simpsons-branded Internet service, and more than 235,000 requested a fan newsletter. Efforts culminated in a Simpsons Global Fanfest Weekend in October at Fox Studios in Los Angeles, for which 700 contest winners were flown in from 16 countries. The campaign increased short-term sales of licensed merchandise and is also expected to strengthen future licensing agreements.

INTERACTIVE PROMOTION

Gold: The Intruder

Agency: In-house

Client: Cartoon Network, Atlanta

To back its Toonami action-adventure block and drive traffic to the Toonami.com site, Cartoon Network partnered with a kid’s best friend: Nintendo. The Intruder was the network’s first “immersion” event melding on-air programming with online content; five-minute on-air interstitials were enhanced with additional online content, and TV viewers were encouraged to log on and watch the story unfold in both media. A sweeps overlay let kids play games and enter (online or by phone) to win one of five trips to Nintendo headquarters in Washington and Japan. An in-school component gave Intruder book covers to fourth and sixth graders during back-to-school season. The campaign increased ratings for the Toonami block by 21 percent and boosted traffic to Toonami.com by 72 percent.

Silver: The Grinch’s First Book Campaign

Agency: In-house

Client: Universal Pictures, Universal City, CA

Looking for a cause tie for its Grinch efforts, Universal Pictures teamed with nonprofit First Book in a bid to increase literacy. Grinch publishing partner Random House donated 500,000 books to be given with every purchase of the Dr. Seuss classic; the Barnes & Noble chain chipped in by donating 10 percent of all online sales to the charity: the U.S. Postal Service publicized the program in post offices, while Nabisco and Wendy’s conducted their own donation programs. New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani officially proclaimed Nov. 1 as First Book Day, and Grinch director Ron Howard produced a promotional video with Hillary Clinton. More than $185,000 was raised for First Book through the effort, which generated an estimated 550 million total impressions.

It’s partly sunny, 82 degrees, and the surf’s coming up on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. A quick scan of the surroundings finds sun worshipers near the beach, golfers on the greens, and marketers by the pool.

Marketers by the pool?

Paradise Island is playing host to New York City-based Nickelodeon’s marketing team, which is on hand to watch the first activation of its newest strategic alliance, a two-year, $30 million pact with the Islands of the Bahamas inked last spring (see sidebar, next page). Out to rebrand itself as a family destination (37-percent of visitors currently are families), the Bahamas and its New York City-based p.r. shop, BSMG, began talking to Nickelodeon last summer.

“We’re the top vacation destination for kids, and Nickelodeon is the No. 1 brand for kids,” says Vernice Walkine, Bahamas director of product development. “We figured if we married the products, something interesting would happen.”

Officially announced in March, the deal stretches across all things Nick, from TV spots and on-air sweepstakes prize pools filled with trips to the 700-island nation (a little trivia for you) to the 2001 TEENick Summer Music Festival tour bringing games, music sensation Aaron Carter, and a Bahamian-themed pavilion to 40 cites this summer.

“We’re trying to take advantage of all of Nickelodeon’s capacities,” says Walkine. “This type of arrangement allows us to shift our focus away from traditional media and use richer, alternative ways to reach the target. Traditional media doesn’t cut it for us anymore.”

“It takes commercially viable and rewarding arrangements for both sides to make these types of LARGER PARTNERSHIPS work.”
— Bruce Chemel, American Airlines

The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism has also sunk its teeth into The Big Help, Nick’s social outreach program, which recruits children around the nation (and the globe) for community projects. This year’s 50-city initiative features a tilt on marine-environment protection and awareness via highlights of the Bahamian ecosystem. Activities and events, such as a kiosk program allowing kids to electronically build their own reef, liven up the effort and tie more directly to the partner. Children in the Bahamas will get involved with Help via local programs and events.

“It’s a deep relationship that plays off each partner,” says Nickelodeon senior vp-promotions Pam Kaufman, who was instrumental in striking similar partnerships with Gateway, Embassy Suites, and Ford Motor Co. “This is the future of strategic alliances.”

It very well could be. Marketing partnerships are becoming richer, more serious alliances that span multiple capabilities, employ many disciplines, and wed brands together for more definitive periods of time.

One-off deals are hardly becoming extinct; such partnerships will always encompass the majority of branding collaborations, since few companies have the cash, resources — or, frankly, the goals — to align on a large-scale basis. But marketers unanimously agree that bigger deals are working their way into core branding strategies.

Generating greater impact requires more expansive commitments from both sides, and companies with the size and inclination can buddy up to form a partnership model “that allows brands to look at business opportunities strategically and help each other on a long-term basis instead of short-term,” says R.J. Milano, vp of U.S. marketing at McDonald’s, Oakbrook, IL. The QSR is crossing the half-way mark in its landmark 10-year alliance with Burbank, CA-based Walt Disney Co., which gives each first-look access to the other’s holdings.

Going the Distance

The McDonald’s-Disney alliance was originally unprecedented. But long-term partnerships are now becoming more regular engagements, partly because of corporate consolidations but also because brands are looking to leverage borrowed equity over longer periods of time. And locking out competitors is often as important as locking in partners.

Purchase, NY-based Pepsi-Cola Co. and Yahoo, Santa Clara, CA, continue to plan online/offline programs after forging a relationship last summer with the successful PepsiStuff.com campaign. Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co. and America Online, Vienna, VA, began their courtship slowly and this summer really get things rolling with a Pop the Top campaign.

New York City-based CBS and mass-merchandiser Target Corp., Minneapolis, keep finding new ways to leverage each other. (Who can forget Target’s bull’s-eye logo landing on Survivor island?) And American Airlines and Battle Creek, MI-based Kellogg Co. recently tacked a few more years onto their deal, which peppers the cereal giant’s brands with offers for AAdvantage frequent-flier miles.

“It takes commercially viable and rewarding arrangements for both sides to make these types of larger partnerships work,” says Bruce Chemel, president of Dallas-based American Airlines’ AAdvantage, which lists in its long-term partner ranks MCI, CitiGroup, and America Online. (AOL and AA merged loyalty programs for a three-year hitch in 2000.) “We’re all in this business to make money. Signing larger partnerships theoretically translates into greater chances for [increased sales],” he says.

In June, Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble signed a $300 million marketing deal with media giant Viacom that will link P&G brands to 12 television networks. The one-year deal — considered to be the largest-ever multi-property alliance between an advertiser and a media company — is expected to eventually turn into a long-term arrangement.

The alliance will allow P&G to better target specific audiences via tighter connections to CBS, MTV, MTV2, VH1, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Country Music Television, Black Entertainment Television, UPN, TV Land, Paramount Television, and King World. (The deal could also move beyond TV holdings to include such other Viacom units as Blockbuster, Inc.)

Although the effort is primarily linked to advertising, it “goes way beyond media buys into promotions,” says P&G spokesperson Tami Jones. “We’ll look for more of these types of deeper relationships over the coming years.” The packaged goods giant, which will also tap into New York City-based Viacom’s consumer research database, is counting on the deal to reduce the costs of typical buys into Viacom-owned media.

A few days later, Louisville, KY-based Tricon Restaurants announced a similar, $90 million deal with New York City-based News Corp. that will bring KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell marketing efforts to News Corp.’s Fox prime time, sports, syndication, and cable operations.

Rules of Engagement

Most, but not all, of these deals are exclusive. Some alliances give partners primary, but not pre-emptive, roles. Burbank, CA-based Warner Bros., for example, structured its four-year pact with Detroit’s General Motors as non-exclusive. “We wanted to make sure neither side could be forced to do something that didn’t make sense,” says Jordan Sollitto, executive vp-worldwide marketing with Warner Bros. Consumer Products. “This way we’re married, but we can still see other people.”

“There are advantages to a DEEP ALLIANCE. You can cut to the chase and develop programs faster than with a PARTNER you only sort of know.”
— Jordan Sollitto, Warner Bros.

Signed in late 1999, the GM-Warner deal features 15 multi-million-dollar promotional partnerships uniting Warner Bros. films, the WB Network, and Warner Music with GM’s 54 brands. The relationship has already given birth to a WB edition Chevy Venture minivan (with owners regularly receiving WB premiums such as music CDs, apparel, and videos for three years); a marketing campaign for Monte Carlo that used the Tasmanian Devil as spokestoon; and a sidecar pact (June PROMO) in which GM’s OnStar automotive information service and Warner’s DC Comics “matched product strengths, partner goals, and helped both sides,” says DC senior vp-advertising and promotions Joel Ehrlich.

The partnership began two years ago with TV spots. Since then, OnStar has used the property in print ads, online programs, and other branding initiatives. New TV spots, print ads, a dual-branded online comic strip, and a sweeps will break shortly. The spots, via Minneapolis-based Campbell-Ewald, again feature Batman and highlight OnStar’s new Personal Calling and Virtual Advisor services. The online comic strip offers a choose-your-own-adventure scenario in which visitors direct the story. Visitors can also enter a sweeps to win a walk-on role in the next Batman movie.

“There are definite advantages to a deep alliance,” says Sollitto. “You get to know each other and can cut to the chase and develop programs faster than with a partner you only sort of know.”

Whether or not grand-slam strategic alliances are right for a brand is obviously a decision for the marketing team. The decision should be made by comparing short-term and long-term goals, says Ehrlich.

Cost is also a consideration, because these partnerships ain’t cheap. “Above all else, take your time,” advises Sollitto, noting that it took the GM project nine months to get to square one. “These deals don’t grow on trees. They’re extremely difficult things to do.”

Sounds like a true marriage.

Behind the SLIME

Nickelodeon exports Slimetime Live to the Bahamas.

Spend some time with Bahamian cab drivers and you’ll end up learning a thing or two. “Paradise Island was originally called Hog Island,” explains one cabbie driving PROMO across the bridge from Nassau to Paradise Island’s Atlantis resort. “But that didn’t work too well with tourism promotions.”

Down here, everyone’s a marketer.

The first real activation of the new $30 million alliance between New York City-based Nickelodeon and The Islands of the Bahamas took place in early May, when the network’s Slimetime Live taped a week’s worth of programs at the Atlantis. The Caribbean locale also served as the destination for an on-air sweeps that sent winners to the resort.

Running an on-air sweeps is a cake walk for Nick, but transplanting the Live show (which normally airs live from a sound stage in Orlando) to an island resort took some planning. The first step for Nickelodeon’s promotions and production teams was a February excursion to Atlantis for site surveys and initial planning exercises.

The details began formulating immediately after. The production unit built a portable, smaller model of the show’s set. In late April, a barge anchored in Cocoa Beach, FL, was loaded with one truck filled with switches, cameras, and other equipment; canisters containing set pieces, “Slimulators,” and stage equipment; along with two golf carts, six theatrical lamps, lighting flash boards, equipment for stage games, and ingredients for slime (which are kept top secret, but reportedly are apple sauce, vanilla pudding, and green dye). Numerous smaller items such as walkie-talkies and copy machines were also stowed.

Three days and 55 miles due east later, the barge cleared customs off Nassau, and the goods were unloaded and sent to Atlantis. Reps handed out show tickets to Atlantis guests and Bahamian school kids (with an assist from the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism), and support staffers used spare resort kitchens to prepare the edible contents Slimetime is famous for oozing all over its participants.

The threat of heavy rain had the Live team anxious, but in the end the tapings went off with little delay. Each of the five shows (which aired last month) included 25 different segments. Crews scouted Nassau to tape footage to add local flavor to the programs.

Reps from the Bahamas, who always put the environment first, were concerned that some of the show’s ickier materials might damage the natural surroundings, so the crew created “desliming” rooms covered in tarps to make sure no blades of grass were harmed.

Anyone questioning the connection Nickelodeon has with kids need only have watched as a group of Bahamian children went hysterical watching the show’s on-air hosts order contestants to get pied, slimed, and soaked with various solid and liquid concoctions. In the end, 500 gallons of green goo and 300 pies were employed.

Sounds like good conversation fodder for future cab rides.

It’s partly sunny, 82 degrees, and the surf’s coming up on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. A quick scan of the surroundings finds sun worshipers near the beach, golfers on the greens, and marketers by the pool.

Marketers by the pool?

Paradise Island is playing host to New York City-based Nickelodeon’s marketing team, which is on hand to watch the first activation of its newest strategic alliance, a two-year, $30 million pact with the Islands of the Bahamas inked last spring (see sidebar, next page). Out to rebrand itself as a family destination (37-percent of visitors currently are families), the Bahamas and its New York City-based p.r. shop, BSMG, began talking to Nickelodeon last summer.

“We’re the top vacation destination for kids, and Nickelodeon is the No. 1 brand for kids,” says Vernice Walkine, Bahamas director of product development. “We figured if we married the products, something interesting would happen.”

Officially announced in March, the deal stretches across all things Nick, from TV spots and on-air sweepstakes prize pools filled with trips to the 700-island nation (a little trivia for you) to the 2001 TEENick Summer Music Festival tour bringing games, music sensation Aaron Carter, and a Bahamian-themed pavilion to 40 cites this summer.

“We’re trying to take advantage of all of Nickelodeon’s capacities,” says Walkine. “This type of arrangement allows us to shift our focus away from traditional media and use richer, alternative ways to reach the target. Traditional media doesn’t cut it for us anymore.”

“It takes commercially viable and rewarding arrangements for both sides to make these types of LARGER PARTNERSHIPS work.”

— Bruce Chemel, American Airlines

The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism has also sunk its teeth into The Big Help, Nick’s social outreach program, which recruits children around the nation (and the globe) for community projects. This year’s 50-city initiative features a tilt on marine-environment protection and awareness via highlights of the Bahamian ecosystem. Activities and events, such as a kiosk program allowing kids to electronically build their own reef, liven up the effort and tie more directly to the partner. Children in the Bahamas will get involved with Help via local programs and events.

“It’s a deep relationship that plays off each partner,” says Nickelodeon senior vp-promotions Pam Kaufman, who was instrumental in striking similar partnerships with Gateway, Embassy Suites, and Ford Motor Co. “This is the future of strategic alliances.”

It very well could be. Marketing partnerships are becoming richer, more serious alliances that span multiple capabilities, employ many disciplines, and wed brands together for more definitive periods of time.

One-off deals are hardly becoming extinct; such partnerships will always encompass the majority of branding collaborations, since few companies have the cash, resources — or, frankly, the goals — to align on a large-scale basis. But marketers unanimously agree that bigger deals are working their way into core branding strategies.

Generating greater impact requires more expansive commitments from both sides, and companies with the size and inclination can buddy up to form a partnership model “that allows brands to look at business opportunities strategically and help each other on a long-term basis instead of short-term,” says R.J. Milano, vp of U.S. marketing at McDonald’s, Oakbrook, IL. The QSR is crossing the half-way mark in its landmark 10-year alliance with Burbank, CA-based Walt Disney Co., which gives each first-look access to the other’s holdings.

Going the Distance

The McDonald’s-Disney alliance was originally unprecedented. But long-term partnerships are now becoming more regular engagements, partly because of corporate consolidations but also because brands are looking to leverage borrowed equity over longer periods of time. And locking out competitors is often as important as locking in partners.

Purchase, NY-based Pepsi-Cola Co. and Yahoo, Santa Clara, CA, continue to plan online/offline programs after forging a relationship last summer with the successful PepsiStuff.com campaign. Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co. and America Online, Vienna, VA, began their courtship slowly and this summer really get things rolling with a Pop the Top campaign.

New York City-based CBS and mass-merchandiser Target Corp., Minneapolis, keep finding new ways to leverage each other. (Who can forget Target’s bull’s-eye logo landing on Survivor island?) And American Airlines and Battle Creek, MI-based Kellogg Co. recently tacked a few more years onto their deal, which peppers the cereal giant’s brands with offers for AAdvantage frequent-flier miles.

“It takes commercially viable and rewarding arrangements for both sides to make these types of larger partnerships work,” says Bruce Chemel, president of Dallas-based American Airlines’ AAdvantage, which lists in its long-term partner ranks MCI, CitiGroup, and America Online. (AOL and AA merged loyalty programs for a three-year hitch in 2000.) “We’re all in this business to make money. Signing larger partnerships theoretically translates into greater chances for [increased sales],” he says.

In June, Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble signed a $300 million marketing deal with media giant Viacom that will link P&G brands to 12 television networks. The one-year deal — considered to be the largest-ever multi-property alliance between an advertiser and a media company — is expected to eventually turn into a long-term arrangement.

The alliance will allow P&G to better target specific audiences via tighter connections to CBS, MTV, MTV2, VH1, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Country Music Television, Black Entertainment Television, UPN, TV Land, Paramount Television, and King World. (The deal could also move beyond TV holdings to include such other Viacom units as Blockbuster, Inc.)

Although the effort is primarily linked to advertising, it “goes way beyond media buys into promotions,” says P&G spokesperson Tami Jones. “We’ll look for more of these types of deeper relationships over the coming years.” The packaged goods giant, which will also tap into New York City-based Viacom’s consumer research database, is counting on the deal to reduce the costs of typical buys into Viacom-owned media.

A few days later, Louisville, KY-based Tricon Restaurants announced a similar, $90 million deal with New York City-based News Corp. that will bring KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell marketing efforts to News Corp.’s Fox prime time, sports, syndication, and cable operations.

Rules of Engagement

Most, but not all, of these deals are exclusive. Some alliances give partners primary, but not pre-emptive, roles. Burbank, CA-based Warner Bros., for example, structured its four-year pact with Detroit’s General Motors as non-exclusive. “We wanted to make sure neither side could be forced to do something that didn’t make sense,” says Jordan Sollitto, executive vp-worldwide marketing with Warner Bros. Consumer Products. “This way we’re married, but we can still see other people.”

“There are advantages to a DEEP ALLIANCE. You can cut to the chase and develop programs faster than with a PARTNER you only sort of know.”

— Jordan Sollitto, Warner Bros.

Signed in late 1999, the GM-Warner deal features 15 multi-million-dollar promotional partnerships uniting Warner Bros. films, the WB Network, and Warner Music with GM’s 54 brands. The relationship has already given birth to a WB edition Chevy Venture minivan (with owners regularly receiving WB premiums such as music CDs, apparel, and videos for three years); a marketing campaign for Monte Carlo that used the Tasmanian Devil as spokestoon; and a sidecar pact (June PROMO) in which GM’s OnStar automotive information service and Warner’s DC Comics “matched product strengths, partner goals, and helped both sides,” says DC senior vp-advertising and promotions Joel Ehrlich.

The partnership began two years ago with TV spots. Since then, OnStar has used the property in print ads, online programs, and other branding initiatives. New TV spots, print ads, a dual-branded online comic strip, and a sweeps will break shortly. The spots, via Minneapolis-based Campbell-Ewald, again feature Batman and highlight OnStar’s new Personal Calling and Virtual Advisor services. The online comic strip offers a choose-your-own-adventure scenario in which visitors direct the story. Visitors can also enter a sweeps to win a walk-on role in the next Batman movie.

“There are definite advantages to a deep alliance,” says Sollitto. “You get to know each other and can cut to the chase and develop programs faster than with a partner you only sort of know.”

Whether or not grand-slam strategic alliances are right for a brand is obviously a decision for the marketing team. The decision should be made by comparing short-term and long-term goals, says Ehrlich.

Cost is also a consideration, because these partnerships ain’t cheap. “Above all else, take your time,” advises Sollitto, noting that it took the GM project nine months to get to square one. “These deals don’t grow on trees. They’re extremely difficult things to do.”

Sounds like a true marriage.

Behind the SLIME Nickelodeon exports Slimetime Live to the Bahamas.

Spend some time with Bahamian cab drivers and you’ll end up learning a thing or two. “Paradise Island was originally called Hog Island,” explains one cabbie driving PROMO across the bridge from Nassau to Paradise Island’s Atlantis resort. “But that didn’t work too well with tourism promotions.”

Down here, everyone’s a marketer.

The first real activation of the new $30 million alliance between New York City-based Nickelodeon and The Islands of the Bahamas took place in early May, when the network’s Slimetime Live taped a week’s worth of programs at the Atlantis. The Caribbean locale also served as the destination for an on-air sweeps that sent winners to the resort.

Running an on-air sweeps is a cake walk for Nick, but transplanting the Live show (which normally airs live from a sound stage in Orlando) to an island resort took some planning. The first step for Nickelodeon’s promotions and production teams was a February excursion to Atlantis for site surveys and initial planning exercises.

The details began formulating immediately after. The production unit built a portable, smaller model of the show’s set. In late April, a barge anchored in Cocoa Beach, FL, was loaded with one truck filled with switches, cameras, and other equipment; canisters containing set pieces, “Slimulators,” and stage equipment; along with two golf carts, six theatrical lamps, lighting flash boards, equipment for stage games, and ingredients for slime (which are kept top secret, but reportedly are apple sauce, vanilla pudding, and green dye). Numerous smaller items such as walkie-talkies and copy machines were also stowed.

Three days and 55 miles due east later, the barge cleared customs off Nassau, and the goods were unloaded and sent to Atlantis. Reps handed out show tickets to Atlantis guests and Bahamian school kids (with an assist from the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism), and support staffers used spare resort kitchens to prepare the edible contents Slimetime is famous for oozing all over its participants.

The threat of heavy rain had the Live team anxious, but in the end the tapings went off with little delay. Each of the five shows (which aired last month) included 25 different segments. Crews scouted Nassau to tape footage to add local flavor to the programs.

Reps from the Bahamas, who always put the environment first, were concerned that some of the show’s ickier materials might damage the natural surroundings, so the crew created “desliming” rooms covered in tarps to make sure no blades of grass were harmed.

Anyone questioning the connection Nickelodeon has with kids need only have watched as a group of Bahamian children went hysterical watching the show’s on-air hosts order contestants to get pied, slimed, and soaked with various solid and liquid concoctions. In the end, 500 gallons of green goo and 300 pies were employed.

Sounds like good conversation fodder for future cab rides.

It’s partly sunny, 82 degrees, and the surf’s coming up on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. A quick scan of the surroundings finds sun worshipers near the beach, golfers on the greens, and marketers by the pool.

Marketers by the pool?

Paradise Island is playing host to New York City-based Nickelodeon’s marketing team, which is on hand to watch the first activation of its newest strategic alliance, a two-year, $30 million pact with the Islands of the Bahamas inked last spring (see sidebar, next page). Out to rebrand itself as a family destination (37-percent of visitors currently are families), the Bahamas and its New York City-based p.r. shop, BSMG, began talking to Nickelodeon last summer.

“We’re the top vacation destination for kids, and Nickelodeon is the No. 1 brand for kids,” says Vernice Walkine, Bahamas director of product development. “We figured if we married the products, something interesting would happen.”

Officially announced in March, the deal stretches across all things Nick, from TV spots and on-air sweepstakes prize pools filled with trips to the 700-island nation (a little trivia for you) to the 2001 TEENick Summer Music Festival tour bringing games, music sensation Aaron Carter, and a Bahamian-themed pavilion to 40 cites this summer.

“We’re trying to take advantage of all of Nickelodeon’s capacities,” says Walkine. “This type of arrangement allows us to shift our focus away from traditional media and use richer, alternative ways to reach the target. Traditional media doesn’t cut it for us anymore.”

“It takes commercially viable and rewarding arrangements for both sides to make these types of LARGER PARTNERSHIPS work.”

— Bruce Chemel, American Airlines

The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism has also sunk its teeth into The Big Help, Nick’s social outreach program, which recruits children around the nation (and the globe) for community projects. This year’s 50-city initiative features a tilt on marine-environment protection and awareness via highlights of the Bahamian ecosystem. Activities and events, such as a kiosk program allowing kids to electronically build their own reef, liven up the effort and tie more directly to the partner. Children in the Bahamas will get involved with Help via local programs and events.

“It’s a deep relationship that plays off each partner,” says Nickelodeon senior vp-promotions Pam Kaufman, who was instrumental in striking similar partnerships with Gateway, Embassy Suites, and Ford Motor Co. “This is the future of strategic alliances.”

It very well could be. Marketing partnerships are becoming richer, more serious alliances that span multiple capabilities, employ many disciplines, and wed brands together for more definitive periods of time.

One-off deals are hardly becoming extinct; such partnerships will always encompass the majority of branding collaborations, since few companies have the cash, resources — or, frankly, the goals — to align on a large-scale basis. But marketers unanimously agree that bigger deals are working their way into core branding strategies.

Generating greater impact requires more expansive commitments from both sides, and companies with the size and inclination can buddy up to form a partnership model “that allows brands to look at business opportunities strategically and help each other on a long-term basis instead of short-term,” says R.J. Milano, vp of U.S. marketing at McDonald’s, Oakbrook, IL. The QSR is crossing the half-way mark in its landmark 10-year alliance with Burbank, CA-based Walt Disney Co., which gives each first-look access to the other’s holdings.

Going the Distance

The McDonald’s-Disney alliance was originally unprecedented. But long-term partnerships are now becoming more regular engagements, partly because of corporate consolidations but also because brands are looking to leverage borrowed equity over longer periods of time. And locking out competitors is often as important as locking in partners.

Purchase, NY-based Pepsi-Cola Co. and Yahoo, Santa Clara, CA, continue to plan online/offline programs after forging a relationship last summer with the successful PepsiStuff.com campaign. Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co. and America Online, Vienna, VA, began their courtship slowly and this summer really get things rolling with a Pop the Top campaign.

New York City-based CBS and mass-merchandiser Target Corp., Minneapolis, keep finding new ways to leverage each other. (Who can forget Target’s bull’s-eye logo landing on Survivor island?) And American Airlines and Battle Creek, MI-based Kellogg Co. recently tacked a few more years onto their deal, which peppers the cereal giant’s brands with offers for AAdvantage frequent-flier miles.

“It takes commercially viable and rewarding arrangements for both sides to make these types of larger partnerships work,” says Bruce Chemel, president of Dallas-based American Airlines’ AAdvantage, which lists in its long-term partner ranks MCI, CitiGroup, and America Online. (AOL and AA merged loyalty programs for a three-year hitch in 2000.) “We’re all in this business to make money. Signing larger partnerships theoretically translates into greater chances for [increased sales],” he says.

In June, Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble signed a $300 million marketing deal with media giant Viacom that will link P&G brands to 12 television networks. The one-year deal — considered to be the largest-ever multi-property alliance between an advertiser and a media company — is expected to eventually turn into a long-term arrangement.

The alliance will allow P&G to better target specific audiences via tighter connections to CBS, MTV, MTV2, VH1, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Country Music Television, Black Entertainment Television, UPN, TV Land, Paramount Television, and King World. (The deal could also move beyond TV holdings to include such other Viacom units as Blockbuster, Inc.)

Although the effort is primarily linked to advertising, it “goes way beyond media buys into promotions,” says P&G spokesperson Tami Jones. “We’ll look for more of these types of deeper relationships over the coming years.” The packaged goods giant, which will also tap into New York City-based Viacom’s consumer research database, is counting on the deal to reduce the costs of typical buys into Viacom-owned media.

A few days later, Louisville, KY-based Tricon Restaurants announced a similar, $90 million deal with New York City-based News Corp. that will bring KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell marketing efforts to News Corp.’s Fox prime time, sports, syndication, and cable operations.

Rules of Engagement

Most, but not all, of these deals are exclusive. Some alliances give partners primary, but not pre-emptive, roles. Burbank, CA-based Warner Bros., for example, structured its four-year pact with Detroit’s General Motors as non-exclusive. “We wanted to make sure neither side could be forced to do something that didn’t make sense,” says Jordan Sollitto, executive vp-worldwide marketing with Warner Bros. Consumer Products. “This way we’re married, but we can still see other people.”

“There are advantages to a DEEP ALLIANCE. You can cut to the chase and develop programs faster than with a PARTNER you only sort of know.”

— Jordan Sollitto, Warner Bros.

Signed in late 1999, the GM-Warner deal features 15 multi-million-dollar promotional partnerships uniting Warner Bros. films, the WB Network, and Warner Music with GM’s 54 brands. The relationship has already given birth to a WB edition Chevy Venture minivan (with owners regularly receiving WB premiums such as music CDs, apparel, and videos for three years); a marketing campaign for Monte Carlo that used the Tasmanian Devil as spokestoon; and a sidecar pact (June PROMO) in which GM’s OnStar automotive information service and Warner’s DC Comics “matched product strengths, partner goals, and helped both sides,” says DC senior vp-advertising and promotions Joel Ehrlich.

The partnership began two years ago with TV spots. Since then, OnStar has used the property in print ads, online programs, and other branding initiatives. New TV spots, print ads, a dual-branded online comic strip, and a sweeps will break shortly. The spots, via Minneapolis-based Campbell-Ewald, again feature Batman and highlight OnStar’s new Personal Calling and Virtual Advisor services. The online comic strip offers a choose-your-own-adventure scenario in which visitors direct the story. Visitors can also enter a sweeps to win a walk-on role in the next Batman movie.

“There are definite advantages to a deep alliance,” says Sollitto. “You get to know each other and can cut to the chase and develop programs faster than with a partner you only sort of know.”

Whether or not grand-slam strategic alliances are right for a brand is obviously a decision for the marketing team. The decision should be made by comparing short-term and long-term goals, says Ehrlich.

Cost is also a consideration, because these partnerships ain’t cheap. “Above all else, take your time,” advises Sollitto, noting that it took the GM project nine months to get to square one. “These deals don’t grow on trees. They’re extremely difficult things to do.”

Sounds like a true marriage.

Behind the SLIME Nickelodeon exports Slimetime Live to the Bahamas.

Spend some time with Bahamian cab drivers and you’ll end up learning a thing or two. “Paradise Island was originally called Hog Island,” explains one cabbie driving PROMO across the bridge from Nassau to Paradise Island’s Atlantis resort. “But that didn’t work too well with tourism promotions.”

Down here, everyone’s a marketer.

The first real activation of the new $30 million alliance between New York City-based Nickelodeon and The Islands of the Bahamas took place in early May, when the network’s Slimetime Live taped a week’s worth of programs at the Atlantis. The Caribbean locale also served as the destination for an on-air sweeps that sent winners to the resort.

Running an on-air sweeps is a cake walk for Nick, but transplanting the Live show (which normally airs live from a sound stage in Orlando) to an island resort took some planning. The first step for Nickelodeon’s promotions and production teams was a February excursion to Atlantis for site surveys and initial planning exercises.

The details began formulating immediately after. The production unit built a portable, smaller model of the show’s set. In late April, a barge anchored in Cocoa Beach, FL, was loaded with one truck filled with switches, cameras, and other equipment; canisters containing set pieces, “Slimulators,” and stage equipment; along with two golf carts, six theatrical lamps, lighting flash boards, equipment for stage games, and ingredients for slime (which are kept top secret, but reportedly are apple sauce, vanilla pudding, and green dye). Numerous smaller items such as walkie-talkies and copy machines were also stowed.

Three days and 55 miles due east later, the barge cleared customs off Nassau, and the goods were unloaded and sent to Atlantis. Reps handed out show tickets to Atlantis guests and Bahamian school kids (with an assist from the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism), and support staffers used spare resort kitchens to prepare the edible contents Slimetime is famous for oozing all over its participants.

The threat of heavy rain had the Live team anxious, but in the end the tapings went off with little delay. Each of the five shows (which aired last month) included 25 different segments. Crews scouted Nassau to tape footage to add local flavor to the programs.

Reps from the Bahamas, who always put the environment first, were concerned that some of the show’s ickier materials might damage the natural surroundings, so the crew created “desliming” rooms covered in tarps to make sure no blades of grass were harmed.

Anyone questioning the connection Nickelodeon has with kids need only have watched as a group of Bahamian children went hysterical watching the show’s on-air hosts order contestants to get pied, slimed, and soaked with various solid and liquid concoctions. In the end, 500 gallons of green goo and 300 pies were employed.

Sounds like good conversation fodder for future cab rides.

It’s partly sunny, 82 degrees, and the surf’s coming up on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. A quick scan of the surroundings finds sun worshipers near the beach, golfers on the greens, and marketers by the pool.

Marketers by the pool?

Paradise Island is playing host to New York City-based Nickelodeon’s marketing team, which is on hand to watch the first activation of its newest strategic alliance, a two-year, $30 million pact with the Islands of the Bahamas inked last spring (see sidebar, next page). Out to rebrand itself as a family destination (37-percent of visitors currently are families), the Bahamas and its New York City-based p.r. shop, BSMG, began talking to Nickelodeon last summer.

“We’re the top vacation destination for kids, and Nickelodeon is the No. 1 brand for kids,” says Vernice Walkine, Bahamas director of product development. “We figured if we married the products, something interesting would happen.”

Officially announced in March, the deal stretches across all things Nick, from TV spots and on-air sweepstakes prize pools filled with trips to the 700-island nation (a little trivia for you) to the 2001 TEENick Summer Music Festival tour bringing games, music sensation Aaron Carter, and a Bahamian-themed pavilion to 40 cites this summer.

“We’re trying to take advantage of all of Nickelodeon’s capacities,” says Walkine. “This type of arrangement allows us to shift our focus away from traditional media and use richer, alternative ways to reach the target. Traditional media doesn’t cut it for us anymore.”

“It takes commercially viable and rewarding arrangements for both sides to make these types of LARGER PARTNERSHIPS work.”

— Bruce Chemel, American Airlines

The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism has also sunk its teeth into The Big Help, Nick’s social outreach program, which recruits children around the nation (and the globe) for community projects. This year’s 50-city initiative features a tilt on marine-environment protection and awareness via highlights of the Bahamian ecosystem. Activities and events, such as a kiosk program allowing kids to electronically build their own reef, liven up the effort and tie more directly to the partner. Children in the Bahamas will get involved with Help via local programs and events.

“It’s a deep relationship that plays off each partner,” says Nickelodeon senior vp-promotions Pam Kaufman, who was instrumental in striking similar partnerships with Gateway, Embassy Suites, and Ford Motor Co. “This is the future of strategic alliances.”

It very well could be. Marketing partnerships are becoming richer, more serious alliances that span multiple capabilities, employ many disciplines, and wed brands together for more definitive periods of time.

One-off deals are hardly becoming extinct; such partnerships will always encompass the majority of branding collaborations, since few companies have the cash, resources — or, frankly, the goals — to align on a large-scale basis. But marketers unanimously agree that bigger deals are working their way into core branding strategies.

Generating greater impact requires more expansive commitments from both sides, and companies with the size and inclination can buddy up to form a partnership model “that allows brands to look at business opportunities strategically and help each other on a long-term basis instead of short-term,” says R.J. Milano, vp of U.S. marketing at McDonald’s, Oakbrook, IL. The QSR is crossing the half-way mark in its landmark 10-year alliance with Burbank, CA-based Walt Disney Co., which gives each first-look access to the other’s holdings.

Going the Distance

The McDonald’s-Disney alliance was originally unprecedented. But long-term partnerships are now becoming more regular engagements, partly because of corporate consolidations but also because brands are looking to leverage borrowed equity over longer periods of time. And locking out competitors is often as important as locking in partners.

Purchase, NY-based Pepsi-Cola Co. and Yahoo, Santa Clara, CA, continue to plan online/offline programs after forging a relationship last summer with the successful PepsiStuff.com campaign. Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co. and America Online, Vienna, VA, began their courtship slowly and this summer really get things rolling with a Pop the Top campaign.

New York City-based CBS and mass-merchandiser Target Corp., Minneapolis, keep finding new ways to leverage each other. (Who can forget Target’s bull’s-eye logo landing on Survivor island?) And American Airlines and Battle Creek, MI-based Kellogg Co. recently tacked a few more years onto their deal, which peppers the cereal giant’s brands with offers for AAdvantage frequent-flier miles.

“It takes commercially viable and rewarding arrangements for both sides to make these types of larger partnerships work,” says Bruce Chemel, president of Dallas-based American Airlines’ AAdvantage, which lists in its long-term partner ranks MCI, CitiGroup, and America Online. (AOL and AA merged loyalty programs for a three-year hitch in 2000.) “We’re all in this business to make money. Signing larger partnerships theoretically translates into greater chances for [increased sales],” he says.

In June, Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble signed a $300 million marketing deal with media giant Viacom that will link P&G brands to 12 television networks. The one-year deal — considered to be the largest-ever multi-property alliance between an advertiser and a media company — is expected to eventually turn into a long-term arrangement.

The alliance will allow P&G to better target specific audiences via tighter connections to CBS, MTV, MTV2, VH1, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Country Music Television, Black Entertainment Television, UPN, TV Land, Paramount Television, and King World. (The deal could also move beyond TV holdings to include such other Viacom units as Blockbuster, Inc.)

Although the effort is primarily linked to advertising, it “goes way beyond media buys into promotions,” says P&G spokesperson Tami Jones. “We’ll look for more of these types of deeper relationships over the coming years.” The packaged goods giant, which will also tap into New York City-based Viacom’s consumer research database, is counting on the deal to reduce the costs of typical buys into Viacom-owned media.

A few days later, Louisville, KY-based Tricon Restaurants announced a similar, $90 million deal with New York City-based News Corp. that will bring KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell marketing efforts to News Corp.’s Fox prime time, sports, syndication, and cable operations.

Rules of Engagement

Most, but not all, of these deals are exclusive. Some alliances give partners primary, but not pre-emptive, roles. Burbank, CA-based Warner Bros., for example, structured its four-year pact with Detroit’s General Motors as non-exclusive. “We wanted to make sure neither side could be forced to do something that didn’t make sense,” says Jordan Sollitto, executive vp-worldwide marketing with Warner Bros. Consumer Products. “This way we’re married, but we can still see other people.”

“There are advantages to a DEEP ALLIANCE. You can cut to the chase and develop programs faster than with a PARTNER you only sort of know.”

— Jordan Sollitto, Warner Bros.

Signed in late 1999, the GM-Warner deal features 15 multi-million-dollar promotional partnerships uniting Warner Bros. films, the WB Network, and Warner Music with GM’s 54 brands. The relationship has already given birth to a WB edition Chevy Venture minivan (with owners regularly receiving WB premiums such as music CDs, apparel, and videos for three years); a marketing campaign for Monte Carlo that used the Tasmanian Devil as spokestoon; and a sidecar pact (June PROMO) in which GM’s OnStar automotive information service and Warner’s DC Comics “matched product strengths, partner goals, and helped both sides,” says DC senior vp-advertising and promotions Joel Ehrlich.

The partnership began two years ago with TV spots. Since then, OnStar has used the property in print ads, online programs, and other branding initiatives. New TV spots, print ads, a dual-branded online comic strip, and a sweeps will break shortly. The spots, via Minneapolis-based Campbell-Ewald, again feature Batman and highlight OnStar’s new Personal Calling and Virtual Advisor services. The online comic strip offers a choose-your-own-adventure scenario in which visitors direct the story. Visitors can also enter a sweeps to win a walk-on role in the next Batman movie.

“There are definite advantages to a deep alliance,” says Sollitto. “You get to know each other and can cut to the chase and develop programs faster than with a partner you only sort of know.”

Whether or not grand-slam strategic alliances are right for a brand is obviously a decision for the marketing team. The decision should be made by comparing short-term and long-term goals, says Ehrlich.

Cost is also a consideration, because these partnerships ain’t cheap. “Above all else, take your time,” advises Sollitto, noting that it took the GM project nine months to get to square one. “These deals don’t grow on trees. They’re extremely difficult things to do.”

Sounds like a true marriage.

Behind the SLIME Nickelodeon exports Slimetime Live to the Bahamas.

Spend some time with Bahamian cab drivers and you’ll end up learning a thing or two. “Paradise Island was originally called Hog Island,” explains one cabbie driving PROMO across the bridge from Nassau to Paradise Island’s Atlantis resort. “But that didn’t work too well with tourism promotions.”

Down here, everyone’s a marketer.

The first real activation of the new $30 million alliance between New York City-based Nickelodeon and The Islands of the Bahamas took place in early May, when the network’s Slimetime Live taped a week’s worth of programs at the Atlantis. The Caribbean locale also served as the destination for an on-air sweeps that sent winners to the resort.

Running an on-air sweeps is a cake walk for Nick, but transplanting the Live show (which normally airs live from a sound stage in Orlando) to an island resort took some planning. The first step for Nickelodeon’s promotions and production teams was a February excursion to Atlantis for site surveys and initial planning exercises.

The details began formulating immediately after. The production unit built a portable, smaller model of the show’s set. In late April, a barge anchored in Cocoa Beach, FL, was loaded with one truck filled with switches, cameras, and other equipment; canisters containing set pieces, “Slimulators,” and stage equipment; along with two golf carts, six theatrical lamps, lighting flash boards, equipment for stage games, and ingredients for slime (which are kept top secret, but reportedly are apple sauce, vanilla pudding, and green dye). Numerous smaller items such as walkie-talkies and copy machines were also stowed.

Three days and 55 miles due east later, the barge cleared customs off Nassau, and the goods were unloaded and sent to Atlantis. Reps handed out show tickets to Atlantis guests and Bahamian school kids (with an assist from the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism), and support staffers used spare resort kitchens to prepare the edible contents Slimetime is famous for oozing all over its participants.

The threat of heavy rain had the Live team anxious, but in the end the tapings went off with little delay. Each of the five shows (which aired last month) included 25 different segments. Crews scouted Nassau to tape footage to add local flavor to the programs.

Reps from the Bahamas, who always put the environment first, were concerned that some of the show’s ickier materials might damage the natural surroundings, so the crew created “desliming” rooms covered in tarps to make sure no blades of grass were harmed.

Anyone questioning the connection Nickelodeon has with kids need only have watched as a group of Bahamian children went hysterical watching the show’s on-air hosts order contestants to get pied, slimed, and soaked with various solid and liquid concoctions. In the end, 500 gallons of green goo and 300 pies were employed.

Sounds like good conversation fodder for future cab rides.