Top brands are showcasing their marketing plans and new products this week at the Food Marketing Institute show in Chicago. Here’s a report on some of the highlights from senior editor Betsy Spethmann:
* Pepsi-Cola Co., Purchase, NY, puts Britney Spears, Major League Baseball, and NASCAR on the same stage this month with a Take Home the Tickets sweeps running May 13 through June 23. The eight-brand effort (including Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, and Pepsi Twist, but not Mountain Dew) puts instant-win messages under the cap on 12- and 24-packs; players call an 800 number to learn what they’ve won. Grand prizes are trips to a Spears concert, the Pepsi 400 NASCAR race, and the MLB All-Star Game; smaller prizes include MovieCash tickets. P-O-P displays depict giant “tickets” bearing baseball star Ken Griffey Jr. and Spears. Tracy Locke Partnership, Wilton, CT, handles.
At the same time, sister brand Mountain Dew puts Sony’s “Men in Black II” on and in-pack with a sweeps giving away a grand-prize home theater system and MovieCash. Dew will also leverage last year’s success of Code Red with Diet Code Red, on shelf by June with promos planned for June and July.
Pepsi also launches Starbucks DoubleShot this month. The canned espresso-and-cream drink gets event sampling, radio, and outdoor ad support. That follows the mid-May launch of SoBe Mr. Green ginseng-flavored pop, which Pepsi hopes will match Code Red’s performance (including a five-percent volume boost for single-serve soft drinks in c-stores and grocery stores). The SoBe extension gets sampling, Internet, and pricing support.
* Miller Brewing Co., Milwaukee, will host a Miller Time Off sweeps, thereby giving its two-year-old Get the Goods program the summer off. Instant-win gamepieces in cases of Miller Lite and MGD will give away 10 trips for four; winners pick among Las Vegas, Malibu, CA, or Key West, FL. Through May, displays include tear-pads with coupons from partners Oscar Mayer, Hefty, Duraflame, and Mrs. Dash. Miller tested the promo with 800 consumers in 23 cities last year.
The beer maker follows up for Labor Day with a $26 million-plus tie-in with ESPN. The Miller Lite/ESPN Real Fan Search sends mystery shoppers to supermarkets and liquor stores; shoppers with Miller Lite or MGD can win a trip to a Prime Time Super Party in Las Vegas (100 winners). P-O-P features ESPN stars Chris Berman and Tom Jackson, as well as coupon offers from Hormel, Planters, Hefty, and Louisiana Hot Sauce. The promo runs August-September.
Separately, MGD ties in with Columbia Pictures’ “XXX,” premiering Aug. 2. Miller’s on-premise sweeps will award a grand prize trip to Prague, where the movie was filmed. P-O-P includes take-one posters. On-premise events will award 20 trips to the Los Angeles premiere and private screenings in 25 markets. Miller’s supporting TV (with footage from the film) and radio dovetails with Columbia’s own $15 million campaign.
* Snapple Beverage Group’s Yoo-hoo stinks up summer with the brand’s first-ever under-the-cap game and a garbage-truck tour. The instant-win game on 16.4 million bottles lets winners pick “any stinkin’ prize” from a Yoo-hoo vending machine to a backyard skate park and skateboard. (There are 15 prizes in all.) Yoo-hoo’s Big Stinkin’ Summer Tour puts Josh and Nate-two Pepperdine University students billed as Yoo-hoo’s biggest fans-on a yellow garbage truck touring 40 markets through August. Yoo-hoo also reprises its tie-in with the Vans Warped Tour music festival.
Meanwhile, sister brand Snapple continues its What’s Your Story? contest through July, asking fans to submit story lines for ads; two will be chosen for the quirky TV campaign that is using Snapple bottles as actors. A 44 million-piece FSI drops June 9, and the contest is flagged on 432 million bottles. Snapple is also introducing a plastic 20-ounce bottle for summer.
Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co., Chicago, plans on-pack/online promos for Big Red, Juicy Fruit, and Winter Fresh. Big Red and Juicy Fruit put game codes inside wrappers; players enter codes online to see what they’ve won. Big Red awards a club-hopping trip to Los Angeles, New York City, or Miami; Juicy Fruit gives away a Nintendo Game Cube, DVD player, and TV. Winter Fresh’s continuity program lets fans collect wrappers from five packs to get a free movie ticket. Wrigley also is launching Orbit gum with Crest whitening SKUs and Eclipse Flash Strips with ads tagged “Fresh breath at the speed of life.”
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