Multiple Pit Stops
NASCAR Racers drives into second season with a full crew of partners. Fox Family Worldwide is at it again. The Los Angeles-based entertainment company, one of the hardest-working outfits in the promo business, has pulled the trigger on another multi-partner promotion – including deals with three separate QSRs – to hype the animated Saturday morning kids show NASCAR Racers.
A kids’ meal premium giveaway breaks early this month in all 1,600 Jack-in-the-Box restaurants. The San Diego, CA-based fast feeder will distribute a collectable set of eight toys over a two-month window. P-O-P will support. Once Jack’s campaign runs its course, Racers will cruise into Dublin, OH-based Wendy’s and Anaheim, CA-based Carl’s Jr. stores for summer 2001 programs.
In addition to the QSR triple play, New York City-based Loews Cineplex is giving 376 movie theaters in top markets a Racers edge through the end of this month, with themed P-O-P at concession stands and in lobbies, as well as with custom-printed Kids Paks carrying coupons and one of three premiums. Print ads support. “This is one of the hottest and most exciting properties [around],” says Loews spokesperson Lisa Balshan.
Minneapolis-based family hair salon chain Cost Cutters, a regular Fox partner, hands freshly coifed kids free Racers toys through February. (Mom can buy one for 99 cents if she visits sans child.) In-salon “Kid Headquarters” get graphic treatments in all 900 Cost Cutters units. “This is a franchise operation filled with moms and pops,” says Gretchen Parker, vp-managing director with handling agency Marketing Drive, Minneapolis. Cost Cutters has been linking to properties from Fox’s Saban Entertainment division for five years, in large part because it can leverage enough of the buzz generated by other partners to make costly national media buys unnecessary, she says.
Lastly, Minneapolis-based Target Stores this month through March 18 turns apparel-section back walls in all 900 stores into a Racers-themed collage of art and imagery. Licensed soft goods based on the animated show, which debuted in February 2000, will line the racks.
NASCAR Racers features futuristic cars, cool drivers, and plot lines that deal with competition and rivalry. It appeals primarily to boys aged six to 11. The show “is helping to introduce NASCAR to kids,” says Gina Mace-Sands, director of Saban consumer promotions. “Other promotions will evolve as the year goes on.”
Racers will be cross-promoted on sister station Fox Sports when the network runs coverage of real NASCAR events. Fox inked a billion dollar deal late last year to become the exclusive TV broadcaster during the first half of NASCAR’s season, which begins next month. (NBC and Turner Broadcasting grabbed other portions.)
Partners, start your engines.
SCARY MOVIE 2 (Miramax) Estimated Release Date: May 2001 Starring: Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans Top Line: The brothers return in a sequel to last summer’s sleeper horror spoof.
LIKE CATS AND DOGS (Warner Bros.) Estimated Release Date: May 2001 Starring: Jeff Goldblum, Alec Baldwin, Susan Sarandon Top Line: Live-action mixes with CGI technology in a comedy set in the underworld of our four-legged friends.
BOURNE IDENTITY (Universal) Estimated Release Date: Fourth Quarter 2001 Starring: Matt Damon Top Line: Thriller following a man who loses his memory and tries to put his life back together.
PLANET OF THE APES (Twentieth Century Fox) Estimated Release Date: July 2001 Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Paul Giamatti Top Line: An update of the 1968 classic following astronauts to a world where men are enslaved by apes.
PROMO welcomes entries to the third-annual Entertainment Marketing Awards (EMMAs), a program recognizing the best tie-in campaigns of the past year. For more information, contact Maureen Van Kuren at 203-358-4240 or email her at: [email protected].
