High-Speed Duel In an innovative idea, DC Comics and NASCAR will join next month to stage a duel within one of the circuit’s biggest races. The Showdown at Charlotte will feature the first NASCAR promotion with a storyline, says Joel Ehrlich, senior vp of consumer products for DC Comics and parent company Warner Bros.
The stage for the Oct. 4 race was set last month when the Batman car was unveiled during a pre-race press conference at Bristol Motor Speedway. As NASCAR was announcing that Dale Jarrett would drive a specially painted Batman car to reward the character for the good he accomplishes, the Joker was busy. He “hypnotized” another driver, rookie Kenny Irwin, painted a car with his likeness and broke into the press conference to announce how he would ruin Batman’s supposed tribute. The two cars will both run in the Charlotte race.
“Three years from now, if I’m still in this business, this will be the one I’ll talk about,” says Ehrlich, who also cut the deal to link Superman and Jerry Seinfeld for the comedian’s AmEx commercial last year. “Our whole goal was to create an event with a storyline and a world devoted to it.”
To pull off the deal, Ehrlich had to get both Ford and Texaco, the two companies that sponsor the cars, to agree to give up their main marks on the car for the race. In return, each will be included in the promo. Texaco will sell die-cast versions of both cars to its customers; Ford will give away premiums to customers of its Quality Care service center and offer a sweepstakes to anyone who visits one of the company’s 5,000 nationwide dealerships.
All the merchandise for the deals will be produced by Action Performance Group, Phoenix, AZ. Action president Fred W. Wagenhals says his company will create 125 different products, including T-shirts, hats, die-cast cars, and keychains. The material will be sold at Action’s trailer outside the Charlotte race and on a special QVC show, he adds.
The promo will include about $9 million of support from Warner Bros. and an account-specific deal with Wal-Mart. The publicity will help the new Batman animated series this fall.
The promo is Texaco’s second major deal with NASCAR. The gas retailer started its Race for Millions sweepstakes last year. In that game, customers get a gamepiece listing one of the nine drivers associated with Texaco. The other part of the gamepiece includes a prize, either free gas or $1 million. If the driver wins a race during the promo, the customer wins the prize listed.
Texaco director of sponsorships Jill Gregory says the company had to weigh the pros and cons of giving up its car for a main race. “We needed a whole program for it to make sense,” she says. The gas company may also create a beanbag-type premium for the event, she adds.
Ford Credit also had to think about relinquishing its car. “It will give us visibility and exposure,” says brand manager Brian Turnbull. About 40 percent of the people buying Ford cars use Ford credit now, he says. The exposure will drive people to dealerships just before the new line of cars in October, he adds.
Ehrlich has surprises planned for the entire four days leading up to and including the race. But once the flag drops, he and the other partners can only hope that the homestretch features Batman chasing down the Joker for the checkered flag.
Rose-Colored “O” Scopes With enough support for a major motion picture, Nickelodeon has put together one of its strongest marketing programs yet to herald the coming of its expanded prime-time lineup this fall.
NickelOZone will include new shows The Wild Thornberrys and Animorphs, as well as old favorites Kablam and Hey Arnold. The Kraft promotion will give away O Scopes, a piece of cardboard with a red-colored plastic circle that will allow kids to decode mysteries on TV and on the Kraft packages. Burger King will give away toys from the prime-time shows during a six-week period.
The Kraft promotion started Aug. 31 and will last for two weeks, twice the length of last year’s Kraft-Nick Nogglevision promo. Kraft will feature the O Scopes on 110 million packages of its Kraft Kids Brands as well as some adult brands. Nick sister company Blockbuster will also hand out O Scopes printed with the entire week’s lineup.
Pam Kaufman of Nick says this year’s promo outdoes Nogglevision because, instead of presenting 3D TV shows, it challenges the kids to find clues and solve puzzles with their O Scopes. More than 33 percent of kids aged 6 to 11 participated in the station’s Nogglevision promo, she adds. Because of that success, Kraft will include adult cereal brands and Shredded Wheat in this year’s promo.
The timing of the deal works well for Kraft and means Nick doesn’t face direct competition from the four big networks’ late September premieres. It’s the first time Nick is including new shows in a promo. In the past, the network allowed each show to become established before making it part of a tie-in.
It’s the network’s second tie-in with Burger King after this spring’s Rugrats promotion. BK and Kraft will support the deals with television advertising.
Studios Agree to Road Show At least five studios will band together this fall for a three-stop promotion tour intended to give marketers a one-day crash course in what Hollywood properties are available for tie ins.
Created by the L.A. Office, the Roadshow ’98 tour will hit Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles in October. Each studio will submit a presentation for an hour, including questions. L.A. Office president Mitch Litvak expects more studios to sign up for the tour. Confirmed presenters include Susan Spencer-Grana of Twentieth Century Fox, Holly Beverly from DreamWorks SKG, Dana Laufer from New Line Cinema, Lisa Berlin and Pam Blum from Universal Pictures, and a representative from Columbia Tri-Star Motion Pictures. John Rood of Warner Bros. Consumer Products will speak about when, and what, to pay for licensed promos.
Registration costs $595 per person with a discount for subscriber’s to Litvak’s Entertainment Update. About 12,000 execs will get a direct mail pitch for the seminar.
Litvak says the event wasn’t as hard to arrange as one might think. He offered the studios a level of privacy by not allowing the press or representatives from other studios to sit in on the individual studio sessions.
“The idea is to present a united front in film marketing,” he adds. Although the field is competitive, luring potential partners to see a wide variety of projects makes the event a better draw.
Litvak says the day will concentrate not only on each studio’s blockbusters, but also smaller films and R-rated films. This will enable smaller companies unable to compete with the Burger Kings of the world a chance to find a partner.
So far, only Disney has declined to participate. Paramount and Warner Bros. are expected to join the presenters, he says.
Watch, Sing-a-long, and Win Some people did more than listen when country singer Jo Dee Messina sang at May’s Star Power conference in Los Angeles. Tom Comi of Commtek Communications Corp., based here, thought Messina would make a good partner for the company’s two magazines, Satellite Direct and Satellite Orbit. The magazines’ combined circulation base of 600,000 is largely situated in rural areas where country music is popular.
Comi and Shannon Smith, the magazines’ manager of advertising promos, met Messina and her manager Stuart Dill after she performed at the conference. Comi wanted to create a contest that could tie the singer in with the two magazines.
Comi knew he needed a TV tie-in to have the deal make sense for his publications. When he learned she was booked on The Nashville Network’s Primetime Country Sept. 4, he had his hook.
In the September issues of both guides, Messina will trumpet her deal with a full-page advertisement that incudes an entry form. Anybody who sees Messina on the TV show can write in the names of the first two songs she performs, and enter the contest.
The grand prize winner will get an electric Gibson BluesHawk guitar, autographed by Messina, with an estimated value of $1,300. Other prizes will include Messina CDs, and T-shirts.
Comi says the deal will allow his publications to reach a larger audience while driving viewers to watch the special on TNN this month.
Messina has been on a roll lately. Her first single, I’m Alright, went to No. 1 on the country charts and last month she got her first two Country Music Award nominations.
“This deal makes a lot of sense for us,” said her manager Dill. “I’m a true believer that any real mainstream exposure that is positioned well is good for her.”
Chaos Might Make Sense Have you always dreamed of that perfect placement for your product in a hip property that reached the elusive 18- to 24-year-old audience? If you’re not a big brand you probably have as good a chance getting a date with Cameron Diaz as you would scraping together enough money to buy product placement in her next film.
But Chaos Comics might be the right alternative for you. In what is believed to be a first, the comic book company located here is offering product placement within its panels. But beware, the offering is not for the faint of heart, and that’s not because of the price. Chaos, the sixth largest comic book publisher in the U.S., turns out such titles as Evil Ernie, Lady Death, and Dead King. The company’s tagline is, “Where Darkness Dwells.”
“We’re looking for products that can be organically integrated into what we do,” says Adam Goldsine, ceo, Eternal Entertainment, sounding every bit like a studio honcho. “Our fans are extremely loyal” so the deals have to work in the context of the comics, he adds. Possible partners include video game manufacturers, apparel makers, or extreme sports equipment makers.
Chaos releases about five titles a month, with total circulation about 150,000. As expected, the reader demo is 70 percent male.
Deals can start for as low as $5,000 for a simple placement or zoom up to $50,000 for a placement that leads to an integrated tie-in, Goldsine says. Chaos can also offer partners the ability to sample product during the company’s frequent comic book shows, he adds. “This is an opportunity to do some really powerful cross-over marketing.”
In October, Chaos will begin a promo with Quake 2, the popular new video game. Because players can create their own characters for the game, Chaos is offering fans a chance to be their favorite comic book creature while they play. A contest will allow players to win software, computer equipment, and probably a full computer set-up.
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