Donna's Promo Talk - Promotional Marketing that Creates Excitement and Gets Results

Burger King's Interactive Promotion Digs Indiana Jones

All you have to do is turn on your TV or go online this week and your bound to see an ad promoting this Thursday's theatrical release of  Steven Spielberg's "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull". This past weekend I wrote my first post about it and ever since it seems I've seen Harrison Ford's Indy character just about everywhere! I wrote in my first post about the partnership Major League Baseball has formed with Paramount over the release of this movie and I mentioned that there were another nine brands that have also gotten on this entertainment marketing bandwagon. So I picked Burger King to write about next.

Burger King has launched a national Indy-themed campaign that includes an interactive promotion that you can find on their website... the "Reveal the Secret" scratch-and-win game and the "Big Dig" online game. They also have introduced for a limited time a series of Indy Kids Meal toys as well as a new burger, The Indy Double Whopper, which comes with an extra kick... spicy Cajun mayo and pepper jack cheese.

"Reveal the Secret" game players have a one-in-two chance of winning each time they play, and prizes include $1 million, a 2008 Hummer H2, a trip for four to Peru from Expedia.com (another Indy partner), and free food items from BK.

The game consists of two parts, and in-store game and an online game. "Reveal the Secret" Game pieces are given out in-store and consumers can receive up to three game pieces per visit depending upon what BK items they purchase. Players can scratch off the skull area on the game piece to reveal if they've won and if so what.

Free online game codes are available online at bkindy.com where visitors must first register and can then receive up to three codes per day to play.  Each day, a $10,000 prize is hidden on the site. Site visitors enter their code and press the "Dig" icon to stop the roving searchlight and start digging for the prize. Each day the $10,000 prize goes uncovered, an additional $10,000 is added to the total prize. As of today, Courtney B. "dug up" $10,000 on May 14th. So the pot is growing!

Now the odds of winning the $1 million dollars or the 2008 Hummer H2 (valued at over $59,000 U.S.) are one in 278,689,720. So this appears to be an insured prize game and BK pays for the prize insurance based on these odds. Since it is an instant-win game, not a drawing, these prizes may never be awarded. If there is a winner for either prize, then the insurance company will pay to fulfill the prize. The Official Rules state that the winner of the Hummer has the option of taking $55,000 cash instead. With gas prices as they are, who can afford to drive a Hummer these days!

There is also a series of eight adventure-themed Kids Meal toys based on key scenes from all four "Indiana Jones" movies, as well as a Kids Meal bag printed in invisible ink. Each bag is printed with Indy trivia, and answers can only be revealed using the invisible ink pen, one of the Kids Meal toys.

TV spots on network and cable have been scheduled. The children's ads were created by Campbell Mithun of Minneapolis and are running through June 8 on children's cable channels such as Nickelodeon and Disney. The adult spots, created by Miami-based Crispin Porter + Bogusky, are running on major network and cable stations in prime time.

"The cross-generational appeal and cultural phenomenon of the 'Indiana Jones' series make this one of the most coveted entertainment partnerships," said Brian Gies, VP/marketing impact, Burger King Corp., in a statement. "The sponsorship allows Burger King Corp. to give our customers and fans of the movie the action and adventure they love."

Now I read that the movie debuted this past Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival. Most people would agree that this movie wasn't made for critics, it's for the fans, so why did they do that? You can read about what some of the critics are saying here in this article MSNBC picked up. MSNBC also has provided a slide show which includes photos of many of the stars from the Indy movie as well as others that attended the film festival. So, that's worth checking out in itself. Again, let us know what you think of the movie after you've seen it!

Promotions Kick Off Baseball's Opening Day

I just got off the phone with my mom and dad in which I called to specifically wish my dad a happy opening day of MLB baseball.  My Dad was quick to correct me that our team, The Boston Red Sox, already played two games over in Japan, so it's not really opening day. Plus the Yankees game was rained-out for today. So, there wasn't much excitement on this first day of a new season of Major League Baseball.

It's gonna be hard to beat last season's excitement. One of Boston's local retailers, Jordan's Furniture, ran a "Monster Deal" promotion last Spring in which they offered paybacks for furniture purchased if the Red Sox won the World Series.  Approximately 30,000 New Englanders responded and bought sofas, dining tables, beds and mattresses between March 7 and April 16. The Red Sox went on to win the World Series so these customers ended up getting their furniture for free.

Jordan’s, the official furniture store of the Red Sox, just had a fun promotion in mind when it conceived the original idea. They took out insurance on the promotion and ran a huge ad campaign that consisted of TV, radio and print.  Jordan’s was originally just focused on the traffic it would draw to the store during the promotional time frame, but they also received additional exposure with the Red Sox success.

So Jordan's is at it again this year with their "Monster Sweep" promotion which they've upped the anty a bit. They basically are offering the same rebate to consumers who purchase furniture through April 27th, but this year only if the Red Sox Sweep the World Series, which means they have to win it in the first four games. You can check out the official rules here.

Also this year we have SuitePlay, a Chicago-area retailer of home entertainment furniture, who is stealing Jordan's idea from last year and running the SuitePlay! "Cubs Win, You Win" promotion. SuitePlay is offering a full rebate on all purchases made at its four stores through April 15 if the Chicago Cubs end their century-long curse and finally win the World Series this year.

"This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Chicago Cubs World Championship win against the Detroit Tigers and all of Chicagoland is hoping that the Cubs will repeat history," said Kelly Claffey, Vice President of Marketing for SuitePlay!. "We are inviting our shoppers to step up to the plate and buy furniture, games and other accessories to make their home more fun for baseball season during the promotional period. To show our team spirit, we'll pay them back for their store purchases should the Cubbies go all the way! It's a win-win for everyone!"

As a new Cubs sponsor, SuitePlay is hoping it will do for them what it did for Jordan's and pull in traffic during the promotion and create buzz throughout the season. They're running full-color ads in the Chicago Tribune, TV spots on Comcast SportsNet, radio spots on WGN, e-mail blasts as well as ads on SuitePlay’s website. A scroll on the Wrigley Field marquee is running 100 times daily and it will get on-air mentions during the first six Cubs games. Like Jordon's, SuitePlay is fully insured against potential losses.

Anyone who's read my blog over the past year knows that my dad and I are huge Red Sox fans. Yes, it would be great to see the Red Sox and the Cubs go against each other for the Championship this year. The buzz already is that the Red Sox are poised to take the number one spot in the East over the Yankees. Not sure about those Cubs though. They're opening game today against the Milwaukee Brewers  just began after a rain delay the last I checked.

Anyhow it's a long season, so we all start out really hopeful.  In the meantime, we have the excitement of the NCAA Final Four right in front of us and the NHL's season is winding up. Hey those Buffalo Sabres are still hanging in there and have a possibility of making the playoffs...a slight one at that, but that little bit of hope is still alive. You gotta love it.

Weekly Chances to Win with Football Cash Promotions

Well if you read my post on Friday you'd have seen that I was very excited about the start of a new NFL Football season. My excitement is someone less today as my team, the Buffalo Bills, had a heartbreaking loss to the Denver Broncos on opening Sunday in their own home field. They were ahead the entire game and ended up losing by 1 point when Denver kicked a field goal in the last second of the game. However, they were lucky the score was that close. The Bills offense only had a total of 184 yards the entire game! That's pretty pitiful. So, they really didn't deserve to win.

While on the subject of football I wanted to take a moment to talk about a highly successful interactive promotion that I worked on with SCA Promotions a couple of years ago called Football Cash. We did it one year for Harrah’s casinos that was tied into the weekly schedule of the NFL and featured an insured prize pool of up to $1,000,000 in cash. Each week new game cards were delivered to Harrah's casino were five games that were being played that week were listed in each card with a matching total score. The more games with matching scores on a card, the more money available to win, and of course the higher the odds.

We also did a similar game for Aladdin’s Casino (now called Planet Hollywood) which was tied into the Super Bowl. It was similar to Football Cash but only included the one game with different outcomes to match such as total field goals, total sacks, etc. Again there was an insured prize pool, however, this one only went up to the chance to win $100,000 in cash. The odds were based on the number of possible outcomes.

These games can basically be replicated again and used for any type of sporting event, but are really ideal for football. They are a great way for a brand to drive repeat traffic into a retail location and to leverage their sponsorship with a local team by featuring the weekly game. If you are interested in doing a promotion such as this please contact me and I will be glad to discuss the possibilities with you in more detail.

Now tonight is the first Monday Night Football game, this year on ESPN, and we are being treated to a double header. The first game begins at 7pm EST on the East Coast between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Baltimore Ravens and the other is 10:15 pm EST where San Francisco 49er's host the Arizona Cardinals.

BTW, please say a prayer for Kevin Everett of the Bills who suffered a severe spinal injury in yesterday's game. We're waiting on an update on his condition which should be announced this evening. It's a reminder of what a tough game football really is.