Road to Super Bowl 2008 Paved with Snacks

Snack and beverage marketers lined the road to Super Bowl XLII with the usual barrage of party-themed activity, while retailers threw HDTVs into the annual promotional game. Leading the packaged goods activity were promotions from official Super Bowl sponsor PepsiCo and unlicensed activity from snack leader Kraft Foods. The companies used a variety of display materials and account-specific promotions to dominate the grocery landscape.PepsiCo gained widespread placement for its official Super Bowl imagery and national rebate offer, and hosted overlays at such chains as CVS, A&P and Supervalu. (See Related Articles.) The company's Pepsi-Cola and Frito-Lay divisions each touted their sponsorships with branded floorstands, banners, pallets, base wraps, pole toppers and other P-O-P vehicles, which were combined at many retailers to create multi-product spectaculars. (See Image Gallery.)The company also hosted account-specific sweepstakes, including:Meijer and Diet Pepsi awarded a grand-prize trip to the 2009 Super Bowl in Tampa, FL, and 10 first-prize $1,500 gift cards. Supported by entry stands in-store and circular features, the promotion ran through Feb. 2.&nbspPublix paired with Pepsi, Gatorade and Frito-Lay to award 42 daily winners with checks for home entertainment systems and store gift cards of $500 and $100. (See Related Articles.)PepsiCo's Doritos fine-tuned its user-generated commercial contest of 2007 into a talent search for musicians. The "Crash the Super Bowl" contest urged musicians to submit songs online and selected 10 finalists for a public vote. Three finalists earned trips to the Doritos Super Bowl Party in Phoenix, where the grand-prize winner received a record deal from Interscope Geffen A&M Records and created a music video that aired during the Super Bowl broadcast. Unlike last year's commercial, the entries did not have to promote Doritos. A corresponding instant-win game awarded more than 2,000 $10 gift cards for Apple iTunes. Product packaging supported the promotion.Kraft Foods, meanwhile, urged shoppers to serve its cheese and Nabisco cracker brands with a "Fan-Tastic Family Room" sweepstakes and coupon offers featuring generic graphics of footballs, helmets and fields. The campaign was supported by floorstands and headers that were often combined to form spectaculars. Retail overlays included rebate offers at Supervalu, A&P and Ahold USA. Kraft also conducted a brand-specific campaign for Double Stuf Oreos starring Super Bowl quarterback Eli Manning and his quarterback brother, Peyton. (See Related Articles.) The effort includes a TV spot that broke during the game and dedicated shippers.The other staple of Super Bowl season, beer brands, renewed annual umbrella campaigns that enlisted packaged food makers. Top brands -- Coors Light, Miller Light and Anheuser-Busch's Budweiser and Bud Light -- collected CPG partners for party-themed rebate offers delivered through in-store savings booklets and tearpad forms. (See Related Articles.) Coors Light capitalized on its official Super Bowl sponsorship by enlisting fellow game sponsors for coupon offers and distributing licensed display materials, while Budweiser and Miller Light aggressively promoted their generic "Bud Bowl" and "Super Party" campaigns with elaborate product spectaculars.Some CPG makers earned a Super Bowl sponsorship halo by signing up for the licensed "Super Bowl Savings Spectacular" program from News America's SmartSource. Blue Diamond, ConAgra Foods' Orville Redenbacher's, Dean's, Tyson Foods and other brands delivered football-themed messages on shelf talkers, floor clings and other SmartSource vehicles sporting the Super Bowl XLII logo. Other manufacturers established tangential ties to the National Football League by enlisting former players to hawk their brands. Promotions included:Kellogg Co. snack brands lined up "All-Star Athletes" -- retired football players Joe Theismann, Jerry Rice and Jerome Bettis -- to promote its "Big Game Party" sweeps. The promotion awards a grand-prize trip for 10 to attend a 2009 Super Bowl party (billed as a "Big Game party") in one of the athletes' hometowns. One hundred first-prize winners receive footballs autographed by Theismann. Entry is online with a UPC from Cheez-it, Famous Amos, Crunchy Nut, Rice Krispies Treats or Keebler's Club and Fudge Shoppe brands. The athletes appear on promotional floorstands and product packaging. The game began Jan. 1 and runs through April 30.&nbspProcter & Gamble's Pringles recruited Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young to front an online sweeps awarding a trip for four to the 2009 Pro Bowl in Hawaii. One hundred additional winners receive a football autographed by Young. Featured on product packaging, the promotion runs through May 30.&nbspOrtega awarded a trip to meet retired running back Emmitt Smith and secondary prizes of home entertainment equipment. Entry runs through March 13; forms are distribued via SmartSource take-one dispensers. (See Related Articles.) In other "unofficial" activity:Coca-Cola Co. distributed "Touchdown '08" displays promoting its Coke Zero brand and My Coke Rewards loyalty program. P-O-P vehicles included banners, inflatable goalposts and display wraps. Among retail overlays, Kroger's Fry's chain offered a $10 rebate with a $30 purchase. &nbspDiageo Brands' "Game Day-Great Drinks" program featured price promotions for Smirnoff, Captain Morgan, Jose Cuervo, Guinness and other liquor brands. Longs Drugs and Kroger's Fry's chain hosted account-specific mail-in rebates awarding up to $25 off combined purchases.&nbspHormel hosted an online sweeps awarding a grand-prize $10,000 check to throw the "Ultimate Party" and instant-win prizes including four $1,000 checks and 10 $500 checks. The promotion ran Dec. 3, 2007, to Feb. 3. The company also supported Budweiser's "Bud Bowl" savings booklet with coupon offers.&nbspGeorge Weston Bakeries' Boboli hosted a "Great American Football City Tour" sweeps awarding a grand-prize trip to one of the 32 cities that host an NFL team; a promotional web site features pizza recipes inspired by each city. Floorstands, SmartSource shelf talkers and a Jan. 27 FSI drop communicated the promotion.&nbspHershey sweetened its "Party Bowl" campaign by awarding a free SKU of Twizzlers, Milk Duds or Whoppers with purchase of two packages. Headers communicating the offer were merchandised on case stacks and other displays.Supermarkets and mass merchants lent in-store support to many of the CPG campaigns while flexing their marketing prowess with product spectaculars and cross-merchandising programs. Retailer campaigns included:SupermarketsSafeway hosted an instant-win sweeps with Snickers awarding a pair of 2009 Super Bowl tickets to shoppers who bought Snickers, M&M's, Milky Way, Three Musketeers or Twix products from Jan. 1 to Feb. 4. Winners were notified on their receipts. Meanwhile, the grocer's "Savings Zone Bucks" promotion awarded $5 off a $25 purchase of party-themed brands, including Tombstone, Ritz, Crest, Cheez-It and private-label Eating Right. Shelf tags and display headers communicated in-store. The chain also awarded $5 off a $25 purchase of proprietary beef line Rancher's Reserve, advertising the deal on pole toppers in the meat department. The "Savings Zone" rebates ran through Jan. 31.Kroger chains offered a $6 rebate with purchase of nine "Game Day Essentials" from PepsiCo or Kraft. Arizona-based Fry's ran a chain-specific promotion awarding 2009 Super Bowl tickets and a two-year lease on a Ford Hybrid Escape SUV. Shoppers entered online with a game code from the deli counter. Ahold USA's Giant-Carlisle distributed "Big Game Scratch Cards" for shoppers who bought three participating items with their loyalty cards. The instant-win game awarded 300,000 prizes (one for every 11 cards), including electronics, video games, cookware, grilling supplies and store gift cards, as well as coupons from Coca-Cola, Glad, Dole and Johnsonville. The chain also distributed booklets containing party recipes and coupons. Supervalu's regional chains hosted a number of promotions. New England-based Shaw's paired with American Dairy Association's 3-A-Day program to award a trip to the 2008 Pro Bowl in Hawaii, while Albertsons ran a "Tailgate Kids' contest rewarding 10 winners between the ages of 8 and 14 with trips to the Celebrity Flag Football Challenge in Phoenix. (See Related Articles for more Supervalu campaigns.)Delhaize America's Food Lion leveraged Super Bowl sponsors by presenting an account-specific sweeps from Coors Light and a party guide from PepsiCo. (See Related Articles.) The Hannaford and Sweetbay chains hosted a "Football Frenzy" campaign sponsored by PepsiCo, Kraft, Unilever, Kellogg Co., Campbell Soup Co., H.J. Heinz and other vendors. The effort included price promotions, a microsite for party planners and a sweeps awarding $20,000 in football equipment to the winner's designated high school. A&P presented loyalty cardholders with rebates from Kraft, including a free 12-inch DiGiorno pizza with a $20 Kraft purchase and a free Planters SKU with three Coca-Cola six-packs. The chain also dangled a $5 coupon with a $15 purchase of Pepsi and/or Frito-Lay.H-E-B Plus took advantage of its broader inventory for a "Big Game" incentive promising free private-label beef, chicken and cheese, Kingsford charcoal and an all-purpose lighter with purchase of a Char-Griller Patio Pro Grill.Mass Merchants/Club StoresWal-Mart revived its "Game Time" umbrella campaign with TV and radio spots, print ads, in-store displays and merchandising programs. Stores dedicated a seasonal valley and island in Action Alley to party foods such as snacks and beverages. "Game Time" P-O-P materials included endcaps, base wraps, signage, headers, four-ways and ceiling banners, often featuring logos and product shots from such vendor partners as Frito-Lay, Nabisco, Keebler and Miller Lite. Wal-Mart also leveraged the campaign to promote HDTVs, featuring price promotions on the cover of January circulars. Wal-Mart also this month launched a new low-price initiative that conveniently integrated Super Bowl merchandise. The chain announced rollbacks of 10% to 30% on thousands of SKUs, "concentrating on the items customers need to buy at this time of year," according to a press release. The rollbacks emphasized packaged foods and electronics for the big game, leading some analysts to criticize the "economic stimulus plan" as little more than a campaign to boost Super Bowl sales. Meijer responded to Wal-Mart's rollbacks with an online message saying it was "skeptical" of the "competitor's most recent announcement." The chain claimed to offer lower prices on game-time items and listed a "Big Game Party Package" of snack brands selling for less than $50. Meijer also hosted a sweeps with Diet Pepsi, as well as chainwide "Super Game Plan" sampling events on Feb. 2.Sam's Club developed a party-planning guide with the Food Network, leveraging the channel's "Football Party Week" programming from Jan. 26 to Feb. 3. The Big Game Playbook featured recipes from Jamie & Bobby Deen, sons of Food Network host Paula, as well as football trivia and games. The book was distributed free online and in stores from Feb. 1-3. Sam's Club featured the program, along with grocery and home entertainment products, in a stand-alone insert on Jan. 30.Consumer ElectronicsOutside the CPG world, consumer electronics retailers sought to abet the expected spike in HDTV sales related to the game. Mass merchants, department stores and electronics chains offered price promotions and devoted circular covers and upfront placement to LCD- and plasma-screen TVs. Among the activity:Best Buy leveraged its exclusive Runnin' Down a Dream four-disc set chronicling the career of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers -- which conveniently serves as the Super Bowl's halftime entertainment. In stores, floorstands merchandising the DVD set carry the Super Bowl XLII logo. On the chain's Jan. 27 circular cover, the retailer promised to deliver TVs by game time to shoppers who purchased 46-inch (or larger) HDTVs by 7 p.m. the night before. On January covers, Circuit City conveyed a similar promise to shoppers who purchased a TV of 32 inches (or larger) by 4 p.m. on Jan. 30. The chain also promoted its exclusive tie to the Samsung NFL Gameday tour, which wrapped up its national itinerary (see Related Articles) with a week at the Super Bowl. In circulars, the retailer and Samsung partnered to promote "Hall of Fame HD Hero Days," which award an autographed football from a participating Pro Football Hall of Fame member with purchase of a Samsung TV (40 inches or larger) and a $99 firedog home-theater service deal. Circuit City also ran a DVD sale for non-sports fans, touting the offer in circulars as "a perfect alternative to the big game." Canton-MA based Tweeter offered "Touchdown Tips" in a Jan. 27 newspaper insert. The consumer electronics chain showcased its Super Bowl-worthy TVs alongside food recipes for Super Bowl parties. Sears decorated TV departments and circulars with its "Ultimate Football Experience" tagline first used at the beginning of the 2007-2008 football season. The chain hosted a TV sale in the weeks leading up to the game.

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