Standee Promotes ShowBiz Pizza's Family Cruise Contest

When Irving, Texas-based ShowBiz Pizza Time Inc. approached the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency to create a traffic-generating promotion for Chuck E. Cheese restaurants, the company got a campaign that used TV, print, a toy and more to hit its target audiences.ShowBiz had purchased commercial time from the Nickelodeon cable TV network. JWT teamed it up with Premiere Cruise Lines and created the Nickelodeon Treasure Island Sweepstakes.The centerpiece of the campaign was a P-O-P standee on display at the restaurants from March 21 to April 21. It encourages youngsters to fill out an entry card to win a cruise to the Bahamas for their family. Graphics show a happy family on vacation in the tropics, a young boy dressed as a pirate on a treasure hunt, and a Premiere Cruise Lines "Big Red Boat" luxury oceanliner. One display was provided to each of approximately 300 Chuck E. Cheese restaurants.In addition to promoting the cruise, the display also encouraged youngsters to buy a special 2-ounce size of Nickelodeon's "Smell My Gak," a toy gel produced by Mattel. The promotional toy, available in pizza and suntan lotion scents, was on sale at Chuck E. Cheese exclusively for the duration of the campaign."Smell My Gak can be considered this generation's Silly Putty," says Lois Perry, director of advertising for ShowBiz. "Kids can really use their imaginations changing its shape and they love it."With the cruise and the Smell My Gak, we had two traffic-generating messages directing folks to Chuck E. Cheese," she adds. "It was a promotion within a promotion."Quick and easy to set up, the corrugated standee features a litho-mounted, full-color applied surface. The display comes folded in half with two attachments, a foam-backed star-burst shape that promotes the toy, and a similar wrap-around attachment that features two palm trees. When set up, the display measures 3 feet wide by 6 feet tall.At the suggestion of JWT, Bartels & Co., St. Louis, handled the design of not only the standees but of accompanying banners and table tents as well. The table tents were of standard design. "About 100 were sent to each restaurant," says David Bartels, president and creative director of Bartels & Co. The displays and table tents were printed by Quest Printing in St. Louis. Banners measured 3 feet by 10 feet and were made of a polyester material with sewn edges and grommets for trouble-free hanging. Also numbering 300, the banners were produced by Albert Screen Prints of Norton, Ohio.Bartels & Co. also handled all ful-fillment. "We got it all out to the field," Bartels says. "It was a turnkey operation for us."Campaign materials, designed to be disposed of after April 21, were paid for through the ShowBiz advertising budget and provided free of charge to Chuck E. Cheese restaurants. "We're extremely pleased with the quality," says Perry. "The materials were just beautifully produced and communicated the message well."Other components of the campaign were a youngster-oriented, regional TV spot that featured Smell My Gak; print ads running in national youth magazines such as Sesame Street and Crayola Kids; an FSI distributed in Sunday newspapers in markets served by Chuck E. Cheese, which comprise approximately 40 percent of the United States; and flyers designed for parents in three test markets.While ShowBiz has not yet determined the amount of increased traffic the promotion generated, preliminary indications were positive, according to Perry, who was pleased to note that about 500,000 units of the Smell My Gak were sold at Chuck E. Cheese during the promotion. "We nearly ran out," she says.

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