Disney, Champs Drive Tween Turnpike for Jersey - Disney Channel,

Brandweek, Nov 15, 1999 by T.L. Stanley

Disney Channel, continuing to use sports as a tween draw, will launch an end-of-the-year promo with retailer Champs that will tie a Super Bowl prize and a Disney World trip with the winning team to viewing The Jersey, the cable network's new series.

The three-week promotion, bartered by The Creative Couch, Los Angeles, hopes to capitalize on kids flush with Christmas money and likely to be in the malls to spend it. It also revs the synergy engine by taking advantage of the Disney-owned ABC airing of the big game, and Walt Disney World Entertainment's production of the game's half-time show.

"We think this will give us an opportunity to pick up speed and really start getting some eyeballs for the show," said Adam Sanderson, Disney Channel's vp-marketing. "Sports and music are big drivers with this audience." (The net also bows a promotion this month with Musicland and Hollywood Records around hEARS premEARS Volume 1: Music from Disney Channel's Original Movies, that sends its on-air talent to music retail and gives viewers a chance to win a role in an original movie.) Disney's "All-Access Jersey Sweepstakes" points kids to Champs' 600 mall-based locations and to the channel's Web site (www.ZoogDisney.com) to answer questions after each episode of The Jersey between Dec.27 and Jan. 8. The show, airing twice a week and drawing about a 50/ 50 boy/girl audience, is a sort of sports-themed Quantum Leap for kids that puts the two stars in the shoes, and jerseys, of famous athletes. Top prize is a custom-made football jersey that serves as the all-access pass to Super Bowl XXXIV in Atlanta in January. Included is a trip for tour to the game, a walk-on role at the half-time show, and possibly a ride in the post-game victory parade at Disney World. Secondary prizes include Champs merchandise, Sony Playstation and sports-themed software.

Champs stores will be wrapped in The Jersey paraphernalia--banners, contest entry forms, 7,000 employee buttons--and in-store monitors will run 60-second commercial spots produced by Disney Channel. The retailer also will offer a gift with purchase, a 10-minute pre-paid phone card/key chain shaped like a jersey.

Disney Channel, which is ad-free, will support with about 100 on-air contest spots around The Jersey and through other dayparts.

Speaking of kids and sports, girl-focused teen magazine Jump has inked Burton Snowboards as sponsor of the Women's Demo Tour that will feature snowboarding clinics and demos by '98 bronze medalist Shannon Dunn and other pros. The tour, which runs mid-December through March, also counts Mountain Dew, Clif Bars and Motorola as sponsors, with on-site giveaways, sampling and brand IDs set. Jump, two years old with the slogan, "daring girls to be real," has an active-lifestyle, sports-minded focus.

If you build it, Pokemaiacs will come? Kaufman & Broad, who, with Fox Broadcasting, was responsible for the wildly successful Simpsons House Give- away in '97, has linked again with entertainment, this time with Warner Bros. for the hotprop-du-jour Pokemon: The First Movie. The promotion gives away one adult and one child ticket (with original, custom-made artwork) to prospective home buyers who fill out registration forms in California, Texas, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.

The company wanted a highly-visible tie for year's end, when traffic normally slows. "It separates us from the competition," said vp-marketing Wendy Marlett," and lets us talk to people in a way they can relate to." Traffic has been up as much as 75% in some markets, with more than one instant sale reported. The promo could extend through Thanksgiving.

Though the part of the third angel is still up for grabs, the film version of '70s TV jigglefest Charlie's Angels, from Columbia Tristar, has a licensing plan. (One angel, Drew Barrymore, stopped in at a recent licensee powwow). The studio will rip a page from MGM's Mod Squad, which did better with its Levi's tie-in than at the box office. Aiming at 12-18-year-old girls, execs are courting fashion and accessories licensees. Back-to-school product will be decidedly retro, which, to the target demo, is as au currant as it gets.