Unilever gets adventurous with new contest
Unilever Canada is hoping fans of a popular TV show for kids will be enticed to enter a Lipton-sponsored contest for the chance to star in a nationwide broadcast.
At lipton.ca, children (and their parents) can register for the chance to appear in an adventure based on the This is... Treehouse series (This is Daniel Cook and the new This is Emily Yeung.) The two winners of the “This is Adventure Contest” will be able to pick an adventure, including exploring a zoo or taking a helicopter ride, that will run as a 60- or 30-second mini-episode in February on Corus Television.
The grand prize winners also receive a weekend for the whole family and $5,000 to “Eat Life Up” while 50 secondary prizes consist of series merchandise.
The Lipton Sidekicks brand is lighthearted, fun and focused on family, says Tim Cormick, vice-president of client marketing at Corus. So it fits well with the network’s stations, such as Treehouse and YTV. “What we like about working with Unilever is they develop deep insights and they ring true with the proprietary research we do,” he adds.
The initiative was brought together by PHD Canada and is being promoted through 60-second spots starring Cook and Yeung, running on Treehouse, YTV, W Network and CMT stations. The ads feature the two stars together for the first time, but Cormick says Corus is being very careful “to make sure our viewers continue to see them as entertaining and not necessarily as spokespeople, so the communication has been carefully tailored.”
Each station is also using badges and their own websites to drive to a contest microsite. Lipton is promoting the contest through the October/November edition of its Homebasics magazine, going out to two million subscribers, and its monthly e-newsletter. The mini-episodes featuring the winners will also be posted at lipton.ca along with a list of all contest winners.