Introduction

Pringles, seeking a high profile entertainment tie-in to generate retail customer excitement and incremental display, asked Stafford to research, identify, negotiate and execute a promotional partnership with a top motion picture property. Stafford recommended The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (LOR:ROTK).

Utilizing his extensive contacts in the studio and video game industries, Stafford created the partnership between Pringles, New Line Cinema and Electronic Arts for a Holiday 2003 promotion. This was Pringles first ever national on-pack promotion in North America (U.S. & Canada) and Pringles became a partner of the most successful film franchise of all time.

( 2 ) Separate Pringles Promotions

1. Pringles U.S. & Canada "Create Your Own Fellowship"
2. Pringles U.K. & Ireland (EIRE) "Find the Ring and Win"

1 | Program Overview Pringles U.S. & Canada

The promotion, Pringles The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King Sweepstakes was a multi-layered program including:

• Ten's of millions Pringles "Collectors" cans
• The (3) collector cans featured a top character from the movie & game: Aragorn, Legolas and Gandalf
• Thousands of free standing retail displays
• Dedicated :30 second and :15 sec TV spot run on broadcast, cable & syndication
• Exclusive retail customization for Wal*Mart
• $300,000 in free prizes for consumer sweepstakes
• Appearance of main character at exclusive Pringles LOR:ROTK
• Grand-Prize Event in Hollywood.
• Public Relations Campaign

View the :30 sec TV spot
Click here

View the :15 sec TV spot
Click here

Promotion Description

To drive repeat purchase, Stafford built the “Create your own Fellowship” sweepstakes whereby consumers who purchased Pringles entered a special code from the can (using the new thermal chromatic technology) on the promo website, thereby registering themselves plus 8 friends for a chance to win a trip to Hollywood for an exclusive celebrity screening of the LOR trilogy. The promotion asked consumers to input friends names and e-mail addresses to create their own fellowship. Each friend was sent an e-mail invitation to join the promotion. The viral nature of the promotion was ideal for the highly loyal film fan base.

The grand prizewinner also had his image and likeness captured and digitized and was integrated into the 2004 LOR video game by EA (2004).

Grandprize winner character: Sir Pringo of Rohan!— in the Helm’s Deep armory.

This promotion was the first national promotion by Pringles. After delivering multiple presentations with the P&G Wal*Mart customer team to the Wal*Mart snacks buyer, including promotional tie-in's with properties like James Bond, Hulk and EA Games, Wal-Mart still hesitated on buying into a Pringles tier 1 promotion. This led Stafford to recommend a ‘Build it and they will come’ strategy. After securing the partnership and building the promotion, Stafford offered Wal*Mart an exclusive Pringles ROTK collector can with Frodo. No other retailer would carry the marquee character in the franchise.

The key customer overlay was for ASDA, Wal*Mart's owned and operated chain in Britain & Ireland. ASDA ran a massive overlay promotion, Win a Trip to New Zealand in partnership with the Daily Mirror newspaper.

Consumers received a special game card insert in the Daily Mirror which they took into ASDA and scanned under a special "reveal light" technology incorporated into the end-cap display. If they were a winner game cards revealed the prize.

• 1.8 million gamecards & attached them to the front page (so no-one could miss them)
• Two days of full-page adverts to build up to it, wrapped over the front page of the newpaper
• Consumer took the card into Asda, to the gondola end of Pringles & place your card under a special reader
• Not only did we drive 1.8 million shoppers into Asda, they had to go in front of the Pringles section/gondola - even if they didn't win a prize - they could buy 2 X Pringles for £2

View European TV spot
Click here

The European PR campaign was quite extensive with inserts in local paper and radio tags on top morning shows

PR radio spot Click here (coming soon)

U.K./EIRE Website: see home page to the right

Winners were treated to an exclusive visit to Hollywood including site seeing, exclusive ROTK gift packs and a viewing of the entire LOR Trilogy courtesy of Pringles, EA and New Line Cinema. Both U.S. and European winners (Fellowships) attended. The celebrity guest was John Rhys-Davies (Gimli).

Both Promotions-Results (snap-shot)

• Pringles first ever on-pack promotion in North America
• Pringles first ever North American film tie-in
• Realized huge brand savings
• Drove sales in all territories
• Secured incremental display in 1,100 of the largest Wal-Mart stores in N.A.
• Generated millions of incremental shopper visits to ASDA in the UK/EIRE
• Secured incremental merchandising at other key U.K. retailers: TESCO & Sainsbury’

Pringles® is a registered trademark of The Procter & Gamble Company.

EA GAMES and the EA GAMES logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the US and/or other countries. EA Games™ is an Electronic Arts™ brand. 'PlayStation' and the 'PS' family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

© MMIII New Line Productions, Inc. The Lord of the Rings™, The Return of the King, and the characters, events, items, and places therein are trademarks of the SAUL ZAENTZ Company d/b/a Tolkien Enterprises under license to New Line Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

This program was executed under a consulting contract between Shaky Egg Communications Inc. and Alliance.