The $20M Truth About Cat Dog

Nickelodeon has surrounded first-season animated hit CatDog with a $20 million promotional onslaught that will stretch out nearly a year via partners Nabisco, Burger King, Jell-O and Duracell. The BK component is the next phase in a relationship cemented by this past holiday's blockbuster Rugrats Movie tie-in; the Jell-O program extends an overall alliance with Kraft; and Nabisco and Duracell are first-time cross-promotional partners for the top-rated kids network.

"We covet our fast food and packaged goods partners, but another goal is to seek partners who haven't traditionally spoken to this audience," said Pam Kaufman, Nick's vp-promotions marketing.

Nabisco will use CatDog to help push Cheese Nips brand more heavily toward kids 6-12. Timed to coincide with new packaging with bolder, more colorful kid graphics, on-shelf in February, Nabisco will launch a special limited-time CatDog Cheese Nips line that includes CatDog-, bone- and fish-shaped crackers. (Nabisco recently filed suit against Pepperidge Farm to override the Campbell unit's trademark on the "Goldfish configuration," a move that apparently will not interfere with plans for the CatDog-themed product.)

Nabisco will support the tie via an instant-win contest on the inside flaps of 11 million packages of CatDog Cheese Nips, Cheddar and Reduced Fat Cheese Nip varieties and the Cheese flavor of Ritz Bits Sandwiches. The contest offers a grand prize trip for five to Nick's new animation studios in L.A. to meet the CatDog creator and be drawn into an animated cell with CatDog.

Aside from packaging, with on-pack bursts, CatDog games and puzzles, Nabisco plans 15-second promo spots that feature CatDog animation and play up the trip to Hollywood, which will run adjacent to 15-second TV spots for Ritz Bits Sandwiches, and print ads in the March and April issues of Nickelodeon magazine. J. Walter Thompson, Chicago, handles. Instore support includes 10,000 display units with tear pads touting an on-pack offer for a CatDog digital watch self-liquidator.

Burger King, which also linked with Nick for the Rugrats TV series last year, plans five weeks of heavy promotion around CatDog, giving away 30 million premiums in its kids meals beginning Feb. 22. A national TV ad campaign will support, along with a full complement of in-store materials.

Nick, meanwhile, will bow its own on-air CatDog sweepstakes, using BK as a point of entry. Winners get trips to Nick's animation studios in Orlando next to Universal Studios. Both BK and Mattel, which will launch its first CatDog products this quarter, sponsor the sweeps.

Duracell, a first-time advertiser on Nick, will bow the first of two related programs in late summer, supporting CatDog and all the Nicktoons with a back-to-school backpack offer with purchase. Extensive POP will support. For holiday, the brand plans a "Catch CatDog" sweepstakes backed by national and local TV and radio. Duracell, looking for an icon to counter that of rivals that include the Energizer bunny, wants "to form a stronger bond with families and children," said vp-marketing Janet Mitchell.

Jell-O plans to pack collectible CatDog stickers in 2 million kids packs of Jell-O Yogurt this spring, with POP support.

The show, about what happens when two opposites share the same body, launched last October as a five-night-a-week strip and has given Nick a double-digit ratings increase in the 5 p.m. slot. The network, known for slowly rolling out shows and allowing them to percolate, went full guns from the start with CatDog because "it's an easy show to communicate, and we had immediate support from consumer products," Kaufman said.

Licensed merchandise rolls later this year.

COPYRIGHT 1999 BPI Communications, Inc.
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