Video Business, the home video industry magazine, posted
this story yesterday (free registration required) called "DIC has DVDs for breakfast: Promotion planned with General Mills":
MAY 25 | DIC Entertainment and General Mills are embarking on a marketing campaign to put DVDs on the breakfast table.
From June through August, the two companies are running a promotion that will put a selection of DIC's animated children's DVD properties in 10 million specially marked boxes of General Mills cereal. Titles include Strawberry Shortcake, Madeline, Liberty's Kids, Inspector Gadget, Gadget Boy, Sabrina: The Animated Series, Super Mario Bros. and Heathcliff.
The companies will support the campaign with print and TV advertising.
The promotion gives DIC an opportunity to generate exposure for its entertainment properties, said Jedd Gold, the supplier's director of brand marketing and promotions.
General Mills' Steve Young said the breakfast food giant is "always looking for ways to surprise and delight our customers."
Simone Kaplan concludes this story by describing how succesful
Strawberry Shortcake has sold on DVD through distributor Fox. Most other DiC properties are distributed on DVD by UAVCO.
This will be the third time General Mills has included DVDs in packages of breakfast cereal in the United States. They first did it
in late 2002 with kidvid titles like
Bear in the Big Blue House and
Jackie Chan Adventures. At the beginning of 2004 they teamed up with Sony Pictures Television for
a TV-on-DVD promotion featuring
The King of Queens, Mad About You, Barney Miller and
The Donna Reed Show.
Stay tuned, and if we get any further details about this new promotion we'll be sure to let you know!
