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WWE Wrestles with Past; Soap Stars to Clean Cars.Navigation: Main page Author: Ebenkamp, Becky bebenkamp@brandweek.comWasserman, Todd Section: News
The Biz PAGING Cyndi Lauper! World Wrestling Entertainment will revive classic wrestlers with a Legends merchandise program that launches at this week's Licensing Show. About 25 vintage grapplers have signed on. WWE hopes to sign partners for apparel, books and DVDs starring "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Jerry "The King" Lawler, The Iron Sheik, Freddy Blassie and others. Collector items (posters, trading cards, coins) will be a large part of the initial plan. Legends wrestlers will be folded into WWE's Raw and SmackDown! TV storylines, and talent will tag along to licensee and retailer meetings. Classic bouts will be available on a new VOD service, WWE 24/7. Also being considered: Legends fantasy weekends with fans. Marketing will be tag team. "We have tremendous assets at our fingertips--24/7, live events, a huge e-mail database--that can help promote this," said Donna Goldsmith, svp, consumer products. "On larger releases, [such as] a Wrestlemania boxed DVD set for the holidays, we may even advertise outside of our vehicles for the first time." The line aims to drive lapsed fans back into the retail ring. "Some kids who grew up watching are now in their 30s or 40s and don't watch anymore," Goldsmith said. "We want to bring those fans back and get new ones--their kids--into the fold." All My PromotionDISNEY CABLE STATION SOAPnet will venture off the screen and into shops with a pair of summer events to promote shows. For reality series I Wanna Be A Soap Star, the cable net begins hosting free "Star Washes" this Thursday at car washes in 10 markets, including Detroit, Cincinnati, Houston and Memphis. Locals get the soap star treatment as hunks in tank tops fetch iced teas and soap their cars. Show-branded antenna balls, air fresheners and window clings will be placed in vehicles. Customers get a trading card featuring one of 12 contestants. Those with the winning stud get a year's worth of free washes. A week-long radio promotion will announce the stunt. "There are a lot of reality shows out there," said Sherri York, vp-marketing. "We know the importance of getting viewers invested in a show, and we think they will be more [so] if they have a chance to win." SOAPnet will partner with Barton Brands' Chi-Chi's Prepared Cocktails to promote Soap Talk, which is billed as "Television's New Happy Hour." For 12 weeks starting July 1, a national SOAPnet sweepstakes offer will grace packages of Chi-Chi's new Appletini drinks and displays at about 1,000 retail locations. The winner gets a trip to Los Angeles to dine with soap stars and visit the set. Promotion is via on-air and paid media. A September rebate deal will dangle SOAPnet premiums. The ABCs of Abs LicensingAIMING TO TAKE A PIECE of the $46 billion diet-product pie, Rodale Books is creating a licensing regimen for hit print property, The Abs Diet. The Joester Loria Group, New York, is licensing agent. The Prevention, Runner's World and Men's Health publisher has sold 700,000 copies of the book. A "grazer's diet" that's proved popular among both sexes, Abs becomes a mass paperback in 2006, just as licensed products hit. Categories include food (shakes, smoothies, bars, to-go breakfast items) and vitamins/supplements. Phase two could include frozen meals, such as those developed around The South Beach Diet. An in-house marketing push aims to keep Abs' diet goods from hitting a plateau. Rodale will leverage its 25 million-name database and its Web site, and will cross-promote the diet goods with The Abs Diet book at point-of-sale. PHOTO (COLOR): Tres Sheik: Iron Sheik returns. Top: SOAPnet's Chi-Chi's tie-in. ~~~~~~~~ By Becky Ebenkamp and Todd Wasserman in the Fair Use guidelines of the 1976 U.S. Copyright Act. info [at] singlearticles.com Powered by CommonSense |
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