Kimberly-Clark Pushing Disney-Pixar “Cars 2″ – How Risky is a Global Multi-Brand Campaign?

From Jack Neff, Ad Age Mediaworks

Kimberly-Clark has launched a global marketing campaign to coincide with the June 2 release of the Disney-Pixar movie “Cars 2″.

The studio bills this as its “biggest animated feature release ever”, and in return, Kimberly-Clark has begun a “scale event”: a multiple-brand marketing effort pushing an entertainment property in order to capture the attention of major retailers.

Is Kimberly-Clark taking a chance by tying so many brands to one entertainment property — what if the film fails at the box office?

There’s a lot less risk than one might think, said Devery Holmes, CEO of Spark Alliance Marketing, a Calabas, Calif.-based entertainment-marketing firm. “The anticipation and excitement of a property and a film that’s coming out and that relationship the consumer has is what drives awareness interest,” she said. “I’ve had more successful campaigns, believe it or not, with films that have not delivered, but the anticipation and excitement were there.”

As with the case of K-C and “Cars 2,” the promotional programs generally start weeks before the film opens, she said, which mitigates potential fallout should it not generate much opening-week buzz.

Spark Alliance Marketing assists in Marketing Strategy, Development,  Partnership Marketing and National and Global Alliances.

Devery Holmes – Fortune 500 Brand Integration Advisor

Devery Holmes has been serving as Brand Integration Adviser on FIGHTER’S Advisory Board.

The FIGHTER Advisory board is comprised of world-class marketing experts in their respective fields. FIGHTER publishes Celebrity & Brand-driven Social Games, Location Base Services and Applications, advises select non profits on their Social Media, Celebrity and Brand Integration strategies.

FIGHTER connects Hollywood & Madison Ave to Silicon Valley.

Holmes has overseen brand integrations for several Fortune 500 brands such as General Motors, American Airlines, Heineken and Samsung.

See other brands Devery has partnered with.

Devery Holmes Interview at PMA Conference

Interview with Devery Holmes at the Cocktail Party at the PMA Annual Conference 2010 in Chicago.

Mountain Dew’s “DEWmocracy 2″ campaign let people feel like they could have a say in the direction of the brand – that their voices meant something. The company added more than 120,000 new fans on Facebook.

InStyler: A Success Story

PROGRAM OBJECTIVES
Drive awareness of the InStyler as the leading hair tool for women everywhere and create branded name recognition across the entertainment spectrum.

STRATEGY
Develop extensive branding campaigns in film, television, web and in-store, capitalizing on partnerships with like-minded brands and entertainment vehicles, and targeting female-centric programming.

TACTICS
Secured product integration, placement and seeding in various and numerous feature films and television shows as well as created promotional DVD tie-in program:

Sex and the City 2 DVD Release – brokered complex promotional tie-in, which entailed national print, TV, web and on-pack sticker campaign along with overarching Sweepstakes offer.

America’s Next Top Model – InStyler featured in the highly anticipated Cycle 15 season premiere of this popular and targeted Reality show. The models were shown using the InStyler to style their own hair for their first competition as well as very positive verbal mention by model before and during her styling session.

Disney’s TANGLED premiere, November 14, 2010 at the ElCapital Theatre, Los Angeles, CA. InStyler was invited to participate at the Disney’s TANGLED premiere and party. Celebrities brought their children to enjoy the event. Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi were in attendance among many others. The stylists set up their own area in the historical theatre lobby to help all the little girl’s dreams of lustrous locks come true.

Read about other Spark Marketing success stories

Utilizing Entertainment Media to Promote Brand Awareness

What SPARK Does For Our Clients

We are passionate about helping our clients meet their business objectives.  We do that by listening and leveraging our expertise in marketing, branding and consumer insights. We develop integrated marketing plans and programs that deliver meaningful results and cut across multiple communication, traditional media and new media platforms.

At Spark, we continually research what is new, engaging and relevant to our clients, their consumers and their channel partners. We are on the forefront of  emerging technologies, new communication platforms,  and consumer behaviors.

Some of our clients