food

Hostess Dangles $1M In Halloween Promotion

Hostess Monster Cakes

Hostess is launching a Halloween promotion dangling a million dollars. The "Hostess Halloween Instant Win Game and Chance for $1 Million Sweepstakes" is also centered on a tie-in with DreamWorks Animation's animated "Monsters Vs. Aliens" film. The studio released the film on DVD and Blu-ray Hi-Def on Sept. 29.

The effort, which runs through Oct. 26, includes hostesscakes.com, where consumers can play an instant-win match game featuring characters from the film. Other prizes include an Activision "Monsters Vs. Aliens" video game for the Nintendo Wii and a game console. Players are automatically entered into the sweeps for the chance to win $1 million.

As part of the arrangement, Hostess is doing two limited-edition snack cakes with a "Monsters Vs. Aliens" theme. The themed chocolate Hostess CupCakes have blue icing and blue sprinkles. Also, B.O.B. Cakes (available only at Wal-Mart) and blue Hostess Sno Balls have movie-themed packaging and include a $4 mail-in rebate for the DVD/Blu-ray of the film. The rebate comes with the purchase of any two family-sized packages of Hostess products.

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David Leavitt, VP of snack marketing at Hostess' parent, Interstate Brands Corp., tells Marketing Daily the company did a similar program with the studio around the release of its "Madagascar" animated film. He says it will have displays in "at least four thousand stores nationwide and a program with Wal-Mart as well."

He adds that the company will do a free-standing insert in newspapers on Oct. 11 to promote the tie-in with the film.

Leavitt says that while the company markets year-round for its brands, which include Wonder, Dolly Madison, and Home Pride, "October is great time period for the [cake] category and a great time for us; Halloween is such a wonderful event for the category because people love to give away Twinkies and cupcakes, so we try to embrace that in a really big way."

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