• by Aaron Baar , December 17, 2010

Already responsible for one of the hot toys of the season -- having been featured on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, Extra and CNN -- the makers of the uDraw Game Tablet (a sort of easel for the Wii) are looking to deepen their consumer engagement with an online contest.

"Part of what we're doing is making sure that consumers who get uDraw have a chance to really experiment with it. So we want to do everything we can to encourage them to engage with it," company representative John Singh tells Marketing Daily. "It's less about enticing a consumer to buy than it is about giving them a real reason to get involved with the product."

Through the online contest, users of the uDraw Game Tablet can submit winter-themed artwork created with the device. The contest is open to members of Club uDraw, which is free to join at WorldofDraw.com. The winner of the contest, determined by company executives and through an online vote, will win $500 worth of THQ video games for the Wii and will have their artwork used as the primary background on WorldofuDraw.com.

"This contest is really what uDraw is all about," Julie MacMedan, vice president of corporate communications for THQ, tells Marketing Daily. "This promotion helps us build a community of artists."

In addition to on-package call-outs drawing attention to the WorldofuDraw.com Web site (where the contest is prominently displayed), the company is actively promoting the contest and Web site through social media. The device was featured as part of Ellen DeGeneres' 12 Days of Giveaways, and praised by news outlets such as CNN, the New York Daily News and Wired.com. The tablet has consistently been among the top 10 video game titles offered at Amazon.com, according to the company.