• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, May 1, 2013

Marketers increasingly look to employ elements of paid, earned and owned media in their campaigns. Snickers may or may not buy any media to back a stunt it’s got going in conjunction with this weekend’s Kentucky Derby, but it deserves some earned exposure.

So here goes ... Tiny (“bite-sized”) jockey Rosie Napravnik will return to the venerable race this weekend. And Snickers parent Mars promises to give away 1 million Snickers Bites if she wins.

The candies “may be small, but they're substantial,” said Roy Benin, Mars' Chief Consumer Officer in a statement. The 25-year-old Napravnik would become the first female to win the Derby as a jockey.

The Snickers deal is her first such arrangement with a national brand. She says in a statement that winning would be “even more satisfying” because of the Snickers.

The amount of Bites that would rain down on America would be equivalent to 62,500 bags (each with 16 pieces). The giveaway would be one of those while-supplies-last things in June. Details are to come on a Snickers Facebook page.

Best of luck to Napravnik. Not so much because of the desire for candy, but for how neat it would be for her to make history. That would be worthy of a TV spot, no?