• by Nina Lentini  @Nina_Lentini, May 16, 2007

Pernod Ricard, one of the largest spirits companies in the U.S., has launched an integrated marketing effort for Tropical Banana--the newest of its Malibu brand coconut rums--with print, TV, radio, sweepstakes and a YouTube-partnered contest centered on "The Banana Boat Song."

Michelle Riley, brand director for Malibu Rum, says the YouTube contest is a first for the brand, and is designed to engage the 21-plus crowd and make the brand relevant to them. Through June 13, consumers can upload videos of themselves singing the traditional Trinidadian Calypso folk song (think "Day-O!")

The contest's theme, "How do you banana Malibu?" is a call to action designed to personalize the brand and the YouTube experience, Riley says. "Malibu has not had a big presence on the Internet before [this]. We've got solid support behind it to keep the momentum going."

The company created a template video with producer and deejay RJD2, who did a remix of the song that can be downloaded at youtube.com/malibubanana. YouTubers will vote on the submissions from June 14 to 22 and the grand prize winner, to be adjudged by actor Efren Ramirez (Pedro from "Napoleon Dynamite"), will be announced on June 25. The prize? A banana grove in a tropical clime or $25,000.

A TV spot that runs through Labor Day features two people walking along a beach. One climbs a coconut tree as the other person looks on in confusion. The climber hacks down part of the tree, and a bunch of bananas falls down.

Related print, which runs through June, shows a man staring at a bunch of bananas hanging from a coconut tree on a beach with the headline: "New Malibu Tropical Banana. Ripe for the drinking." It will run in alternative weekly newspapers.

Riley says the multimillion-dollar effort includes a media mix of trade print ads, radio, Internet and PR as well as consumer sampling and a sweepstakes that consumers can enter via POS tear pads or the web for a chance to win a trip to Las Vegas.