TROPICANA, MEIJER JOIN IN 'APOLLO 13' LINKUP

JUDY CORCORAN

In one of the more elaborate uses of account-specific promotional phone cards to date, Tropicana Pure Premium juice teamed with Meijer Inc.'s supercenters in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana for its "Blast Into Breakfast" tie-in with the video release of "Apollo 13" last year.

In a call-in-and-win promotion, 2,800 consumers were awarded a "Countdown to Free Phone Time" card with 13 minutes of long-distance phone time. The promotion was publicized with 20,000 neck-hangers on Tropicana's new 96-ounce package. Consumers were instructed to call a specific 800 number to see if they had won a free phone card.

Upon hearing a customized message from Tropicana, consumers were then asked to identify the store where they had purchased the Tropicana product by pressing specific touch-tone keys. Then they were asked to enter the product's Universal Product Code. Winners were then notified that they had won a phone card with 13 minutes of free phone time. They were asked for their name and address to receive the card by mail.

The cards, imprinted with both the Tropicana "Blast Into Breakfast" and Meijer logos, were attached to a 4- by 9-inch full-color card. It included a 75-cents-off coupon for the next purchase of the 96-ounce container.

Another element of the promotion included three-sided "megaramas" (point-of-purchase displays) that hung in the refrigerated and video sections of the stores and featured a poster of the "Apollo 13" video on one side and posters for the "Blast Into Breakfast" promotion on the other two sides. No broadcast or print media were used.

Tanya Braidman, assistant production manager at KK&A, a marketing and promotion agency in Chicago that handled the promotion, said Tropicana used the promotion to sell in a new stockkeeping unit of 96-ounce cartons of juice.

"Tropicana was thrilled with the results because they were able to sell in 100,000 cases of this new SKU because of the promotion," she said.

In all, PhoneCard Express, Hollywood, Fla., which handled the phone card for the promotion, awarded cards to the first 2,800 people who called.