– Discovery serves up scrumptious cross-promotion

Multimedia publisher Discovery Channel Multimedia and ice cream chain Ben & Jerry’s are betting that kids’ taste buds will lure them to a new cross-promotion. Starting in March, the first 25,000 customers who take home Discovery’s latest children’s CD-ROM, Animal Planet (see page 87 in KidScreen’s January 1997 issue), will receive coupons for a free pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. As well, four million pints of Ben & Jerry’s World’s Best Vanilla, Chocolate Fudge Brownie and Chunky Monkey ice cream will feature a US$10 rebate for the CD-ROM. As an added bonus, Discovery Channel Multimedia will make a donation to the Humane Society of the United States when the campaign wraps up. The effort will be supported with print ads; television spots on Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel and Animal Planet; and point-of-purchase displays in national grocery stores, computer retailers and Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shops. For Ben & Jerry’s, this is the first time it has taken part in a national cross-promotion.

-The Learning Company partners with American Express

Software publisher and developer The Learning Company is looking to reap its own rewards by signing on with the American Express Membership Rewards Program. Beginning last month, the three million cardholders who participate in the rewards program can put their points towards selected educational titles from The Learning Company. Designated titles include products from the Reader Rabbit line for kids, Compton’s Interactive Encyclopedia 1997, and Spanish, French and German versions of the foreign-language products Learn to Speak and Practice Makes Perfect. The alliance will be supported by direct marketing campaigns and promotions in newsletters.

In a release, Diana James-Cairns, senior vice president of marketing for The Learning Company, says the move is just one of the company’s plans to reach customers through vehicles that traditionally have not been employed by software businesses. Such efforts are necessary, she adds, as the market for computer software continues to grow.

-Nestlé tunes in to Nick Latin America

Cereal Partners Worldwide, the Switzerland-based marketers of Nestlé Breakfast Cereals, has signed on as Nickelodeon Latin America’s very first advertiser. The 24-hour kids channel, which launched December 20, transmits Spanish, Portuguese and English programs to two million homes in 16 Latin American countries.

-KinderActive and Turner team up for cross-promotion

Multimedia company KinderActive, Turner Pictures and New Line Cinema have joined forces for a consumer cross-promotion. The effort centers around television and film actress Jean Stapleton, who hosts KinderActive’s children’s educational CD-ROM Grandma Ollie’s Morphabet Soup and who stars in the Turner/New Line feature film Michael. Launched alongside the movie’s national release in the U.S., the cross-promotion entitles customers to a US$10 rebate when they send in the software registration card and a store receipt for the title, as well as a ticket stub to the movie. The offer runs until June in software retail outlets that carry the CD-ROM, and is supported with shelf talkers and stickers on the software packages.