'INDY' RETURNS
Indy's big return has marketers, fans stoked
By Laura Petrecca
USA Today
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Fans and marketers alike seem to have been whipped into a frenzy in anticipation of the May 22 opening of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."
The fourth installment of the Indiana Jones franchise comes to the big screen nearly two decades after the third, but boasting the ingredients of a summer blockbuster:
Last month, an online poll of more than 5,000 users of movie ticket-selling site www.Fandango.com, voted "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" as the summer's "most anticipated" movie. Much of the plot has been kept under wraps, which has further piqued consumer interest.
Hoping that the big-budget release from Paramount Pictures would have fans jonesing for all things Jones, brands including M&M's, Dr Pepper, Expedia, Burger King and Kraft Lunchables have launched big-budget marketing tie-ins.
"We believe this is going to be the biggest movie of the summer," says Jaxie Alt, Dr Pepper brand marketing director. "We wanted to figure out a way to be a part of it."
Later this month, Dr Pepper, will run Web, print and TV ads that promote its link with the movie. Cans and bottles will have pictures of Indiana Jones. And buyers of 23 cans will get a lot more of a "pepper-upper" (as the Dr has billed itself) than they expected: an iPod Nano preloaded with the movie franchise's musical theme.
Marketers signing up for the 2008 movie say Indy still resonates with younger consumers, thanks to cable airings and DVDs.
"There's such a franchise and history with this movie, so even if you're in the younger demographic, you've heard of it," Alt says.
The past three movies — 1981's "Raiders of the Lost Ark," 1984's "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," and 1989's "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" — won seven Oscars in total and reaped nearly $1.2 billion in worldwide box office receipts.
Some promotional partners:
TV ads show M&M's spokescharacters swinging from ropes and plunging down a cavern. Print ads feature a new Jones-like M&M's character.
Creating him actually took a lot of work, says Susan Credle, executive creative director at M&M's ad agency BBDO New York. "If you go too far, it doesn't look like an M&M — but if you don't go far enough, it doesn't look like Indiana Jones."
Darin Dugan, Lunchables marketing director, says 21-year-old LaBeouf, who also starred in "Transformers," will appeal to tweens and "is a very strong emerging talent."
Working with travel site Expedia, Kraft will sponsor a giveaway of 10 adventure trips to the Southwest and Mexico.
Stores already have posters of BK's King character dressed as Indiana Jones, including a leather jacket, fedora and whip.
"We have lined up different adventures such as horseback riding and mountain climbing and things that Indy himself would do," Alt says.
