News
Shrek Onions Wow Kids
June 29, 2010—A small, overlooked promotional deal in which the Shrek ogre appears on packages of sweet onions is a big hit, reports the Wall Street Journal. In the fresh vegetables section of grocery stores, the green Shrek character “is creating a minor sensation, by making onions popular with kids,” says the article by Miriam Jordan and Lauren E. Schuker.
The Shrek character promotes the movie Shrek Forever After on packaging and in store displays for sweet unions produced by Vidalia Onion Committee, which is a farmers association that represents 100 growers of Vidalia, Georgia. The Vidalia brand is a trademarked food product.
Sales are up and the onion growers credit the movie tie-in. One supermarket reported that when it erected a 16-foot onion display with cardboard cutouts of Shrek and Donkey, sales tripled the first week.
“The campaign, ‘Shrek Forever After, Vidalias Forever Sweet,’ was unveiled this spring in conjunction with the release of the flick and the start of the Vidalia season, which stretches to September,” says the Wall Street Journal article. “The onion association's partnership with DreamWorks Animation uses the movie’s characters on packaging, store displays and on a website… DreamWorks and the grower association spent a year hammering out details of the ogre-onion campaign.”
Food recipes dreamed up for the promotion include Swampy Joes, Shrek-O-licious Summertime Succotash and Donkey’s Savory Onion Parfait.
For full text, click link below:
online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704123604575323433042544568.html
www.marketingmovies.net/chapters/chapter-4-tieins-prod-placement/
www.marketingmovies.net/news/fourth-shrek-lines-up-promos/
Vidalia-branded onions are suddenly popular with kids via the 'Shrek' movie tie-in