The Schmovie’s promotion and launch were carefully timed to reach busy families prior to, and during, the school holidays when they were looking for family entertainment.The pre-promotion focused on kids on the move and family entertainment seeking environments – knowing that parents were actively planning school holiday entertainment.The cinema foyer activity kicked off at the commencement of school holidays, knowing that thousands of families attend the movies during school holidays.

Schmackos dog snacks are a well-loved brand amongst older couples. Our growth opportunity was in driving purchase intent amongst young families. The dog snack category has very little differentiation. Not surprisingly, our audience told us “all dog food ads are the same”. We needed to challenge the ‘sea of sameness’ in dog-food advertising.

Spontaneous recall was an amazing 72%; 60 points above the next recalled cinema advertiser.56% of respondents, who had never purchased, would now consider Schmackos.“Our best sales period since Christmas 2003….really showing the impact a successful integrated campaign can have on stimulating off-season demand!” Justin Monaghan, Brand Manager

The Schmovie was previewed in entertainment environments and school transport just prior to school holidays in order to create family hype:*Magazine advertorials *Newspapers ads within movie reviews*Transit advertising, including a fully wrapped tram*15-second trailers in family TV showsContent was created specifically for each environment and each stage of the launch.The hype was then continued within the cinema foyers themselves with posters and cut-outs of the Schmovie’s characters.

Tapped into the deep human truth driving dog-snack use – the desire for family fun & entertainment (our audience see their dog as a member of the family). Association with family entertainment was fine, but in order to truly engage families we needed to create our own Schmackos entertainment.Key thought: enhance family fun times with ‘wacko’ SCHMACKOS moments.We took over the big summer movies with a 3-minute mini-movie (“Schmovie”) that ran before the main feature. People told us it was the highlight of the show!Promotion of the Schmovie was treated just like a real movie launch.