Don’t Forget Your Krusty-O’s and Milk!

the Simpsons

And have you seen how many grown-ups are proudly displaying their Simpsons avatar in their office or cubicle? (Ok, I am one of them.) Or completely crushing perfectly good cars to sell Chevrolets and drive people to the Transformers movie? (Of course, the Transformers themselves are Chevy/GM branded.)

The Transformers Movie website includes not only the usual downloadable screensavers, movie stills and trailer, but lots of behind-the-scenes info — think bonus features on DVD or Blu-ray. But there’s still more. You can check show-times near you and buy tickets. You can check out the game, which is available on Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo Wii, and heavily cross-promoted by those platforms and game designer Activision. And, of course, the site also includes a link to Seibertron where you can check out all the latest Transformer toys from Hasbro.

You will not escape.

But that’s kind of the point, isn’t it? It’s not that these promotional tie-ins are anything new. Star Wars created the game in the 1970s. But the lightning speed with which you can now navigate this cross-promotional world is in large part due to the Web and the impact of video and other rich media that allow a high level of interaction and a more robust experience online. That brings us back to agencies. If you aren’t thinking across the spectrum of these channels for your clients, then you probably won’t have that client for long. And we as agencies have to be prepared to deliver across these channels, whether through talent acquisition, partnership, network strength or any other way we can do it. We need to think bigger, bolder and more unexpected. We may not get the chance to tie into a blockbuster movie for our clients. But we are in a media environment with almost limitless possibilities to connect relevant brands and brand experiences for our clients and their customers. Let’s have some fun out there.

Diane McKinnon, SVP, Managing Partner