The ad business is famous for buzzwords like integrated marketing, guerrilla marketing and even ambush marketing. But banana marketing?
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Welcome to the slick world of product cross-promotions, where marketers band together to grab the attention of consumers who otherwise would ignore their ads.
In the latest variation, Dole Food Co. is plastering stickers on 200 million of its bananas to hawk the new 20th Century-Fox animated movie “Anastasia.” The promotion runs through the holidays.
It’s aimed at cutting through the clutter of TV ads and routine packaging, marketing experts explained. With promotional messages showing up on air-sickness bags in planes and popcorn containers in movie theaters, why not bananas?
“You’ve got to look at those bananas as media . . . edible media,” said Don Rutz, senior partner at ad agency Bozell Worldwide in Chicago. “More and more marketers are going to look for unconventional media. Don’t be surprised if you see this move beyond bananas.”
Indeed, fresh fruit has been sold as a billboard before. Quaker Oats Co. advertised its former Snapple beverage line by plastering ad stickers on mangoes and kiwis.
Dole bananas were used to promote “Muppet Treasure Island” two years ago and the home-video release of “Space Jam” last spring.
In October, the California Milk Processor Board slapped “Got Milk?” stickers on millions of Dole bananas. “Anastasia” is getting a dose of citrus as well: Dole is putting one of the half-dozen movie-character stickers on 50 million oranges, lemons and grapefruit.
For Dole, tying in with big national ad campaigns helps convince grocers to carry its bananas instead of rival Chiquita’s.
Advertisers get novelty value.
“We need to surprise people,” said Jeff Manning, executive director at the Milk Board, which plans to run its fruit promotion again sometime next year.
Of course, the “Anastasia” tie-in is somewhat obscure. After all, how does fruit figure into a tale about a Russian princess? “That’s a stretch,” Manning opined.
The kid-appeal of bananas makes them a natural for the G-rated movie, countered Dole spokesman Marty Ordman.
At the least, “Anastasia” has the advantage of being the only banana-advertised movie at the moment, said Bozell’s Rutz. “It’s an exclusive delivery system,” he said. “That’s called being top banana.”