The release of Walt Disney Co.’s Mulan Story Studio for the Sony PlayStation is being accompanied by a direct mail and television marketing campaign.
More than 200,000 Disney credit card holders received a $5 rebate and information about the game in their statements this month. The mailings targeted cardholders with young girls since the game’s lead character, Mulan, is a young female.
“We are trying to make the campaign more girl-oriented,” said Tom Emelo, director of product marketing at NewKidCo, New York, which produced the game with Disney. “The television spot will be more girl-oriented than the direct mail aspect of it. We are hoping to get a good cross-section of both boys and girls, but we know it is going to be more popular with girls.”
Disney also included the rebate offer in 85,000 DVD versions of “The Little Mermaid” and “The Jungle Book” released earlier this month.
“Depending on how well the DVDs sell, we will be putting the rebates and letters in up to 600,000 more of them,” Emelo said. “We really want to build awareness with these two first parts of the campaign. The goal is to get the coupons out there so that people will be looking for the game for their kids.”
The television campaign begins early next year with commercials running nationally for three to four weeks on Nickelodeon, The Cartoon Network and ABC. There also might be a radio campaign, but Emelo said there will be no print or online advertising.
