The Globe and Mail has launched a major promotion to homeowners across multiple Alliance Atlantis channels. The Ultimate Home Makeover contest gives the paper’s readers a chance to win a $50,000 Food Network Gourmet Kitchen, an HGTV Spa Bathroom, a Showcase Ultimate Home Theatre, or weekly prizes of $1,000 of makeover money. The target? Highly-engaged news and information consumers – specifically, those who are progressive and affluent leaders and influencers.

The contest is backed by a microsite at www.globeandmail.com/homemakeover – which asks readers to answer a trivia question found in the Globe‘s pages (placed within an ad for the contest, not earmarked for any specific section). The trivia itself is tied to Alliance Atlantis programming. The site also features TV spots, which will run on Showcase, Food Network and HGTV. The first of three spots features a woman visiting two men in prison and telling one he’s won the contest. She holds up a copy of the Globe with the headline: ‘Convicted CEO wins big.’ The two convicts consult with each other to make a decision. ‘We’re going to take the kitchen,’ says one. The other takes the phone to add, ‘And make sure we get a convection oven.’ The tagline takes it from there – ‘…fifty grand toward whatever you call home.’

An OOH element to the campaign – by Free For All Marketing – will see a house erected at Toronto’s RBC Centre this Friday, allowing people to select a key in hopes of unlocking the doors. Winners of that initiative can collect, from the unlocked house, prizes such as DVDs of Alliance Atlantis programming. The OOH house will also appear at Vancouver’s Home and Garden Show, starting Feb. 21.

Marketing support will include print, online and radio ads by Toronto-based Naked Creative, media buys by Toronto-based Gaggi Media. The Toronto offices of Environics is handling PR for the initiative.