Acne product giant Oxy has sponsored four key snowboarding and skateboarding events this year as part of a promo aimed at teen boys. ‘We found in our research that more boys use Oxy than girls,’ explains product manager Kara Hale. ‘So we were looking for a fit with no overt advertising; we wanted to immerse our product within their lifestyle. And snowboarding and skateboarding was the way in.’ The result? A national contest that urges teens to ‘win your face off.’
Running from Aug. 15 until Oct. 31, the contest is giving away skateboards from HogTown Extreme Sports, free music downloads from Puretracks, Motorola cellphones and PF Flyers shoes. The grand prize consists of a Norco SM-PRO XL bike, a $1,000 gift certificate from HogTown and an iPod. POS materials with an SMS component and TV and print buys will support the contest. Instant prizes will be given away daily, weekly and monthly for online and SMS entries. Coupons and ‘thunder sticks’ doled out at sponsored events will be used to drive eyeballs (and now, fingers) to the oxy.ca Web site. The Mentholatum Company bought Oxy in December 2004.
