A little more than a month ago, I blogged about the 60th Anniversary of MATCHBOX, and the fantastic promotional campaign that Mattel (NASDAQ: MAT) put together to celebrate the occasion. One big element of the anniversary is the MATCHBOX Heroes Wanted promotion, a sweepstakes with weekly prizes that will be capped-off with a $60,000 College Scholarship to be awarded to one winner. As noted in my initial post, I entered my car-obsessed daughter, Adalyn in the contest… and now she’s become one of the weekly winners – an official “MATCHBOX Hero-in-training!“
A package from Mattel arrived here at Rock Father HQ last week, decked-out in MATCHBOX Black-and-Orange. Inside was a neatly-packaged box emblasoned with the MATCHBOX 60th Anniversary Logo and the words “YOUR PRIZE HAS ARRIVED!” Within that box was a card that said “CONGRATULATIONS!” and contained a nice note from the MATCHBOX Heroes Wanted Team. They’d taken the photo I submitted of Addie initially (playing “firefighter” dress-up) and included it in the card, complete with the MB logo. The actual prizes were: a Matchbox Urban Tow Truck, a Tractor Shovel, a SWAT Truck and a Vantom vehicle. Now, these cars only sell for about $1 a piece, but the excitement they put on my daughter’s face was priceless. It reminds me a lot of the promotions from when I was a kid in the 1980s… MANY WILL ENTER, FEW WILL WIN!
I really dig the “Gender-Neutral” vibe put forth by the MATCHBOX team for their 60th Anniversary… openly embracing all kids (girls and boys) and parents (Moms and Dads) in the mix. It would be fantastic if Hot Wheels (also a Mattel brand) would take the same stance and quit marketing themselves as “boys” only… in addition to the massive cars-love being shared here at our house between myself and my daughters (my wife thinks we already have too many cars), I’ve spoken to A TON of parents who also have auto-loving girls. It’s a largely underserved market.
Now… if only we could score that $60,000 College Scholarship… fingers crossed for the Grand Prize Drawing this May…
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