Rocklin Firm Hopes 'Cars' Drives Revenue

ROCKLIN, Calif. (Sacramento Business Journal) – A Rocklin direct mail company has landed a deal with Disney-Pixar's film "Cars" for a cross promotion with thousands of car dealers that could at least double its revenue. The "Cars" promotion could generate $30 million to $40 million in revenue for Intelligent Di-rect Marketing Inc., and will require adding 30 people to its staff of 103, president Jeff Garcia said. He figures this will be the largest promotion Intelligent Direct Marketing has handled since it formed a dozen years ago. More than 6,000 car dealers nationwide may participate in its exclusive cross promotion, with the computer-animated comedy opening in theaters June 9. That would mean up to 30 million people could receive one of Intelligent Direct Marketing's "Cars" marketing pieces. Intelligent Direct started talk-ing with Disney about seven months ago, with the goal of doing "business at a bigger level," Garcia said. It wanted to brand dealers with any Disney movie. "Cars" apparently was the right fit. The Rocklin com-pany had to promise it would encourage its 4,000 regular dealer customers to join the promotion. The average dealer will pay $8,000 to $10,000 to join the "Cars" promotion, depending on the number of pieces mailed. The support materials that will be used at the dealerships are more extensive than the marketer is used to producing, and will cost more. They'll include inflatables, window clings, balloons, posters and cardboard cut-outs on vehicles. Dealers will be able to air the movie trailers on TVs in the showroom and hold giveaway contests for the posters and inflatables. The hook to consumers will be the direct mail offer of two free tickets to "Cars" with a visit to the dealership. The promotion will be more at-tractive to dealers appealing to families for their minivans and sport-utility vehicles, Garcia said. He ex-pects about half of the company's approximately 100 local dealer customers will participate in the "Cars" promotion. A small company in Rocklin getting this opportunity, Garcia said, is "mind blowing." He added, "This is the biggest opportunity that we've ever seen at our company. I'm ecstatic."