Youthography Helps Mattel Celebrate 35 Years of UNO

To celebrate the 35th Anniversary of the UNO card game in Canada, Mattel hired Youthography, North America's leading youth marketing agency, to launch a promotion, procure partnerships and create a promotional micro-site to mark the occasion.

Youthography created partnerships with VIA Rail and East Side Mario's that saw UNO decks distributed on trains and at restaurants for consumers to play. The wheredoyouuno.com promotional micro-site developed by Youthography allowed consumers to play UNO online (a first in the brands history), and asks consumers "Where do you UNO?" with locations that include "On the Train", "At East Side Mario's", "At Home", or "In the Park". Consumers could enter the promotion by visiting wheredoyouuno.com.

Special UNO decks with a metallic 35th Anniversay on-pack sticker and promotional insert driving consumers to the wheredoyouuno.com promotion were given to VIA Rail passengers and were distributed to East Side Mario's restaurants nationally. At East Side Mario's, decks of UNO cards were given to families who ordered from the YOOT menu, communicated via table talkers on all tables in the restaurants nationally. The promotion grand prize included two $4,999.99 VIA travel vouchers, and two $100 gift cards from East Side Mario's. In addition, the UNO promotion was communicated on YTV with a two week campaign driving kids to visit wheredoyouuno.com to play online. The on-air communication included station-produced :15 promotional spots and :30 host mentions.

Youthography managed all aspects of the campaign including promotional Creative and Digital/Interactive work as well securing the promotional partnerships with VIA and East Side Mario's.

"We wanted to play up on the heritage of the brand in its 35th year, but do it in relevant way that would resonate with kids and families in 2006" says Manager, Youth Marketing, Alice Choe. "By creating a Web site that would let you play UNO was such a cool way to do this, and with partnership integration on the micro-site with our promotional partners, VIA and East Side Mario's, we were able to tie our real-world brand experience with the online experience for the length of the campaign. It just really brought UNO to life across the board which is exactly what we were going for."