Mattel Pixar Diecast CARS: The UK Poster & Promotions
Jon in the UK was kind enough to send us a scan of the new poster from the UK CARS magazine - along with the latest UK promotional offer of BUY 6, send in UPC’s and get a free CAR:
Or log onto www.carstoys.co.uk for more details - though strangely, nothing is up yet, guess they figure if the magazine just went on sale … it’s a repeat of the last promotions - buy 1, get a book, buy six, get a free CAR - logically, it would be Sidewall Shine, N20 Cola or Faux Wheel Drive (other CARS offered in promotions around EU/US) but it’s a mystery like last year’s car for a while.
Here’s what the magazine looks like, this is issue #6 …
Jon was also kind enough to fill us in on the what’s normally inside …
“Anyway, it’s a young kid’s magazine / comic that comes out every month. Every issue you get 9 Cars Top Trump cards, these are quite handy for finding out the names of some of the more obscure Cars! It contains comic stories, colouring pages, puzzles, adverts for Cars toys, posters.
Each month they take one character to feature prominently and make the stories feature that character. They also have a brief overview of the real-life car it is based on and there is a page teaching you how to draw that character. It is really for youngsters so it is all quite basic, but it’s still fun! You also get a free gift each month.
This month’s issue is based on Red, you get a free collector Cars poster, the Top Trump cards and a plastic lightyear tyre spinning top thing! So if you do want one let me know!
A similar magazine comes out in Italy. When I was on holiday in Sicily I bought one. This came with the trump cards too and a plastic Doc Car, but the best bit was 4 large printed cardboard panels that you could fold and build into 4 of the buildings from Radiator Springs!”
While there is/was a US CARS magazine (for kids) at Walmart recently, it’s hard to tell if it’s an ongoing venture or a one shot deal …
In case you’re wondering why more US magazines don’t offer things like posters or trading cards or any freebie (as was offered in previous issues of this mag) … the reasons are:
- US Market just too massive (most other countries, 2-5 cities will cover all the most important cities). Costs just too high.
- US cities do not usually offer centralized newsstands so most mag sales are either subscriptions or in grocery/chain stores where placement costs money.
- US mags can give away items but those issues with “free” items are not counted as part of circulation so there’s not much incentive to ‘artificially’ boost sales.
British mags are pretty amazing. I’ve seen giveaways that range from full DVD movies to scarves to socks … yea, you can almost be outfitted by just buying some mags 
… but then again, some mags cost £15.
Thanks for the pics and recap, Jon!
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metroxing
17 October 2008
Advertising, CARS, Financial, Magazine, Marketing, Mattel Disney Pixar CARS, Retail, TV, Toys, collecting, comics, diecast
22 Comments
The poster is pretty neat!
[Reply]
17 October 2008 at 2:29 pm