Mar 23, 2007 6:03 AM, PROMO Xtra, By Betsy Spethmann

Teen and tween girls meet Nancy Drew this summer.

Warner Bros. has begun planting clues for two promotions behind its summer film Nancy Drew.

Its promotional partners, AOL and Cotton Inc., will each host a separate promotion targeting teen and tween girls.

AOL’s contest uses instant-messaging to let kids play detective for a chance to win a grand-prize trip to New York City for Seventeen Magazine’s Fashion Week event.

Kids register at AOLMobile.com to get a new clue each week via AIM, AOL’s instant-messaging service. The final clue of the case appears in the film itself, which premieres June 15 and stars Emma Roberts and Tate Donovan.

AOL’s contest will run on a dedicated microsite; AOL will support the campaign with ads online, in print and in catalogs targeting teen and tween girls; e-mail; postcards in theaters; and by offering a Nancy Drew BOT on AIM for users to add to their messages.

Separately, Cotton Inc. will host a mall tour that will visit General Growth Properties malls in 15 markets. A replica of the film’s Draycott Mansion serves as the centerpiece of mall events; a “Nancy Drew and the Cotton Caper” activity sends kids throughout the mall to follow clues—and collect prizes and discounts from mall stores.

The tie-in with Nancy Drew extends a “Mystery Fabric” online effort that Cotton Inc. began in October, launching with a tongue-in-cheek Web site MysteryFabric.com that bemoans the trouble caused by unknown, non-cotton fabrics.

The film will introduce a new generation to a character that first appeared in Carolyn Keene’s series of novels 76 years ago. One thing has changed since Drew’s debut as a teenaged sleuth: “Kids today don’t know what ‘sleuth’ means,” said Mimi Slavin, Warner Bros. senior vice president of national promotions, who spoke about the film at the Promotion Marketing Association conference yesterday. “We had to avoid using the word in marketing materials.”

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