FOOD

Chex Quest/USA Even the hardened promotion pros who served as World PRO Award judges scratched their heads in wonder over how Ralston Purina could afford to pack CD-ROM games worth $30 apiece at retail into 5.7 million packages of Chex cereal. It was clear that Ralston got America Online - which piggybacked a startup offer of 50 free hours on the disk - to pick up the duplication bill. But what about the software development? This was a high-quality-graphic, five-level computer game on a par with Doom, one of the top-selling CD-ROM games of '97.

In fact, it was Doom.

Ralston's Minneapolis-based promo agency, Waters-Molitor, approached Id Software, makers of Doom, and asked if they could license the game codes for Chex Quest. They agreed, and Ralston had a killer game at a fraction of the cost of a custom program. The agency created its own non-violent game theme and graphics around the codes, with flying Chex waffles instead of bullets, and the cereal category's highest-perceived-quality premium was born.

"It's the first time anybody ever licensed the codes to a top game," says agency principal Dori Molitor. "It was very cost-effective." The hit to the client was less than 50 cents apiece.

And Ralston did indeed do a deal with AOL. "We went and showed them our demographic target - upscale families with kids at home - and they overlapped AOL's perfectly," says Molitor.

Ralston (which was acquired by General Mills as the promotion took wing) spared no expense getting the word out on its truly special offer. Front and back panels on cereal boxes flagged both the CD-ROM and the AOL offer inside. A 30-second TV spot, an FSI drop, in-store floor signage, and pr completed the blitz.

Game players were also directed to the chexquest.com Web site, where they could download a Chex Quest 2 sequel. You had to have the original CD-ROM to transfer the sequel, so the site turned into a rare, for the Web, for-customers-only site.

Though Chex are full of holes, this premium offer wasn't, and neither were the results. Chex incremental volume increased 295 percent over the year-earlier period, and the brand - already among the top 10 in the cereal aisle - experienced a whopping 48 percent increase in volume share.

Even better, Chex Quest is a promo that keeps on working, as long as players play the game. "It dimensionalized the brand," says Molitor, noting that the game theme is built around the Chex equity and product shape.

It's a breakfast marketing story so good, you could make it into a serial.

Sorry.