Oct 1, 2005 12:00 PM, Patricia Odell

PepsiCo is putting a new spin on its in-theater movie trivia program by adding visual content via a marketing partnership with Screenlife LLC, the creator of Scene It? The DVD Game.

Scene It?, the No. 1 selling board game in the U.S., is a combination traditional board game paired with visual content from a DVD. Players answer questions based on visual puzzles and clips from the DVD or game cards as they move around the board. The 12 different versions of the game are focused around movies, television, sports and music.

“It enables people to have classic social fun sitting around with friends and family playing a board game, but adds an interactive and visual element,” says Carl Weinstein, CMO at Screenlife in Seattle, WA. “And it's those visual puzzles that have differentiated Scene It? from other board games.”

That fun has been translated to about 10,000 movie screens at theaters across the U.S. and Canada where PepsiCo beverages are poured. Moviegoers view co-branded slides shown on-screen before the movies begin. The slides show images or clips from popular movies and ask such questions as, “In 1974's The Longest Yard, who played Paul ‘Recking’ Crewe, the role Adam Sandler plays in 2005?” or “Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson of The Wedding Crashers appeared together in what 2004 comedy?”

About 18 different trivia slides are rotated and the content is refreshed every few months.

“[The program] is about the exposure and awareness and strengthening our ties to the theater industry and to Hollywood,” says Alysia Margiloff, senior marketing manager, PepsiCo Food Service.

PepsiCo's longtime promotional partner TracyLocke in Wilton, CT, put the deal together, which is set to run through 2006. Tests began several months ago in select theaters and the program recently rolled out nationwide. PepsiCo began its in-theater trivia program in May.

Margiloff says that a national in-theater concession-based holiday program tying to the Scene It? partnership will run Nov. 18 through Jan. 6. More than 1 million cups and game cards with codes will offer consumers the chance to win one of 1,000 Scene It? games. A Web site, Pepsibiggift.com has been dedicated to the promotion.

Scene It? went to market in 2002 inventing the DVD game category, Weinsten says. It is now produced in five different languages and sold in 14 countries in 40,000 retail stores worldwide.

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