ARCHIVES: This is legacy content from before Marketing Dive acquired Mobile Marketer in early 2017. Some information, such as publication dates, may not have migrated over. Check out the new Marketing Dive site for the latest marketing news.

Rock band Rascal Flatts to promote milk on mobile

Milk does a body good.

That is the precise message that CMA, CMT, AMA and People's Choice-Award-winning, multi-platinum country superstars Rascal Flatts are trying to get across to kids through the Milk Rocks campaign. The campaign is about to go mobile.

"The aim of the campaign is to promote health and nutrition to tweens while giving Rascal Flatts fans a chance to win an opportunity to sing with the band live on stage," said Richard Long, CEO of Milk Media, New York.

In upcoming months, the Milk Rocks campaign will be going mobile, giving kids access to emerging recording artists, celebrity entertainers and pro athletes, free song downloads, posters, streaming videos, ringtones and other giveaways along with exclusive interviews and articles -- all on a handset.

Milk Media will be letting kids upload their own songs, videos, drawings and participate in contests via the mobile phone.

"We will expand into mobile in the next few months, letting kids access the Milk Rocks site right from their handsets," Mr. Long said.

"This is an expansion of our entire program, and it's important because kids are addressing the Web from an on-the-go perspective and we want to be able to connect with them by offering them more content and file sharing from their mobile phones."

The Be a Milk Rockstar grand prize includes a VIP concert exposure where the winner gets to meet the band in his or her very own dressing room backstage. In addition, the winner gets a Gibson Guitar tour bus parked backstage, from where they will host a concert Webcast. After the concert, the lucky winner will also have a meeting with a Lyric Street Records A&R representative.

Starting Mar. 1 fans can register at www.milkrocks.com to pick their favorite of five available Rascal Flatts songs and upload their own video recording of the song, to be voted on by the Milk Rocks online community.

The top 10 vote earners will win the first prize of signed Les Paul Gibson guitars, plus Rascal Flatts CDs and posters autographed by the band.

Milk Media teamed with Evergreen Packaging for the in-school program, with Rascal Flatts milk promotions on the sides of cartons. Evergreen is the producer of almost 90 percent of all school milk cartons.

Rascal Flatts' will also include the band's prerecorded messages to fans explaining the contest rules as well as nutritional facts about milk, which will be displayed online at milkrocks.com and on more than 100 million milk cartons, 40,000-plus school lunchroom posters and at venues prior to the group's concerts. Impressions are expected to reach 1 billion views.

"Milk Media owns Milk Rocks and has been around for six years," Mr. Long said. "We promote health and nutrition to kids on the side of milk cartons. In the last year we came up with new promotional ideas stressing a healthy lifestyle to kids in a way that makes milk cool and we associate it with rock and roll."