The New York Times
Monday, October 01, 2012
A Gnome Is Home, but More Travel Beckons
By STUART ELLIOTT
A PERIPATETIC brand character has returned home before heading out on the road again.
The character is the talking garden gnome that has appeared since 2004 in advertising for the online travel agency Travelocity. It is known as the Roaming Gnome because, according to the character’s back story, it left the garden for good eight years ago in favor of the traveling life.
The brand mascot is the star of a campaign for Travelocity that began on Sunday with commercials during, appropriately enough, the reality competition series “The Amazing Race.” The campaign is to continue this week with a two-day event in Madison Square Park in Manhattan arranged in cooperation with NYC & Company, the marketing organization for the City of New York.
The centerpiece of the campaign is a contest, open to travelers ages 21 and older, with a grand prize of a trip around the world for two valued at $65,000 and a chance to appear in a Travelocity commercial. Consumers will be asked to produce video clips up to 60 seconds long and submit them to a Web site created for the contest to explain why they ought to be chosen to win.
The idea behind the contest is that just as the gnome was “nabbed” from the garden in 2004 to begin roaming, the winner will be taken from his or her hometown for the trip. That is underlined by the address of the special Web site, gnomenabbed.com, and the name of the contest, the Great Gnome Nabbing.
For more, visit www.nytimes.com.
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