Developing an award-winning, sales-lifting, and viewership- driving promotion is a difficult-enough task. Creating a second-year campaign that tops the first effort is even more daunting. 

But the promotions team at Los Angeles-based Saban Entertainment and the Fox Kids Network succeeded with the Intergalactic Encounter, an event tour developed in conjunction with Wal-Mart and Bandai America that not only won awards (including a PMA Reggie), boosted sales, and improved ratings, but also found it's way into the Guinness Book of World Records. 

In 1998, Saban/Fox's Power Rangers in Space Rocket Tour featured a virtual-reality ride that had fans of the Fox Kids' show lining up outside Wal-Mart stores for both the ride and Bandai merchandise. "If we wanted to get everyone excited again this year, we had to go to extremes," says George Leon, Saban's vp-promotions. "We had to make it larger than life." 

That mission was accomplished literally with a 5,000-square-foot inflatable moon bounce that the folks at Guinness christened the World's Largest Inflatable Structure. "We had to do our homework," says Leon. "There was a 40-foot inflatable wall in England that we had to beat." 

The Power Rangers Lost Galaxy Intergalactic Encounter hit 31 Wal-Mart stores for weekend visits last spring, kicking off in March with a ceremonial presentation from Guinness in Miami. The tour was backed by a national on-air sweeps in February offering one child an exclusive party with the entire inflatable set-up and master toy licensee Bandai's full 1999 Power Rangers line. Other divisions including Fox Kids Magazine, foxkids.com, and the Fox Kids Countdown radio show chipped in with various support. "The beauty of a project like this is that it can be embraced by a lot of different divisions," Leon says. 

Bentonville, AK-based Wal-Mart committed to incremental buys of Power Rangers product, a special merchandise boutique for the events, and media support at each stop. Employees wore Power Rangers T-shirts and buttons and handed out bag stuffers. (The chain also agreed to hold a separate trade-incentive program nationally in August). Bandai made radio buys at all stops and TV buys in a few. The company also printed cross-sell brochures for on-site distribution and provided a raft of prizes for the national sweeps as well as local extensions. 

Fox affiliates provided on-air promotions and local events to stir interest. More than 85 percent of the affiliates also sold the event to a third-party sponsor. "We also made sure the tour was big enough to be visible from the highway," notes Leon. 

The results were out of this world. The sixth season of Power Rangers launched with a 10.7 rating overall and a 34 share of the core boys' six-to-11 audience. Fox Kids received a network-record 92,000 entries for the national sweeps, which required kids to watch three straight episodes and mail in clues. 

Out on the road, more than 4,000 consumers turned out each weekend. Bandai sales jumped 400 percent and sales of other licensed product rose 40 percent in each market. The tour again "proved to be a retail and customer success," says Dante Thompson, Wal-Mart marketing manager. 

"Knowing George, I had no doubt that he could top himself this year," says Shin Ueno, vp-marketing at Bandai, Cypress, CA. "We'd definitely like to do something again this year." 

Saban and Fox do, too. So does Wal-Mart, although as of late March Fox hadn't committed to any specific retailer for the next program. 

Whoever and whatever is involved, expect the program to be big. "We're thinking about making the world's largest slide," says Leon. "We've raised the bar, so now we've got to keep going at it." 

Somebody better call Guinness.