PLANO, Texas, Feb. 25, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- PepsiCo's Frito-Lay North America division and Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI), today announced a promotion that brings fans the ultimate way to get involved in the award-winning Skylanders® franchise. For the first time ever, Frito-Lay and Activision are providing fans with the unique opportunity to choose and name a new hero that will appear in the next Skylanders game slated for release in 2014. In addition to naming honors, the winner will receive a $100,000 scholarship. For more details and official rules, visit www.fritolay.com/skylanders.
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"This is the third consecutive year Frito-Lay has partnered with Activision to bring fans a whole new way to experience Skylanders, while bringing added fun to the snack aisle," said Ram Krishnan, vice president of marketing, Frito-Lay. "This time around, we're taking our collaboration to a new level. We can't wait to see all the creative names families come up with."
Between now and March 21, 2014, fans 18 years and older can visit www.fritolay.com/skylanders to select one of three potential heroes they want to see come to life in the next Skylanders game. Once their Skylanders selection is made, contestants then submit a suggested name and a 200-character or less inspiration for the name they chose.
In May, one fan-created name for each of the three potential heroes will be selected by a panel of judges from Activision and Frito-Lay, and announced as finalists. Fans 13 years and older will be invited to vote online for the hero they want to see debuted in the next Skylanders game. Later this year, the winning hero will be revealed and the fan behind the creation of the hero's name will be awarded a $100,000 scholarship. The winning name submission will also become the official name for that Skylanders hero and will appear in a variety of places such as on Skylanders packaging and even in the Skylanders game.
To celebrate the promotion, specially marked Frito-Lay variety packs, available for purchase while supplies last at participating retail stores nationwide, will include coupons for select Skylanders products and details on the entry and voting phases of the promotion. This spring, variety packs will include a $5 off coupon for a Skylanders SWAP Force™ Starter Pack.
Frito-Lay Classic Mix and Flavor Mix 20-count variety packs contain America's favorite snacks in convenient one-ounce servings: including Lay's potato chips, SunChips multigrain snacks, Doritos tortilla chips, Cheetos cheese flavored snacks and Fritos corn chips. To unleash excitement at snack time, Frito-Lay and Skylanders join forces to help families create fun and special family moments.
About Frito-Lay North America
Frito-Lay North America is the $13 billion convenient foods business unit of PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP), which is headquartered in Purchase, NY. Learn more about Frito-Lay at the corporate website, http://www.fritolay.com, the Snack Chat blog, http://www.snacks.com, and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/fritolay.
About PepsiCo
PepsiCo is a global food and beverage leader with net revenues of more than $65 billion and a product portfolio that includes 22 brands that generate more than $1 billion each in annual retail sales. Our main businesses – Quaker, Tropicana, Gatorade, Frito-Lay and Pepsi-Cola – make hundreds of enjoyable foods and beverages that are loved throughout the world. PepsiCo's people are united by our unique commitment to sustainable growth by investing in a healthier future for people and our planet, which we believe also means a more successful future for PepsiCo. We call this commitment Performance with Purpose: PepsiCo's promise to provide a wide range of foods and beverages from treats to healthy eats; to find innovative ways to minimize our impact on the environment by conserving energy and water and reducing packaging volume; to provide a great workplace for our associates; and to respect, support and invest in the local communities where we operate. For more information, please visit www.pepsico.com.
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About the Skylanders® Franchise
The award-winning, $2 billion Skylanders franchise pioneered the toys-to-life category in 2011 with the debut of Skylanders Spyro's Adventure®. The game originated a new play pattern that seamlessly bridged physical and virtual worlds across multiple platforms and became the top-selling kids' videogame of the year. In October 2012, Skylanders Giants™ further evolved the genre and added the mega-sized Giant Skylanders and LightCore® characters to the collection of interaction figures. Skylanders Giants was awarded the "e-Connected Toy of the Year" at the 13th Annual Toy of the Year (TOTY) Awards. The franchise's latest innovation, Skylanders SWAP Force™, launched in October 2013 and introduced an all new play pattern – swapability. The game was developed by Vicarious Visions and is rated E10+ by the ESRB. For more information, please visit: www.skylanders.com and Activision.com/presscenter.
About Activision Publishing
Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Publishing, Inc. is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and leisure products. Activision maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Singapore, mainland China, Hong Kong and the region of Taiwan. More information about Activision and its products can be found on the company's website, www.activision.com.
© 2014 Activision Publishing, Inc., SKYLANDERS, SKYLANDERS SWAP FORCE, SKYLANDERS GIANTS, SKYLANDERS SPYRO'S ADVENTURE, LIGHTCORE, and ACTIVISION are trademarks of Activision Publishing, Inc.
SOURCE Frito-Lay North America