Foster's to go Down Under for millennium

Foster's has announced details of this year's big promotion which will see more than 300 drinkers spend two weeks in Australia.

The holidays will include five days in Sydney to see in the new millennium.

Fostralia 2000 is part of Scottish Courage's £25million marketing investment in its top-selling lager and will run between March and May in 10,000 on-trade outlets in the UK.

The competition will run with scratchcards. Customers will get a card with each purchase of a Foster's product and have to answer a simple question relating to Australia.

Each outlet will be given some instant prizes and a correct answer to the question could see the drinker walk away with a trendy T-shirt or wallet from top surf-clothing brand Rip Curl.

Alternatively, the customer may win entry to the Fostralia draw which involves sending the scratchcard to a freepost address.

Scottish & Newcastle managed houses will be running a slightly different promotion based around a quiz night.

As well as the on-trade promotion, there will be a number of tickets available through off-trade outlets and the event will be supported by a series of competitions on local radio and in magazines.

The radio promotions include sending Capital Radio's Chris Tarrant to broadcast from Australia for a week. Virgin will be running a competition involving Rolf Harris playing Name that Tune on a stylophone.

The complete holiday package for the winners will be five nights in Sydney including a party on New Year's Eve at one of the city's top restaurants, followed by 10 nights on the Gold Coast.

Foster's marketing manager John Botia said: "We anticipate massive nationwide consumer interest in the promotion which will, in turn, lead to increased traffic and throughput in Foster's outlets. "The size and stature of the promotion and the Foster's brands gives licensees the opportunity to create additional business-building events around the Fostralia 2000 theme."