By James Wells

SYDNEY: Sunbeam has announced it will be continuing its most successful promotion over the last decade, with the return of Sunny The Bear for the sixth consecutive Christmas sell-through period, after considerable demand from independent small appliance retailers.

Sunny The Bear is distributed to each electrical retailer who can give away the white plush bear to a consumer that has purchased a Sunbeam product and placed an entry into the bin provided.

According to Sunbeam marketing manager – Damian Court, the success of the promotion is based on fundamental features.

"When we conducted our Christmas promotion this year, all of the retailers asked ‘Where’s Sunny?’," Court told Current.com.au.

"It is hard to beat as a promotion as it groups together al of the Sunbeam products as gift ideas.

"Sunny The Bear allows stores to set up a Christmas theme display to dress up the store – it is as much their promotion as it is ours," Court told Current.com.au.

"The promotion also creates a bit of excitement and this year we will be using a Christmas theme with streamers, ribbons and stars to tell the story.

"Sunny allows the store to build loyalty for their own store as it is their prize which is appealing to a broad range of consumers."

The promotion will be rolled out to small appliance retailers from the beginning of October.

"This promotion is embraced by independent specialists particularly as other retailers have in store limitations," Court said.

In previous years, Sunbeam has used different themes for the promotion – Sunny the Christmas Bear, Sunny the Surf Bear, Sunny the Barista Bear and Sunny the Party Bear.

Sunbeam has not confirmed whether Sunny will return for his seventh consecutive Christmas in 2007.