By Claire Reilly

Western Digital, one of Australia’s leading suppliers of hard drives and network storage, has announced a new partnership with Warner Brothers in the lead up to the release of the new Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises.

WD will be offering consumers who purchase selected products from its range more than $180,000 in prizes, including a Deluxe VIP Warner Bros. Studios tour in Los Angeles. All those who purchase an eligible product will also receive an instant-win prize, with double passes to see The Dark Knight Rises as well as a range of Batman-branded merchandise up for grabs.

Speaking about the new promotion, Western Digital’s channel marketing manager for branded products, Dawn Denton, said that it was the perfect way to align the WD brand with a big name in the entertainment industry.

“It ties in well with our target audience,” said Denton. “We’re targeting people who love games, movies, entertainment. Partnering with Warner Brothers really helps us extend our brand – it’s a like-minded partnership.

“We really like to work with brands that can make our brand more relevant,” she added. “We’re bringing out a whole new range with our routers, so it’s about asking how we get consumers to look at us as a serious player in the whole connected home range, rather than just as a hard drive manufacturer."

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Denton said the promotion will also be well supported on the retail level, as a way of driving sales in stores.

“We’re going to have full point of sale and a full consumer promotion, and then we’ll be doing other things across above-the-line advertising, supporting our retailers through all the different media that we’re selecting. Again, it’s really about making it pop on the shelf, and selling more for them [the retailers].”

The promotion runs from 1 July to 30 September 2012, with the major prize drawn on 2 October. Entry into the competition is available to consumers who purchase a product from the following range: My Book, My Passport, My Book Live, My Book Live Duo, WD Livewire, WD TV Live, WD TV Live Hub and the My Net family of home networking products.

Full details can be found on Western Digital’s consumer promotion website.

The promotional poster for Western Digital's new competition.

And check out the awesome trailer for the new film, opening 19 July 2012, here: