By Martin Vedris

SYDNEY: Canon is offering consumers the chance to win $20,000 in cash, a family adventure holiday to Australia’s Red Centre or a special ‘red carpet’ premiere luxury holiday in Sydney, as well as thousands of dollars in bonus gifts.

It is called the Canon Big Red promotion and Canon Australia says it is it’s biggest ever in-store promotion to date.

Between 15 October and 31 January2009, consumers buying eligible Canon cameras or printers can enter the Canon Big Red sweepstakes draw to win:

In addition to the chance to win one of the three grand prizes, the program is offering thousands of bonus gifts valued up to $100. To enter the sweepstakes and claim their free gift, consumers who buy qualifying Canon products need to go online to www.canon.com.au/bigred and follow the prompts.

“With Canon Big Red we aim to excite consumers and resellers in the crucial pre-Christmas period with a promotion that makes everyone a winner,” said Canon Australia assistant general manager, Marketing, Consumer Imaging Products Group, Darren Ryan.

“We’re investing heavily to ensure that consumers of Canon cameras and printers receive real added value with each purchase as well as the chance to win a Big Red grand prize. This is a great opportunity for our resellers to drive sales and we’ve developed our biggest ever suite of point-of-sale materials to help ensure in-store excitement this Christmas.”

In addition, Canon has partnered with high-profile Australian fashion designer Peter Morrissey to design a unique limited edition case for the IXUS 980 IS and IXUS 870 IS compact digital cameras.

Canon has also enlisted Crumpler to offer a special bag for Canon’s EOS digital SLR cameras. The Crumpler bags will feature the EOS logo.

“Canon’s Big Red campaign is an example of our value-adding strategy,” said Ryan.

“We are constantly looking for ways to inspire and engage consumers by offering them real added value, which then adds value to the category.

“We’re happy with the results we’re seeing for us and our resellers and expect Canon Big Red to continue the success.”