When the promotion crew at the Minneapolis Star Tribune went in search of an effective consumer promotion to run during this summer's state fair, they merely glanced out their office windows. Across the street, thousands of Minnesota Twins fans lined up early in the morning outside the Metrodome before four games this summer to ensure that they received commemorative bobbleheads of retired Twins stars given away on each of those nights.

The Twins are one of dozens of franchises that have used bobblehead mania to drive significant increases in ticket sales, albeit for only three or four games a season.

But while plenty of teams have jumped on the bobblehead bandwagon, businesses outside of the athletic world have been surprisingly slow to follow. The Star Tribune was one of the first to do so, creating a bobblehead of sports columnist Sid Hartman, a love-him-or-hate-him fixture at the newspaper for more than four decades.

Kate Kelly, the Star Tribune's consumer promotions manager, says the objective in creating the Hartman bobblehead was threefold: generate revenue (they sold for $12.95), drive traffic to the newspaper's state fair booth, and provide readers with a keepsake that will reinforce the Star Tribune brand. "People sort of use us as the information booth at the fair. We wanted to have something different that would give them another reason to come and see us," Kelly says. The Hartman bobblehead was created by Alexander Global Promotions of Bellevue, Wash., which is to bobbleheads what Microsoft is to computer operating systems. President Malcolm Alexander says he's not surprised by the business world's delayed response to the bobblehead craze. "Nothing is ever created by the corporate world," he says. "The corporate market generally follows the sports world."

Besides the Star Tribune, Alexander has created bobbles - he has trademarked the name Bobble Dobbles - for Russell Stover Candies and Pep Boys, as well as one of country music star John Anderson that was commissioned by the WE Fest music festival and used in radio station promotions. He has signed an agreement to be the exclusive bobble supplier for Walt Disney Company and is putting finishing touches on a set of Bobble Dobbles for the Pixar movie "Monsters Inc." scheduled to be released at Thanksgiving.

Business is so good that Alexander hasn't had the time - or desire - to create a catalog, and he intentionally has left his phone number off of his Web site (www.alexanderglobal.com). "There is competition, but there is a lot to be said for being first to the market and a leader in the market," he says. "It's like having the Beanie Babies instead of just a bean bag toy."