Sony to repromote Emmy-nominated titles

Studio encouraging retailers to market around awards

By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 7/25/2008

JULY 25 | Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is gearing up to aggressively repromote its Emmy-nominated TV titles, including the first season of Damages, which was released in January.

Sony earned 18 nominations in all, including seven for Damages and five for miniseries Comanche Moon.

“This is our biggest year yet for Emmy nominations,” marketing VP Marc Rashba said.

Sony will sticker new shipments of Damages and fellow Emmy-nominated Rescue Me, TV movie Raisin in the Sun and Comanche Moon. Upcoming Oct. 7 release The Memory Keeper’s Daughter will bow with stickers affixed.

Separately, Lionsgate will sticker new copies of its July 1 release Mad Men, a best drama nominee. HBO Video also will sticker John Adams, and advertise it as the most-nominated program of the year, with 23 nominations.

Immediately after learning about Sony’s 18 total nominations, the studio DVD team started contacting retailers to encourage them to merchandise around the awards. Although retailers have long promoted Academy Award-nominated DVDs, stores have only recently focused on marketing TV DVDs around the Emmys, said Rashba.

“The Emmys really started to make a difference at retail a year or two years ago,” Rashba said. “Some retailers can step up and make this an opportunity. Within hours, our sales reps were on the phone to stores.”

Sony hopes to score dedicated online sections and in-rack areas holding Emmy-nominated series on DVD through the time when the awards are announced in September. Amazon.com is one such retailer with its own Emmy section.

DVD is considered a way to broaden the audiences of series that air on cable networks with limited clearances, such as Damages on FX and Mad Men on AMC.