Retailers plan promos for September hits
Marketing campaigns to last through the holidays
By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 8/29/2008
AUG. 29 | Retailer marketing will start early and run late for September titles including Paramount Home Entertainment’s Iron Man and Warner Home Video’s Sex and the City.
Key retailers plan to keep the promotional heat on titles through Christmas by promoting them multiple times and offering complementary product deals.
Video Buyers Group members and Newbury Comics are among those expecting to promote some of the early bird titles, such as Sept. 16 Speed Racer, Sept. 23 Sex and the City and Sept. 30 Iron Man, at least twice through the season. The first blitz will come as the titles street, and a second should follow nearer to the holiday shopping period.
“People aren’t used to huge titles coming so early; most are all dumped into November and December,” VBG president Ted Engen said. “We want to do a fairly strong promotion in September and then repromote again in November. We’ll be putting September titles back into the new-release section then. Add in shelf talkers again—we don’t want people to forget that these titles are here.”
Amazon.com kicked off many of its product boutiques for films such as The Dark Knight (www.amazon.com/thedarkknight), Sex and the City (www.amazon.com/sexandthecity) and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (www.amazon.com/indianajones) near the time of the films’ theatrical launches and will continue to promote around them as movies launch on DVD.
Also, a Horton Hears a Who! boutique features an exclusive Jim Carrey clip, which could help satisfy fans who have a relatively long wait between its March big-screen bow and its Dec. 9 DVD debut.
“The goal behind launching boutique stores early is really focused on giving customers an exciting and engaging experience,” Amazon.com spokeswoman Tammy Hovey said. “It’s a chance for them to check out exclusive content, discover and browse other related products that may be of interest to them and get an inside look into the films they want to see.”
In Motion Entertainment, the airport-based media retailer, usually experiences customer slow-down in September as children return to school after summer vacations. To beat any lulls, the retailer will launch a buy one, get one free deal for Sony PlayStation Portable films.
“We want to try to extend people’s summer vacations,” said Eden Goldberg, VP of marketing and business development at In Motion. “And what we can do is focus on some great additional items to supplement” the high-profile releases.
Kansas Blockbuster franchisee chain Major Video will repeat a rental/purchase hybrid deal card the retailer kicked off with last year’s release of 300. With the card, people work toward clocking five rentals so they can purchase the featured title at $14.99 pricing. Major Video will soon roll out a card around Indiana Jones and The Incredible Hulk, spurring repeat foot traffic prior to the titles streeting on Oct. 14 and Oct. 21, respectively.
“In a month, it’s not that hard to get five rentals, and it trains the customer to look at Blockbuster first for these [giant theatrical] titles,” said John Sanders, manager of product and operations at Major Video. “With 300, we outsold what we had initially ordered. People wanted to buy it at that price.”
Retailers don’t seem to mind putting in an extra month’s work of fourth-quarter marketing, believing studios were smart to let the good times roll as long as possible.
“Last year was too crowded of a release slate, and we lost some sales because of it—the titles just didn’t have the legs,” said Steve Torr, director of software purchasing and rental services at In Motion. “Something like Iron Man will have legs all the way through to Black Friday.”
