AMC Offers Money-back guarantee on 'Cinderella Man' Ticket Purchase
According to Reuters, AMC, the #2 movie chain in America, is offering a money-back guarantee for those who purchase tickets to see 'Cinderella Man':
Advertisements offering on-the-spot refunds to AMC patrons unhappy with the film began running on June 24 in newspapers and on the exhibitor's Web site (www.amctheaters.com), AMC spokeswoman Pam Blase said on Tuesday.
The ads, welcomed by the film's distributor, Universal Pictures, say in part: "AMC believes Cinderella Man is one of the finest motion pictures of the year!"
Blase said AMC provides occasional rebates to dissatisfied moviegoers on a case-by-case basis. But the "Cinderella Man" offer marks the exhibitor's first money-back guarantee since "Mystic Pizza," Julia Robert's breakout 1988 film.
The move comes amidst the widespread belief that releasing 'Cinderella Man' as a counter-programming measure was a failed move, and there has been speculation the Universal may try a limited re-release in the fall. This guarantee is an interesting effort to drum up business, particularly because the demographic most receptive to these types of offers is also the same one most likely to be interested in seeing this film. And much like rebates, the redemption levels are, barring aberrations, usually pretty low. AMC isn't releasing any numbers, and so far has just said that the refunds requested have been "minuscule."
[Via Reuters]
Pathe Promos New Horror Film with PlayStation Portable Downloads
According to Netimperative, French film company Pathe is promoting their latest horror flick 'The Descent' by creating special trailers for use on the PlayStation Portable:
Anna Butler, marketing director at Pathe, said: “We wanted to try something new with out trailer downloads, we already commit a substantial amount of work to promoting each film digitally and this seemed like a natural progression.
"PSPs are an exciting development and we wanted to start using this new medium.”
Interactive agency Greenroom Digital helped make the promotion happen, and Pathe will team up with them again in the near future to promote upcoming releases 'The Crash' and 'The Business.'
You can download the trailer here if you happen to have a PSP and want to see it.
[ Via Netimperative]
Anchor Bay Joins Growing List of UMD Distributors
According to Home Media Retailing, Anchor Bay Entertainment will become the latest indie retailer to release titles for the UMD format:
Anchor Bay, known chiefly for its large library of horror films, will begin its rollout Aug. 23 with six titles on the Universal Media Disc (UMD) format: Halloween, Evil Dead, Time Bandits, Blood the Last Vampire, Ghost in the Shell and Ninja Scroll. Each title will be priced at $19.98.
Ray Gagnon, SVP of sales for Anchor Bay, says all six films appeal primarily to PSP’s target young-male demographic. He said Anchor Bay was prompted to take the plunge because there’s so much support among big retailers.
Based on their release slate, Anchor Bay's approach looks like it will initially focus on proven back catalog titles, as opposed to new releases.
Every major distributor besides Warner is now on board, with over 100 titles available by the holiday shopping season. PSPs will likely be a hot commodity this christmas, which may be what prompts the smaller retailers currently on the sidelines into the game (especially in the Anime arena).
[Via Home Media Retailing]
Fox to Bow DVD premiere of 'Family Guy' Movie with Massive Marketing Push
According to Video Business, Fox announced this week that they will launch a DVD premiere for their 'Family Guy' franchise titled 'Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story!' on September 27th, and will back it with a massive marketing campaign:
In addition to synergy cross-promotions across most Fox broadcast and media outlets and licensing units, the studio's multi-million dollar marketing campaign on the title will include national print and television advertising and a major grassroots college campaign targeting co-eds at bars, clubs, fraternity parties and via special screening events.
If you're wondering why Fox is pushing the title so aggressively, it because the 'Family Guy' franchise has been enormously lucrative -- Having sold-through over 1.35 million units, the franchise is second only 'The Chapelle Show' in units sold, but because of the set's higher SRP is more profitable.
If anyone knows who Fox's college marketing partner will be, please send us an email.
[Via Video Business Online]
Wrap-up: Movie Marketing and the Star Power Conference
Brandweek has a nice wrap-up on last week's Star Power Conference. For those of you not in the know, the conference, hosted by the Promotion Marketing Association, helps studio marketing execs meet-up with potential marketing partners. Some key points include:
- Mobile marketing to reach the 18-34 segment -- as we all know, reaching this market has become increasingly difficult with the fractured ad landscape. Companies like Fox and Warner Bros. have been using mobile marketing to reach this market with some success, but the main caveat is that the telecoms are still trying to figure out their business models.
- Shrinking DVD windows -- This has been a hot-button issue as of late, and the studios have been shuffling around their marketing teams to optimize joint efforts.
- Product placement overkill -- to better optimize efforts, companies like Universal are setting caps on promotional partners for titles, especially after the 'Cat in the Hat' promotional partner overkill in 2003.
[Via Brandweek]
Warner Brothers promotes 'Batman Begins' with Yahoo Takeover Ads
Warner Brothers has purchased massive takeover ads on the Yahoo homepage, which includes heavy flash animated bats and sound effects. If anyone else spots a major 'Batman Begins' online ad buy, post where you saw it as a comment.
[Thanks to Adrants]
British Online Renter Video Island to Boost Marketing Spend
After securing £15 million in venture capital, upstart British online DVD rental company Video Island announced a £6 million increase in marketing spending:
Saul Klein, chief executive of Video Island, said that the majority of the £6m marketing push would be spent within the context of its partnerships, which include companies such as Boots, Currys and Times Newspapers.
The company, which also owns ScreenSelect, said it would look at testing other forms of above-the-line advertising, including television. It has already run some radio, outdoor and print advertising, created in house, but Klein said the focus would remain on performance-based advertising and partner marketing.
Video Island is the biggest online rental service in Europe, with a selection of over 33,000 titles. The company recently partnered with ITV and MSN UK to offer co-branded rental services.
[Via Digital Bulletin]
'Revenge of the Sith' Drives Jump in Online Ticket Sales
 According to a comScore Media Metrix press release, the release of 'Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith' was a huge boon for websites selling movie tickets:
Star Wars fanatics turned to the Web in droves to secure quickly selling tickets. Nearly all of the top ticket merchants saw increases compared to last May. Category leader Moviefone, which was partnered with StarWars.com, drew 15.3 million visitors, an increase of 29 percent compared to a year ago. With 12.5 million visitors, Yahoo! Movies jumped 26 percent compared to last year, while Fandango.com and MovieTickets.com were up 65 and 75 percent, respectively.
With more pressure on movie marketers to measure ROI, expect to see a greater emphasis on measurable actions like online ticket sales. We also wouldn't be surprised if a "premium seating" or "assigned seating" trend emerges to further drive pre-sales.
[Via Yahoo! Business]
The Backlash Against So-called "Special Edition" DVDs Continues
We discussed consumer weariness over "double-dipping" last week, and it looks like the repackaging jig will soon be up. Tom Maurstad of the Dallas Morning News notes how the 'Jaws' 30th Anniversary Edition is really just the same old pig with new lipstick:
And then there's the anniversary package that takes a great movie and turns it into an exercise in mediocre repackaging. Which brings us to the 30th anniversary edition of Jaws. It comes with a handsome commemorative photo journal and a second-disc of special features. The only trouble is that it was just five short years ago that the 25th anniversary edition of Jaws was released, with nearly all the material included in this "new" package.
As a marketing gambit, it's a success. It got the lead-review treatment in USA Today and Entertainment Weekly and video clips on all the cable-news channels' entertainment segments. But as a consumer product, it's just a flashy but pointless package. If you don't own Jaws, then this is the cutting-edge edition for you. But there's nothing here worth buying that wasn't there five years ago.
Maurstad also lambastes the laughably-titled 'Father of the Bride: 15th Anniversary Edition' as a pointless exercise. Guess its time for Hollywood movie marketers to relearn how to create customer value:
1. Discover and quantify the customer's needs.
2. Make a commitment to impact your customers.
3. Create meaningful and understandable customer value.
4. Assess how you did.
5. Improve your value package.
One only has to look at the music industry to see what happens when you ignore customers who are clamoring for value in the name of short-term profitability -- they create their own value, with or without you.
[Via kvue.com (registration required)]
Poll: Audiences Prefer Watching Movies at Home
According to an AP-AOL Poll, 73 percent of adults said that they prefer watching movies at home on DVD and VOD over going to the theater. One portion of the poll doesn't bode well for this summer's theatrical prospects:
Just 22 percent said they would rather see films in a theater, according to the poll conducted by Ipsos for The Associated Press and AOL News. One-fourth said they had not been to a movie theater in the past year.
However, rather than take the same "sky is falling" approach to this year's lackluster box office as we've seen in other media outlets, the AP explores the notion that perhaps the poor attendence so far this year is merely product-driven:
"I think this slump is product-driven," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations. "That to me is a much less chilling problem than some sort of cultural shift in people's moviegoing habits. A cultural shift takes longer than 16 weekends of down box office."
Box office revenues have been down every weekend since late February. "Batman Begins," which opened Wednesday, could snap the streak this weekend. But if business is off again, Hollywood would match a 1985 downturn of 17 weekends, the longest recorded slump since analysts began keeping detailed box-office figures.
The 1985 slide came with similar dire predictions that movies on videocassette would devastate the theater business, Dergarabedian said. Box-office grosses were stagnant into the late 1980s, then rebounded strongly.
In the 1950s, some analysts foresaw the demise of movie theaters as people stayed home to watch television. While business plummeted from 4 billion or more admissions a year in Hollywood's glory days, movies remained a prime entertainment choice.
One interesting thing from the poll they mentioned was that DVD users, downloaders and gamers are more frequent moviegoers than the rest of the population. This young, male and tech-savvy audience is the veritable sweet spot of movie marketing, and coming up with initiatives that feed this symbiosis will become even more important than it already is now.
[AP Wire via Kansas.com]
NY Post Distributes Free 'Batman Begins' Comic Book
Fast Company alerted us to another Batman Begins promo and giveaway -- basically, the New York Post is giving away free copies of a special 'Batman' comic book with each newspaper. As Warner Bros. parent company Time Warner owns D.C. Comics, this isn't surprising. Fast Company notes that there's a saturation level of outdoor advertising on the streets of Gotham, and we're battening down the hatches for the maelstrom of 'Batman Begins' TV ads this week.
Seems that the MSM has pegged Batman as the last hope for a decent theatrical take at the box office this season. If the early reviews are any indication, that won't be a problem.
[Via Fast Company Now]
Product Placement Firm Auctions Movie Placement Spot on eBay
Film Rotation points out that product placement company Movie Placement is auctioning off a product spot in a $30 million Liam Neeson movie. The starting bid is $24,999. Here's some of their eBay ad:
MoviePlacement.com was recently contacted by the producers of a upcoming Liam Neeson movie. Set to have a $30 Million USD+ budget. I will be in L.A. next week to discuss closing product placement deals for this film. If you have a product, service, or logo, we can get you in this film. Set to start filming in September 2005.
Note: No tobacco products will be accepted. Your product or service must have been available in the 1980's to qualify.
Okay -- I was scared that it was for the Abe Lincoln movie for a second...
[Thanks to Chris at Adjab]
UK Cinema Chains to Promote New Releases via Wireless
According to Media Week, UK Cinema chains UCI and Odeon will being giving away a "digital entertainment pack" with every movie ticket sold. The pack will give consumers access to movie content via WAP:
Duncan Cheadle, sales director of Urban Mobile, said: “We're beta testing a new service where customers will be sent a message containing a video preview of a new film, from which they can visit the WAP site.
“Demand for mobile entertainment is set to explode over the next two years and UCI and Odeon recognised that here is a great opportunity to market to customers, with information they want in a format they want it.”
With the next generation of video-enabled phones on the way, users will soon be craving content - we should be getting a blizzard of announcements like these over the next 18 months. The implications for movie marketers is clear -- video previews and trailers will be a popular entertainment choice for mobile video consumers.
[Via Media Week]
Dreamworks Animation to Release Movies for Nintendo Gameboy
Dreamworks announced that they will be releasing their animated titles for the Gameboy Advanced in a pact with New Jersey-based Majesco:
Majesco will release the toon studio's Shrek, Shrek 2 and Shark Tale later this summer in its proprietary Game Boy Video format with a price expected around $20.
The game publisher has in the past year released TV content from Nickelodeon, Disney and Cartoon Network, but didn't have the capacity to put a full feature film on one Game Boy cartridge.
Majesco is hard at work improving the unnamed format, and feature films, though unannounced, are planned. The article doesn't mention if Dreamworks will forgo releasing UMD titles.
[ via Video Business Online]
Breaking News: Warner Brothers Preempts Chinese DVD Pirates
According to the Los Angeles Times, Warner Brothers released 'The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants' on DVD in China the same day it appeared in North American theaters:
...several industry executives said they believed it was the first time a major U.S. studio had taken a movie scheduled for a wide-scale theatrical run and released it simultaneously on DVD in another country.
"It's a necessary move," said movie industry analyst Tom Adams of Adams Media Research. "It's obviously not as good as having control of the Chinese market, but it's about the next best thing that you can do."
The move comes during a recent debate over DVD release windows here in the United States. Another recent experiment in the Chinese market, which is widely known as a bootleggers paradise, included Sony's svelte 45-day release window for 'Kung Fu Hustle', which resulted in an impressive 2 million copies sold.
[Via the Los Angeles Times]
Wolfe Video to Integrate Ads into DVD Releases
According to Video Business, specialty DVD Distributor Wolfe Video has added advertisements for online contests on two of their upcoming releases:
With upcoming titles Brother to Brother (June 14) and Producing Adults (July 19), Wolfe has placed Web site addresses on each menu screen promoting contest giveaways. Consumers can plus those addresses into a computer to go online and fill out entry forms to win a Wolfe gift certificate on Brother to Brother or a Dell Computers Pocket DJ MP3 player on Producing Adults.
This test contest is being administered by DVD Spotlight, a California-based tech company. If there is demand, Wolfe would eventually like to make the links "live" for viewing on a computer.
Wolfe hopes to attract advertisers interested in reaching Wolfe's largely affluent gay and lesbian consumer base. If the test is successful, the company hopes to sell up to six ad slots per disc.
While these links are a form of "passive" advertising, is cluttering up the DVD menus with "free iPod" ads a smart move? If their customer base is upscale, perhaps they should be focusing on developing a "luxury" line of DVDs like Criterion. Because in reality, the reach you'll likely get from these on-disc ads will be limited. Consider this: a niche, gay-themed DVD release will probably ship a maximum of 15-20K units to wholesale. Sell-through will probably equal 30-40% over the first year, equaling 4-6K units in the hands of consumers. If even 50% of those people actually write down the URL, sit through and ad, and then enter the contest, that would only be 2-3K ads viewed over the course of a year. Now granted, with the aggregate of several releases you may have something, but you could probably do better just by buying PPC ads on Google. Perhaps it would work on mass market releases geared towards the 18-35 set - what do you think?
[Via Video Business]
DVD Marketing Tactics: Using the 'Unrated' Moniker
We all know that sex sells, and in the world of DVD marketing, focusing on a title's more salacious elements has become extremely profitable. One of the most effective ways of doing this has been the marketing of 'unrated' editions of theatrical releases. According to a recent Los Angeles Times article on the subject, these unrated versions are like heroin to the male 18-35 set:
With the exception of the word `free,' `unrated' is one of the most enticing words in retail," said Thomas Lesinski, president of Paramount Pictures Worldwide Home Entertainment, which released the unrated Team America, an anti-terrorism satire from South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. "It suggests something clandestine or taboo."
According to data compiled by Santa Ana, Calif.-based Home Media Research, unrated versions of DVDs account for 80 percent to 90 percent of a title's sales when both versions come out simultaneously. Others say the figure is closer to 65 percent -- still a windfall.
In the past, the studios were including scenes that had to be cut for MPAA ratings. Now, they deliberately shoot scenes for the unrated versions:
"We sit down with the filmmaker in the script phase, figuring out if we can shoot additional scenes that won't make the cut. One of those shot for the unrated version of American Wedding -- the third in the American Pie franchise -- "was so great they actually put it in the movie."
The trick, studio executives said, is to differentiate unrated DVDs enough from the original to boost sales but not so much that it alienates the fan base.
Note to indie marketers: The studios have co-opted your "unrated" cred! Use the massive DVD marketing budgets building awareness for "unrated" editions to your advantage -- if you've got a title with racy scenes, you should be including an "unrated version" cap on all of your DVDs and sellsheets!
[Via Southflorida.com]
James Dean Festival a Marketing Flop for Warner Brothers
Originally anticipating up to 100,000 visitors per day, the James Dean Festival should have been a coup for the Warner Brothers marketing team. The reality is a much bleaker picture: preliminary attendance figures show only 6,000 showing up over three days. This poor attendance, combined with losses stemming from damages incurred during severe weather, have cost Warner Brothers a good sum for what was probably the most expensive DVD release party on record:
Warner Bros. Studios lost an estimated $75,000 on the festival, said Brian Jamieson, the studio's vice president of worldwide marketing and international projects.
He said Rocco Productions, which the studio hired to promote and produce the three-day festival, lost at least $1 million - and possibly as much as $1.3 million - on the festival.
Warner Bros. paid to bring in a 100-foot-wide movie screen and high-tech digital projection equipment to show Dean's three motion pictures, Jamieson said.
That $75,000 figure is probably way off. It's hard to tell from the article, but our guess is that Warner Bros. may have some sort of contractual obligation to share in Rocco Production's losses, making this one costly promotional event if that's the case.
[Via the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette]
Fandango and IMAX Launch Co-branded Portal
According to a joint press release, online ticketer Fandango has partnered with the IMAX Corporation (Nasdaq: IMAX) by creating a co-branded portal showcasing IMAX theaters. According to the release:
The IMAX portal on Fandango's web site will be a one-stop destination for IMAX fans to discover movies playing at IMAX theatres in North America and will provide consumers with a seamless way to purchase tickets to select IMAX theatres. The portal is the latest advancement in the strategic Fandango-IMAX marketing partnership, first announced on December 9, 2004.
This is good timing for both parties, with demand for IMAX versions of summer blockbusters heating up. Fandango's user base is a great match for IMAX's premium version of the theater-going experience. This is just one more reason we expect IMAX to have one of their biggest summers on record.
[Via dBusinessNews]
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