Report: Teens and Tweens are abandoning TV

According to Packaged Facts, a new division of Marketresearch.com, teens and Tweens are not all zoned out in front of the tube, making them increasingly difficult to reach via TV advertising:

Almost 80% of the 8- to 14-year-olds, or so-called tweens, "love" television. But that number drops to 60% in 12- to 14-year-olds.

The research points out that the 8-14 audience gets "distracted" by other activities when watching the television. As they get older, other activities take up their interest--such as reading, listening to music, or mostly, surfing the Internet--while watching television. This research has found out what other studies have shown--the young people are masters at multi-tasking.

DVD Sales For First Half of 2005 up 19% over Last Year

According to a report released today by the DVD Entertainment Group, In the first half of 2005, more than 770 million DVDs were shipped to retail outlets - a 19% increase over 2004. DEG further reported that the total number of units shipped since the launch of the DVD format has approached 4.7 billion discs, with over 47,000 different DVD titles now available on the market.

The report also detailed the penetration numbers for DVD players:

Since launch, more than 140 million DVD players, including set-top and portable DVD players, DVD recorders, Home-Theater-in-a-Box systems (HTIB), TV/DVD and DVD/VCR combination players, have sold to consumers, bringing the number of DVD households to 75 million (adjusting for households with more than one player).

Given the industry consensus that DVD is now in it's "mature" phase, these numbers are extremely impressive. However, as I've read recently, anyone who's waited more than seven years to buy a DVD player probably won't be buying a lot of discs, and the falling per-disc pricing may have trained consumers to wait for bargain pricing.


[Via the DVD Entertainment Group]

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]

Fox Execs Make Store Checks to Hone DVD Marketing Efforts

The Los Angeles Times has a great article about how Marketing execs at Fox make frequent store checks to better gauge their merchandising and marketing efforts. The article sheds an interesting light on marketing DVDs in a big box environment:

"Men usually buy two or three, while women walk away with one," observes Mike Dunn, president of the division. "Eye level is not always the optimal position — low is good for kids," adds Simon Swart, who heads up sales.

"The worse the weather, the better for business — unless, of course, it's a blizzard," Senior Vice President Steve Feldstein says.

Here's another bit of wisdom:

In the store, packaging and labeling missteps became obvious. Type positioned too far down could be obstructed by store shelving, Fox executives found. "Long boxes," developed to discourage shoplifting, solved that problem. But after the monotone black was found to be a consumer turnoff, they now get a four-color treatment.

For all of the DVD Marketers out there that can't afford endcap promos, custom displays or even face-out fees, remember to pay attention to your spine -- that's how most smaller retailers get displayed, and its easily overlooked.

Chicago Tribune | Coming soon to a store near you: Fox executives

Movie Marketing Panel Predicts Low Oscar Ratings

Based on the poor box office performance of nominated films, a panel of marketing experts predicts poor ratings for this year's Academy Awards. According to MediaPost:

In his presentation before media and marketing professionals at the first Screenvision Imelda Staunton Insider's Ball, Fred Nelson, vice president for editorial development at Entertainment Magazine, showed a list of movies in the Oscar Best Actress Category and the nominal box office alongside: Annette Bening ("Being Julia"), Catalina Sandino Moreno ("Maria Full of Grace"), ("Vera Drake"), Hilary Swank ("Million Dollar Baby"), and Kate Winslet ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind").

The box office of all the movies barely totaled $75 million--a box office stinker for even one major motion picture, Nelson noted.

The "nomination effect" this year has been minimal, and if these predictions turn out to be true, there will likely be little post-Oscar bounce either.

Marketing Panel Predicts Low Ratings for Oscars

Nielsen Launches Indie Film Market Research Arm NRGi

According to Variety, Nielsen Entertainment Research has launched a new arm called NRGi to focus on market research for the indie film sector. According to Joseph Craig, the freshly-minted NRGi GM:

Craig said the label will service the indie feature sector, from studio specialty arms to standalone players and individual filmmakers.

Craig added that potential clients for his firm will include "all of the arthouse distributors and each of the independent minded mini-majors -- even the filmmakers themselves -- that are trying to figure out what's working and what's not about their films."

Variety.com - NRG into niche tracking

Nielsen Entertainment market research firm NRG that will aim to focus on the indie movie sector.

Survey: Wal-mart Rings 37% of All DVD Sales in the U.S.

Variety reports that the retail giant is a foundation for recent robust DVD sales figures. According to a recent cosumer survey,

Wal-Mart, the "everyday-low-prices" retail juggernaut, today rings up a hefty 37% of all new DVD purchases in the U.S., according to a new survey of video consumers, and easily writes the biggest check to Hollywood every year.

The article notes that Hollywood should be cautious, because each disc sold is a "loss leader":

For now, Wal-Mart and its peers seem OK losing a few bucks on every disc sold. But that may not be the case forever, and invariably Wal-Mart will insist on a wholesale price cut that could eat into those juicy DVD margins at precisely the time overall disc sales start to slow.

Yahoo! News - Wal-Mart crowned DVD king

Report: Internet Drives Interest in Summer Blockbusters

Very interesting press release from Claria, an online behavioral marketing company (You might know them from their "Gator" ewallet product). The company analyzed their 43 millon-strong user base to see what impact online marketing had on three big-budget summer releases...

Here's the meat of the release:

More Moviegoers Skip Theater Lines with Online Ticket Purchases

-- Of the respondents who go to the movies, 24% said that they have
bought movie tickets online.
-- Of the respondents who bought movie tickets online, 71% made a
purchase 1-3 times in the past 6 months.
-- Fandango was the most popular site for movie tickets with 44%
of people saying they have used it to purchase tickets.
Movietickets.com and Moviefone.com followed with 36% and 21%,
respectively.

Online Advertising Increases Movie Buzz

-- 43% of survey respondents had seen a Spiderman 2 ad online,
followed by Harry Potter at 41% and Shrek 2 at 27%.

Film-Related Sites Also Find Success Online

-- Yahoo! Movies was the most popular general movie site among users for
information relating the three summer blockbuster movies. The Shrek 2
Yahoo! movie site captured 30% of total traffic to the top
general movie sites related to the three movie sequels, followed by the

Yahoo! Harry Potter movie site with 29% and finally the
Spiderman 2 Yahoo! movie site capturing 12% of total traffic.
-- 39% of total traffic to the three official movie sites came on
Fridays and Saturdays.
-- Survey respondents cited "watching trailers" as the most popular reason

for visiting official movie sites with 66% of respondents going
online to see the trailer for Harry Potter, 53% for Shrek 2, and
48% for Spiderman 2.

Movie Enthusiasts Are Likely to Purchase Video/DVD

-- Harry Potter movie enthusiasts are most likely to purchase the movie
when it comes out with 48% of respondents saying they will
definitely or probably buy the DVD or video. This number is followed by

41% who cited that they will definitely or probably purchase
Spiderman 2 when it's released and 39% for Shrek 2.
-- Of those who had seen the first or earlier releases of these summer
blockbuster sequels, more than half purchased the movies when they were

released on video or DVD:

* 58% of the respondents who saw Shrek 1 in the theater also
bought it.
* 63% of those who saw one or more earlier Harry Potter
movies, also bought one or more Harry Potter films.
* 56% of those who saw Spiderman 1 in the theater also bought
it.

Other Results Indicate:

-- 39% of total survey respondents go to the movies once or more
every 3-4 weeks.
-- Most respondents plan on seeing the movies within 1-3 weeks of the
movie's release:

* Shrek 2 -- 88% will go within the first three weeks of the
movie's release.
* Spiderman 2 -- 74% will go within the first week and 92%
will go within the first three weeks.
* Harry Potter -- 60% will go within the first few days, 91%
within the first three weeks.

Can I have a Large Pizza and a side of 'Chocolat?'

Flexplay is teaming up with Papa John's Pizza in a test of their ez-D self-destructing DVDs. The discs become unplayable within a predetermined window, making them a cheap commodity perfect for impulse buys.

In addition to the obvious employment of these discs as screeners, I bet somebody comes up with an interactive, time-sensitive contest.

I should take a look at what thriller/crime releases are coming up this fall...

Related Links:

DenverPost.com - Pie-and-a-DVD delivery tests in Denver

The Ultimate Focus Group?

Professor Stephen Quartz and an unnamed "marketing company" are using MRI technology to test the effectiveness of movie trailers. Is this what we can expect for the future of movie marketing, or is it merely a rehash of the 1950s subliminal advertising phenom?

sacbee.com -- Business -- Marketers see riches in brain data