Fox Teams up with the USO for 'Patton' DVD Relaunch

According to a company press release, 20th Century Fox will donate a portion of their total sales from 'Patton' and 25 other upcoming war classics DVDs to the USO:

The DVDs will arrive in stores nationwide on July 26 with fifty cents of each DVD's purchase price donated to the USO, with the donation totaling up to $150,000. Each DVD will also carry a "Support Our Troops" sticker on package. In addition, copies of each movie will be distributed to the USO's 121 centers worldwide.

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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]

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)]

Insight Into the Studio's Online Marketing Processes

Chris Thilk has posted a great interview with Perry Wang over at his Movie Marketing Madness blog. Wang is from Media Revolution, a web design firm that does work for the majors.

If you've ever wondered how a the process works at that level, this is a must-read interview. One revealing segment explained why we see so little innovation in regards to special content like podcasts, blogs, webisodes, etc:

Another bottleneck for content is the budget for the film's site. Good content costs money to produce. The teams that support the web updates also need to be paid. Only the most organized, integrated studios are able to align their decision makers and budgets to create and post new content like webisodes and other featurettes prior to a film's release.

There's plenty of tidbits like that -- check it out...


[Via Movie Marketing Madness]

Are DVD Consumers Getting Weary of "Double Dipping?"

Have you ever bought a DVD, only to have a new "deluxe edition" crammed with extras appear only months later? According to an article in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, this practice, known in the industry as "double dipping," has become a mainstay of the DVD biz.

Now granted, replacing some of the more spartan discs from the early days of DVD is one thing, but lately, the studios have been pushing the envelope, as the article points out:

But increasingly, for new movies, the period is just a few months -- and with no advance word that a re-release is planned when the first version comes out. It's not just today's three releases from Fox, whose representatives declined to comment when asked. For example, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment put out the "Underworld" DVD on Jan. 6, 2004, not announcing until after its release that a two-disc special edition was coming just a few months later, on May 25. Warner Home Video did the same with the Halle Barry thriller "Gothika," out on March 23, 2004, and again on Oct. 12.

Talk about disappointing your customers -- eventually, they're going to figure out the game. In the meantime, here's what some of the studios are doing to minimize the inevitable backlash:

But there are right ways for the DVD companies to do such quick-turnaround re-releases while keeping consumers in mind.

When New Line Home Entertainment announced the DVDs of "The Lord of the Rings" movies, it noted at the same time that special extended editions would be coming later in their respective release years. Before Sony released the first DVDs of "Hellboy" and "The Grudge," the makers of each film had already been widely quoted online and in articles that souped-up versions would be coming soon afterward.

Philosophically, we agree with giving the customer what they want when they want it. That's why approaches like New Line's (or 2929 Entertainment's recent day and date release of 'Enron', for that matter) will supplant practices that aren't customer-centric.



[Via the Star-Tribune]

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

Today's Must Read: The Business of Movie Trailers

Here's a must read article from the Los Angeles Times on the business (and politics) of getting movie trailers in front of theater-goers. It gives a good summary of how the system works. Here's the meat of the matter:

Movie marketers will tell you that the only place where their ads are guaranteed to reach proven moviegoers is not on television or in newspapers, but inside a darkened theater — preferably one where the weekend's hottest movie is reaching the most pairs of eyes. Woe to the trailer that runs first, when many people are buying their popcorn and Milk Duds. The coveted spot is right before the feature, when the theater is full.

One thing the article fails to mention, however, is the immense importance that online trailers have gained in the past two years. Getting exclusive movie trailers and clips on AOL and Yahoo has become an important part of movie marketing, especially since those places gain greater influence in consumer's buying decisions. After all, how many businesses ply their consumers with competing ads right at the point of purchase?

Movies: Trailers: How a small time slot adds up to big industry headache

'Uncle Nino': The Little Indie Movie that Could

In case you've missed the slowly-building buzz, here's a short-but-sweet article from the Sun-Sentinel about 'Uncle Nino'. The simple, family-oriented indie film about family ran for over 55 weeks in a Grand Rapids, Michigan theater, grossing over $165,000. Here's a bit from the article:

"People show up every day for Uncle Nino," says Ron Van Timmeren, executive vice president of marketing and film for Celebration! Cinema. The regional, family-owned movie chain has 10 locations, including a multiplex in northeastern Grand Rapids where the film opened on Dec. 5, 2003 and played through last December.

The film stars Joe Mantegna and Anne Archer as parents who are disconnected from their two children and from each other. All that begins to change when the family receives a visit from an eccentric, long-lost relative from Italy, Uncle Nino, played by veteran character actor Pierrino Mascarino.

With buzz building behind the backstory, Newmarket, sensing another 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' has dove in to roll out the title nationally.

So what lessons can a move marketer glean from this if planning their own limited release?

1) Your playdate locations should have some relevance. 'Uncle Nino' was filmed in Grand Rapids. Another example is 'Assisted Living', which is screening heavily in Kentucky where it was shot.

2) Furthering number one, screen in communities whose demographics fit your subject matter. Based on the article, Grand Rapids was a good fit for this picture due to the conservative christian base. A good, free resource you can use is fedstats.gov.

3) Make appearances. The actor that played Uncle Nino his in the audience and surprised theatre-goers. As the director, you should figure out a way to make it to every city in your "barn-storming" tour. Sandy Dubowski, the director of doc 'Trembling Before G-D', practically lived on the road to support his film, but he nurtured it to nearly a million in grosses. Whether you do Q&As or throw parties, so something that people will generate buzz and bring more people back.

4) Do your legwork. Sending out clumps of postcards to regional organizations won't work. If you're marketing to the typical indie audience, contact a local indie record shop or popular nightclub - they will usually have a handle on a good promo point person. You have to run your campaign like a tour.

Does anyone else have any suggestions?

From one-theater start, gentle indie film rides rising buzz across nation: South Florida Sun-Sentinel