Beth Goss - senior vice president of promotions, Universal Pictures Distribution, marketing strategy - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

Brandweek, March 26, 2001 by David Finnigan

From cheerleaders to the U.S. Post Office, Universal's promo queen builds buzz.

Beth Goss spearheaded the promotional blitz that helped make Universal Pictures' How the Grinch Stole Christmas last year's top movie with an independent film-honed intellect and keen eye for unseen opportunity.

It was Goss, the 34-year-old svp of promotions, who sent Grinch on a trajectory to earn more than $260 million in worldwide box office to date via a Santa's bag of partnerships with Kellogg, Sprite, Nabisco, Hershey and Wendy's. Together with Universal and Imagine Entertainment, the partners combined on some $75 million in marketing support that sprayed more than 105 million packages of Ritz Bits, Oreos, Chips Ahoy!, Fruit Loops, Apple Jacks and Frosted Flakes with movie graphics, and saw the grinning title character peer out from millions of green cans of Sprite, which spent $10 million in ads and merchandising behind its first movie promotion.

"That was our strategy to be everything for that Christmas," Goss said. "That's what we sold to our partners. Thank goodness I didn't have to go back and say, 'Oh, we goofed.' "The bulk of the partners are expected to return for promotions around a video/DVD offer later this year.

It was Goss' passion for the project that helped convince Jim Carrey's management team to use the star's likeness on promos.

What's more, Universal had the U.S. Postal Service tout the film's fictional Whoville town with cancellation stamps reading" Happy Who-lidays from the U.S. Postal Service" slapped on 6 to 7 billion pieces of holiday mail-extending a promotion to an entirely new and untapped platform.

"That was insane," said Universal chairwoman Stacy Snider "I hadn't personally been involved in a PG-rated bonanza When you see something like the Grinch, where we have to hit it out of the ballpark . . . it required us to exceed even our own expectations. First she focused us, then she went out and attracted really blue-chip companies."

Having to fend off holiday competitors like Nickelodeon's Rugrats in Paris, and Disney's The Emperor's New Groove and 102 Dalmatians, Grinch topped the holiday box office until the Christmas weekend debut of 20th Century Fox's Cast Away.

"We went to the marketplace without any built-in brand power, without any channel support or any special company advantages;' said Marc Shmuger, Universal's vice chairman who was named to that post from being marketing president partly due to Goss and her team's success at building last year's Universal stable of five hit movies: Grinch, Erin Brockovich, Meet The Parents, Kiumps: The Nutty Professor II and Bring ft On.

That streak has won Goss the admiration of partners and competitors alike. "She's changed the face of our industry absolutely," said George Leon, Goss' opposite at Columbia Pictures (and a 1996 Brandweek Next Generation pick). "She has really raised the bar in consumer promotions that has got everybody in the studio system wanting what she has already developed."

The politically savvy Goss came to Universal in March 1999. A psychology and business major at Washington University in St. Louis, Goss had taken some film courses that turned the bookworm into a cineaste. Upon graduation, Goss jotted down three cities on scraps of paper-Los Angeles, New York and Boston-that she considered ripe for a job in advertising and picked one out of a hat. She headed west.

As a media buyer and planner at McCann-Erickson, she worked on accounts for Coca-Cola and Columbia's Tri-Star Pictures, and in five years learned the basics of movie marketing. A stint at DDB had Goss handling media for indie film distributor Grammercy Pictures, leading her to a marketing job at then-named Polygram Filmed Entertainment (now USA Films) turning out off-beat promos for such indie hits as The Usual Suspects, Fargo, and Four Weddings and a Funeral.

For The Borrowers, a film about tiny people living under a house, she got Prudential Insurance to sponsor a mall tour with oversized furniture to reach prospective customers. Why real estate?" Because it was all about housing." Goss said, adding the experience has stayed with her "I learned to be resourceful."

How did I get this job? Timing. I was in the right place at the right time.

The best part about my job is...Movies I love movies.

Favorite brand: Ben & Jerry's. It's probably the one brand that I could not imagine not having in my life. The classic independent story: small company, best product around.