Video promos to ring in the holiday - discount stores

Discount Store News, Nov 4, 1996 by Robert Scally

LOS ANGELES -- Hollywood is hoping that videos and licensed merchandise will play a starring role in discount stores during this Holiday.

Primed by massive promotional campaigns and strong sales of some of the earliest sell-through releases, the stage has been set for a video-and film-related merchandise sales boom during the weeks leading up to Christmas.

Brisk sales of Warner Home Video's "Twister," Fox Video's "The Sound of Music" and MCA/Universal Home Video's re-issue of "E.T.: The Extraterrestrial" at discount stores have raised hopes that sales will remain healthy through Christmas despite a record number of titles competing for attention.

"This year, video has truly come into its own," said Joseph Pagano, category manager, Best Buy. "This was the year that sell-through video established itself as a year-round business."

Pagano said that he's of two minds about this year's jam-packed sell-through video slate. On one hand, he said that video is a low-priced item that makes a great gift that appeals to tight-fisted consumers. "The bear in me says that the customer only has so much money to spend on video." Pagano said.

But Pagano also said that he's encouraged by what he has been during the past several weeks, and he expects video sales to retain their momentum, driven by the steady stream of blockbuster titles.

Several major sell-through home video titles streeting in the weeks before Christmas, such as Buena Vista Home Video's "Toy Story" and Fox Video's "Independence Day" will be accompanied by large-scale cross-promotions and licensed merchandise.

It will be difficult for consumers to purchase a video in a discount store this Holiday and not receive some sort of discount for another video or some product.

Take "Toy Story" as an example. Each video will contain mail-in rebates worth up to $25 on products from Kodak, General Mills, Energizer, Oral B, Ocean Spray and Disney. Beyond the discounts contained in the video itself, Disney Interactive is introducing related video and computer games, and more than 60 licensees have produced an ocean of Toy Story-related licensed merchandise.

There are several retailer-specific promotions featured in the released of "Toy Story," including an "R" Treat Box available at Toys "R" Us that contains a variety of consumer promotions.

Kidvid titles like "Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too" will have a Toy Story tie-in. Toy Story Christmas tree ornaments will be shrink-wrapped with "Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too" along with a handful of other Buena Vista direct-to-video kidvid titles.

Just to make sure that sales keep flowing in the video department, Buena Vista also has launched its annual "Disappearing Classics" campaign one month earlier than usual, said Dennis Rice, vp of marketing, Buena Vista Home Video.

"We are integrating all of our efforts," Rice said of the relationship between Buena Vista Home Video and Disney's consumer products and interactive software divisions.

The "Disappearing Classic" campaign usually takes place in January and is meant to spur sales of Disney animated classics that will soon be placed in moratorium in April. A four-page, full-color gift guide will be included in Sunday newspapers nationwide on Thanksgiving weekend to help launch the promotion, Rice said.

Buena Vista's aim is to generate multiple video sales, catching shoppers who are in to pick up "Toy Story," Rice said.

This year's call-to-action campaign will advise consumers to purchase "Pocahontas," "The Aristocats," "Oliver & Company and "The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh" before the titles return to Disney vaults on April 30, 1997.

Some promotions are more modest than those initiated by entertainment behemoths like Disney. Sony Wonder's Sesame Street title "Elmo Saves Christmas" connects directly to Holiday, with coupons that offer savings on Konica cameras and film.

In at least one case, sell-through video will be part of the effort to promote a Holiday theatrical film release.

In the wake of "Twister" and "Willie Wonka," Warner Home Video will be doing its part this Holiday to promote the theatrical release of "Space Jam," a live-action/ animated film that stars several top National Basketball Association stars, actor Bill Murray and the Looney Tunes cartoon characters.

Warner Home Video's five title "The Stars of Space Jam" cartoon series streets Oct. 29 at $9.95 each. Titles in the series features classic cartoons of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, Sylvester and Tweety and the Tasmanian Devil.

In some retail locations "The Stars of Space Jam" will be merchandised in 24- and 48-unit standees with header cards promoting a mail-in offer for a free cap with the purchase of all five videos in the series, according to Mark Horak, vp of marketing, Warner Home Video.

Some retailers are also directly linking licensed products and video in their merchandising. At the recent opening of a Target Greatland store in Encinitas, Calif., a four-sided merchandiser was dedicated to Christmas audio CDs, home videos and movie related licensed merchandise.