Hollywood ups the ante on DVD and video marketing

Drug Store News, Sept 9, 2002 by Doug Desjardins

Hollywood studios are planning some big-budget marketing campaigns for the release of this summer's biggest box office hits, continuing a trend in which they're spending nearly as much promoting a film's video release as they do for its run in theaters.

Warner Home Video set the gold standard in May when it put together a record $50-million marketing blitz to promote the video debut of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." But that campaign will be dwarfed by what's being planned for the November release of "SpiderMan" and "Ice Age."

Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment has a $100-million campaign planned for "Spider-Man.' which will debut Nov. 1 for $24.96 on VHS and $28.96 for a two-disc DVD. The film earned $403 million and is the fifth biggest box office hit of all time.

"Almost every promotional partner from the film is carrying over for the video and DVD release, which is unprecedented," said Jennifer Anderson, director of marketing for Columbia. Those partners include Carl's Jr./Hardee's, Dr Pepper and Cingular Wireless.

Columbia also plans to spend $40 million on hard media advertising starting in October with T V, radio and print ads, along with billboard and mall advertising. "It's going to be a huge campaign across all venues," said Anderson.

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment has a mammoth campaign planned for "Ice Age." The animated hit earned $180 million in theaters and is due Nov. 26 for $29.98 on a two-disc DVD and $24.98 on VHS. The $85 million marketing effort for "Ice Age" features 14 promotional partners, including Papa John's, Coca-Cola, Microsoft and the National Hockey League.

"This campaign was built from the ground up and includes a lot of partners who weren't on board for the theatrical release," said Fox spokesman Steve Feldstein. ox a so as $40 million in hard media planned for the title, which will feature a new five-minute short called "Scrat's Missing Adventure."

Feldstein attributes the ballooning budgets behind big titles such as "SpiderMan' and "Ice Age" to the creative license that DVD has given studios to produce enhanced versions of films. With DVD, we're marketing an entirely new product,' Feldstein said.

Fox and LucasFilm also are expected to put marketing muscle behind "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones" when it's released Nov. :12 for $29.98 on DVD and $24.98 on VHS. Details on the marketing plan for the $300-million hit are not yet available.

With no shortage of new hits scheduled for the fourth quarter, some studios are making older films their marquee titles. Universal Studios Home Video will release Steven Spielberg's classic "E.T.: The Extraterrestrial" on DVD for the first time Oct. 22 for $22.98. The studio is putting a 10-week window on E.T." and has a long list of partners who promoted the film when it was re-released in theaters earlier this year, including Kodak and Toyota.

"All our promotional partners are back onboard, and it will be an event-sized marketing campaign," said Ken Graffeo, Universal's executive vice president of marketing. Universal also will release the "Back to the Future Trilogy" for the first time on DVD Dec. 17 for $39.95.

For its part Warner will continue the marketing blitz strategy next month with the V HS/DVD release of Scooby-Doo, which raked in $150 million at the box office. The campaign includes tie-ins with brands such as Coca-Cola, General Mills, Kelloggs, Keebler, Heinz and One-A-Day Kids.