Samsung Preps Cinematic Promo Blast With MovieFone

Publication: Brandweek

By Tobi Elkin

Seeking to boost holiday sales of its new high-end digital video products, Samsung Electronics America will partner with MovieFone for a cross-promotional blitz, to include a national sweepstakes breaking Nov. 6.

The Samsung “Winter Vision” sweepstakes, through Jan 14, 1999, targets avid moviegoers and home theater enthusiasts for a chance to win several products including Digital Video Disc and VCR players, microwave ovens and the brand’s new High- Definition, Projection and VisionPlus TVs. The sweeps will be promoted in several ways beginning with consumer calls to MovieFone (777-FILM). When consumers call MovieFone to find out movie schedules, they will hear a 20-second spot touting Samsung’s Web sites. Subscribers to MovieMail, MovieFone’s direct email service also will receive information on Samsung products and the sweeps.

Additionally, Samsung and MovieFone will unleash a barrage of print and radio ads, plus in-theatre promos touting the sweeps and Samsung products, in six metro markets: New York, L.A., Boston, Seattle, San Antonio and Salt Lake City.

Those ads will take the form of a traditional MovieFone ad beckoning moviegoers not only to call and find out what’s playing, but invites them to enter the sweeps. Another creative execution may feature a Samsung Projection TV and copy suggesting moviegoers can win it, and other prizes. Samsung’s sweeps and logo also appear on popcorn bags, pre-show loop slides and cardboard stands in more than 200 General Cinema and Cineplex-Odeon screens in these markets.

Selected retailers in the markets will give away two free movie tickets to every purchaser of Samsung DVD and VCR players; ticket envelopes show the firm’s VisionPlus TVs and offer details on how to enter the sweeps.

Samsung will supplement the effort with ethnic marketing initiatives launching this week and targeting Mexican Americans, via Lynx, L.A., in Austin, Houston and San Antonio, Texas, and L.A. with Spanish-language print, and radio and outdoor ads touting the firm’s value-oriented prct lines. Retail demos and rebate coupons hammer a “great technology at a value price” message. Similar efforts via Cheil Communications, Ridgefield Park, N.J., target Korean Americans in the New York, L.A. and Seattle areas but promote Samsung’s higher-end video products.

Meantime, Samsung’s corporate parent in Korea is readying a cable TV spot, via Arnell, N.Y., that promotes four key product categories: wireless phones, LCD/TFT monitors, TVs and DVD players. Samsung also underwrites a Nov. 9 PBS special on HDTV: A Cringely Crash Course.

Copyright 1998 ASM Communications, Inc. Used With Permission From Brandweek Magazine

New York American Express and MovieFone last week inked a “long term” marketing deal

Publication: Brandweek

New York American Express and MovieFone last week inked a “long term” marketing deal to promote telephone and Internet ticketing for films. Amex becomes a national sponsor of MovieFone and it’s online counterpart MovieLink.com; the companies will create a program to reward Amex credit card users. Available in 32 cities, MovieFone will promote American Express to phone users, and in promotions and advertising.

New York, July 22, 1998 American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) and MovieFone, Inc. (NASDAQ NM:MOFN), the nation’s largest movie listing guide and ticketing service, today announced a new long-term marketing partnership to promote telephone and Internet ticketing for movies. Under the new agreement, American Express will become a national sponsor of MovieFone and its online sister service MovieLink.com, and the companies will work together on and jointly fund new marketing programs designed to reward moviegoers when they use the American Express Card to buy tickets through these services. The new program is expected to accelerate the already rapid increase in electronic ticket sales for movies and other events, via the telephone and the Internet.

“American Express is the perfect partner for MovieFone, since they share our commitment to movies, and to building a powerful brand through innovation”, said Andrew Jarecki, MovieFone CEO. “We look forward to expanding our longstanding partnership and initiating new programs that make moviegoing more appealing for consumers”.

“American Express has always been the credit card of choice for the entertainment-oriented consumer, and we believe that there is great potential in increasing usage by moviegoers,” said Lloyd M. Wirshbla, Vice President & General Manager, Restaurant and Entertainment Industries, American Express Company.

Jim Erlick, President of J. M. Erlick, Inc., was MovieFone’s consultant on the partnership. Erlick has fourteen years of corporate marketing experience.

American Express Co. said it plans a marketing program on behalf of MovieFone

Publication: Advertising Age

American Express Co. said it plans a marketing program on behalf of MovieFone, a movie listing guide and ticketing service. MovieFone in turn will promote American Express to its users. More details on this initial marketing program will be released later, AmEx said. It will cover both MovieFone, now in 32 cities, and MovieLink.com, a new online service. Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, New York is the agency.

Broadway Gets Its Own Platinum Card as Theaters Try a Unified Approach to Mass Marketing

Publication: New York Times

By Jane L. Levere

Although the current Broadway season formally ends with the Tony Award on Sunday evening, the theater industry’s efforts to market itself will actually be stepped up immediately afterward, with the debut next week of a “Live Broadway” platinum Visa credit card.

The promotion is the latest installment of an effort by the League of American Theaters and Producers to stimulate demand nationwide for live theater and, essentially, establish “Broadway” as a highly visible brand. The card will be offered jointly by the league, which is the trade group for Broadway productions in New York and throughout North America, and First USA Bank, a subsidiary of the Banc One Corporation.

Last year Continental Airlines signed up as the league’s first national corporate sponsor, paying a reported $750,000 annually in cash and services over five years.

In April, Schweppes became the league’s second corporate sponsor. Gerald Johnson, Director of promotions for Dr. Pepper/Seven Up Inc., which is a division of Cadbury Schweppes P.L.C., said that the company had struck a one-year deal for an unspecified sum, with the possibility of an extension, to make Schweppes “the exclusive tonic and mixer of Live Broadway.” Live Broadway is the league’s official logo, developed by Landor Associates, the corporate identity firm, and introduced last year to heighten public awareness of the Broadway stage.

Schweppes will run a supermarket sweepstakes this summer featuring a prize trip to New York that includes Broadway tickets. It will also put the Live Broadway logo on its packaging.

The goal of all these initiatives, said Jed Bernstein, the league’s executive director, “is to return Broadway to its place on the mainstream entertainment menu.”

“Broadway is one of the greatest untouched marketing platforms for corporate America,” he said. “If a sponsor tries to get involved in sport now, the price of entry is very high because it’s a crowded stage. But Broadway has done little in this area, and we’re creating a very efficient way for corporations to take advantage of that.”

Meg Meurer, the league’s director of marketing and new business development said Broadway productions – performed either on the New York Stage or in theaters around the country that are league members – faced stiff competition from all forms of entertainment, including sports events, concerts video games and even the Internet. The league’s goal, she said is to make Broadway theater “the most upscale form of mass entertainment.”

According to a recent survey by Research International, a division of WPP Group P.L.C., the average Broadway theatergoer in New York is 41 years old, well educated and affluent, with an annual household income of $91,000. Slightly more than half of these theatergoers live in the New York area, while the rest are tourists.

First USA finds the league’s audience attractive, said Stu Upson, senior vice president for sports and entertainment marketing, because “it’s loyal and the demographics are good.”

According to Ms. Meurer and Mr. Bernstein, the league is seeking additional sponsors in three categories – automotive, financial services and telecommunications. Mr. Bernstein said it had already raised some $10 million in cash, merchandise and media donated by sponsors and promotional partners, which also support its toll-free information line.

Theater industry executives and observers generally applauded these initiatives. George Wachtel, a New York based arts consultant who previously was the league’s director of research, deemed the sponsorships “helpful in a business where Broadway shows can’t afford to sell theatergoing as a lifestyle.”

“Sound of Music,” “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” and “Forever Tango,” and a member of the league’s executive committee, said he believd the league was successfully addressing the problem of “promoting Broadway as an idea when each of us has a vastly different product.”

Jim Erlick, a consultant in New York who advised the league on its First USA project, suggested that the theater industry “traditionally has been fractionalized, with independent, competitive producers doing their own branding.”

“The league’s programs create a hook for it to break through the clutter more convincingly than individual producers can on their own,” he said. “It gives them greater marquee value, more of a pedigree.”

Broadway, First USA Launch Credit Card Theater industry group targeting 30 million with June campaign

Publication: Direct Marketing News

By Theresa Howard

In a branding initiative on the scale of Broadway production, the League of American Theatres and Producers has added another product to its cast of thousands with the debut of the Live Broadway Visa card.

Targeting a broad universe of 30 million potential card holders, the national trade organization for the Broadway industry has teamed up with First USA to launch the no-fee Visa card, which will be available in June. Charges on the card will earn points that are redeemable for Broadway merchandise, packages, tickets, dining and access to Broadway events and promotions.

“We are definitely in the database business now,” said Meg Meurer, director of new business development for the League of American Theatres and Producers.

The charge card is the latest offering in an initiative that has spawned The Broadway Line, a national toll-free, inbound Broadway information hotline, and Kids Night on Broadway, a membership program designed to boost youth attendance at shows through special events and direct mail. The group launched Kids Night on Broadway in January 1997 and revived it in January. Each event draws more than 10,000 youngsters who received a free ticket with purchase of one full-price ticket. The league has even recently signed Schweppes as the official beverage line for Broadway.

Meurer said list names for the credit-card solicitation are being developed from 500 member sources and from the association’s information touch-tone hotline, which was launched in January.

“Big chunks of people are leaving their mailing information on the hotline, and we are also planning to generate names through the Times Square Visitors Center,” Meurer said.

The center will open during the summer and is expected to draw 2 million visitors annually. The center will provide same-day and future ticket sales and also will feature merchandise.

In the meantime, the organization will generate the initial credit-card solicitation list by working with members, including theater owners, operators, box offices and other sales ticketing services. The association provides the names and pertinent data and First USA, which already maintains about 40 million card accounts, will handle the solicitation from a creative and management perspective to ensure that one person does not receive multiple offers.

“We try to tailor our mailings to generate the highest response through better targets , four-color mailers and creative packaging,” said Tony Plohoros, First USA’s vice president of corporate affairs. “But the bottom line is the offer, and we have been able to offer some of the most competitive pricing and most compelling offers in the industry in conjunction with our partners. Consequently, our responses have been quite favorable.”

Direct mail names will mainly be derived from on-site theaters, event marketing and some advertising in the Playbill New York theater guide, Plohoros said.

“We are pretty guarded about our account size and mailing size, but it will be in the millions,” he said, noting that cards would feature a variety of Broadway show themes. “We try to tailor the mailing and the premium and the card art to the specific partner.”

The first mailing is slated for the day after the Tony Awards.

“We will go out to millions of people on June 8,” Meurer said. “Along the way, we will be adjusting the list we are mailing to and the offering to see if it ups the response rate. We’ll be measuring to see what kind of person responds.”

Solicitations will be based on geographical splits, including such regions as the New York City metropolitan area and the Northeast, North, South and Far West, Meurer said. The organization also will develop the list based on subscribers of certain magazines that match the Broadway profile.

“We are going to do some geographic testing from a modeling viewpoint,” Meurer said.

According to Meurer, the card targets the “typical Broadway theatergoer,” who is age 41 and equally likely to be male or female, though women are the primary influence on the ticket purchase. Additionally, Meurer said, showgoers maintain an average household income of $90,000 and have a high propensity for travel and entertainment, especially eating.

“This is really an extension of the in-theater experience for us,” Meurer said. “Everything is tied around enhancing the in-theater experience.”

The Roar of the Plastic

Showbiz 

They say for every light on Broadway there’s a broken heart. Producers are less sentimental; they’d be happy seeing a credit card for each of those bulbs. 

They may. The League of American Theatres & Producers, Broadway’s trade association, is preparing an official credit card. The Live Broadway affinity card, similar to programs offered by sports teams, should premiere around the time of the Tony Awards in June. It’s part of the league’s ongoing efforts to step up marketing for the $1.4 billion industry. 

The market is large. There are some 125 league theaters nationwide, 37 of them in New York. Thirty million people saw a Broadway show last year, more than total attendance in any pro sports league except baseball, says Meg Meurer, director of new-business development for the Broadway group. 

What do you get with this card? No annual fee and “competitive” interest rates says issuer First USA. Bonuses may include special seating at shows, backstage tours, good buys on theater memorabilia and even a walk-on part in a Broadway show. So who knows? This card could make you a star.

Credit Card Hits Boards New Products

By Shannon Stevens

First USA is teaming up with Live Broadway to offer a no-fee credit card which doubles as a frequency card for theater goers nationwide.

The affinity card continues Live Broadway’s effort to partner with major consumer brands that began last summer when the non-profit group representing theater operators scored Continental Airlines as a partner.

The cards, sporting the Live Broadway logo will be pushed beginning June 8, the day after the Tony Awards, with an application blitz that includes a direct mail campaign based on names from the 400 member theaters’ mailing lists. Print, internet and broadcast campaigns also may enter the mix.

The credit card will offer users points by which to obtain unique rewards, including stand-in roles in shows, limited-edition posters signed by cast members, and show memorabilia, said Meg Meurer, marketing director for Live Broadway.

First USA, a Wilmington, Del., unit of Bank One, Columbus, Ohio, has affinity card partnerships with America Online, Southwest Airlines, the PGA and others.

The Publisher as Impresario

To Build a Buzz, Magazines Are Becoming Glitzy Marketers
Becoming A Brand

As magazines seek new ways to go beyond their pages and to bring readers and advertisers together, they are conducting award ceremonies and surveys, holding luncheons and parties and sponsoring charity events and concert tours. Some examples of magazine awards.

Conde Nast

Produced “Ladies of Note,” a five-city tour featuring Judy Collins and Roberta Flack, sponsored by Buick Riviera; included a special ad section that ran in four Conde Nast magazines featuring the singers with the 1997 Riviera. Readers were urged to visit their local Buick showroom to test-drive the Riviera and receive a Ladies of Note CD: a percentage of the proceeds from concert ticket sales were donated to breast cancer research.

PromoBits

The “Ladies of Note” tour, sponsored by Buick Riviera and Conde Nast and starring Roberta Flack and Judy Collins, was a success for the sponsors, reports Jim Erlick, President of J.M. Erlick, which put the deal together (phone: 212-418-7372). The five-city tour, which ended March 28, targeted female consumers, and benefits the Nina Hyde Foundation, a breast-cancer research and information organization. Buick had cars out front at concert halls, mention on tickets and in ads, and ran a four-page advertorial in Bon Appetit, Gourmet, Conde’Nast Traveler and House & Garden that included a blow-in card for a free music CD with test drive.

A&P/Food Emporium in the New York City area is helping promote the new Broadway musical “Jekyll & Hyde,” with a range of promotions, report Tom Hess, EVP of The HK Group (phone: 212-686-2914), and Jim Erlick of J.M. Erlick (phone: 212-418-7372), who put the deal together. A $10 discount is offered via the food chain’s circular and check-out couponing; the coupon will be printed on shopping bags and poster later this month. The tie-in is tagged on all supermarket radio advertising and a newspaper supplement offering the discount is scheduled to hit this month. Nancy Richards is Director of Marketing for the show (phone: 212-764-7946).

Buick Hits Road with Flack, Collins Sponsorships

By Steve Gelsi

Starting in February, GM’s Buick unit will be the presenting sponsor of a five concert series starring Roberta Flack and Judy Collins, continuing its efforts to make its Riviera coupe click with female buyers.

The “Riviera by Buick presents: Ladies of Note” concert will be promoted in a four-page insert in Conde Nast’s Gourmet andBon Appetit Magazines breaking next month. The ad features the two singers posing next to Rivieras and ties the company and the concert in with fundraising for Concept Cure’s…

It’s part of an overall effort at General Motors to play up relationship marketing programs to connect cars to buyer targets on a grass roots level. In this case, the Riviera will be visible to the 50,000 to 100,000 concertgoers and readers of the magazines, while dealers are expected to get involved through their own direct mail or local promotional efforts to encourage test drives by dangling tickets to the events, possibly Richard Tyler T-shirts – the designer did a custom Riviera last year – or an upcoming compact disc release featuring the two singers.

The tour hits Miami, San Francisco, Atlanta, Philadelphia and New York, as the company seeks a metropolitan buyer beyond its Midwestern core consumers. Buick last year sponsored fashion shows and teamed with Tyler for the limited edition Riviera, which is now on the car show circuit. Tyler will also display the Riviera at his fashion shows.

Riviera, with sales of 20, 641 units last year, hopes to grow sales by playing up its styling to a female audience. The car now draws about 40% female buyers, expected to grow to 50%.

On a Roll: Jim Erlick

Events and Promotions

Jim Erlick spent 14 years with General Foods Corp., Seagram Wine Co., then American Express Co., before going solo in 1993. He connects entertainment properties like Broadway’s “Sunset Boulevard” with sponsors including Trans World Airlines and MasterCard.

Age: 41
Title: President, J.M. Erlick Inc.

New York Tip: Success lies in executions and details.
Overlooked Opportunity: Tie-ins to theater, live drama.
Hot: Promotions taking consumers behind the scenes.
Avoid: Linking with cutting-edge artists, unproven properties.
Peeve: Agents who overpromise and don’t deliver.

Playing the “Telecard” Hand

Everyone from Burger King to the Salvation Army is giving away prepaid long-distance phone cards as a business incentive. So does that mean you should, too – or is the “telecard” just the latest promotional fad? 

“It’s a fad,” says Don Peppers, author of Life’s a Pitch, Then You Buy, “but it’s also the wave of the future as an information-based premium.” 

Unlike letter openers, crystal bowls, and other generic premiums, telecards require customization and planning to be effective. Below, two very different organizations explain how they have used calling cards to build sales. 

Uncle Dave’s Kitchen, a $3-million pasta-sauce and condiment manufacturer in South Londonderry, VT, has used prepaid phone cards as a retail promotion. Though his products were already in supermarkets and retail stores, CEO David Lyons wanted enter the gift market. He figured an innovative premium would be just the ticket. 

“There were thousands of people approaching retailers with gift baskets,” says Lyons, “but at the same time, nobody was doing this.” Working with SmarTel, a telecard provider, Lyons spent $1,625 up front to produce the first batch of cards. He sent out sales representatives armed with the customized cards to give away to retail buyers. 

By Father’s Day, Uncle Dave’s was selling gift boxes in a dozen stores. Every dad whose kid bought him an Uncle Dave’s gift box of pasta sauce, ketchup, and mustard for Father’s Day last year has by now heard a message from Lyon’s company, because bundled in with the sauces was a telecard. Fathers in Chicago, for instance, learned that their present was purchased at Marshall Fields, where they could buy more Uncle Dave’s products. When Dad dialed in for his 10 minutes of free long-distance calling time, he heard this message: “Happy Father’s Day from Uncle Dave’s and Marhsall Fields, and thank you for shopping.” 

The telecard also allows marketers to electronically update their messages. Lyons did so in time for a July 4th promotion. All in all, he spent $17,625 for the cards packaged in gift boxes. 

When New York City-based Dodger Productions put on the Broadway show How to Succeed in Business… last March, it wanted to be sure to play to a packed house throughout the season. The production company spend $24,000 to design, produce, and mail its own telecard, whose prerecorded message features the star of the show, Matthew Broderick. The actor’s voice prompts callers to choose from a menu of marketing messages – including recordings from the sound track, critic’s reviews, and a direct connection to the group-tickets box office – before the recipient can use the five minutes of free calling time. 

Last August a card was mailed to each of the 7,500 group-sales leaders, who sell group theater tickets, to encourage them to book tourist groups for the show. Dodger Productions packaged the card inside a brochure explaining the sales incentive: the group leaders could add 250 to 500 extra free long-distance minutes to their telecards for booking a certain number of tickets. As of last October, the promotion had brought in $284,000 in ticket revenues, says Dodger Productions’ Laura Maralon. The card gives the Broadway production company the added bonus of being track an individual salesperson’s performance by the personal-identification numbers used to activate the telecard. 

Still, like most novelty items, sales premiums lose their luster when they start to become as common as business cards. Lyons says gift-basket sales now accounting for 20% of his company’s revenues, and he credits the telecard incentive with opening stores’ doors. But, he said, “we won’t continue to use the cards, because everyone else is using them now.”