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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

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