Sony Turns Up Volume on Max TV
With one flex of its media-buying muscle, Sony Corp. partners with Turner Broadcasting System for a fourth-quarter campaign that pitches its high-end Maximum Television to movie fans in retail stores including Sears and – appropriately – on the tube. The tagline is Feel the Impact, and it speaks to the media plan as well as the brand.
The campaign is part of Sony’s overture to partner earlier with retailers to plan joint marketing and set sales goals. Sony’s startup point, its year-old Max TV, is a complete home entertainment system with digital surround-sound and DVD video – perfect for movie buffs.
Sony has pegged at least one account-specific sweepstakes to TBS shows as part of its ad buy on Turner’s movie channels TNT and TBS. The Dinner & A Movie sweeps runs November and December in Sears stores, featuring the barb-swapping couple that host the TV show.
Sony may run a similar campaign pegged to TBS 15 Days of Bond late this month. Plans aren’t set, but there may be a retailer-specific sweeps awarding a trip for two anywhere in the world and cool Sony gadgets that 007 would covet. The Bond marathon is one of those programming tweaks that are usually too ephemeral for marketers to latch on to for a retail push.
“We’re bringing programming into retail,” says Jeff Davidoff, exec vp for Sony agency Upshot, Chicago. “This ups the ante by bringing the retailer a valued property he wouldn’t have on his own.”
The Dinner & A Movie sweeps gives away “all the ingredients for the ultimate dinner and a movie”: a Max TV system, Kenmore kitchen, and 25 best movies of all time (based on the American Film Institute’s Top 100 list published this year). By incorporating Sears’s own Kenmore brand, Sony gained display space in appliance departments as well as electronics. On-air mentions send viewers to Sears to enter the sweeps, and Sony gets product placement on the show.
Separately, a tie-in with Turner’s Movie Lounge results in extended product mentions when the show’s eclectic mix of guests discuss Sony products and review movies.
“Large advertisers are realizing there’s way more value to add to their media buys,” Davidoff says. “They didn’t get it in the past because one, they didn’t ask for it, and two, they didn’t know what to ask for. We’re putting it into action a lot more consistently.”
“Action” is an operative term here. Sony – which buys nearly all its TV time on Turner channels – places 15-second spots during action movies. Each spot begins with a clip from the very movie viewers are watching. Turner engineers pick a scene with great sound or picture, and drop it into the donuts Sony provides that say, in essence, “this would sound [or look] even better on Max TV.”
Of course, some of the advertising is just advertising. In a spot called “Window Washers,” two guys hoist themselves from floor to floor, cleaning a spot just big enough so they peer into apartments. When they find one with Max TV, they stop, clean the whole window, and kick back. A woman inside startles them when she sits up on the couch where she’s been lying down. The three end up watching TV together. On-screen is The Fifth Element, distributed by Sony’s Columbia Tristar Pictures.
It’s a nice analogy for Sony’s partnership strategy.
