JVC Touts ‘Dark Knight’ DVD with Sweep, Live NYC Event, Mobile
Consumer electronics maker JVC has built an integrated online/offline promotion around the launch last Tuesday of the DVD and Blu-ray versions of the latest movie in the Batman franchise, “The Dark Knight.”
The company launched the online portion of its “Capture the Joker” online sweepstakes in conjunction with Warner Home Video on Nov. 16. From the launch through Dec. 31, visitors will be able to go to http://www.jvc-darkknightdvdpromotion.com/ and enter daily to win a grand prize of a complete JVC home theater, two first prizes of an Everio camcorder, or five second prizes of a DVD player and a copy of the “Dark Knight” DVD. A daily match-card game on the microsite also offers chances to win the new DVD release.
On Tuesday, the sweepstakes got the live-event treatment at JVC’s retail outlet in Times Square. Street teams from Aspen Marketing Services dressed in evil-clown garb as the Joker’s henchmen and distributed instant-win game cards. At the same time, passersby could their mobile phones to text a keyword to a short code displayed Tuesday on the new high-definition billboard above the entrance to the Times Square JVC outlet. Entrants were asked to send the advertised keyword to a mobile code, then reply to the opt-in response message with the word “CAPTURE” to be entered into the sweepstakes.
Print ads for the JVC sweepstakes in national magazines have also offered the same chance to send a keyword to a mobile short code and be entered for the contest.
Mobile marketing provider HipCricket is managing the mobile component for both the print and live promotions around the “Capture the Joker” sweepstakes. HipCricket brand solutions vice president Steven Siegel says the mobile campaign involves follow-on messaging that gets entrants to supply their email address and agree to future promotions from JVC in return for a few text messages purportedly from the Joker. “We’ve place a mobile call to action in this non-interactive medium [the JVC Times Square billboard] and made it interactive,” Siegel said. “What’s more, JVC now has the opportunity to re-market to these customers, to continue the dialogue beyond the moment where a customer sees a print ad or a cool billboard.”
The new JVC display screen at 43rd and Broadway is itself a technological advance in Times Square. Unveiled only last Dec. 2, the screen is reportedly the area’s first true high-def billboard, offering a 1.15-million pixel count at a resolution of 1280 x 720.
While the screen has been used to showcase JVC products and retail deals since its debut, “Capture the Joker” is the first promotion to make use of the display.
It should become quite an effective promotional platform. According to JVC, Times Square attracts 1.6 million drivers and pedestrians a day and constitutes a destination for 86% of all New York City tourists.
