Wish Lists
Funny that both keynote speakers at this year’s Star Power in Hollywoodspent more time bemoaning the promotional opportunities that slipped awaythan the successful tie-ins they’ve negotiated.
Speaking on the first day of the Promotion Marketing Association’s annualentertainment marketing conference and schmooze-fest, Miramax Filmspresident Mark Gill discussed the difficulty of finding marketing partnersfor literate-minded movies like Shakespeare in Love and Life Is Beautiful -both Academy Award winners this year for Miramax.
Gill gently admonished brand marketers for gravitating toward the “eventfilms” that blot the box office landscape, warning that “bad blockbustersdon’t do as well as they used to. In licensing, you may be able to stickwith the event films. But for promotion, you may need to do somethingdifferent,” he suggested, urging brands to “keep a broad view of what ismarketable. If you want to play it safe, wait for the [theatrical release]and then jump all over the video.”
Gill did praise apparel maker Tommy Hilfiger, which practically served ascostume designer for Miramax’s The Faculty last fall, and spiked itsback-to-school sales with a tie-in campaign that preceded the film’srelease by four months.
Recent films from DreamWorks SKG have also been short on promotionalpartners, principal Jeffrey Katzenberg playfully grieved while keynotingthe conference’s second day. Last fall’s animated hit, Antz, featured ahost of product placements, but “we didn’t get paid for it,” he said.
For the Christmas release The Prince of Egypt, “we tried every which way tofind promotions that we could do. [But] when you’re dealing with the Bible,ultimately, you do have to answer to a higher authority,” Katzenberg said.(Although a product package containing a CD, book, lithograph, and two freemovie tickets sold exclusively through Wal-Mart distributed more thanmillion tickets, according to a DreamWorks spokesperson.)
Animation has a strong future in Hollywood, and promotional tie-ins have astrong future in animation, where you don’t have to worry “if Mr. Big MovieStar is going to like his face on that action figure,” Katzenberg said.Animation is particularly suited for product placement “when it belongs,”he added, promising that DreamWorks will be “making up for lost time” withtwo animated releases next year, The Road to El Dorado and Chicken Run.
LOOKING BACK AND FORWARDStar Power’s agenda also featured a case study of Lincoln Mercury’s tie-inwith Paramount’s The Rugrats Movie last fall, and an overview of the scoreof partners partying with Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, releasedby New Line Cinema last month.
Lincoln Mercury wanted a property with long-term potential to help relaunchits Villager minivan to young families, and found it by joining Paramountfor the Rugrats theatrical and video releases, according to John Csernotta,central marketing communications manager.
Efforts for the theatrical release included animated TV spots, activitiesat 40 auto shows, and P-O-P and how-to guides for dealers. Across-promotion with J.C. Penney ran a national sweeps in 1,900 stores.Most impressive was an in-theater program that had hundreds of managerscreating displays, staging contests, and hosting parades featuring Rugratscharacters and Villagers.
For the March video release, an in-pack sweeps dangled a Villager (and letLincoln Mercury collect data), and a 200,000-piece mail drop offered a freevideo with a test drive.
Villager sales are up 34% in 1999, said John Csernotta, central marketingcommunications manager. And Rugrats became the first non-Disney animatedfilm to break $100 million at the box office.
Conference attendees were aware of the heavy media play surrounding theAustin Powers sequel long before New Line and its partners took the stageat the conference. Virgin Atlantic’s tie-in efforts were on billboards nearL.A. Airport and all over the radio.
The presentation was still impressive because, like the film’s titularcharacter, the promotional program is not subtle. New Line vp-promotionsMary Goss Robino said her phone rang off the hook with marketers looking tohook in.
Judging by the size of the partner list, she returned a lot of calls too.The roster includes Mott’s (see Campaign Trail), M&M/Mars, Big Boyrestaurants (in-store promos and media advertising), First USA (acommemorative titanium card), MTV, TBS, TV Land, Comedy Central, Wheel ofFortune, Lifestyle Condoms, the National Fluid Milk Processors Board (MilkMustache ads and a collectible phonecard via People), and PhilipsElectronics’ (in-store gifts-with-purchase and TV spots).
Now that’s a promo bag, baby.
Jeffrey Katzenberg had good reason to lament the lack of paid placements inDreamWorks’ fall release, Antz. If the studio had so desired, it could haveturned the film’s pivotal scenes in Insectopia into an animated Sam’s Club.
PROMO counted eight obvious brand placements in those scenes, includingblatant plugs for Slice, Kendall Motor Oil, B&G Pickles, and Mr. Goodbar; ahalf-dozen other obscured product labels could easily have been made morerecognizable without souring the movie’s artistic integrity.
PepsiCo benefited the most, with cans of Pepsi and Mountain Dew loominglike Twin Towers over an entire scene. Reebok scored big, too, with a pairof sneakers – logos clearly visible, but the brand name missing – thatlogged more screen time than 1999 Best Supporting Actress Judi Dench.
MONKEYBONE (Twentieth Century Fox)Estimated Release Date: Summer 2000
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Whoopi Goldberg, Bridget Fonda, Chris Kattan
Top Line: A supernatural adventure told through a combination oflive-action photography and stop-motion animation. The story centers on acomic-strip creator and the fantasy world he plays out in his mind after acar crash leaves him in a coma.
ANOTHER GOOFY MOVIE (Buena Vista Home Video)Estimated Release Date: February 2000
Starring: Voices of Bill Farmer, Jason Marsden, Vicki Lewis, Bebe Neuwirth,Pauly Shore, Cree Summer
Top Line: Goofy and his teenage son, Max, hit the road to higher educationin a full-length, direct-to-video release. The pair learn the ultimatelesson – how to live their own lives and still be father and son – afterfinding themselves unknowingly enrolled at the same college.
NEXT FRIDAY (New Line Cinema)Estimated Release Date: December 1999
Starring: Ice Cube, Mike Epps
Top Line: The sequel to 1995’s Friday finds Craig (Cube) forced to move outof his neighborhood and stay with his cousins, who have relocated tosuburbia after winning a lottery.
THE PATRIOT (Columbia Pictures)Estimated Release Date: Summer 2000
Starring: Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger
Top Line: A father fights to protect his family and his way of life duringthe Revolutionary War, and along the way discovers the pain of betrayal,the redemption of revenge, and the powerful passion of true love duringAmerica’s quest for independence.
For more Hot Properties, check out the L.A. Office Web site atwww.laoffice.com.
Warner Bros. Worldwide Consumer Products president Dan Romanelli signed anew long-term contract and expanded his responsibilities to include acquiring properties suitable for licensing and merchandising franchises.New Line Cinema named Joe Nimziki president of theatrical marketing to replaceCheryl Boone Isaacs, who will consult for the studio until her contractexpires at the end of ’99.
Motorsport merchandise maker Action Performance Companies, Phoenix, AZ,named former Coca-Cola executive Howard Jacobs senior vp-worldwidemarketing and business development.
Phyllis Ehrlich was named vp-promotions marketing for Cartoon Network Sales& Marketing.
Children’s network BKN, New York City, tapped former Harvey EntertainmentCo. exec Carol McGovney to be senior vp-U.S. licensing and merchandising.
Ad agency Creative Domain, Los Angeles, named former DreamWorks marketingexec Peter Adee and former MGM/UA creative advertising head Tom Kennedy asco-presidents.
Warner Bros. Studio Stores named David Clark vp of e-commerce, putting himin charge of both the technical and marketing sides of the Web business.O
