Acclaim Jams It Home for Newest Video Game

NBA Jam, the most anticipated video-game release of 1994, was made available on March 4, which was declared Jam Day.The action-packed basketball game is Acclaim Entertainment Inc.'s most recent slam-dunk arcade blockbuster to find its way to the home video-game market. Backed by a $10 million Jam It Home marketing campaign, Acclaim Entertainment is hoping that NBA Jam will rival the company's Mortal Monday launch of Mortal Kombat, says Steven Lux, senior marketing manager at Acclaim Entertainment, Oyster Bay, N.Y."We redefined in-store merchandising with the campaign for Mortal Combat," Lux says, "and we've come up with a bigger and better point-of-purchase campaign [for NBA Jam]."The P-O-P materials for NBA Jam are bigger than those created for Mortal Combat, and the placement of these materials has increased. "Those retailers not participating in the Mortal Combat [campaign] realized they were behind the times. We saw a 50 percent increase in dealer participation [for NBA Jam]," Lux notes.NBA Jam is available for Nintendo Super NES and Sega Genesis and Game Gear systems. Players select two superstars from any of the NBA's 27 teams to compete in a two-on-two, full-court basketball game. Larry Johnson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Karl Malone, Dominique Wilkins, Scottie Pippen and Patrick Ewing perform their signature moves, including the Tomahawk and Cannonball dunk. As in the arcade version, players can also utilize the skills of secret celebrity characters that are accessed by special codes.The key display piece for the new video game is a 7-foot corrugated standee. "It's the largest display ever [placed] in retail to promote a video game," Lux boasts. Measuring 36 inches wide, the oversized display can function as a freestanding unit or stand flush against a wall.Other P-O-P materials include 36-inch-by-24-inch vinyl banners, counter cards, basic posters and movie-size posters, as well as two-minute looped videotapes. All of the materials carry the NBA Jam icon seen on print and TV advertising, as well as on the packaging. Many of these pieces arrived in toy stores, mass merchants, electronic, specialty and video stores five weeks prior to the March 4 street date to create excitement.The functional banner promoted the game with a tag noting "Coming March 4." Upon the arrival of Jam Day, this section was removed to reveal "NBA Jam Is Here."The counter card promotes a sweepstakes competition and features a take-one pad. Lux refers to this unit as "a value-added P-O-P display." He says the sweepstakes competition gives the retailer a reason for placing it. It is also an incentive for consumers to give it a second glance.According to Lux, the sweepstakes also results in tremendous word-of-mouth advertising. Consumers tell their friends about the contest and where they entered it. "Major retailers do everything they can to make their store the destination store," he says.Sweepstakes prizes include a trip for two to the 1995 Jam Session during All-Star Weekend, NBA Jam arcade games, Huffy Sports Cyclone basketball systems, Apex One team jackets, NBA Jam Session videos and compact discs from MCA Records.An NBA Jam Kit was made available to consumers who placed orders for the game prior to its release. The kit included a poster featuring game tips, trading cards, a button, a banner, a sticker and a sweepstakes entry form.Designed internally, approximately 20,000 7-foot standees were produced. A total of 200,000 point-of-purchase pieces are available for U.S. distribution. Adding the foreign distribution in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan and Canada, that figure is boosted to 300,000, Lux notes."In-store merchandising closes the sale," Lux says. "You can advertise in video-game magazines and tell [consumers] about the game, but they can't buy it."

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