Category Report: Entertainment P-O-P

If the lights are brighter on Broadway, and Hollywood is the glamour capital of the world, the point-of-purchase strategies to sell their latest movies, DVDs, CDs and games should be just as over-the-top glitzy. But the trend, insiders assure, isn't playing out that way. This is an industry that has matured and flattened, with manufacturers saying the growth isn't there like it used to be."In essence, it depends on the studio, but overall, display productions are being downsized," says Tom Hester, president of Cornerstone Display Group in San Fernando, CA. "Instead of going for the big, grandiose, elaborate type of presentations, some studios are simplifying, and it's being driven a lot by budgets," he adds. "Gone are the days of sending out 20,000 standees or mobiles. I don't think anyone's done a mobile in years."With its Sept. 26 release of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Universal Studios Home Entertainment stopped supplying in-store posters for films that earned more than $60 million at the box office. After all, National Entertainment Buying Group president Todd Zaganiacz pointed out in a recent Video Business article, "Mass merchants get their own type of marketing support." And more proof of an ailing market, NBC Universal recently announced that it will cut 700 jobs by 2008 and will restructure its primetime television lineup for less costly, reality-type programming.The second major shift in the industry is a bit more subtle. Today, big box retailers hold the power and Hollywood marketers play the role of beggar. Although large enough to avoid paying placement fees, studios nonetheless report that their creativity must be tempered by practical issues like a store's own branding colors, sight lines and overall aesthetic preferences.So, when the going gets tough, marketing relies on what it does best: creativity. Welcome to the era of customized partnerships.Building BlocksAt least 99% of the materials Hester produces for his clients use traditional corrugate, which is just fine with Michael Gottsegen, vice president of retail development for Universal Studios Consumer Products Group, Universal City, CA. As he notes, it's sturdy enough to hold the product -- particularly after passing the studios' ship and weight tests -- and it won't be in the store long enough to wear out. At most, he asks to have the bottom of his displays coated to stand up to the water from a mop. Most are pallets or mini-pallets, prepacked with merchandise to cut down on assembly time.But "corrugated" can't be synonymous with "boring" on today's consumer front lines. Warner Home Video jazzed up its P-O-P display for the 40th anniversary of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas limited edition DVD for the 2006 holiday season with header cards flocked in red velvet on the Grinch's shirt and hat. White glitter sparkles call attention to the snow scene, and the background consists of embossing and foil. "Four different processes happening on one header card," says Jennifer Dunlap, vice president of visual merchandising, creative services at Warner Home Video, Burbank, CA. "We're pushing the envelope a little more."At the other extreme, some marketers are breaking away from tactile displays entirely. According to Mike Ribero, CEO of Redwood City, CA-based Reactrix, an Arbitron study in August 2005 revealed that only 4% of consumers actually notice the printed, backlit displays that tend to be more predominant in malls, retail and theater venues. Only 13% paid attention to the newer forms of digital signage such as flat-panel plasma television screens. But 49% were attracted to an interactive floor display that his company provides."Marketers need to find a way to break through just to get the consumer's attention before they move on to any subsequent task in the marketing chain," Ribero says. "Unless you are able to capture their imaginations, the likelihood is that whatever marketing materials you deploy will go for naught."Certainly that explains why HolograFx, Saddlebrook, NJ, found success in June using holograms to create a virtual Superman soaring from a Pepsi can as part of that movie's promotional partnership. The displays debuted in 25 Kroger stores in the Cincinnati area. "The challenge is always for floor space, but we only take about 4 square feet, so it's not bad," says Eric Brown, CEO. Directional sound ensures only folks standing within the hologram's field of vision can listen to the accompanying sweepstakes information.Companies like Toronto's GestureTek and Reactrix are upping the ante using turnkey systems that mount a computer-driven projector in the ceiling to create interactive scenes literally at consumers' feet. This technology lets consumers step on characters from Fantastic Four and trigger animated fire, ice and water effects. For an Aeon Flux floor cling, shoppers activate rolling balls that eventually explode and start the movie's trailer.GestureTek president and co-founder Vincent John Vincent isn't surprised malls and movie theaters have embraced it. "They can obviously be any size, and they don't block people's sight lines. It's a very powerful medium," he says.At the present, music CDs enjoy the best sell-through from this P-O-P approach, but Ribero chalks those numbers up to the fact the market peddles more CDs overall. DVD movies rank second and video games third. The future, however, should look entirely different. "In terms of year over year increases, you'll see the most growth on the video game side, because there isn't a viable alternative distribution mechanism for that medium," he explains.Store PowerLanding Wal-Mart's special promotion backing is considered the Holy Grail of distribution in the entertainment category, but as Gottsegen admits, the king of retail doesn't pick that many movie titles to bless with a callout in an endcap or a lobby display. That leaves the door wide open for other big-box stores like Target, Meijer, Circuit City and Best Buy to jump on an opportunity to shine, he says.For example, Meijer created a freestanding island combining general merchandise, consumables and soft lines when Universal released Cat in the Hat to the home video market. Between the sweepstakes, signage and balloons, Gottsegen describes the final effect as "compelling." "An independent could really enhance your brand, but obviously if a major gets involved, you'll sell a lot more merchandise," he compares the two.Which means the grocery channel is still a viable one for entertainment producers, although Gottsegen describes acceptance here as "a lot tougher. We almost have to incorporate our brand into their initiatives." It helps to approach a grocery store chain with a packaged-good partner on board to present a complementary program, a la Willy Wonka Snack Cakes and copies of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory."This isn't like a mass account or electronics where they take in everything," Dunlap says. To increase Warner's placement chances, her studio created a pole topper that holds six units and sits on the counter or straps to the check-out register pole with zip ties. She typically sends four into each account to hold a total of 24 DVDS spread throughout the store, and has sold out the stock every time. Dunlap credits the fact that the pole toppers use precious little space and offer creative placement other titles can't compete with.Another way to get placement is to create a different P-O-P experience for each major retailer. Each account usually starts with prepacks and pallets (half, full or quarter), but that's where similarities end. Sizes differ -- a grocery store might get a slimmer footprint while an electronics chain receives a four-sided display.And certainly appearance varies widely as well. Take King Kong, released in late March, for instance. Wal-Mart had a different P-O-P package than Toys "R" Us, even though both sold Kong merchandise along with the DVD. "Whether it's signage or promotional materials, it's always different," says Gottsegen. The volume tests a marketing department's creativity, "but that's one of the benefits of working with a larger studio. We have the capability to really tailor," he adds.Dunlap says sometimes placement depends on individual store choices. "We ship the stuff and some stores really get into it," she says. Cameron Douglas, vice president of retail marketing for Paramount Home Entertainment, Hollywood, CA, has picked up on the same trend. His War of the Worlds P-O-P -- 16-foot-tall corrugated replicas of the movie's alien invaders -- defied conventional chain policies for height and sight lines, yet his trade show booth was packed with individual store managers inquiring how to get one."We are the companies that bring entertainment to the retailers, and the retailers who get that are the ones that are most successful," Douglas says.A DVD BonanzaDouglas' experience has taught him that the prepack display is, more than ever, the most important element in the store from a P-O-P standpoint. "The buttons, posters and standees are old school now," he says. "The success rate at getting them sold in and compliance is getting lower and lower. You can't do that rogue, 'Hey, let's send in a 20-foot standee to every store and gee, maybe some of them will put it up because they are so cool.' The one thing we do want to get placed is the product, so that display needs to speak better."In other words, what was yesterday's transportation vehicle has become today's communication megaphone. Subsequently, Paramount Home Entertainment dropped the name "retail promotions department" in favor of "retail marketing" and expanded the employee ranks there fourfold to keep up with retailers' expectations.Universal's Gottsegen managed to add motion, sound and lights to his King Kong displays to create a compelling magnet. "Sound seems to get consumers' attention to walk over, but motion persuades them to take the DVD out of the display," he notes.Graphics, too, must go beyond the expected. In the past five years, he says he has upped his use of metallic inks, 3-D logos and cut-outs as opposed to merely a picture printed on a piece of corrugated. Reproducing movie scenes quite often is a hit for DVD displays in store lobbies.To achieve this quality level, P-O-P manufacturers like Scott Eisen, president of Ideal in Chicago, have invested in acid trays to handle single-face lamination. Instead of labeling a sheet of corrugated, the label is applied during the actual corrugation process to create a better quality picture more cost-efficiently and in a faster time frame. "You can't say, like you used to in this industry, 'Well, it's a temporary corrugated display, the graphics are fine.' The graphics have to be fantastic, they have to pop," says Eisen.Family TimeFamily movies naturally lend themselves to what Douglas calls "eventizing" or creating accompanying in-store activities with fun characters all ages enjoy. "It's easy to do coloring pages for Over the Hedge. What would you do for some of the live-action titles?"Yet that dilemma led to what he considers his coup in the last year: the 16-foot-tall tripod alien made of corrugated wrapped around plastic framing to create a lightweight skeleton creature towering above a store's DVD section as part of the studio's War of the Worlds marketing efforts.As a literal tripod, the standees spanned 12 feet from each leg and lit up at the top. Douglas' goal was to entice shoppers to hang out under the creature and take photos of friends there. Store checks revealed folks were doing just that, and many managers installed the DVDs underneath the P-O-P to encourage the interaction.True, only flagship stores and big city locations could take advantage of the offer, "but every once in a while you maybe can break out of the box and do something fabulous and crazy," says Douglas.Dunlap names Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as Warner's most successful P-O-P in the past 12 months, but she stresses that all of the studio's displays keep children in mind when selecting images. "We don't want to put horror monsters or scary things on displays," she notes.Meanwhile, more CPG brands are coming to the table willing to partner with children's titles. Hostess and Over the Hedge are the latest team to tempt kids twice. And again, account-specific preferences are putting their stamp in this area as well. "Soft drink companies, for example, can't do the same thing at Albertsons and Kroger," Douglas says, "so a national promotion doesn't help them."Of course, such collaborations aren't newsworthy in themselves, but the fact that each side is getting pickier has caught Douglas' attention. Even the venerated McDonald's-Disney duo divorced, opening the playing field for partnerships in the industry. "Quick service restaurants in general are one of the most successful ways you can market a family DVD release outside the walls of traditional retail," he adds. At press time, Douglas is optimistic Paramount and DreamWorks will be the biggest beneficiary of the McDonald's-Disney bust-up.The Show Must Go OnBut more suits and briefcases in the conference room demand more coordination -- already a tricky proposition to marketers striving to get P-O-P into retail stores nationwide on the same day. Ideal's Scott Eisen says the timelines are so tight -- for example, Paramount's licensing group has been working on Shrek 3 since fall of 2005, and the movie won't hit the big screens until May 2007 -- that he asks to work with his clients sooner than he previously did in the creative process. "You end up working on more projects that don't become live," he says is the drawback.Studios are also enforcing street-date violations on DVD P-O-P -- set out a display before its time, and your store could find itself shut out of receiving future orders for blockbusters like Batman Begins, says Dunlap. Warner does its fair share to reduce both temptation and human error by seeing the goodies arrive as few days in advance as possible. Ideally, that translates to the Friday before a Tuesday release "because stores don't like weekend deliveries, and if we waited until Monday, and it doesn't show up, we have a problem," she notes.The Sound of MusicGreg Bays claims he can't rely on P-O-P to serve as his competitive advantage any longer. When the senior vice president of sales for EMI CMG Distribution in Brentwood, TN, walks into an account, he needs a great plan for sell-through tucked under his arm if he wants to secure the best position in the stores."P-O-P used to be a lot about image and creativity, but increasingly you hear people call it 'the silent salesman,' " he says. "I'm starting to see retailers add what is more or less sales copy to the P-O-P when it used to be just 'includes the hit single' language."Roughly half of EMI's business comes from the Christian retail space, the other 50% from the general market. Yet Bays sings the same song in both venues that his brethren are humming with DVDs: "It's increasingly rare that we do extensive P-O-P on any release. It's generally customized to the needs of the specific retailer," he assures. Furthermore, a new artist isn't likely to enjoy an extended P-O-P package, and individual artists rarely snag an endcap or even a display to themselves. This category prefers "best of" compilations spotlighting several performers in hip-hop, worship, etc.If the customization trend seems labor-intensive on the DVD side, consider music's score: A vast majority of stores belonging to the Christian Booksellers Association walk and talk like a bookstore, with CDs accounting for 15% of their business. They tend to shelve their music merchandise like books, spine out to read the title. That approach leads CBA stores to focus heavily on endcaps, but the dimensions need to conform to standard measurements, never exceeding more than 2 feet wide.CBA stores also want their P-O-P displays to hone on how the music on the CDs speaks to consumers' faith. It's not uncommon for EMI to highlight answers to implied questions such as "What does this artist see as his mission?" and "Is there a theme running through this album?" on the endcaps.Christian retailers have begun to delve into the pay-to-play arena as well, but in a more indirect way. Where the general market is blunt -- "My feature space is for sale. Wanna buy?" -- CBA owners offer promotional programs that feature four elements including P-O-P positioning, sampling slots and external advertising.EMI has seen just one impact from the iTunes downloading explosion: He makes sure to call out hit singles, since the download culture is singles-driven. "What's being promoted in the digital space is generally what's being promoted in the physical space as well," he adds. "A number of retailers don't want to mention what's going on in digital for fear they'll encourage even more people to take that route. We come alongside both and try to support them with the promotions they need."Like DVDs, CD P-O-P requirement demand more advanced planning than a decade ago. "You have to understand what the retailers are planning and figure out how to make sure your title is the best option they have for that space," says Bays. "It's not simple, but it does boil down to that."

Category Report: Entertainment P-O-P

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