Fuji Expects to Score Again With NFL Promotion

Fuji Photo Film U.S.A. Inc., Elmsford, N.Y., has entered its seventh season as the "Official Video and Audio Tape" of the National Football League with its "Toughest of the Tough" merchandising campaign.The consumer promotion features a national FSI (freestanding insert) with $1-off coupons and a mail-in offer for a free football video film. The promotion will be communicated at the point-of-sale with more than 30,000 NFL-marked floor displays, take-one pads, counter cards and product stickers.Five configurations of the company's standard, two-color corrugated video tape and audio tape floor displays are decorated with four-color E-flute headers announcing the NFL mail-in offer. The displays began shipping Aug. 19. A take-one pad on the NFL-themed headers offers redemption details. When consumers buy Fuji tape products and mail in their proofs-of-purchase, they receive "The NFL's 100 Toughest Players" video (retail value $19.95) free. New for 1996, the video features a collection of new and classic NFL action and profiles some of the all-time toughest players in NFL history.Specific Fuji video and audio multipacks will carry stickers flagging the free NFL video offer and also provide consumers with complete redemption details.Coupons for Fuji video and audio tape products running in an Oct. 6 NFL-Game-Day FSI will help drive consumers to the NFL-themed products and displays. The 30-page FSI will reach more than 45 million households nationwide. The Fuji coupons are worth $1 off three or more VHS, VHS-C or 8mm videocassettes, and $1 off four or more audiocassettes.The NFL has also secured an arrangement with Actmedia Inc., Norwalk, Conn., to advertise the FSI and its participating products on 400,000 shopping carts in 8,100 stores across the U.S. The four-week Actmedia promotion runs Oct. 7 through Nov. 3."The shopping cart advertising is an added bonus to our NFL affiliation," explains Joe Vaughey, product manager for Fuji's consumer video tape division. He adds that the NFL secured the Actmedia contract as a draw to get more NFL sponsors to participate in the FSI.Vaughey stresses the promotional impact of being associated with the NFL: "NFL surveys show that 8 million people follow football, more than any other sport, and that the NFL logo is recognized by more than 90 percent of consumers," he says. "Eighty percent of consumers believe NFL-associated products are of the highest quality and 64 percent think products associated with the NFL are superior to competitive products that aren't."He adds that the NFL merchandising campaign by Fuji in the fall of 1995 grew the company's tape business by 25 percent over the previous year.Vaughey reports that Fuji's 1996 NFL merchandising strategy is to utilize Fuji's merchandising and display strengths in a promotional execution; provide additional trade incentive by providing NFL-themed product displays, P-O-P materials and other trade programs; focus promotional emphasis on the quality of Fuji products and the quality associated with being affiliated with the NFL; and generate consumer awareness and multiple purchase through the popular October Game Day FSI and multi-faceted in-store consumer promotion.Equinox Packaging, Edison, N.J., manufactured the two-color display base used in this promotion and in other merchandising programs year-round. The units are intended to last up to six months and are pre-packed and fitted into a shipper. Retailers simply kick open the base and slide in the stock.The NFL-themed header was designed by Ken Kelly Associates, Irvington, N.Y., and printed by Daytona Press, White Plains, N.Y. These two companies also produced the 5-inch-wide by 12-inch-high by 9-inch-deep (with easel in place) NFL-themed counter card, which resembles the headers and holds a take-one pad.Fuji's NFL-themed display materials are targeted primarily to mass merchants, supermarkets and drugstores. They are also being distributed to warehouse clubs, which are now receiving pallets of videocassette multipacks pre-stickered with the NFL offer. For added visual impact, the header and tear-pad used in the 100-piece floor unit accompanies each pallet.Of the dozens of companies involved in authorized NFL promotions this year, Fuji is one of nine sponsors with official product designation, as well as total exclusivity at the team level. The nine companies are permitted to run corporate and retail promotions specifying themselves as official sponsors of the NFL. They and their retailers may also advertise their merchandise as the official product of the Jets, Giants or any other NFL football team.

P2PI MEMBERS

JOIN P2PI

You May Also Like

In-Store Experience: BJ’s Wholesale Club

Snickers Helps NFL Fans Bring Their Teams Good Luck