Retailers Drink in Flexible 'Sideways,' Mondavi Promo

Canandaigua, NY -- To spotlight the DVD release of Sideways, the Academy Award-winning movie that celebrates wine country and the pleasures of pinot noir wine, retailers nationwide are utilizing display presentations that cross-promote the film with Robert Mondavi wines. The joint promotion between Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Beverly Hills, Calif., and Canandaigua Wine Co. (CWC) poured into retail on April 5, the official DVD release date of Sideways.Albertsons, Hannaford, Kroger, Raley's, Safeway and Target are among the retailers featuring displays built from case cards, neckers and tear pads, and which showcase the DVD and Robert Mondavi Private Selection pinot noir and pinot grigio wines. Where legal, the wines have promotional neckers with in-store redeemable coupons for $3 off the DVD (a $5 mail-in rebate is available in some locations), $1 off Pepperidge Farm crackers and $1 off Jarlsberg cheese. The displays include entry forms for a Napa Valley Wine Adventure Sweepstakes (also where legal), whose grand prize is a four-day Sideways tour of Napa Valley.The various display elements allow for a modular in-store approach, from just a few bottles and DVDs to several cases of both. Retailers are placing the displays at front registers and on endcaps, and in wine and/or DVD sections. At press time, 350 displays were featured in Hannaford & Kash n' Karry stores, 300 in Target, 264 in HEB and 90 in Raley's. The displays are intended to last until September, when the Napa Valley Wine Adventure sweepstakes will conclude.Fox Home Entertainment is packaging two million Sideways DVDs with a Robert Mondavi Private Selection insert that includes wine descriptions and a wine quiz. The insert directs consumers to a dedicated website where they can obtain details on the sweepstakes as well as tips on how to host a Sideways-inspired wine-tasting party."The movie helps paint a picture of wine as being fun and approachable and gives us the hook or chance to talk about wine and entertainment," says Rodney Williams, senior vice president of marketing for Canandaigua.What CWC brings to the partnership is enhanced exposure of the new DVD, "to augment the visibility Fox would have received on its own," says Williams.In addition to the P-O-P program, CWC is supporting the release with ads in top U.S. regional newspapers and in leading food and wine magazines. Williams notes that some retailers, like Raley's, have purchased their own full-page ads in local media to underscore the cross-promotion.The displays are important to the joint venture because "P-O-P is a powerful motivator in the consumer decision-making process," says Williams. "We know that a significant percentage of wine shoppers enter stores with an idea of purchasing either red or white, and possibly a brand," he says. "P-O-P that offers them a compelling value is a great vehicle for actually winning the sale. The whole link between this DVD and Robert Mondavi wines is a value-add and very well-suited to P-O-P."The partnership between Fox Home Entertainment and Canandaigua was initiated by CWC's public relations agency, Kaplow Communications, New York, which introduced the two companies and negotiated the deal. Rochester, NY-based Partners and Napier, CWC's in-house design agency, developed all of the in-store elements. After Fox approved final program elements, Canfield Tack, also of Rochester, produced 1,750 case cards, 470,000 neckers and 4,600 tear pads.

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