HEMDALE 'PRINCESS' TO GET CROSS-PROMOTION

DAN ALAIMO

LOS ANGELES -- Hemdale Home Video will get strong cross-promotional support from Hershey's and General Mills for its upcoming sell-through release of "The Princess and the Goblin." The 82-minute animated feature will be released on Aug. 23 at a suggested retail price of $24.95. Preorder date is Aug. 2. Consumers can get a $5 rebate when buying "Princess" along with two bags of Hershey packaged or snack-size chocolate candy, or two boxes of General Mills Kix cereal. The offers will be good until March 31, 1995 and cannot be combined. "With 'The Princess and the Goblin' cross-promoted with these top selling products, it can only result in big sales for retailers, and for the title as well," said Susan Isaacs, Hemdale's vice president of marketing. This is Hemdale's biggest marketing campaign ever for a title, she noted. "Our target customer base is the same as Hershey's and General Mills' at the supermarket level," she said. The video and Hershey's will be advertised on the front page of a 200-newspaper free-standing insert on Aug. 28 that will reach 57 million households, said Isaacs. "Everyone will see it whether they look at coupons or not," she said. "Princess" will be featured prominently on Kix cereal boxes from September to December, she added. The front of the boxes will carry a flag highlighting the rebate offer, while there will be a cut-out poster on the back and a rebate coupon on the side panel, she said. National television ads will promote the video and the rebate offers, as will point-of-purchase materials and merchandisers, said Isaacs. "With all of that happening simultaneously, we feel that it will create a lot of consumer excitement, which will result in sales for the supermarkets," she said. "We are also coordinating our sales efforts with the sales staffs of Hershey's and General Mills. They all will sit down together with supermarket executives to coordinate end-cap display reservations and co-op advertising efforts. Coordinating those efforts is extremely important to us," she said. Some big video cross-promotions in the past have fizzled for lack of such cooperation in the field, noted industry observers. "I think that the supermarkets will be thrilled to see that we have lined up two products that should result in big sales, and that we are all working together. Of the retailers we have talked to so far, the response has been terrific," said Isaacs. Hemdale is hoping for sales of over 3 million units on the title, she said.