POLYGRAM AT THE PLATE

DAN ALAIMO

NEW YORK -- PolyGram Video is stepping up to the plate with Major League Baseball videos.

Following the announcement of its five-year video agreement with professional baseball, PolyGram begins rolling out new products this month. This will be the beginning of a comprehensive marketing program that will include repositioning, repackaging, local and regional advertising, and a "Bring It Home Retailer Promotion" that will involve supermarket chains in many individual markets.

"We are going to try and work with baseball to try and create programs specific to the grocery marketplace because we feel that is a good environment for sports video," said Sal Scamardo, senior director of specialty programming at PolyGram Video, which is headquartered here.

The Bring It Home Retailer Promotion will link local supermarket chains, radio stations and, in some cases, Fox television affiliates and third-party licensees, such as apparel companies, he said. "The Bring It Home Retailer promotion provides us that basic opportunity to bring in the local marketing effort and bring in the local retailer. They can feel like they are a part of the baseball experience. The key message is always to build traffic in terms of selling the title on air and getting somebody to go into a particular store to find it and buy it," said Scamardo.

"You've got a great situation in baseball, because you've got 30 individual marketing departments around the country all marketing their game, their team and their experience, and they have their own sponsors and relationships. Now PolyGram can come in and offer additional value to that marketing," he said.

"For example, you may find in Denver the team has King Soopers as a sponsor and we may be able to create something for that grocery environment that would speak specifically to that market," he said.

PolyGram's strategy for increasing baseball's 7% share of the sports video category is based on a model that it has employed successfully on behalf of National Football League videos, said Scamardo. "Seven years ago, NFL film was in a very similar place in the marketplace. But today the NFL has a share of over 25% in the sports category, along with the best-selling sports videos in the last couple of years and a very dynamic catalog of some 70 to 80 titles," he said.

"Supermarkets are really key to much of the expansion and growth in sports. We are really trying to focus our energies on putting programs together beyond the occasional media tie-in," said Scamardo.

The two titles coming out this month have a broad, national focus: "Unforgettable Finishes" and "Greatest World Series Moments." Two more are scheduled for next month: "Super Sluggers 2" and "Even More Unbelievable." A music-themed title, "MLBeat," is on the schedule for early July, in time for the All-Star Game, and the rush-released "Official 1998 World Series Home Video" will come out in November.

"The first two titles are going to be great for supermarkets because they provide a lot of action. They feature Ozzie Smith, who is the host of 'This Week in Baseball.' Graphically, they are of a quicker pace and they are very collectible. They feature about the last 20 years of material, so they are not going so far back that people are not going to remember," he said.

Supermarkets can leverage the market opportunities PolyGram presents by merchandising both baseball and football videos, said Scamardo. "There is an opportunity for us to actually cross sell with NFL at retail. Now that we have two of the biggest sports brands out there, we have an opportunity to create special sports displays for retail," he said.

"By having a home video presence for NFL and baseball in the supermarket environment, it is a terrific impulse purchase and it can also create a party atmosphere. We are trying to create a tailgate marketing strategy for grocery where video can be a part of that purchasing for whatever event you are planning at home," he said

"Obviously, there is a lot of marketing synergy there too that the leagues can give us. Whether it is on-pack on potato chips or rebate campaigns with shaving cream, we can offer that up to a grocery retailer and hopefully create some traffic," he said.