RALEY'S, BEL AIR RUN JOINT SELL-THROUGH AD

DAN ALAIMO

SACRAMENTO -- Raley's and Bel Air Markets joined forces to advertise the sell-through video release of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." This is the first time that the two companies have worked together to promote video, although they have run joint ads for other categories. Bel Air is owned by Raley's, but operates as a separate company. "We started doing it because we are owned by the same people," said Dan Black, buyer at Raley's. "It is something we will be doing all the time in the future." The color, full-page ad ran in the main news section of the Sacramento daily newspaper Oct. 26, said Rick Ang, director of video operations for Bel Air. The advertised price of the video was $16.99 -- just above the minimum advertised price of $16.95 -- with availability on Oct. 28. "The key is efficient use of advertising dollars," said Ang. "Instead of both of us running ads, we can run one dual-logo ad," said Black. "We have similar stores and we carry many of the same products, so it is definitely a cost savings." Ang said Raley's proposed the two-company approach after seeing a similar ad Bel Air ran for "Jurassic Park." "Raley's was really impressed with that and said they wanted to be in on the next one. So when we did 'Snow White,' we included them, and we are looking forward to probably doing it again for 'The Lion King,' " he said.