TISSUES AND TITLES: PERFECT TOGETHER

JOHN KAROLEFSKI

To celebrate 70 years of classic films, MGM/UA Home Entertainment is partnering with Kimberly-Clark Corp. and its Kleenex brand facial tissues, also in its 70th year. The films in the promotion are "The Wizard of Oz," "Singin' in the Rain," "West Side Story," "Moonstruck," "The Cutting Edge" and "Benny and Joon."

"The Kleenex brand has built on the tradition of quality, which is one reason were are so pleased to share billing with some of the best movies of our time," says Dennis Lahey, director of advertising and promotion at Kimberly-Clark, Dallas. Consumers receive a $5 rebate by mail when they buy one of the titles and four Kleenex brand facial tissue products. Forms for the rebate, valid through Jan. 31, are packed inside each videocassette. To promote the offer inside stores, Santa Monica, Calif.-based MGM/UA used shelf talkers, tear pads, and 12-, 24- and 48-piece merchandisers. Kleenex created two in-store displays that have Kleenex products in place and can accommodate either the 24- or the 48-piece MGM merchandisers. With such a joining of product lines, the obvious question is where to place the in-store displays -- in the paper aisle or in the video department? "The best placement is the highest possible traffic area," says Richard Cohen, president of MGM/UA Home Entertainment, "not confined to a paper aisle or any other aisle. From our point of view, we always like it to be the highest visibility location in the store. Ideally, the near the checkstand. That's very valuable space, and everybody wants their product there. But if it's good, it'll work anywhere."

So far, the promotion has paid off.

"The results have been exciting for us," says Kimberly Wertz, vice president of marketing at MGM/UA. "We've seen a great result from marrying a high-volume product like Kleenex with a high-margin product like video in a store environment. It's created tremendous display capabilities for us where we've had great endcap positioning."