WARNER SET TO SHINE SPOTLIGHT ON CATALOG

DAN ALAIMO

BURBANK, Calif. -- Warner Home Video here will take advantage of Warner Bros. 75th anniversary next year with a massive promotion of catalog products.

The program will feature 350 titles and will have the support of every Time Warner division, including television, theatrical, publishing and theme parks. "This is an unprecedented support plan for the catalog segment of video," said Mark Horak, vice president of marketing at Warner Home Video.

"This affords the grocery retailer a chance to make some margin on a part of the business that typically has been overlooked," said Ron Sanders, vice president of sales for sell-through. "There will be broadscale awareness everywhere, so if there ever was a time for a grocery account to try catalog, this is it."

The anniversary promotion will be staged on a quarterly basis, with themes keyed to various selling seasons, said Sanders. These are:

"Award Winners" with titles like "Cabaret," "Unforgiven" and "Space Jam," will street Feb. 3, prior to the Academy Awards and Easter.

"Action/Adventure," with titles like "Dirty Harry," "Rio Bravo" and "Twister," will come out May 19, before Father's Day and Memorial Day.

"Family Entertainment," with titles like "Ace Ventura, Pet Detective," "Caddyshack" and "Mars Attacks!," will be released July 28 in time for back-to-school shopping.

"Box Office Superstars," with titles like "The Jazz Singer," "Bridges of Madison County" and the "Batman," "Free Willy" and "Superman" movies, will be out Oct. 13, in the early part of the fourth quarter.

A cornerstone of the support for each will be a series of of four one-hour television documentaries executive-produced by David L. Wolper on Warner Bros.' film history. The titles in each shipper will be keyed to those highlighted in the documentaries.

There also will be limited theatrical re-releases and classic film festivals supported by local advertising and publicity, and national ads on the WB, TBS, TNT, CNN and TCM channels, as well as Time Inc. publications.