ALBERTSONS GIVES POOH MOVIE BIG PROMOTION

Jessica Rothschuh

BOISE, Idaho -- Albertsons joined with Disney, Kodak, Enfamil and Kimberly-Clark in a cross promotion for the release of "Pooh's Heffalump Movie" on DVD and VHS.

While Albertsons is not the only supermarket promoting the late May release, it is "the most ambitious," according to Scott Guthrie, vice president of sales and channel development for Disney's video arm, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Burbank, Calif. Although Safeway, Pleasanton, Calif., and Kroger, Cincinnati, also promoted the movie with Disney, Guthrie noted that Albertsons had the most partners.

For Disney's marketing team, supermarkets are an obvious choice for collaboration. "That's where our consumer is," Guthrie said. "In supermarkets, the target market is mom with children, so that's why we're so successful in this class of trade -- the target markets are exactly aligned." Albertsons declined to comment on the promotion.

When "strategic partners" offer their resources and No. 1 brands to a marketing program, it creates a "bigger and better" promotion for everyone involved, said Jana Collier, customer marketing director, Kimberly-Clark, Neenah, Wis.

Compared to similar promotions, this one does have a few "extra components," said Leslie Baker, vice president of sales, Ingram Entertainment, La Vergne, Tenn. These extras include multiple tie-in offers from Albertsons, and Disney's "customizable coupon" that allows customers to save on their choice of several available tie-in partners with a movie purchase.

The supermarkets are great marketing partners for the studios, Baker said. "The ability to cross promote with grocery and general merchandise items gives [studios] the opportunity to compete with mass merchant pricing while offering the consumer additional savings on items they are looking for in the grocery store."

"It's always hard to predict the success of a program," Baker said. "But this promotion certainly has all the components: a great movie from Disney/BVHE, tie-in partners that specifically speak to the demographic of the title and an aggressive retailer who is committed to the video category."

The marketing plan included multiple ads with a $3 coupon for Huggies Diapers with the purchase of the movie; in-store display cards, shelf cards and tear-off pads; and public relations for the offer.

The promotion also included a customized Disney shipper with a $1 coupon for Kodak Max Flash two-pack cameras and a $3 coupon for Huggies diapers, Pull-Ups Training Pants and Goodnites Underpants.

Albertsons also sent a shipper, cross indexing Enfamil's customer database against the retailer's loyalty card database to create a mailing list comprised of 50% card holders and 50% households with children up to 6 months who live within three miles of a store.

The partnerships helped Disney attain more promotional activity than it would have spending the same amount of money alone, Guthrie said. "It was a very strong consumer offering, and that's really what it's all about."

All 2,500 Albertsons, Acme, Jewel, Osco Drug, Save-On and Shaw's stores participated in the promotion.