Sensing the need to step up promotional efforts behind the Blu-ray Disc format heading into the critical holiday selling season, a group of hardware manufacturers and studios have pooled their resources on a "multimillion-dollar" television, print and online advertising campaign, billed as the largest for the format so far.
"Before we were really targeting the early adopter [with Blu-ray] but now the time is right to really go broad," said Rich Marty, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment new business development VP. "The [PlayStation3] is coming out at $399 now, and while some of purchasers will be into games, we believe a lot more of them will also really be into movies."
The ads reference the quality of full HD 1080, Marty said, and features players and sets that don't focus on any particular brand to remain fair to the three supporting equipment manufactures.
Companies backing the project include hardware manufacturers Sony, Panasonic and Philips, and Blu-ray-backing studios include Walt Disney Studio Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Lions Gate and Warner Home Video.
Magazines targeted in the effort include all of the A/V specialty publications, and mostly entertainment and sports-focused publications including Entertainment Weekly, Sports Illustrated, Maxim, GQ, Fortune and others.
Handled as "a branding campaign," key retailers starting with Target and Wal-Mart are tagged at the end of the first TV spots, Marty said, but other dealers will be included as the ads continue their run.
Retailers will also be supplied with point of sale material, including informational brochures that explain the benefits of Blu-ray, 1080p and the hit movies available.
I am not at all a supporter of HD-DVD but "I Do Blu" has to be one of the stupidest names for an ad campaign I've ever heard.
Just have HD DVD pushing up daisies!
b)
marketing for the holidays.
i still prefer
'Entertainment like.no.other'
But hey 'I do blu' is actually really catchy
Heh, it just seems so desperate, rather than anything else.