Entertainment giants in DVD blitz
Warner Home Video, Toshiba and Blockbuster have launched a joint promotion, backed by a &£2m advertising campaign, to push the Digital Video Disk (DVD) format in the run up to Christmas.
The promotion involves Toshiba slashing the price of its entry point DVD player – the SD2109B – by &£100 to &£299. When consumers buy the model, or any other Toshiba DVD player, they receive three free Warner DVD titles – US Marshals starring Tommy Lee Jones, Mel Gibson’s Lethal Weapon 4, and Contact with Jodie Foster.
Blockbuster completes the package by giving the consumer ten free rentals of DVD titles at its stores. The promotion runs from October to the end of December.
The offer is backed by a &£2m TV and national print advertising campaign, which begins in October.
The creative work is produced by a US agency, and modified for the European market by UK agency Lipsync. The consortium of companies is looking for a media agency to place the ads.
DVD (sometimes referred to as Digital Versatile Disk) was launched in the UK in 1997, and in the US the year before. The consortium says the DVD market will be worth &£56m this year and estimates this will rise to &£150m by 2001.
