Ray-Ban- Men In Black December 1997 Anatomy of a Hit How Ray-Ban's Jon Gieselman eyed up the movie tie-in of the year It was so good it had to be easy. Even before Men in Black came out on July 2 to dominate the summer movie field, its tie-in with Ray-Ban looked so natural it had to be a no-brainer, right? Tell that to Jon Gieselman, brand manager of the most famous sunglasses in Hollywood. While there were breaks that helped Ray-Ban's tie-in become the hands-down winner in Hollywood this year, it took plenty of work from Gieselman, 29, co-producers Sondra Wellmerling, Bill Sotis, and Debra Jansen, execs at Columbia Tri-Star, Amblin Entertainment, and the Kobin agency to pull it off. "Everyone goes into movie deals thinking, ÔThis is so easy, anyone could do it.'" says Alyse Kobin, president/partner of the New York agency. The mechanics of the deal started when Kobin saw early photos from the movie and read the script. She tried to pitch her client Sunglass Hut, but execs there said they didn't have the necessary budget. They suggested she call Ray-Ban, a division of Bausch & Lomb, Rochester, NY. That was a fortunate turn of events for Gieselman, who wasn't aware that Ray-Ban had already been cleared for placement in the movie. Because Ray-Ban gets more than 200 product placements a year through its Los Angeles agency, UPP Entertainment, the company often doesn't know what type of placement it will receive or even which sunglasses will be used until a movie is finished. Ray-Ban had never done a full-blown Hollywood tie-in before, but execs were ready to try one. Placements in Top Gun, Risky Business and Blues Brothers had given the brand a sort of Hollywood acceptance. "A lot of our brand equity is tied up in this Hollywood image," Gieselman notes. "It's a big part of our heritage." Because Ray-Ban doesn't pay for placement, Gieselman says the Hollywood link isn't forced and any tie-in would have to be natural. "We want it to be seamless. Consumers aren't stupid," he says. While the movies was only expected to come in around No. 5 at the box- office before its release, its appeal for Ray-Ban was obvious. The brand would have two movie stars, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, wear Ray-Bans throughout the Columbia Tri-Star's event movie of the summer. Ray-Ban's contribution to Columbia Tri-Star was a little harder to understand. Without the capability to spend $20 million in TV commercials, Gieselman had to show studio execs Mark Workman, senior vp strategy marketing, and Bob Levin, president, worldwide marketing, the benefit Ray-Ban would bring. Gieselman joked that his boss, a former Pepsi executive, likes to say that Ray-Ban's sales matches what Pepsi sold in Milwaukee. The brand spent only $5 million on media advertising in 1995. Gieselman promised Columbia Tri-Star prominent displays at the 15,000 main retailers that carry the Ray-Ban line. Support included posters, stand-ups, counter cards, merchandising bags, and even a Croakies band with Men in Black printed across its back. Because the promotions started two months before the film opened, Gieselman estimates Ray-Ban's in-store advertising support was worth more thatn $20 million to the studio. The brand did run spots on MTV and the Sci-Fi Channel, and ads in GQ and Premiere. As it turned out, the support was so impactful it was rumored that Columbia Tri-Star cut back its own ad budget. A big part of making the tie-in look natural was Ray-Ban's decision to use the creative from the movie, unchanged, in its ads. While Gieselman loved the various shots of the stars posing in the sunglasses, there was one big problem. To shoot the movie, a special coating had to be added to the glasses to limit reflection. That meant taking the Ray-Ban logo off the glasses. "We said, ÔYou have to put the logo back,'" Gieselman recalls. "We had some heated discussions, but in the end we decided it was our job to tell people it was our product." Cruise's specs in Risky Business didn't carry the Ray-Ban logo either, and the company reaped the success of that placement, he thought. Assist, Will Smith Ray-Ban expected the logo to reappear on the promo material, including posters. When Will Smith, who originally chose Ray-Ban's Predator 2 glasses for the movie, was told about the problem, he balked. Smith said the addition would be a kind of endorsement he didn't want. But the star made a unique counter-offer. Before he shot the music video for the film's main song, Smith offered to wear the glasses in the video and even throw a line in the song about the glasses. Done deal. The next bump came when director Barry Sonnenfeld told the company he wanted to cut the line where the pair are protected from harmful rays by the sunglasses and Tommy Lee Jones says, "That's why they call them Ray-Bans." Even though the line was originally used in the comic book the movie was based on, Sonnenfeld told Gieselman he felt it was "over the top." Gieselman says the company was "licking its chops" when it heard the line originally. When notified of the cut, he said, "What brand manager wouldn't absolutely scream?" Again, discussions between the studio, company and agency allowed the smoke to settle; the line remained out of the movie. "There were a lot of bumps in the road," Kobin says. "Jon was incredibly tenacious." When the film's opening drew near, the momentum started. Store owners reported customers wanted to buy the Smith-Jones' stand-up displays. One Ray-Ban rep had his car broken into while on sales calls, and the only thing stolen was the standee. When Smith appeared on Oprah in May, Winfrey's staff got the idea to outfit the audience in Ray-Bans. Gieselman jumped at the chance and the first five minutes of the show were spent talking about the sunglasses. Similar exposure during E!'s coverage of the movie premiere helped cement the link between the film and the brand. "This deal had its own arms and legs," Kobin says. Sales figures for the summer aren't in yet, but Gieselman said stores reported four-to fivefold increase in sales of the $100 Predators, and a bump for the entire Ray-Ban line. With 30 percent of its business from new products, Gieselman said the tie-in helped show people that Ray-Bans didn't begin and end with the Wayfarer or Aviator models. With the company's biggest selling season in December, it didn't take long for Gieselman, Kobin and studio to agree to extend the deal for the Nov. 28 release of the video. "We've been able to capture a year around this," Kobin says. In the end, Gieselman admits the deal was "an underhanded pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth." Just like we thought. November 24, 1997 Ray-Ban Eyes MiB Redux with Blues By T.L. Stanley Bausch & Lomb's Ray-Ban unit, still giddy from the success of its first-ever movie promotion with Sony's Men in Black, will launch its next tie-in with Universal's Blues Brothers 2000. The sunglass maker plans a global retail presence, a flood of Gen X-targeted media and some of the most extensive product placement it has ever undertaken. Ray-Ban will transform 15,000 Sunglass Huts with movie-themed standees, signage and gifts with purchase from the Blues Collection, a specially-named group of eight styles of sunglasses, including the classic Wayfarer, featured in the film. A national sweeps, with entries at retail, sends winners to the European premiere of the movie, which stars Dan Aykroyd and John Goodman and two new Blues Brothers. Other promo partners include Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits, Discover Card and, likely, Seagram's spirits for a support program that could top $25 million. While Ray-Ban has had a 20-year product placement relationship with Hollywood, its Blues Brothers 2000 appearance more than a dozen styles will be represented could be its widest exposure yet. Ray-Ban and Universal have created a catalog of co-branded merchandise aimed at grabbing customers at Ray-Ban retailers, flagged by POP. Kobin Enterprises, N.Y., shepherds the program, which targets the 18-to-24 demo, and could pull in Wayfarer Jr. wearers via an 11-year old boy who's one of the new Blues Brothers. "Our sunglasses are integral to the movie, and the program gives retailers the potential to get their season off to a fast start when there's not much else going on" said Bill Sotis, Ray Ban's vp-marketing. For its media strategy, Ray-Ban hypes the promo through print, movie theaters, outdoor and college campuses. Local events and giveaways will surround college screenings. Bozell, N.Y. handles. Universal execs, trying to reach a cross-generational demo with the Ô90s installment of the well-known property, have made deals that will buoy the Feb. 6 release everywhere from the House of Blues chain and the Mardi Gras to the Nascar circuit. The film could get an additional boost from re-release and promo of the original Blues Brothers on home video, and a Universal Records soundtrack that features the likes of Blues Traveler, Erykah Badu, Johnny Lang, B.B. King and Aretha Franklin. AFC's Popeyes chain plans TV media, print, radio & point of purchase materials dangling a collectible cup premium in its 1,000 outlets, along with a sweeps that gives away a Blues-mobile, Ray-Bans and Universal Studios packages. Discover Card will bow a national sweepstakes as part of the launch of its co-branded Universal Studios card. Beginning next month, Discover Card holders will get entry forms with their billing statements. New applicants for the card will be automatically registered in the contest, which gives away a trip to Hollywood for the movie's premiere. Seagram's partnership likely will include Blues Brothers-themed nights in clubs and bars, with premiums and merchandise giveaways, along with a retail component in key accounts. A Nascar deal puts the movie art on Kyle Petty's Hot Wheels car during the Daytona 500, with a line of Blues Brothers merchandise from Mattel available track-side and at mass merchants. December 1997 Entertainment Marketers in A Maturing Business Return to the Promotion Basics for Success It may be that 1997 is the year which entertainment marketing has come of age. Taking stock of the 9th Annual EPM Entertainment Marketing Conference, which drew almost 500 marketers and their partners to the Universal City Hilton & Towers in Los Angeles last month, shows players and marketing culture have evolved to a level of professionalism that relies neither on reinventing marketing concepts nor plugging into promotion fads. Not that the Conference had a deja-vu-all-over-again feel or a remembrance-of-deals-past tone. But no single peg on which to hang a marketing message asserted itself. At last year's conference almost every presenter had jumped on the brandwagon they were branding everything from network primetime to kids' videos. In 1995 the Internet/online revolution was dominating promoters' imaginations and marketing plans. But, in 1997 the Conference revealed a community of professionals, men and women with experience plus a sense of tradition about what they do. If any single theme emerged it concerned the importance of creativity. Aware that marketing must rely on a basic and familiar set of promotion techniques (rather as limited but potentially varied as the few notes in the musical scale), they use those tools paired with creativity to create unusual and attention-getting partnerships for new promotions. Plugging Into The Glitz One of the most important truths of entertainment marketing involves the fact of entertainment rather than of marketing. It took some non-entertainment partners to remind that one of the major assets of their business is the very glamour of entertainment (see related report by Irma Zandl, page 4). "You work in this industry and I assume that you are a bit jaded by it," Jon Gieselman of Ray-Ban reminded his audience during his presentation on the sunglasses tie-in on Columbia TriStar's Men in Black. "But this wasn't business as usual for Bausch & Lomb. The entire corporation was mobilized because Hollywood is fun, films are fun. That had a huge impact in Rochester, New York." Another sponsorship partner affirmed: "Continental Airlines wanted a business identification with New York City, and Broadway is the most exciting New York property we could find," said Tony Schiller, HA-LO Sports & Entertainment, discussing Continental's sponsorship of Broadway Live. Borrowing glamour was the central theme of the tie-in. Experiencing the Learning Curve The degree to which entertainment marketers have matured in a maturing profession can also be evidenced in presenters' openness about myriad marketing problems and necessary learning curves among even the veterans (see commentary, page 2). The sign of an experienced marketing pro is not just the aplomb with which he or she creates a marketing plan, but the sure-handedness with which a good plan is salvaged when all forces seemingly push against it. "Because Ray-Ban had an agency (Kobin Enterprises) on its side, the Ray-Ban people could admit they didn't know everything about Men in Black promotion or film tie-ins in general," says Mark Workman, Columbia TriStar. "The last thing you want is to go to a negotiating table with Hollywood sharks when you don't know the answers. The fact that Ray-Ban had an agency meant questions got asked, but that the client was protected." "Broadway may be one of the oldest forms of entertainment, but the marketing effort is only one and a half years old," said Meg Meurer, League of American Theatres & Producers, of the Continental sponsorship. "When you are beginning work with tie-in partners you have no proof you can do what you say you will do every event is a learning experience for you and for the partners." Among Other Themes Synergy. The term was once so over-used and misused that marketers still cannot utter it without sounding apologetic. But they are not so embarrassed by the word that they do not recognize the idea as a springboard for marketing success. " Central to Marketing an entertainment product is integration of all company divisions," says Leslye Schaefer, Scholastic Entertainment, of The Magic Schoolbus promotions. "Scholastic publicizes and cross-promotes through its magazines, point-of-sale with the book division, via book clubs and even signage on Scholastic trucks going to book fairs." John Polwrek, Miramax, describes a "manufactured" synergy in his own new post and job description for which product placement, sponsorship and licensing are brought in-house to make them important promotional tools from the outset. In a sense, the company is creating synergy. (Prediction: In short time, the much-abused term "icon," used to describe everything from basketball stars to sitcom classics, will carry the synergy stigma.) Flexibility. Every year marketers tout flexibility as the prime quality for success; 1997 is no different. "The one word I would use to define success in this business is Ôflexibility'," says Polwrek. "Because of the size of our company, we have to be open to last-minute opportunities generated by schedule, ad and other changes." Columbia's Workman concurs: "The company believes a TV message is needed to capture the magic of a movie. So, after we got Ray-Ban interested (about Men in Black), we told them they had to do a dedicated TV spot. Ray-Ban had never done that, and they had their marketing budget set for the year." "It was a sizable investment," admits Ray-Ban's Geiselman, "but we had a lot on the table and we took the leap of faith. We wanted to change our plans to put more muscle behind the film." ¥ Risk. Tied to flexibility is the fact of entertainment marketing as high risk. "You have to take risk, and to do that you have to believe in your product," says Christine Lavin, composer/singer who discussed promoting via an independent record label. "But there were 27,000 albums released last year, and only one of them was mine you can take risk when you believe in your product." "Film promotion is like going to Las Vegas," says Workman. "There is risk, and those who say there isn't aren't gamblers. But sometimes you are going to lose. If a brand wants to be associated with Hollywood long term, as does, for example Pepsi-Cola, there is going to be a Michael Jackson fiasco. But, the spectacular sales spikes available through entertainment tie-ins deliver a bigger gain than if you stay out of the game. The key is to know the risk and have the faith in your brand." ¥ Trade promotions. Just as flexibility and risk have been recurring themes in past Conferences, the importance of promoting to the trade is reaffirmed. Miller Brewing's Rich Reider notes of the Jamizon tour sponsorship that the marketing program to black consumers included reaching some trade people often overlooked. "Many retailers in the African American community are forgotten. A lot of trade promotions goes to the same people who are, in fact, jaded by attention. They are remembered with Super Bowl tickets and big gifts. But Jamizon gave us the opportunity to take African American retailers backstage, meet with Magic Johnson or Keith Sweat, and get a good seat. It's new to them and they appreciate it." In detailing the Continental advantages to Broadway sponsorship, HA-LO's Schiller reports the airline is able to get tickets for all performances at 30% off for airline employees. May 11, 1998 Unusual Suspects Megabrand movie tie-ins have become standard fare. Now, Hollywood is romancing a new generation of corporate partners, and niche is no object. By T.L. Stanley While it may be a little tough to believe, people in Hollywood really are human, and they can get into a rut just like anybody. Take promotions executives, for example, and their years-long penchant for pairing big ticket entertainment properties with only the best known fast food restaurants, soda, snacks & sweets, mining the same territory as if a summer or holiday movie launching without a McDonald's, Burger King, Coke, Pepsi, General Mills, Kraft or Frito-Lay cross promotion is destined for failure. Not that tens of millions of marketing dollars aimed at the masses is anything to sniff at, but the partnerships seem to be becoming a bit rote, even the executives would admit. But that was then. This is now. Where at one time aligning with Blimpie or Afro Sheen would've been considered suspect, if not bottom-feeding, such deals are now sought after for their tailored fit, untapped real estate and dead-on synergy of target demographics. And as a result, a whole new set of potential mates has emerged for Hollywood promotion departments and tie-in brokers, with digital pagers, cellular phones, computers, disposable diapers, auto after-market retailers, far-flung tourism bureaus, banks, ethnic beauty products and dating services jumping into the fray with strategic objectives in mind and media dollars in hand. Studios, which once would have shunned or overlooked such players are responding by casting an ever-wider net intended to sweep up the Citibanks, Ericssons and Pep Boys of the world. Lexus aims to get hipper with a $5 million marketing campaign around its upcoming tour sponsorship of Eric Clapton; Intel and Silicon Graphics are making noise around their products via Lost in Space tie: and Circle K lends its retail space this summer to build Lethal Weapon 4 hype. "Newcomers don't have baggage," said Alyse Kobin, president Kobin Enterprises, New York, who brokered Ray-Ban's tie-ins with Columbia TriStar's Men in Black and Universal's Blues Brothers 2000, its first movie promotions. "They start with a clean slate." Mining new territory helps individual studios create a buzz around properties, and also helps reinvigorate the business overall, sort of like rotating crops to take out and replenish the soil with different nutrients. "In the early days, everybody expected a quick service restaurant tie around a movie, or you'd failed," said Karen Sortito, evp-promotions at MGM, who has been forging links between entertainment and corporate America for nearly a decade. "With programs like Bond, we've shown that you can break upscale advertisers as a theme. You can tap into the luxury market for partners." Sortito's global deals have shepherded several companies into the tie-in business, among them BMW, which launched its Z3 sports car with the Bond flick Goldeneye and reteamed with its motorcycle and 7 Series for this past holiday's Bond entry Tomorrow Never Dies, tossing some $30 million into a worldwide promotion. Other first-timers assembled for the film included L'Oreal, Smirnoff and Ericsson phones. Visa International and Heineken, though not novices, created their most comprehensive entertainment-themed programs to date around the film. "It doesn't matter what category it is," Sortito said. "If it's great creative, it can work." Whether it be film, television or music, companies are using their association with entertainment to broaden their appeal worldwide by borrowing on the star power, hipness or emotional hook that entertainment properties offer. Citibank, which recently hired ad agency Young & Rubicam, wanted to focus on consumers around the world, with an eye toward attracting 1 billion customers within 10 years. "They want to become the Coke of the banking world," said Jay Coleman, president and founder of Entertainment Marketing Communications International, a Stamford, Conn.-based agency that specializes in music and event marketing. "They're looking for a global brand strategy that music, like sports, can provide." Coleman, whose company has put together some of the more memorable tour sponsorships in recent years, including the Sprint/Rolling Stones partnership and this summer's Lilith Fair line up of Starbucks, Volkswagen's Beetle and Levi's, approached Citibank with the idea of going into business with Elton John. Sponsorship of John's 65-city "Big Picture" tour, with a charitable overlay for the artist's AIDS foundation, quickly caught fire. One major advantage for EMCI's pitch: Citibank marketing executives Brian Rudder and Ann McDonald came from Pepsi, which had been linked with Michael Jackson's tours back in the Ô80s and a raft of celebrity and movie associations in the meantime. Though the financial giant, which likely will become much larger through a merger proposal, announced last month with Traveler's Group, may be a newcomer to entertainment, its executives already know the ropes. "They got it," Coleman said. The result is a massive, multi-pronged promotion, which will extend into nearly every corner of Citibank's real estate in the Western hemisphere. John, who will have no other sponsorships in any category during the Citibank relationship, is fully integrated into the company's print, television and radio advertising, under the tagline, "Who says a bank can't rock and roll?" which is intended to grab not only the artist's core 25-49 audience, but a younger demographic as well. Consumer incentives will include first-dibs on concert tickets, special merchandise and sweepstakes. "The category is becoming more consumer-oriented," Coleman said. "And a relationship like this is unexpected, and it shows they want to take a human approach." The same has been true for consumer electronics, some of which are striving to educate an audience about their product line and features. Ericsson's more than $10 million tie-in with MGM's Tomorrow Never Dies marked the Swedish phone giant's first link with a high-profile entertainment property. Though Ericsson had done product placements in such films as the Arnold Schwarzenegger actioner Eraser, its connection with the Bond film represented its first comprehensive multimedia campaign around a movie, which involved brand advertising, a consumer sweepstakes and integrated retail merchandising. Ericsson leveraged Bond's relationship to cutting-edge gadgets to help solidify its evolving brand image. The movie was a showcase of sophistication and state-of-the-art technology, precisely the attributes Ericsson wanted to associate itself with. The program, which wound down in late February in the U.S. and is still unfurling in global markets, was never a difficult sell to the company, which added executives with packaged goods backgrounds to help stitch the promotion together. Sci-fi and action properties have a natural appeal to companies looking to establish themselves on the cutting edge of technology. Ericsson competitor Nokia is revving up twin promotions for summer tied to Fox's The X-Files and Disney's Armageddon, and another tech/telecom company, MCI, currently has several partnerships with extraterrestrial entertainment entities, including New Line's feature Lost in Space and syndicated show Gene Roddenberry's Earth:The Final Conflict. The latter tie-in not only includes product placements and logos on futuristic gadgets and global communications devices throughout the show, but PrePaid phone card and Web site-tied promos with radio and TV affiliates in about 100 markets. Its latest hook is using Vinton Cerf, known as the "Father of the Internet," in a special cameo appearance. Cerf is also a technical advisor to the show. At the same time, for less established product categories with less established brands, entertainment tie-ins are platforms on which to simply gain attention for the brand on a marquee, as it were. Ericsson's Bond blitz was only a precursor to the North Carolina-based company's most recent coup, sponsorship of Celine Dion's North American tour, which kicks off in August. The company is readying a major brand campaign that make the Titanic songstress the centerpiece of its broadcast and print efforts, and includes national consumer offers at retail, a charity tie-in and other integrated marketing activities. The match made sense, brand execs said, because Dion and her management team already used Ericsson phones. To humanize a product is key in some programs, to legitimize is more important in others. Great Expectations, a Philadelphia-based dating service, fits the latter category. Great Expectations stepped into the entertainment marketing arena two years ago with a tie-in with Emma and now wants to build to four such links a year. So far, through its San Diego-based agency, Olguin, the company has cross-promoted with My Best Friend's Wedding, Swept from the Sea, Picture Perfect and The Full Monty. While also scanning television, music and online prospects, the company is considering another movie tie, with The Mighty, a Miramax film that is scheduled for release late this year. "The whole (dating service) industry wants to become more legitimate," agency president Michael Olguin said. " We gain a lot of credibility by doing promotions with movie companies." Another company, Evanston, Ill.-based Sparks, recently linked its computer dating service, Dateline, with the home video release of New Line's Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. A month-long radio promotion in 22-major markets distributed more than 1,000 copies of the video. That program came on the heels of a successful tie with The WB's Jamie Foxx Show that spread out over urban markets. Great Expectations also brought real value to the table, with the ability to drop two million direct mailers into major markets every two weeks. That became a sort of alternative retail platform, not just flagging the movie but luring consumers into sweepstakes with other studio promotional partners, such as Virgin Airways' promo with The Full Monty. "A studio gets involved with you because you bring value," Olguin said. "You have to provide something nobody else can." Movie-related contests help build the company's database, its heart and soul. Like fast food restaurants, Great Expectations in a franchise, and franchisees must be sold on the concept. The Full Monty was difficult, Olguin said, because franchisees, being asked to sign off on a film whose title translated to "full frontal nudity" had only a description of the movie to go on, but no trailer, to put that theme in creative context. But results for the firm have been both measurable and encouraging. During a contest around My Best Friend's Wedding, the dating service captured information on 40,000 single people. For Richer or Poorer may have been a box office disappointment, but it was a database bonanza for Great Expectations, with 50,000 people entering its sweepstakes and 6,000 seeking more information about the company's programs. Though Proctor & Gamble is no stranger to alliance marketing, its disposable diapers have not been in the forefront of move cross-promotion. But realizing a hand-in-glove fit, execs there recently forged a tie between Luvs and The Lyons Group's Barney's Great Adventure: The Movie, the brand's first full scale movie promotion and its first licensed character for the product. (The diaper has a "cameo" in the film, which was a side benefit and not contractual, said Luvs brand manager Andrew Meurer). Barney, Baby Bop and BJ are printed on the diaper's fastener strips and character stickers have been placed on 9 million packages. P & G supported the promotion with an FSI, eight weeks of national Luvs television ads, and 200,000 poster displays in grocery stores. Luvs also plans a tie in the September home video release, with details still in the works. Luvs execs said there was a learning curve but no internal barriers to creating the promotion, which could be a green-light to further entertainment links. "We wouldn't tie in with any upcoming Schwarzenegger movie," Meurer said, "but things that reach the active mom are always a possibility." Some industry watchers say there's room now for new companies because some of the veterans are becoming less interested in the game. Coke, for instance, has significantly curtailed its entertainment ties, with the attitude that it's a bit "me-too" at the moment. The soft drink giant has substituted "presence" efforts such as in-theater advertising. But its fiercest competitor, Pepsi, has kept the heat on with entertainment links via its Star Wars franchise megablast that criss-crossed its soda, snacks and Tricon restaurant business. Those in Hollywood who have shook, then held, the hands of entertainment newcomers say patience, trust and education are the most vital components. "You need risk-takers, but you have to understand you're starting from zero," Kobin said. "People can lose their jobs if a property doesn't work. They say, ÔIf that movie fails, I fail.'" The building process can be a slow one. "You're not working with a company that has a template," said Jordan Sollitto, vp-promotions at Warner Bros. Consumer Products. "It's not as easy as insert tactic and property here." At the same time, companies must be prodded into making the most of the association, even if that happens to go no further than a regional promotion or a sweepstakes and contributing prizes to a studio's promotion. "What matters is how you leverage it so the consumer can be truly affected by it," Kobin said. "What's the relevance to the consumer?" Companies continue to want in because they've seen the success competitors are having, and realize the partnerships add to their cachet and improve their bottom lines. Everyone from haircare salons (Fantastic Sams will do a late summer/early fall program around Family Home Entertainment's The Animated Adventures of Tom Sawyer) to office supply chains (there's talk of a major tie for the upcoming Mike Judge Silicon Valley-hacker move, Office Space) are destined to become players, leading many in the industry to subscribe to Kobin's theory that "there are still lots of untapped categories." But maybe not for long. September 24, 1998 Size mattered for product tie-ins By Richard Morgan Hollywood's summer of record revenues and special effects was, for licensees, a season of soft sales and special efforts. Sony set the tone by obligating Taco Bell and other "Godzilla" merchandisers to keep the lizard under wraps until its May 18 premiere. Eight weeks later, DreamWorks gave the season its tie-in twist: a PG-13 rating for "Small Soldiers," long after Burger King had cast the surprisingly violent flick as its Kids Club centerpiece. And while "Mulan" returned the Disney/McDonald's merchandising machine to form, even this reenergized partnership had problems. "There was backlash that (McDonald's promo) spots were condescending to the Asian population," says Rob Fenton of License! Despite such surprises, or maybe because of them, these major merchandising programs managed to perform even when the tentpoles they tied into did not. Taco Bell had nothing but kind words for its limpin' lizard, for example, deeming its "Find Godzilla and Win" promotion "very successful" despite the pic's disappointing domestic biz. It no doubt helped that the fast-food chain got a two-week jump on Godzilla's unveiling by using in-store displays created by its Chicago merchandising partner Wunderman Cato Johnson that featured a foot here, a tail there and New York skylines everywhere. Wunderman's real contribution, however, was letting the licensee benefit from the mystery going into the movie's release. This pre-release period, which historically accounts for 30% of a movie's total licensing contribution, was denied to virtually every other "Godzilla" merchandiser. What Taco Bell showed in foresight, Burger King matched in flexibility. "Small Soliders" temporarily dismantled the burger chain's Kids Club program which targets youngsters 10-years-old and under when it received a last minute rating of PG-13. After months of planning for a flick it believed to be pure PG, the Home of the Whopper reacted instantaneously by bumping its promo up a demographic notch to a "Kids Meal Pack"and by posting the option of "alternative toys" at all drive-thrus and counters. "The public responded extremely favorably to our actions and to our honesty," BK spokeswoman Kimberly Miller says of what she admitted was "not an optimal situation." The controversy nonetheless played a role in making the promo the unqualified hit that the movie was not. According to Miller, Burger King's "Small Soldiers" promotion "edged out" its "Lost World" tie-in the previous summer. The brightest spot in an otherwise soft merchandising summer was Disney's "Mulan." According to Woody Browne, a licensing specialist who runs the Building Q consultancy, Disney's latest animated feature not only answered such back-to-back summer flops as "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and "Pocahontas" but also, for reasons not unrelated, "over-delivered in terms of expectations." Another licensing veteran dismissed as "a given" that criticism would be levied against MacDonald's promotional use of "Mulan." "This always happens with ethnic characters," he said. Although each successful tentpole tie-in had specific reasons for its success, collectively they shared a too-big-to-fail sensitivity. "What you never do is completely tie into the movie you're tied into," says Alyse M. Kobin, the founder of New York-based Kobin Enterprises who brokered Ray-Ban's "Men in Black" tie-in a year ago. The point, Kobin explains, is to create each promotion as a stand alone effort so that its success can transcend the underlying movie's performance at the B.O. Although size still matters in this regard, it's also relative. Ray-Ban's involvement in "MiB," for instance, was not unlike Tag Heuer's role in this summer's "Armageddon." Both promotions were important enough to the brands' marketers to create a requisite too-big-to-fail sensitivity. Those lacking this appreciation for tie-ins might as well retire from the game. October 13, 1997 Men in Ray-Bans Program: Ray-Ban/Men in Black promotions Marketer: Bausch & Lomb, Rochester, N.Y. Agency: Kobin, N.Y., marketing Arnell, N.Y., creative advertising Key Players: Ray Ban: Jon Gieselman, U.S. brand manager Bill Sotis, vp marketing Sondra Wellmerling, director marketing Kobin: Alyse Kobin, president/partner Sharon Tracy, vp Jenn Gora, asst. promotion manager Take a close look at the Ray-Ban shades gracing the no-nonsense mugs of Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith in the ads and posters from Men in Black. Notice anything missing? The famous Ray-Ban logo - that tiny but all-important stamp that usually shows up on the bottom corner of the lens - isn't there. Normally, that would be enough to make a brand manager weep, especially since the film was the major blockbuster of the summer. As it turns out, the filmmakers at Columbia TriStar needed to use special glare-proof lenses, meaning the regular lenses and the logo bit the dust. So, how would a consumer ever know that those shades are, in fact, Ray-Bans? The company answered that question millions of times during the summer with its first-ever movie tie-in, intertwining the Men in Black imagery with its own merchandising everywhere from its ad campaigns and direct mailers to its retail environment worldwide. And the program was such a boon for business that Ray-Ban is reprising its partnership with the property for the home-video release this holiday season, offering more than 12 million free Men in Black videos with purchase of its Predator 2 glasses, along with two other gift-with-purchase programs. Though the brand, owned by Bausch & Lomb, has done some of the most visible and memorable product placement in memory and averages about 250 a year in TV and film, it had never jumped in with a full-scale promotion. The idea to do so came from Alyse Kobin, president of New York-based Kobin Enterprises. After seeing the script and an early clip of Men in Black, Kobin thought it would be a natural tie-in for her client, Sunglass Hut. When the chain passed, she approached one of the store's biggest brands, Ray-Ban, which has since become a client. "We wanted something that looked seamless to the consumer, something that didn't look forced or commercialized, like we'd purchased our way into the movie," said Jon Gieselman, Ray-Ban's U.S. brand manager. "We thought there was a real synergy between the style and feel of the film and our product." A complete management shift at the brand has ushered in a group ready to take the Hollywood plunge in a major, global way. Ray-Ban wants to shake up the image of the brand, which Gieselman said has become staid in consumers' minds, and use the valued, uncluttered real estate of its mostly mall-based retailers. And the movie, which turned out to be the top grosser of the summer with $235 million in domestic box office, seemed the perfect vehicle for the Predator 2 line. "The glasses were so prominently placed, the imagery was so right, and it was on target for the demo," Kobin said. "They decided to really go for it." Key to Ray-Ban in the always risky venture of entertainment tie-ins was the youth appeal of the movie. While the company's standing among Jack Nicholson fans is solid, the company wanted to be more relevant to the 18-25 demo. "This movie provided a nice contemporary vehicle to attach our brand to," Gieselman said. "It's like rolling the dice to partner with a movie, but it just made sense." Ray-Ban's promotion fanned out over several areas, including giveaways, screenings and other incentives for the trade. At retail, 15,000 Sunglass Huts in the U.S. were blanketed with posters, life-size standees, promotional trailers on in-store video monitors, counter cards and banners. Consumers received free neckcords, themed bags, T-shirts and ball caps with purchase of the Predator line, and a Men in Black glasses case was offered as a self-liquidated premium for $10. Direct mailers alerted two-million consumers to the promotion, and a campus-based program put trailers, standees and interactive booths in front of millions of college students. Ray-Ban also hotlinked its Web page to the movie studio's Web site, offering product giveaways and contests. Retailers partnered with theater chains to give the promo some local leverage. Results didn't take long to materialize for Ray-Ban. While the brand expected about two months' worth of exposure for the program, retailers kept it going for more than four months in some locations, owing to the popularity of the film. Through August, sales of the Predator line tripled from the previous year. The Men in Black association spilled over to other products as well, boosting sales across Ray-Ban's total line. Sunglass Hut felt the heat also, with a 19% jump in its stock price after its July same-store sales rose almost 8% over July Ô96. "People were coming in and asking for Ray-Ban first," Gieselman said. "That hasn't happened in a while." The brand, which skews to the 25-39 age group, also found a voice with coveted teen buyers and established criteria for promotional tie-ins in the future. Gieselman said the company is mulling a variety of entertainment related opportunities, though it's difficult to imagine another in which the sunglasses would be as front-and-center as in Men in Black. "We want those opportunities where the product plays a role like any feature actor," Gieselman said. March 1999 Clothes Make the Teen: Product tie-ins with Hollywood help companies stay cool By Wayne D'Orio Movie companies aren't getting rid of their costume budgets yet, but if deals with apparel manufacturers keep proliferating, they might be able to. Recently, two feature films and a TV show have lined up tie-in deals with clothing companies that live and die by teen consumers. Their agreements give the movies added exposure through the company's ads and publicity, while delivering the critical buzz needed to keep the brands hot in the fickle-but lucrative-teen market. "The teen target is one of the most difficult audiences to reach effectively," says Keith Snelgrove, MGM's senior vice president of worldwide promotions and sponsorships. They are desirable because "they're trend leaders and they've got the money." In MGM's April 2 release The Mod Squad, the three hip crime fighters wear Levi's throughout the feature film. In return, the jeans maker's TV commercials and print ads promote the movie. Other deals include Tommy Jeans linking to Dimension Films' The Faculty, and use of J.Crew's clothing line in the WB network show Dawson's Creek. "The top two teen habits are buying clothes and going to the movies," Snelgrove says, explaining the logic of the recent trend of apparel company tie-ins to teen properties. The latest poll of "cool" activities from Chicago-based Teenage Research Unlimited backs that up. Snelgrove says the movie deal is a perfect fit because it combines both. More and more, apparel companies are embracing young-adult leisure activities, says Alyse Kobin, president of the eponymous New York City marketing firm. She helped put together the now famous Ray-Ban Men in Black campaign that serves as a sort of a blueprint for The Mod Squad tie-in, says Mark Malionwski, Levi's manager of TV and film sponsorships. With teens constantly bombarded with choices, the market is more fractured today than ever, Kobin says. But linking to a hit movie like Men in Black, she says, "is one way to get a lot of segments. If marketers execute their promo effectively, then they'll get new users." The deal not only raised Ray-Ban sales, but also pushed profits for Sunglass Hut: The retailer used Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith movie standees in every store to reinforce the link between Ray-Bans and the film. Tommy Hilfiger developed a promotion for Tommy Jeans tied to the December release of The Faculty because of the "youthful hip factor," says Miramax's John Polwrek, senior vice president of worldwide promotions. The Faculty, written by the prolific Kevin Williamson-the creator of Dawson's Creek-is a sci-fi thriller in which the students battle alien teachers. The tie-in was standard in some ways: Hilfiger, just like Levi's, paid no money to have its clothes in the film, but it did make the movies' young stars the centerpiece of the company's estimated $20 million back-to-school and holiday advertising campaign. Tommy Jeans TV commercials, shot on the movie's set, played up the company's relationship with the film by running a sort of movie credits scroll: "Written by Kevin Williamson, Directed by Robert Rodriguez, Starring Tommy Jeans." A close look at the TV buys - MTV, VH1, BET and Comedy Central - shows how the company avoided pricey network TV to better target its key audience, 15-to-24-year-olds. Media buys Seventeen, Rolling Stone and Interview complemented the commercials. One benefit for the studio was the amount of time the company stayed with the Faculty theme. Ads started in July for the December release, almost before the trailer was released, Polwrek says. After September, Hilfiger continued to use the tie-in during its holiday advertising. Just like The Faculty, the impressions made by Levi's-clad Claire Danes, Omar Epps, and Giovanni Ribisi in The Mod Squad won't end with the credits. In its first integrated marketing campaign with a Hollywood movie, Levi's will run a multimillion dollar campaign with national TV and print ads, unveil a new 12-piece clothing line based on the movie's "Mod" look, and back a contest that will give away the classic Lincoln Continental car used in the movie. "We have as much at stake in The Mod Squad as MGM does," says Malinowski. While the company's publicity will help hype the movie's release Mainowski hopes the campaign will be an important part of updating Levi's image. January 1999 Production Partnership as an In to the Stars Conventional thinking holds that unless you have a multi-million dollar marketing budget and will only show your ads in Japan, your chance of snaring A-list movie talent on behalf of your product or service is slim to none. In this case, Conventional wisdom is mostly right. The exception are promotional partnerships with Hollywood productions that tie in the star or stars of the film. To help hype their latest project, some big name actors are willing to shill for companies committing promotional muscle to the studio. Witness Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan picking stocks online for You've Got Mail partner E*Trade; Pierce Brosnan as James Bond brandishing a Visa Check Card in TV spots are well as promoting Ericsson phones, Omega watches, Smirnoff and Heineken, all in support of Tomorrow Never Dies; and Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones sporting Ray-Ban sunglasses on retail countercards for Men in Black co-star Bausch & Lomb, Inc. Still, tie-ins involving talent account for only a small percentage of the overall number of movie cross-promotions. Marketers lured by the thought of having their brand associated with a feature film and a major star need to understand the realities of such deals, industry experts cautioned. Much of what a marketer will be able to do has been determined in advance. This is due to the nature of such partnerships. Unlike other endorsement or spokesperson deals, no contract exists between the company and the celebrity. Instead, talent use is bundled into an agreement with the studio to provide promotional support to the production. Prior to seeking corporate partners, studio promotion executives meet with the talent's representatives to determine the star's willingness to participate in marketing campaigns. "In essence, the talent gives pass-through rights to the studio," said Alyse Kobin, president/managing partner of Kobin Enterprises, Ltd., which specializes in movie tie-ins. Approval is far from automatic. Some actors refuse to green-light any commercial opportunity, and because the talent is at the top of Hollywood's food chain, the studio has no leverage to change their minds. A rare exception occurred when Brosnan was hired to play 007; the career-making opportunity of the Bond franchise was such that the actor agreed to a wide range of promotional commitments. Kobin, who orchestrated Smirnoff's Tomorrow tie, reported that Brosnan felt he was over-exposed by the tie-ins. Other insiders said, though not for attribution, that now that he has established himself in the role, Brosnan is negotiating tighter control over his image. While what receives approval varies from actor to actor and picture to picture, the broader the exposure and more work required, the less likely the celebrity is to say yes. A promotion such as E*Trade's, which require little more than using Hanks and Ryan's names and is limited to the Internet, stands a greater chance than a national TV campaign. Such advance preparation does not rule out discussion between an interested marketer and the talent, although never directly. "The studio give us the basic parameters of what the talent will do so that we can begin to conceptualize realistic promotions for our client," Kobin said. "Having developed an idea, we usually go back to the studio with five wishes regarding specifics, which it will present to the talent." The process is not always smooth. Dating service Great Expectations Int'l, Inc. tied into My Best Friend's Wedding in part for the opportunity to use Julia Roberts, said Michael Olguin, president of promotion agency Olguin Co., which developed the program. Great Expectations, which relies almost exclusively on direct marketing to recruit clients, promoted a Wedding sweepstakes in its mailing. Olguin planned to run a picture of Roberts on the buckslip announcing the contest, but use of her image for direct mail was not covered in the pre-approved phase, so the company had to seek the star's permission. "Julia never responded, thus withholding the right to her likeness," Olguin said. "It's surprising to me that someone whose contract with the studio gives them a percentage of the gate and who had agreed in principle to work with promotional partners would not want to help drive ticket sales, which our sweepstakes did. It was still a good promotion, capturing information on 40,000 single people for Great Expectations' database. But I have no doubt the involvement of a big name like Julia Roberts would have given it bigger impact." A promotion that can succeed with or without the talent is key, according to Kobin, who coordinated the Men in Black tie for Ray-Ban and also managed Philips Consumer Communications L.P.'s tie to Smith's latest feature, Enemy of the State. Having previously relied only on product placement, Ray-Ban credited its first full-scale movie promotion with tripling sales of its Predator line for the first nine months of 1997 and for positively impacting sales of its other lines as well. PCC wanted to similarly use Smith in its Enemy p-o-s materials, but the star like Brosnan felt Men in Black retail promotions overexposed him. "We didn't know it was going to be so difficult to get Will's permission," Kobin said. "However, because the property is still the 100 percent right fit for the brand, the tie-in still works." Should Kobin have anticipated Smith's reluctance? "Ray-Ban's promotion was not exploitative or objectionable in any way," she said. "But this is a talent-driven business and the celebrities determine where to draw the line." SPEECH: By Michael T. Gillen, Corporate Vice President of Bausch & Lomb, Inc. on Rochester Premiere night of Men in Black June 27, 1997 Thank you for being with us this evening. I am Mike Gillen, President of North American Eyewear for Bausch & Lomb. Welcome to the Rochester Premiere of Men In Black and the Re-Premiere of Ray-Ban. I don't know if Re-Premiere is a word, however, tonight it is! And tonight I am proud to be a part of the Ray-Ban team. We at Ray-Ban have a vision to ignite our business. Revisiting our heritage helped make a portion of that vision clear. For more than 2 generations, Ray-Ban sunglasses have been worn by famous faces and characters in some of the most successful films in history. Characters such as Jake and Elwood in the Blues Brothers, Joel in Risky Business, and Joel Senior (Maverick) in Top Gun. Independence Day, Pulp Fiction, and Jerry McGuire, are a few more examples of previous successful Ray-Ban premieres. In these films Ray-Ban has portrayed the style and character that has influenced fashion around the globe. Now, in partnership with Kobin Enterprises and Columbia Pictures, Ray-Ban sunglasses are again driving sunglass fashion with a starring role in Men In Black. On behalf of the Ray-Ban team, I welcome you to this private screening. We are delighted that consumers, customers and our valued employees can be here tonight for the Rochester premiere. You have all played a starring role in the success of this landmark event by supporting our merchandising and POS materials.The partnership with Kobin Enterprises was instrumental and helped us put this entire program together with Columbia Pictures. Personally, tonight's screening is very special because so many of the Eyewear employees who have worked on the Men In Black project are here. There are far too many to mention, but my thanks goes to everyone who put in outrageous hours, sat through endless meetings and overcame obstacle after obstacle to make this promotion a success. You should all be very proud. So, enjoy the movie and be sure to join us afterwards in the tent for dessert and champagne to toast Ray-Ban sunglasses andÉ.celebrate Men In Black. LETTER: Mr. William J. Sotis Vice President Marketing Bausch & Lomb, Inc. One Bausch & Lomb Place Rochester, NY 14604 July 7, 1997 Dear Alyse: On behalf of all my staff, I wanted to thank you and all of your staff for the excellent support you provided us in making the Men in Black program a success. The planning, the coordination and the execution of the local premieres were absolutely fantastic. Our customers raved about how well the whole program was put together and run. Everyone in my group that participated in the regional premieres felt very comfortable that things were under control by your staff. Your group was so buttoned up at the national premiere that our customers thought we had a professional events management organization running the whole thing for us, speaking volumes as to the professionalism of your staff. Everyone had a great time too; this points out the importance of involving everyone throughout the distribution channel in this major program as we did. Thanks again for your help. As our customers askedÉ"What's next?" Best regards, Bill Sotis