Sony to Launch Blu-Ray Marketing Blitz
Posted Tue Jun 6, 2006 at 01:29 AM PDT by
With HD DVD already on store shelves and its sales upbeat, Sony is
gearing
up for a company-wide marketing initative designed to help foster awareness
for their rival Blu-ray format with consumers, reports Video Business.
Sony kicked off their Blu-ray blitz last Friday, with a demo event held on the
studio's lot in Culver City, California. The promo, geared to media and retailers,
featured upcoming Blu-ray disc players, the company's new Blu-ray-enabled VAIO
laptop, Sony hi-def TVs and clips of upcoming Blu-ray titles.
"This [the initiative] crosses every part of our company," Sony Pictures
Home Entertainment president worldwide Ben Feingold said at the event. "Blu-ray
is technology that will drive PC sales, consumer electronic sales, movie sales."
The studio also plans to beginning promoting the Blu-ray brand by "piggybacking"
on the marketing of its standard DVD titles, including via TV and radio spots,
beginning with the day-and-date release of 'Underworld: Evolution' this week.
"We're saying it’s available on DVD and on Blu-ray," Feingold
said. "That will be the strategy."
Sony’s retail chain, Sony Style, has also started running Blu-ray product
demos in its Top 10 stores this week. "You'll see a slew of promotion over
the next few weeks," said Jeff Goldstein, Sony product marketing VP.