Teens are the Ticket in Focused Strategy for Blockbuster

Blockbuster Entertainment, after spending the last eight months flogging its "Go Home Happy" theme as a way to reposition itself to the masses, moves into segmenting, with kids and teens becoming a major focus. The strategy includes Blockbuster's first-ever ad campaigns on Radio Disney and in-school Channel One; both media buys are planned through 1999.

Marketers at the Dallas-based chain said they needed to go beyond the traditional network television, outdoor and direct mail to reach tough-to-grab teens and younger kids, involving them in rental decisions. Ad spots tailored to Radio Disney, which now reaches 33 major markets, start later this month. Blockbuster will tout Radio Disney's new coverage areas via in-store displays that bundle Disney video product with plush and other licensed merchandise. Both radio and TV, which also air on MTV, will focus on videogame rental and sell-through product.

"We're big believers in kids as customers and as influencers of their parents' spending," said Marva Cathie, Blockbuster's vp-advertising. "And they're on the leading edge of technology in the home."

Blockbuster did a test run of ads on Channel One for the recent video release of Titanic, hyping the retailer's "be-the-first to-have-it" midnight sales stunt; marketers credit the ads with reaching a crucial demographic for that property, and helping to guarantee record-breaking sales.

Also on the kid front, Blockbuster will put its year-old Play Pak on hiatus after fourth quarter because execs said it skewed too young (up to age 6) and wasn't driving enough business to justify its cost. The program will finish out the year with several Rugrats-themed giveaways behind that Thanksgiving release.

Time Warner's Cartoon Network will leverage its Thanksgiving toy giveaway, a partnership with Hasbro, to boost its prime time viewership and serve as a promotional platform for the launch of a much-touted animated series, Powerpuff Girls. The view-and-win "Toy Blowout" launches early next month; kids watching from 7-9 p.m. will see a network icon with a fuse in it as a prompt to send in postcard entries.

The sweepstakes will deliver a safe full of toys to a kid's house on Nov. 21. The winner, with help from a Cartoon Net crew, will "blow up" the safe to get to 500 toys and games inside. (No flying debris, marketers promise, just sparklers and smoke bombs). On-air 15- and 60-second promo spots, sponsored by Hasbro, will support. The ads are a mix of live-action and original animation, putting classic Hanna-Barbera character Mutley next to egomaniacal newcomer Johnny Bravo.

"We wanted to 'cartoonize' the delivery," said Michelle Allario, the net's vp-marketing. "It reinforces our brand personality."

What a difference a year makes. Discovery Zone, about a year out of bankruptcy with its new owner, New York investment firm Wellspring Associates, has added a national sponsorship of Children's Television Workshop's venerable Sesame Street to its growing list of entertainment links. The chain will underwrite the PBS series for a year. Fifteen-second billboards will air at the front and back of the show, whose 30th anniversary season kicks off Nov. 16. DZ, which has some 200 FunCenters, will use the sponsorship to create in-store educational activities using the much-loved Sesame Street characters.

In the past six months, DZ has forged a long-term promo partnership with Saban and Fox Kids, with Sony Wonder and CTW for Elmopalooza, and linked to properties with Sony and Kids WB, per its mission to become an entertainment venue competitive with theaters, sports events, mails and video arcades.

Even if Strangeland, an independent thriller releasing this month, doesn't do well at the box office, it will have another lease on life via a product placement deal with Chaos Comics (Brandweek, July 13, 1997). The movie, starring, written and co-produced by former Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider, will be incorporated into the plotline of an Evil Ernie comic debuting Oct. 16. In addition, Chaos will create a Strangeland promotional comic book as a giveaway at screenings and with the soundtrack. The Strangeland deal is the first in what execs at the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Chaos hope is a long line of links with Hollywood, corporate America and its core equity, horror comics, as well as planned younger and more female-skewing action adventure and comedy titles.

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