Movie studios are giving the printable online coupon a shot at helping to boost DVD sales of just released films. Fox has used the strategy for the first time with the release of the film "Daredevil". In this months email newsletter, which goes out to 1 million subscribers, 20th Century Fox featured a 5 dollar-off coupon for the Ben Affleck superhero film. The e-mail went out the weekend before the DVD's street date.
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For "Daredevil," Fox did a deal with Coupons Inc. That company's technology allowed Fox to limit the number of online coupons to 50,000, and it prevented, via bar codes, exact copies of the coupons from being made. Similarly, Walt Disney Co. has been a recurring customer of Coupons Inc., using the service for several of its recent child-appropriate releases. Coupons Inc. chief operating officer Jeff Weitzman said studios are expressing a desire to ensure strong sales of DVDs right out of the gate, much as they desire the same at the box office, and coupons that can be targeted to fans who must use them rather quickly is an efficient way to make that happen. "First-week sales are becoming the equivalent of first-weekend box office," Weitzman said. |
But, in an interesting aside, the seemingly innocuous barcode has more than one purpose. According to Mr. Ashton, Fox won't be able to measure the success of the program for approximately 3 months. Apparently, as an interesting aside to the barcode, they can track who used the coupon and where. Ashton said. "My gut feeling is that it did help sales a bit and it leaves a paper trail of where our customers go shopping."
Source: yahoo.com
