News

July 22, 2007 9:00 PM

NBC Universal's 'King Kong' on Demand

Second Place: Content Provider Division

By Debra Kaufman, Special to TelevisionWeek

"King Kong" presented some monster-sized challenges to NBC Universal Digital Distribution’s marketing team. "When you have a movie like ‘King Kong’ that has such a huge amount of hype for theatrical release and earns a large box office, historically the sell-through are rentals, not VOD," said Stacy Melle, VP of marketing for NBC Universal Digital Distribution. "How do we get a movie that’s already been over-exposed and provide consumers with a different viewing experience? How do you get the message out to them to come in and enjoy it again?"

The first strategy was to give the movie better positioning in the electronic program guide, by creating a "King Kong" category so users didn’t have to click multiple menus to reach the movie. With a category, the user would click on movies and one of the top items would be "King Kong." "We liken it to, in the home video business, getting better shelf space at the end of the aisle," said Ms. Melle.

But creating a category isn’t a slam-dunk. Ms. Melle and NBC Universal Digital Distribution marketing director Gena Nason first had to entice cable MSOs to create a category by offering compelling content. "You have to give them a reason to want to do it," said Ms. Nason.

Fortunately for them, director Peter Jackson had produced a video diary throughout the film’s production. Although these diary "extras" were put out on DVD, they weren’t exploited fully, so NBC Universal’s home video group allowed the digital division to repurpose them.

"There were more than 50 video diary entries, so there was plenty to go around to give each MSO five unique production diaries that they could claim to have exclusively," said Ms. Melle. "I used this as a means to get the MSOs to commit, so I said, first come, first served."

Ms. Melle said she ended up choosing each cable system operator’s five-pack; she aimed for variety, giving each one a diary entry from New York City, on the boat and Skull Island. "It was definitely a cachet that the MSOs could exploit this with their own offering," she said. "The satellite guys didn’t have it."

To sweeten the deal, NBC Universal Digital Distribution allowed MSOs to use King Kong On Demand to highlight their triple-play offerings. "Movies are always kept in their spot in the VOD section," said Ms. Melle. "We’re fortunate enough to work for a studio where the VOD world is in sync with the network distribution world, and we relate to the cable operators in a unique way. It allows for a lot of great synergies."

Nonetheless, there were limits on how "King Kong" could be used by the MSOs to promote telephony or other services. "What you cannot do is use a shot of King Kong holding a remote control with a bubble over his head, saying, ‘Get Comcast digital cable,’" said Ms. Melle. "That’s using Kong to promote the cable business. We avoided that by using the language of the movie to say ‘a Kong-sized deal.’ Obviously that doesn’t work for every movie."

"It was a work-around," said Ms. Nason. "We have to make sure that the exhibition of the movie on-demand is first and foremost in everything we say and do."

A comprehensive media strategy included spot cable in 10 of the top VOD markets and a direct-mail campaign. Time Warner Cable created an entire retail campaign with in-store signage in outlets including Circuit City and CompUSA.

The campaign also included a self-contained "King Kong" Web site that had the production diaries, screensavers, wallpaper, online games and a Skull Island sweepstakes with a first-prize trip to New Zealand.

"It was customized for each MSO with its brand, and we got a lot of play on the MSOs’ high-speed portals," said Ms. Nason. "We were able to track the click-throughs, and in May we had the most traffic on our Web site in its history, so it was pretty significant."