The printable online coupon (voucher) is getting more and more attention from studios looking to beef up DVD sales. "Daredevil" is the latest example -- and is also the first time Fox has embraced the fairly new technology. Within the studio's monthly e-mail newsletter, which goes out to 1 million subscribers, 20th Century Fox featured a $5-off coupon for the Ben Affleck superhero film. The e-mail went out the weekend before the DVD's street date.
The Internet campaign offers "a tangible metric to say, 'This is its effectiveness,"' said Richard Ashton (news), director of database marketing at 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
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.
It will be three months before Fox determines the effectiveness of the campaign by tracking who actually used the coupon and where, Ashton said. "My gut feeling is that it did help sales a bit," Ashton said. "And it leaves a paper trail of where our customers go shopping."
