As we get ready for a summer of biggest slate of tent pole offerings in some time, we also get an avalanche of media hyping the summer. Magazines, entertainment shows and websites are in full gear, advertising every offering that Hollywood has to offer.
The key to this Summer Marketing is the montage of fun under a summer umbrella. Its Fun under the Sun!!!
So what is bigger “Hollywood” or “Summer”? Granted retailers sell tons of non licensed products that are dedicated to the summer from apparel, food, grills, garden, to fans and suntan lotion. The media has worked a deal where all the summer movies are marketed towards a successful summer of entertainment.
So why don’t Retailers and Marketers do the same? Why not focus to treat summer entertainment as a category program and ask those who want to participate to do just that: Have fun in the sun and play in the Summer Entertainment sandbox.
The Media online and Print has the entire tent pole movies “Summer Blockbusters” collaged together to sell the summer. So instead of having 1 movie dominate your stores have Summer Blockbusters POS grab a Product, Retail and Entertaining Theme that drives excitement for the bigger Summer Category. Everybody wins and Hollywood starts to truly become a total store category captain (not just the categories they play in). If the MediaMagazine category can pull this off why can’t retail do the same?
July is Comic Con Month and Fandom is perfect for retailers to get that Con feeling of exclusives being fed to fans through out the store. We did superhero’s in the produce aisle for years. Snack foods , Deli, and other departments can compliment this Summer Blockbuster promotion.
This strategy also allows ROI benefits with 1 POS kit that covers 3 months of merchandising. Merchandising can change as needed but the overall look hitchhikes on the millions of dollars spent to hype these movies. It invites more players in all brands to be involved with a Blockbuster Summer Merchandising event. It sells a lot more product at Retail with the real hero of the season….Summer, Family , & Food !!!