Big budget movie releases have long been a marketing gravy train for tie-ins. But now books are getting strong sales bumps from DVD releases. "We see a second spike, which is often equal in volume to the initial spike from the theatrical release," said Dave Alder, Virgin Entertainment Group senior v-p of product. At the 150-store Hastings chain, the average increase is "very strong double digits," said John Merklein, director of book operations, with major DVD releases having an effect similar to a theatrical release, which typically doubles regular sales.
Given that DVD sales have eclipsed box office receipts ($11.9 billion for DVD vs. $9.2 billion for box office in 2003), their effect on book sales isn't so surprising. In fact, they've helped drive up the sales of movie-related books and other products in the last three or four years. "You see more and more marketing campaigns that support multiple formats," said Alder. "I think that's only going to continue."
Big DVD campaigns are driven by the studios, which take home a much larger share of DVD revenue than they do of box office dollars, as well as by retailers who see an opportunity to sell related merchandise. When a film is a massive hit, like the Lord of the Rings movies, or a solid hit that's based on a bestseller, like Seabiscuit, book tie-ins naturally do very well. But DVDs can also breathe new life into lesser hits and even outright disappointments, like last summer's The Hulk. The DVD release of that film allowed retailers to unload some of the considerable backlog of associated books and other merchandise. "We had a chance to sell through merchandise that didn't sell in the first place," said Alder.
Retailers with an established strategy for merchandising across formats tend to sell more tie-ins. For example, Virgin promotes roughly 300 DVDs a month and regularly positions related books alongside them. "We're constantly considering cross-marketing opportunities," Alder added.
An impending DVD release can also help publishers manage returns. "Some stores realize that if they return their stock this month, then they'll just have to reorder it two or three months down the road when the DVD comes out and pay all the associated shipping costs," explained Trafalgar Square's managing director, Paul Feldstein. "It helps us keep stock out there and maybe even add to it if the title is a hit."
Recently, Feldstein was able to apply the heat of prerelease DVD sales of the The Office to his book tie-in to the BBC sitcom. "Script books are usually not the easiest things to sell in," said Feldstein. "But there was so much support from the DVD buyers, we were able to piggyback on that promotion."
Feldstein believes Barnes & Noble is urging its book and DVD buyers to work more closely to facilitate better sales across formats. But Virgin is still ahead of the curve. Alder, for example, maintains a list of titles that Virgin is going to push. Every category buyer has the same list, so coordination is built into the system. Upcoming selections include Cold Mountain (June 29) and Star Trek: Voyager season 3 (July 6).
TV series on disc have also done well for Virgin, though sales of related books tend to skew higher for shows with cult appeal, like Sex and the City or The Simpsons. Virgin also has success with shows like the sci-fi series Firefly, which has a devoted following (despite failing on TV), but sees more mixed results on tie-ins to young adult TV shows, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. At Hastings, Merklein sees generally less correlation between series DVDs and book sales, though the Midwestern chain has had some success with Smallville.
Hastings is the only major chain to capitalize on tie-ins with DVDs through its rental service. "We'll merchandise tie-in books on the wall right next to the DVD rental," said Merklein. Typically, that promotion will last for 30 days.
Both Alder and Merklein see a market for tie-ins to the DVD release of The Passion of the Christ at the end of August. There is no shortage of tie-in titles, both official and otherwise, including Passion: Photography from the Movie (Tyndale House).
