Giving HDTV the Rock Star Treatment - 'Only Cable=20 Can' Effort Touts High-Def With Year-Long Series=20 of Concerts October 28, 2004 12:00am Source: Reed Business Information. All Rights Reserved. Multichannel News: New York -- After focusing=20 much of their efforts this year on using sporting=20 events to market HDTV, major cable operators are=20 turning to rock stars to drive sales of=20 high-definition programming packages and set-tops. Jon Bon Jovi shared the stage here last week with=20 cable officials and representatives from Samsung=20 Electronics America Inc. to announce the launch=20 of an HDTV concert series that will run=20 exclusively on In Demand Networks' INHD and INHD2=20 services, distributed by Comcast Corp., Cox=20 Communications Inc., Time Warner Cable and=20 Adelphia Communications Corp. The MSOs, through the industry's "Only Cable Can"=20 initiative, are teaming with Samsung to push the=20 year-long HDTV concert series. Combined, the=20 companies will spend "tens of millions of=20 dollars" on marketing the concerts and cable HDTV=20 programming packages. SCHEDULES AND INCENTIVES Media includes national newspapers, national=20 broadcast, cross-channel cable spots customized=20 for each operator and Internet advertising, said=20 Samsung senior vice president of strategic=20 marketing Peter Weedfald. The concert series kicks off on Nov. 21, with a=20 live Bon Jovi show that will run on INHD2.=20 Samsung agreed to market the concerts through the=20 end of 2005. Samsung and the MSOs are also offering consumers=20 that buy a Samsung HDTV and order a digital-cable=20 package a $200 Visa gift card. Previous Only Cable Can campaigns organized by=20 the Cable & Telecommunications Association for=20 Marketing included a promotion that operators ran=20 with Samsung that offered cable subscribers=20 coupons that could be used to pay their cable=20 bill if they purchased a high-definition set and=20 programming package. The $200 gift card will be issued after the=20 consumer buys an HDTV. They won't be able to use=20 the gift card to help pay for the actual sets,=20 Weedfald said, as the company believed allowing=20 consumers to buy anything else they wanted with=20 the gift card was a more effective approach. "Did you ever have someone buy you a gift, and=20 when you returned it you got a slip that said,=20 'Here's $200 -- buy anything you want in the=20 store.' That feeling -- that emotive capital=20 that's found by, 'Suddenly I have $200 that I can=20 do something with' -- nothing can touch it,"=20 Weedfald said. Most of the concerts will be taped; Bon Jovi's=20 performance is currently the only scheduled live=20 show. In Demand president Rob Jacobson said=20 performances featuring Mary J. Blige, Elton John=20 and Sting are scheduled for December, while=20 Earth, Wind & Fire and Chicago are tentatively=20 set for January. Jacobson said INHD hopes to run 15 different=20 concerts over the next year, and that the company=20 is currently in talks with performers that would=20 appeal to younger viewers, in addition to their=20 parents. He said the marketing push would provide=20 a nice boost for INHD and INHD2. "It's going to create a lot of additional=20 awareness for INHD, no question about it. And=20 it's going to let cable customers know that they=20 have a place to go to get really great,=20 high-quality pictures and sound that they can't=20 get anywhere else," Jacobson said. Through Only Cable Can, major MSOs have focused=20 primarily this year on using sports to market=20 HDTV. In March, Only Cable Can ran a promotion=20 with Samsung, offering subscribers who bought a=20 Samsung HDTV and digital-cable package $100 in=20 coupons that could be used to pay their cable=20 bills. The industry ran a similar promotion with=20 Panasonic over the summer, touting cable as the=20 best way to watch NBC's coverage of the Summer=20 Olympics from Athens, Greece. Sources said CTAM and its cable partners are=20 working on a similar consumer promotion with Sony=20 that will tout the medium as the best way to=20 watch football games in high-definition. Samsung has also worked with cable rival DirecTV=20 Inc. this fall on a $15 million ad campaign that=20 pitches the DBS provider's exclusive "NFL Sunday=20 Ticket" out-of-market game package and the=20 electronics firm's HDTVs. "In a world order where there are multiple=20 partners, I would expect that the cable industry,=20 [through] Only Cable Can, should be working with=20 many different companies, just like we work with=20 many different providers," Weedfald said. 'CUMULATIVE EFFECT' CTAM and operators that have participated in the=20 previous Only Cable Can consumer promotions=20 haven't quantified how many new subscribers the=20 campaigns generated, but some MSO executives said=20 they have been effective. "I think there's a cumulative effect to all of=20 this stuff, and the more often that we're out=20 there the more impact I believe they'll have,"=20 said Time Warner Cable senior vice president of=20 marketing Brian Kelly. "When we get behind things=20 like this we usually see a nice little spike=20 associated with the number of HDTV set-tops that=20 we have going into the home." Cox senior vice president of marketing Joe Rooney=20 said it's not easy to track the number of leads=20 that have been generated by the Only Cable Can=20 promotions. "We're pretty nascent at this cooperative=20 marketing, and we've got some back-office work to=20 do to maximize the broadband infrastructure in=20 ways to be able to measure the activity a little=20 better," Rooney added. 'Pizza Man' HD Spot Delivers - Cox Communications Inc. Steve Donohue Cox Communications Inc.'s latest HDTV commercial=20 touts the real-life picture the new technology=20 offers by showing a pizza deliveryman scared out=20 of his wits when a man holding a gun bellows a=20 warning. It turns out that the gunman is an actor=20 in a TV movie, not a real customer. =46rame description: (1) Pizza delivery man enters=20 house; (2) Movie character shouts, "Freeze=20 dirtbag!"; (3) Cable subscriber/pizza customer=20 explains, "Dude, it's a movie." (4) Spot=20 concludes with Cox's slogan, "So real, you forget=20 it's TV." Ad agency: DP Editorial Inc. <<Multichannel News -- 10/25/04, p. 28>> << Copyright =A92004 Reed Business Information. All Rights Reserved. >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.