Ad Track: Brands cozy up to sixth Bond
NEW YORK -- Daniel Craig, the sixth and latest James Bond, didn't just bring in new fans with his debut two years ago. He also has lured new marketers to the movie franchise well-known for product placement and tie-ins.
Eon, which owns Bond rights, and Sony, which took over distribution, hoped Craig could broaden Bond's appeal across generations, gender and geography. He did: Worldwide box office for Casino Royale was $594.2 million, the most of the 21 Bond films.
That has attracted marketers of younger, hipper products to the latest film in the 46-year-old franchise, Quantum of Solace, which opens Oct. 31 in London and Nov. 14 in the U.S. Among them: Coca-Cola with its first Bond promotion, for Coke Zero. MGM and Sony, which owns 20% of MGM, are equal partners on Quantum of Solace.
"What we are finding now is that he not only crosses demographics, men and women, young and old, he has helped extend and broaden Bond so that it's become a culture event," says Georg Leon, Sony's executive vice president, consumer marketing.
Also new this time out, he says, is that the tie-ins, messages and licensed products are being tailored much more for specific markets than they have before.
"Marketers have become really smart about over-saturation," Leon says. "It really is about picking the right partner and letting them have their own unique message and voice."
Coke Zero
Coke will make its biggest push in the U.K. with ads and limited-edition, black Quantum of Solace bottles to be sold at Harrods department store in London. In the U.S., Coke will begin to air this month an animated commercial in cinemas and on TV.
"We're in more than 100 markets," says Derk Hendriksen of the zero-calorie soft drink with sales up 35% this year. "We thought the tie-in would be very appropriate for two irreverent and global personalities (Coke Zero and Bond)."
Avon
The cosmetics and fragrance maker, in its first Bond affiliation, will sell Bond Girl 007 Fragrance for $30. Gemma Arterton, who plays Agent Fields, a sexy, young, fellow Brit, will appear in print and TV ads in North America, Europe and Latin America.
The film is a "great platform to develop a beautiful fragrance and connect with women worldwide," says Tracy Haffner, global vice president, marketing.
Ford Motor
Continuing long Ford ties with Bond films, Ford of Europe's redesigned Ka mini-car, being launched now, is driven by Ukrainian actress and new Bond love interest Olga Kurylenko. The automaker and the film's designers created a metallic gold model, and Ford of Europe will launch the special-edition Solace Ka for sale around the movie's release. The design of Kurylenko's ride was aimed specifically to reach women in the audience. Other Ford brands are expected to show up in the film, and Bond again will drive former Ford brand Aston Martin.
Sony Electronics
After a limited tie-in with Casino Royale, the corporate sibling of the Sony film studio is stepping up its Bond ties for Quantum of Solace. Craig will appear in TV, print and digital ads to promote Sony's Bravia flat-panel TVs, Blu-ray Disc players and Vaio computers. Also available will be a limited-edition 007 Vaio that includes a Bond-like brief case.
Swatch
The "007 Villain Collection" has 22 watches based on the chief bad guys in each of the movies. Priced at $60 to $245, the faces incorporate villain features such as "danger level" for the Dr. No watch or a skull face for voodoo character Baron Samedi in Live & Let Die.
Toy gadgets
Hoping Bond's appeal can be extended to kids, toy licensee PopCo will have Bond collectible die-cast cars, action figures and toys, such as the Crypto Decoder, with a suggested retail price of $19.99, and GPS Hideout Tracker, sold at mainstream outlets including Toys R Us. "We haven't had a lot of mass market toy business," says Keith Snelgrove, vice president, global business strategy for Danjaq, Eon's licensing group. "Most people think of us as an adult concept."
New & Notable:
A Super Bowl bid
She looked for love in all the wrong places, and now Amy Borkowsky hopes to land Mr. Right with a personal ad on the Feb. 1 Super Bowl broadcast. Borkowsky is trying to raise $3 million — the going rate for a 30-second commercial. With the game attracting nearly 50 million male viewers on average, the single New Yorker thinks she has a strong chance of luring in a life partner. She launched SuperBowlSingleGirl.com on Friday, which includes personal data on the fortysomething ad copywriter-cum-comedian, as well as details on how to donate.
Game broadcaster NBC says that fewer than eight spots remain unsold, so the funding must come quickly. If she can raise the dough, NBC will consider approving the spot to air. "We know how hard it can be to find a husband in New York," spokesman Brian Walker says.
$avvy $avers
With the economy imploding, there's one kids toy that could make a comeback this holiday: banks. Not old-time piggy banks, mind you, but techie devices aimed at nudging kids to learn to save at least some of their allowances. "Children continually emulate and adapt based on what they see and hear in real life," says Bob Giampietro, senior vice president at Toys R Us, which predicts kids banks could be a hit for the holidays. Among them:
•Zillionz Laser Beam Safe. To access this $24.99, ultra-cool safe from Summit Toys, you must penetrate motion-detecting lasers, enter a secret code and use your thumbprint. If the laser connection is broken or a wrong code is entered, an alarm scares the bejeebers out of intruders.
•Zillionz Counting Money Jar. This $12.99 jar, also from Summit Toys, lets kids electronically track their savings.
Ad Team advice to kids who might see our column: Save your coins in a can and ask your folks to fork over the cash they'd spend on a bank.
Starbucks talks turkey
Starbucks will launch its first-ever Thanksgiving coffee blend, which it says is designed to go with such Thanksgiving dishes as turkey and pumpkin pie — and helps the struggling chain's sales. "It's a big idea," and holiday blends are typically hot sellers, says Howard Schultz, CEO. The blend, due out Nov. 4, will be $10.95 per pound, $2 less than the upcoming annual Christmas blend.
Food for thought
ConAgra Foods' Healthy Choice brand has selected an unlikely spokeswoman for its new money-saving lunch line: heiress Ivanka Trump. The Donald's daughter will tout Healthy Choice Fresh Mixers — a microwavable meal that doesn't need fridge or freezer storage — with appearances and online at blog.alunchtrade.com. "As a busy woman, I often spend lunch in a meeting or at my desk," says a recent posting.
Back in black
AC/DC and Wal-Mart? At 12:01 a.m. today the chain became the exclusive seller of the band's first album of new material in eight years.
Wal-Mart is promoting the $11.88 Black Ice album with print and TV ads, as well as roving Black Ice trucks giving out T-shirts and guitar picks in select markets. It created "Rock Again" mini-stores in its 3,500 locations to sell the album, as well as products such as AC/DC pajamas.
Wal-Mart has an AC/DC fan base, insists Greg Hall, Wal-Mart vice president for content and services. The classic AC/DC concert T-shirt is a best seller, and its past CDs have had brisk sales, he says. While Wal-Mart has had exclusives on albums by Garth Brooks, the Eagles and Journey, Hall says the AC/DC deal is the most extensive.
Name that tune
Q: Why do movie trailers often use the same music? Why is that music usually not part of the soundtrack or actual movie score? And finally, what is the title and artist of the song that plays in the movie ad for Appaloosa?—Major R. Warner, Nashville
A: Good questions, Major. Trailers are ads that are usually produced separately from the movie. While they include edited movie footage, a film's musical score often does not lend itself to such treatment.
"A score is not meant to be used in 30-second, 60-second or two-minute trailers," says Carol Sovinski, a partner in AudioMachine, an agency that makes music for motion pictures. "Scores will sometimes be used in scenes that last for four or five minutes."
It is generally cheaper and quicker to hire a specialist such as AudioMachine and license a track from their library that fits the mood of the trailer.
"Not everyone can write ad music," Sovinski says. "There's a lot of starts and stops that make it easier for the editors. A lot of it comes down to writing for the genre. We know what's dramatic, what's action or what's a thriller. And it becomes a lot more cost effective to use the library."
That can lead to use of the same track in multiple trailers. Out of Time, a song by AudioMachine, has been used in various forms in the trailers for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Hancock, The Express, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Beowulf and Spider-Man 3.
The music in the trailer for Appaloosa (a Western directed by, produced by and starring Ed Harris, with Viggo Mortensen) is called House of Cards. It is from AudioMachine and is not in the movie.
The film's composer, Jeff Beal, tells the Ad Team yet another reason trailer and movie music may differ: "This is because the film (and its music) are usually still being completed."