Retailers are winning customers with Films
Retailers of every size are using Hollywood blockbuster films to attract and entertain their customers – from Harrods to the local High Street store. And film is being used in a wide variety of settings, from background ambience, to keeping kids amused, to a full-blown re-creation of 1950s cinema.
Harrods, the most famous department store in the world, has held a highly successful special promotion of Italian Cinema by opening its own state-of-the-art screening room next to its DVD department and showing a season of Italian films for customers. With licensing help from Filmbank, Harrods mounted the two-month long special promotion entitled Cinema Italia, showing a wide range of films with Italian themes.
Chris Sweet, Harrods Senior Marketing Manager -Lifestyle Areas, explains, ‘When we were planning the promotion, we got in touch with Filmbank and got their help to clear the rights to show a season of both classic Italian films and Italian-themed Hollywood films — the sort of movie customers love but had not been able to see on a big screen for a long time. We showed popular movies such as Roman Holiday, Death in Venice, The Talented Mr Ripley, Spartacus, Gladiator and, of course, The Italian Job in both the original a remake versions. ‘
Key to mounting the promotion was obtaining licences enabling the films to be publicly screened. ‘Once we’d decided on our Italian promotion,’ says Chris Sweet, ‘we drew up our wish list of great Italian films. We spoke to Filmbank who helped us to clear the rights and put together a deal allowing us to screen for our customers. Until we’d got in touch with Filmbank we weren’t quite sure how you go about the business of licensing but they did a great job and really helped to make it all possible.’
The event was enormously successful, says Sweet. ‘We had an awful lot of people come to congratulate us on the authentic look of the promotion and we received a great deal of good press and media coverage. And we saw a very significant uplift in sales for the whole Sound & Vision Department.’
Smaller retailers are also finding film benefits their business. Filmbank’s Public Video Screening (PVS) Licence is enabling High Wycombe’s newest record shop, Counter Culture, to show films as background.
‘We don’t have a single target audience,’ explains manager Cheryl Evans, ‘it’s everyone from teenage kids to 60-somethings whose kids have grown up and left home. When we set up here, we wanted to have all the elements such as film involved in getting our business off the ground, which is where the PVS Licence comes in, enabling us to actually screen films in the shop.’
Counter Culture has installed a screen in the shop and uses it to provide an ambient background feature and an additional point of interest for customers. One advantage of using films in this way is that Counter Culture can select films that complement its current range of merchandise.
‘We show all kinds of film from old black and white movies to very visual and bright modern films like Austin Powers which fits with our approach to popular culture. And we can choose our film title depending on what we are selling this week.’
According to Filmbank’s Director of Sales and Marketing, Graeme Leith, ‘Showing films is a perfect way for retailers to attract customers into their stores as well as promoting a wide range of product-related themes. Harrods was able to screen films publicly because it was covered by our Single Title Copyright Licence, a licence that enables retailers and organisations of all kinds to show films publicly – often films available only 12 weeks from cinema release and long before they reach the shops. Even a small high street store like Counter Culture can use film through our PVS Licence, enabling them to give their customers an exciting and entertaining experience while shopping.’
