Not Much Jolt in Starbucks' Movie World
Filed under: Documentary, Box Office, Movie Marketing
After the wild success of March of the Penguins, Paramount Classics thought they had a solid follower with Arctic Tale -- the story of a walrus and her calf and a polar bear and her cubs. They scored a promotional partner in Starbucks and waited for the success. Well, where Penguins earned millions, Variety reports that Tale has only earned $484,000 in the past month -- not quite the popularity they were expecting. (Penguins had nabbed millions in the same amount of time.)But it seems that no matter how much Starbucks can infiltrate the US, and slip a store on practically every street corner, they can't seem to beef up movie sales. Tale is their second attempt -- the first was Akeelah and the Bee, which also performed below expectations. But it's not without some effort -- for this latest film, the company installed signage and stickers, specially-branded cup sleeves, sold plush walruses, sold the film's soundtrack and had special discussions in some stores about climate change. They didn't go further, like specially-named drinks, to avoid over-commercializing the tie-in, which I have to respect. "We are careful to promote our products and projects in a tasteful manner and not to interfere with the coffeehouse experience," says Ken Lombard. The article also mentions how the stores don't have screens to air footage, but really, it's a flipping coffeehouse -- that's a good thing! Is the problem how Starbucks is promoting it, the films themselves, or something else?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-24-2007 @ 1:29PM
Jason said...
I think the issue with Arctic Tale is the lack of advertising outside of Starbuck's push. I remember those coffee slips - I honestly thought that 'Arctic Tale' was a wildlife foundation or something. I had never heard of the property beyond Starbucks. At least Akeelah had spots on television.
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8-25-2007 @ 12:46PM
Liquid Soap said...
Are people who buy Starbucks coffee in the demographic range that these films were targeted at?......i don't think so.
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8-28-2007 @ 9:38AM
Rob D. said...
Maybe Starbucks promotion of Arctic Tale would've been more of a success if they were a living example of the sustainable/eco-friendly lifestyle that is communicated in Arctic Tale. For example, Starbucks still lacks a corporate recycling program!
more here:
http://robdubinski.wordpress.com/2007/08/24/starbucks-arctic-tale-global-warming-corporate-hypocrisy/
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