|
|
ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 5.8 - NOVEMBER 2000
David Bowers: Creating Shelf Space for Casperby Joan Kim
Since the success of Harvey's made for video release Casper: A Spirited Beginning and the made for TV movie Casper Meets Wendy, the company that started as a comic book company in New York, has re-emerged and is aiming to become a staple in children's video collections. In 1999 a new management team headed by Roger A. Burlage (Chairman and CEO) and Rick Mischel (President and COO) redirected Harvey's trajectory and continues to re-position Harvey in today's market hoping to take advantage of new media channels. Maximizing the already established family branding associated with the Harvey classic characters, their marketing plan attempts to match itself to the new media age and secure its share of shelf space when Harvey's all CGI production Casper's Haunted Christmas comes to stores this fall. David Bowers, Harvey's senior VP marketing, shares some insight into the marketing and distribution of Harvey's classic character. First, however, let's get to know a little about David Bowers… In addition to playing a key role at Harvey Entertainment, David founded The Bowers Group in 1998 providing full-service entertainment marketing and publicity for clients who include Artisan Entertainment, PM Entertainment, The Leslie Greif Company and Trimark Pictures. Prior to joining Harvey, Bowers served as executive vice president of marketing services and publicity at Artisan Entertainment (formerly LIVE Entertainment) specializing in the development, implementation and supervision of their theatrical marketing and publicity campaigns. There he supervised and created all publicity and promotion campaigns for theatrical, home video, international and corporate divisions. Bowers spent the mid to late ‘80s as the senior vice president at J2 Communications/National Lampoon responsible for all marketing and publicity of their home video product and was integral in the purchase of National Lampoon Magazine and its subsequent update and launch. The early ‘80s were spent at Quinn, Brein, Inc. as vice president of the Family Entertainment Division where he created and implemented publicity and marketing campaigns for major toy companies introducing product line-ups. Some of the companies include Mattel, Hallmark Properties, Coleco and Hasbro.
Joan Kim: How long have you been with Harvey Entertainment working on marketing and distribution? David Bowers: I've been with Harvey for the last year. JK: What are some of the challenges you've encountered this past year in marketing a classic character that has already been branded and recognized by the public? DB: Well, there are a couple of challenges. The first one is that the marketplace is extremely glutted with product this Christmas season. You have everything from major theatrical releases like Chicken Run to home video releases like Aladdin 2 or Little Mermaid 2 or Land Before Time 7. There is so much sell through product coming out that the shelf space is very limited for a lot of the titles. One of the biggest challenges we have is making sure that the retailers and ultimately the public are excited enough about this title that they want to clear off space for us. JK: There is an assortment of hot, new properties that have come out this year that are doing well. Are there any specific challenges you have in trying to update Casper to compete in today's market?
|
|||
1 |
2 |
3
|
