News
Shop TV Ties to 'Eat Pray'
Updated Oct 6-Wall St. Journal story
By Robert Marich
Aug. 4 2010—For Julia Roberts drama Eat Pray Love, Home Shopping Network is devoting 72 hours of TV time in a cross promotion. Sony Pictures is scheduled to release the PG-13-rated drama on Aug. 13; Roberts portrays an emotionally traumatized woman on a journey of self discovery.
An Advertising Age story by Joseph Frydl says “programming simultaneously plugs the Sony Pictures film and more than 400 products across multiple categories that are somehow related to the movie. Sony wants to promote the film to the HSN demographic (women 30 to 50 years old). HSN wants to find new ways to sell products.”
My reaction is capsulated by a reader comment of the Ad Age story that HSN seems an odd fit. In the movie, the Roberts character pushes away from materialism…hmmm, isn’t that what HSN is all about? Still, it’s a big promotion to a women’s audience that broadly is a good fit for Eat Pray Love (and Buy?).
Sony Pictures sees a fit. According to a Wall Street Journal article, Last October, HSN executives met with Sony 's Sony Pictures in October suggesting the promotion with the Eat, Pray, Love brand to sell products in exchange for promoting the movie.
George Leon, who oversees global consumer marketing for Sony, says the shopping network, with its approximately 5 million mostly female active customers, dovetailed naturally with the movie's marketing ambitions. “HSN’s core audience is a perfect fit for the target audience,” he is quoted in the WSJ.
To drum up interest internally, HSN screened the movie for its employees, including its customer-service representatives who also got copies of the novel on which the film is based. HSN is encouraging sales reps to discuss the book and movie with customers, so that will start at least a small buzz.
“Reportedly, no money is changing hands in the Eat Pray Love deal,” says the Ad Age article. “Consideration in the form of media support is what HSN is putting forward in order to be able to use the Eat Pray Love property to sell products.”
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