FAITH & FAMILY: Ringing in the holiday season

“In a time of economic downturn, content is what will drive customers—something that’s encouraging, that’s uplifting, that’s fun, that’s creative,” says Greg Fritz, senior VP of marketing and licensing at Big Idea. “I think that’s what we all hope to see this fall.”

Big Idea’s second VeggieTales feature, The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything (Universal; street Oct. 15, prebook Sept. 9) is one of only a couple of theatrical titles with specific appeal to the faith-based consumer coming to DVD for the Christmas shopping season. Fritz says independent and chain stores in the CBA market “have come to the table with some innovative marketing” to promote the release on street date.

Gary Weyel, marketing and communications strategist for the Parable Christian Stores group, calls Prince Caspian “the most anticipated title for the Christmas season,” adding, “I would expect 3-2-1 Penguins: Save the Planets [Big Idea/Genius; available now] to ride the wave of Saturday morning cartoon notoriety.”

Tim Way, divisional merchandise manager for leading Christian retailer Family Christian Stores, is optimistic about the prospects for children’s movies for the fourth quarter, such as The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything and Prince Caspian, although his stores largely go beyond the mainstream hits. “The things that work for our stores are the strong, faith-based stories,” he says.

Other high-profile mainstream theatrical releases coming to DVD for families this year include Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! (Fox), Kung Fu Panda (Paramount) and WALL-E (Disney).

Without an explicitly faith-based new film to bring out for the holiday season, market powerhouse Fox division Fox Faith will rely on its mainstream fare for the Christian retail segment along with the repromotion of faith-based catalog titles beginning this fall.

“We are promoting the Christian attributes of a lot of our family titles to the CBA market,” says Cara Withers, marketing director for Fox Faith. She adds that the label has developed supporting materials for those titles, designed to appeal more to the faith and values audience.

A Bible study guide for Horton Hears a Who! (street Dec. 9, prebook Nov. 11) will be available on FoxFaith.com, and product going to CBA stores will be stickered to direct consumers to the site.

Withers says MGM title Elephant Tales, available on the same date as Horton, and Her Best Move, a recently released coming-of-age soccer story, will boast a family- and teen-based discussion guide, respectively.

Laura Neutzling, VP of marketing for Word Distribution, says that a screening of Paramount’s Kung Fu Panda at July’s International Christian Retail Show in Orlando, Fla., was well-received by attendees. Word will bring Panda and Horton to the CBA market for the fourth quarter, supported by marketing materials tailored specifically for the faith-based consumer. A discussion guide, Prepare for Awesomeness, which highlights the character values featured in Panda, will be accessible online.

“Here and there we are trying to bring in family films that are wholesome and fun that we think we can do well with in the Christian market,” Neutzling says. But she’s cautious about the reception of mainstream films by the CBA consumer. “Overall, the faith-based titles do best at those stores.”

For CBA stores, Neutzling says initiatives such as Fox Faith’s repromotion of the Love Comes Softly series, offering two movies packaged together for $29.99 for the first time, might be most appealing.

Family Christian Stores’ Way says his company is already planning to repromote catalog product such as Fox’s Saving Sarah Cain and Amazing Grace and Warner’s The Nativity Story, a strategy he expects to produce better results than selling G-rated mainstream family fare.

But unfortunately, he says, broader economic concerns are coloring overall DVD sales projections. “The economy has been tough. It has been kind of dry here for DVDs,” he says. “There are some things on the radar for next year that will be really strong,” he adds, but for this holiday season, he plans to make the most of last year’s strong titles.

Suppliers have come up with some alternatives for this year.

“We find that with the price of gas and everything else, Americans are a little more homeward-bound and thinking about how they can entertain affordably,” says Tracey Ames, VP of marketing for Lionsgate. “DVD is the perfect solution to that. And at the holidays, there’s no better time to bring entertainment home, so it’s kind of the perfect convergence.”

Ames says Lionsgate hopes its release of Thomas Kinkade’s Christmas Cottage (street Nov. 11, prebook Oct. 15) can capitalize on that convergence at retail. The supplier believes the film inspired by Kinkade, an artist whose $1 billion in sales has made his ornaments and cards a Christmas staple, will appeal to both mainstream channels and Christian booksellers during the fourth quarter.

Another way suppliers are working to address economic pressures is by pricing product in an aggressive enough way to get noticed at retail.

Debbie Ries, senior VP and general manager of NCircle, says her company will be emphasizing value in its fourth-quarter strategy, bringing out repriced holiday-themed content and other programs with brand recognition in time for Christmas.

“It’s pretty tough at retail in the DVD category,” she says, “but people are making sacrifices for their kids, so we’re a little bit protected from the economic environment.”

NCircle will release Hermie: A Fruitcake Christmas (street Sept. 30, prebook now), Tommy Nelson’s perennial seller at Christian retail, to the mainstream, repriced at $9.99 for the holiday season.

NCircle also is finalizing a single-retailer promotion that will create an exclusive compilation of content for the preschool set, including shorts from Hermie, Richard Scarry and Jim Henson’s Sid the Science Kid, to be sold for $14.95 or given away with the purchase of another children’s DVD.

“It’s all quality, all wholesome and a great value,” Ries says.