For the fifth year, Strategy presents its Top Clients report, an annual feature devoted to recognizing the accomplishments of leading clients in the Canadian marketing community.
This year, as before, Strategy’s editorial staff has reviewed the year’s news in an effort to identify those clients that stand out most clearly as exemplary marketers.
These selections are based on what we consider the fundamental tenets of good marketing: sales results, attention to brand development, innovation and productive relationships with suppliers.
Measured against these criteria, Labatt Breweries of Canada has unquestionably earned the distinction of being named Strategy’s 1999 Client of the Year.
This is not your parents’ movie theatre. Walk into any of the entertainment centres that Toronto-based Famous Players has opened across the country in the past two years, and you’ll be treated to an experience that, depending on your point of view, is either seriously cool or the death of civilized moviegoing as we know it.
From the spiffy high-tech interior designs and interactive game centres, to the branded food options (Pizza Hut, New York Fries, Starbucks coffee), to the licensed bars that have opened in some locations, everything about these places is designed to hyper-stimulate the senses. Once you’ve walked into the lobby, seeing a movie becomes almost an afterthought.
And in a way, that’s the idea.
Faced with increasing competitive challenges (not least being the arrival of U.S.-based chain AMC Theatres on the Canadian scene) Famous Players has embarked upon a makeover of titanic proportions. In launching its new branded theatre complexes – Silver City, Coliseum, Colossus and Paramount – in major markets across Canada, the 76-year-old cinema chain has taken the view that patrons want more for the price of admission than two hours in a darkened box. Accordingly, Famous Players has moved to position its theatres as ‘entertainment locations,’ at which the movie itself is just part of the whole pleasure package.
‘Traditionally,’ says Stuart Pollock, vice-president, marketing for Famous Players, ‘people looked at a newspaper and said, ‘I want to see movie X. Where is it playing?’ We want people to look at the listings and say, ‘I want to go to the Silver City or the Paramount. What’s playing there?”
By pouring on the razzle-dazzle – the ‘Willy Wonka approach,’ as Pollock calls it – Famous Players is clearly bidding to capture that prime group of moviegoers in the 12-25 age range – a young audience with ample leisure time, loads of disposable income and a hunger for new sensations.
‘We might be a little too kinetic for somebody who’s older,’ concedes Pollock, a 10-year veteran with the company. ‘But if we try to build theatres for people 50-plus who don’t want to go to busy, crowded places, we’re not going to be very successful. You can’t be everybody’s best friend.’
This past year has been one of major landmarks for Famous Players, which is owned by Viacom Canada. In addition to continuing with its ambitious $300-million national expansion plan – a process that’s expected to take another two years to complete – the company unveiled its two newest brand concepts, Colossus and Paramount, with the opening of flagship theatre complexes in the Toronto area.
For the Paramount, which is situated in the heart of downtown Toronto’s entertainment district, Famous Players did something that North American theatre chains have rarely done – namely, launch a full-scale brand advertising campaign in mass media (including TV and out-of-home). Even more unusual is the campaign creative, produced by Toronto-based GeneratorIdeaWorks, which never actually shows the theatre itself; instead the ads use off-the-wall imagery to encapsulate the brand’s positioning statement: ‘Fun is Paramount.’
‘The obvious thing would be to show people sitting in a dark room watching a screen,’ Pollock says. ‘But that’s not what our experience is about. I think our agency was a little surprised that we went for this concept when they presented it. But it just felt right.’
This ability to take risks and opt for the unconventional is one of the strengths of the Famous Players operation, says Barb Sheperd, vice-president, retail marketing with GeneratorIdeaWorks.
‘They’re a large organization that acts entrepreneurially,’ she says. ‘I admire their ability to think and make decisions quickly. They shoot from the hip. And they take tremendous leaps of faith – for the right reasons.’
Now that the company has successfully established Paramount and the other key brand concepts, Pollock says the next step will be to reinforce the Famous Players ‘mother’ brand. Three 15-second television spots are in the can. The tagline? ‘Famous Players – You may never want to leave.’
Other plans for the coming year include the October launch of Famous, a lifestyle magazine to be distributed in theatres, and the establishment of a new stand-alone media sales company. Pollock says Famous Players will also pursue further its strategy of forming long-term relationships with similarly high-profile corporate players, from Imax Corporation (which has partnered with the company to establish IMAX theatres in a number of Famous Players complexes) to Pepsi-Cola Canada and Labatt Breweries of Canada.
And, of course, the company will continue in its quest to convince the public that it stands for more than just movies. In April, for example, one of the Famous Players locations in Vancouver hosted an unplugged concert by singer Chantal Kreviazuk, and Pollock says there are more events like that in the works.
‘When I first started here, we never would have dreamed of holding a concert,’ he says. ‘But now the philosophy is ‘Why not? Let’s figure out how we can do a thing, instead of talking about why we can’t do it.”
Also in this report:
– Top Client, Overall: Labatt rockets brands right out of the blue p.B2
– Top Client, Business Services: IBM humanizes Global division: Effort puts a face to IBM name p.B4
– Top Client, Financial Services: Simplicity the crux of ING proposition p.B5
– Top Client, Retail: Sears right on target p.B5
– Top Client, Retail – Restaurants: Tim Hortons brews up fresh ideas: New product lines have helped broaden appeal p.B7
– Top Client, Food & Beverage: Kool-Aid: refreshing marketing scheme p.B13
– Top Client, Telecommunications: Clearnet keeps its message simple: Wireless phone provider has succeeded in creating distinctive, instantly recognizable brand p.B14
– Top Client, Online Retail: Chapters writes the book on online retailing p.B17
– Top Client, Media: Weather Net sweeps the clouds away p.B18
