The doom and gloom surrounding physical media continues, but Debbie Galante Block talks to the packaging people and learns that there are still opportunities at the top end of the range with a wide variety of special packaging products out in time for the holiday season.
Six thousand dollars for a Beach Boys special edition package! Who would ever have expected that in a time when physical goods, especially music CDs and DVDs, are said to be dwindling? “Despite the sag in retail sales, speciality packaging projects are coming up with some new alternative markets for packaging opportunities,” says Dyan Spigner, Vice President of Sales Home Entertainment, Shorewood Packaging. This trend is true for Europe as well as the US.
Olivier Durand, Managing Director of Belgium-based Emthelo agrees with Spigner. “Father Christmas is going to have more stuff to carry this year! The trend remains heavily on special packaging: with growth of around 10 to 20% in the European market.”
Melissa Lazarus, Vice President of Sales at MultiPackaging Solutions (MPS) adds that decorative technologies, like foilcote and gemcoats, are being used more often, even on standard packaging, in order to put a package a little ahead of the rest at retail. MPS worked on many of the special music titles released this year as well as the Ben Hur 50th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition released by Warner Home Video. Vice President of Sales Brit Davis says, “The amount of special packaging and what is being recognized as added value to the music consumer is definitely different than what added value is to the home entertainment or the games consumer.” While added-value doesn’t translate the same, she says, it appears that all markets are booming.
Jeff Baker, Executive Vice President and General Manager, theatrical catalogue at Warner Home Video says what consumers are looking for in movie buying and what they want from their packaging has changed, but in certain price ranges demand has grown stronger than ever. What may be a new part of this scenario is that collector’s editions for games packaging are getting stronger while episodic television series, once a huge part of the boxed set business, are now less elaborate.
Record labels and movie studios are creating limited editions and different varieties of the same titles so as not to leave out any buyer. While brick and mortar stores have scaled down on offerings, there are online line retailers and direct to consumer options offering many new titles for this holiday season and beyond.
PACKAGING CREATIVITY FROM THE ARTISTS
2011 has proven to be a busy one for speciality packaging with offerings from many icons such as The Grateful Dead, The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd. The real surprise may be, however, the amount of creativity that has gone into packages from newer artists like Jay-Z and Kanye West with their Watch The Throne (WTT) collaboration on Def Jam Records. Watch The Throne was released earlier this quarter.
“Kanye worked directly with the Givenchy designer Ricardo Tischi,” says Melissa Lazarus. Working with a non-music designer resulted in a soft pack that closes and then opens to a cross pack. It has multi-level embossing on all of the panels. It is paperboard, but looks like metal. “This took months and months of working with Kanye and his designers.”
After the package was complete, Jay- Z and Kanye went as far as to open a pop-up store in New York for three days to promote this album. “When the buyer walked into the store, there was the car that was in the video and the package was on the throne!” Lazarus adds.
One trend has been creeping in for the last couple of years and penetrated even further this year is vinyl. Frank Salvaggio, General Manager at Ross-Ellis explains: “Indie artists often control everything that happens around them. The more independent the artist is, the more control they have – that includes deciding to go vinyl. We are doing so many vinyl jackets. Some of the artists are totally unknown while others put out 40 or 50,000 units.”
Shorewood has worked on several packages that include vinyl such as Lady Gaga’s vinyl picture discs from Interscope. Vinyl is placed into a black box with red velvet interior, and individually number stamped for collectability, says Spigner. Nirvana’s 20th Anniversary LP package of Nevermind (Geffen) features four pockets that flip like pages of a book. Then, there is Soundgarden’s Telephantasm (A&M) which includes tie-dyed custom vinyl, an oversized booklet, a poster in a vellum envelope and board pockets for CDs. Multiple consumer bases exist for consuming entertainment, comments Davis.
“A lot of the uber packaging is being sold direct to consumer on the artists’ websites and also through online retailers like Amazon.” An uber package that has generated a lot of interest is Europe 72 by The Grateful Dead – 7,200 units were presold on the band’s website. Buyers had to pay for the boxes before they were available. The sets sold out inless than four days at a price of $450. When the set was purchased, the buyer was able to order it with their own unique content written on a sticker on the trunk (eg, “I love Jerry Garcia!”). As a result of all that demand, a generic corrugated box was created as well. It sold at the same price but with none of the extras!
The Beach Boys’ SMiLE Autographed Light Up Box Set and Hobie Surfboard package mentioned above is limited and is being sold direct to consumer. The Capitol Records set includes a switch inside the box lid that allows the fans to turn the ‘store’ light on and off. Artwork for all of the SMiLE sessions physical and digital configurations has been created with, and inspired by, Beat-Pop artist Frank Holmes’ original 1967 LP sleeve art and booklet designs intended for the SMiLE album. With its three-dimensional shadowbox lid, the light up box without the surfboard will sell for $699.99. Another version which is a two-CD autographed set will sell for $99.99.
LIMITED EDITIONS AND COLLECTABLES
“The labels are not shying away from providing limited editions and collectables. The Beach Boys project shows an exciting direction of putting forward new ideas,” says Davis. “Labels are offering options. They are not excluding any potential buyer. While these kinds of packages don’t translate to every artist, there are probably other kinds of special packaging that could relate to every artist. It’s great that the labels are partnering and connecting with the fan base to figure out the right connection.”
The Nirvana set includes a 12 x 12 slipcase with die-cut centre and printed full colour plastic window to reveal the water background of the original replicated art. The package has four discs and one DVD, a Smyth sewn four colour book with original replicated art, as well as a replicated original poster. “Additionally, one thousand actual original posters were randomly inserted to elicit excitement amongst fans,” explains Spigner.
According to Shorewood’s Dustin Wills, Vice President of Sales, UK, “This package is gold dust. Universal put in an emergency reorder for this package!”
Another splashy package to come is Lulu, the collaboration between Lou Reed and Metallica. Once again, the package is a limited run. Wills describes it as a tube that is 14cm in diameter by 125cm long. Included are a poster, song lyrics, three high quality prints of Anton Corbijn, photos of Lou Reed and Metallica, and the double CD of Lulu in a unique folding slipcase. Each tube is numbered. Perhaps a little less splashy, but still special and limited are boxes from Legacy such as Billy Joel’s Complete Albums Collection in a 15-CD set; Leonard Cohen’s Complete Albums Collection, which contains all 17 of Cohen's albums; and Wynton Marsalis’s collection of 11 CDs Winging Into The 21st.
HIGH END AND LOW END
An area where packaging has not always been ‘special’ is games. Now, according to Spigner, the games market has shown growth in collector’s editions. The Mortal Kombat collection (Warner Brothers) includes a set of book ends, full-colour case-bound art book, and the game. Space Marine (THQ) has a collection that includes a full-colour sewn book, a custom deck of cards, purity seal collector’s item and the game. The package is a book style box, slid into a slipcase and foil wrapped with registered, sculpted embossing. The Batman (Warner Brothers) collection includes a full-colour perfect bound book, a figurine, and the game. The structure has a unique opening mechanism to display the figurine and hold components.
All interviewees agreed that the DVD business has changed, but that’s not to say it’s gone. Whatever happened to the television series boxed sets?
They are still there, says Salvaggio, but not as apparent at brick and mortar stores. Packaging has been scaled down. Admittedly, DVD volumes are down, but there are a lot of titles, and packaging is still key to selling. A lot of the ‘extras’ in film special packs have to do with documentaries and added materials rather than add-ons like posters. Sources say that while toys may be less this holiday season, they are not gone completely.
Titles like Bridesmaids, Pirates and Lion King all feature a DVD or Blu-ray original disc with a bonus disc or premium items such as Lego sets, tin piggy bank, calendars, or something of that nature, according to Spigner. Also, while there doesn’t seem to be as many in-store exclusive packages, there are some, like the Best Buy exclusive for Transformers 3 with two covers that have elaborate embossing on shiny foil. Fast Five is a Target exclusive that features DVD /BD with soundtrack. It is a Smart package with a magnetic book flap.
Warner’s Baker says that this holiday season, there will be the high end consumer buying sets like Ben Hur, Lord of The Rings, Bambi, Lion King and Harry Potter. The low end, under $10 market is equally as strong: “Even under $5,” he says. Warner Home Video is offering many bargain packages. For example, there are four movies in the TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Holiday (Christmas in Connecticut, A Christmas Carol 1938, The Shop Around the Corner, and It Happened on 5th Ave). It retails on Amazon for approximately $10. The packaging is sleek and small but it still captures the collector’s eye looking for a bargain.
This no-frills buyer may also want to buy perennial favourites like The Polar Express and A Charlie Brown Christmas but with no bells and whistles. The avid fan is not being ignored, however. “About a year ago, we repackaged all of the Clint Eastwood films we had in our library,” Baker says. “The key art we had from those films was old and antiquated, so we updated and contemporized it. When you see these older films now, they look like they came out yesterday. Repackaging the product gave the movies an updated feel."
Older films like Breakfast At Tiffany’s (Paramount) and Citizen Kane get new packaging as well. Citizen Kane’s new Blu-ray 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition will have more than three hours of bonus content and an array of collectable premiums including a 48-page collector’s book filled with photos and behind-the-scene details, a 20 page reproduction of the original 1941 souvenir program, lobby cards, reproductions of rare production memos and correspondence.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory celebrates its 40th anniversary with a limited and numbered Ultimate Collector’s Edition Blu-ray DVD Pack from Warner Home Video. The package contains over an hour of extras as well as a 144-page book, with rare photographs. Sweet premiums like a retro Wonka Bar-shaped tin box with scented pencils and eraser and a limited time Golden Ticket Instant Win Game for a chance to enter and win a trip for two to Los Angeles complete the tasty offering. Just like in the movie, five Grand Prize winners will receive very special trip for themselves plus a guest. In honour of the 40th Anniversary, 40 limited run posters of the original theatrical one-sheet will also be given away as runner-up prizes.
Salvaggio says, “DVD is not what it used to be, but though the volumes are down, there are a lot of releases out there. We have a lot of work; physical products are still very desirable gifts. Our new PrimaBook is an all board package (DVD, BD or Music), with Faux Hard covers and can contain as many discs as desired. It can also be finished with all the classic options: embossing, foil stamping, spot varnishes, etc. We introduced it at the beginning of the year and it has become very popular, particularly for DVD/BD releases.”
As with music, direct to consumer marketing is also happening with film, according to Spigner. She cites the Danny Elfman and Tim Burton 25th Anniversary Music Box boxed set complete collection of their collaborative music.“The package is a magnificent collector’s piece, featuring a metal functioning zoetrope, wood material box adorned with metal embossed tin plates. It includes 16 discs and a DVD, a 264 page smythe sewn, cloth wrapped booklet, decorated with gold hot stamping, 12 film strips, and custom USB. It is being sold online with a limited edition quantity for $500 and the purchaser receives a signed certificate of authenticity."
WRAPPING IT UP
While some industry observers may be taken by surprise, packaging companies and content providers have concluded that while physical entertainment continues to reinvent itself, this holiday season promises to be a good one for labels and studios who are convinced that if you offer consumers beautifully packaged product, they will buy!
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