Drexel tying Tuscany to new movie, book
By Powell Slaughter -- Furniture Today, August 24, 2003
High Point — Drexel Heritage will kick off this fall a national advertising and promotional campaign for its Frances Mayes at Home in Tuscany licensed collection of case goods.
In addition to full-color, multi-page ads and inserts in upscale shelter magazines, Drexel Heritage is counting on promotional tie-ins with a re-release of Mayes' book, "Under the Tuscan Sun," and the premiere of a major film adaptation of the book starring Diane Lane, to generate consumer interest in the furniture.
"We're starting our first shipments of the collection this week," said Jeff Young, president and chief executive officer of Drexel Heritage. "We're excited how the timing of all this has come together."
At Home in Tuscany will be on retail floors in time for the Sept. 26 premiere of "Under the Tuscan Sun" in theaters. Also in September, Random House will re-launch the book with a new cover featuring Lane, who portrays Mayes in the film.
The national ad campaign, consisting of four- and eight-page full-color ads and inserts featuring selected furniture pieces shot on location in Tuscany, will hit the November issues of Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, House Beautiful, Traditional Home, Veranda and Western Interiors. The magazines reach consumers in October.
Mayes will support the collection's retail introduction with store appearances, the first set for late this month at the new Drexel Heritage store in Orlando, Fla., franchised with retailer Saxon-Clark. She'll visit other stores through late November or early December.
Several cross-marketing efforts are set to capitalize on the conjunction of the furniture's retail debut, the movie premiere and the book release.
Random House will print 10,000 copies of the book with the Drexel Heritage logo on the cover and a foreword by Young for distribution in Drexel Heritage stores.
As part of the book's re-release, Random House has created an "Under the Tuscan Sun" display for 650 Barnes & Noble bookstores. The display includes a pocket that holds a brochure with a bookmark for the Tuscany furniture collection.
Random House and Drexel Heritage also will provide links to each other's Web sites.
Gabiano, a Tuscan wine maker dating back to 1125, will distribute wines nationwide with bottleneck tags promoting the film, book and furniture collection. Tuscany parties to promote the collection at Drexel Heritage stores will serve Gabiano wines. The neck tags will show an urn table from the furniture collection. Eight of those tables will go to winners of a consumer drawing.
The campaign for Frances Mayes at Home in Tuscany breaks new ground at Drexel Heritage for promotional strategies, Young said. "It will give us an opportunity to see if a movie and book of this stature can have an influence on a furniture collection," he said.
Allusions to the collection on the Drexel Heritage Web site and editorial coverage in the consumer press already are generating interest in the marketplace, he said. "Our stores are getting calls now, and that's very encouraging," Young said. "That's without any advertising."
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