MUMBAI: Toshiba America Consumer Products has announced that it is stepping up its marketing campaign for HD DVDs after it experienced record-breaking unit sales in the fourth quarter of 2007. Major initiatives, including joint advertising campaigns with studios and extended pricing strategies, will begin in mid-January and are designed to highlight the superior benefits of HD DVD as well as the benefits it brings to a consumer’s current DVD library by up converting standard DVDs via the HDMI output to near high definition picture quality.
“HD DVD is the best way to watch movies in high definition,” said Toshiba’s Digital A/V Group vice president of marketing Jodi Sally.
“Our HD DVD players not only play back approximately 800 HD DVD titles available worldwide and deliver an entirely new level of entertainment but also enhance the picture quality to near high definition on legacy DVD titles by all studios. In short, we added high definition to DVD which already is the de-facto standard format created and approved by the DVD Forum that consists of more than two hundred companies.”
Taking the holiday season sales based on promotional prices into full consideration, the new manufacturer’s suggested retail prices (MSRP) are designed to meet the potential demand for HD DVD players in the
Digital A/V Group group vice president Yoshi Uchiyama said, “Consumer sales this holiday season have proven that the consumer awareness of the HD DVD format has been elevated and pricing is the most critical determinant in consumers’ purchase decision of the next generation HD DVD technology. The value HD DVD provides to the consumer simply cannot be ignored.”
Toshiba plans to execute an extended advertising campaign that will further enhance consumer awareness of the benefits of HD DVD and drive sales to retail among potential consumers. Advertising strategies will include television, print and online media channels. Toshiba will also work with its dealers and studio partners on joint marketing and promotional initiatives to promote HD DVD.
Universal Home Video, Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation SKG have reported that an average of 30 percent of HD DVD owners have accessed web-enabled network features and continue to do so regularly.
