Entertainment Group Lures Youth Via CDs, DVD Sampler

Despite the popularity of digital downloads, CDs are still a hot commodity among today’s consumers. But even bigger draws for music fans are CDs that come with in-pack premiums.

Cover of bonus DVD in new WARCON CDs, which hits stores in April

That’s the marketing tact newly formed lifestyle entertainment company WARCON Enterprises, LLC will soon take surrounding the launch of its punk/metal band’s CDs next month—
Opiate for The Masses and
Bleed the Dream.

To further leverage the brand and give consumers an added incentive, every WARCON CD will include a free, in-pack DVD magazine that contains music, videos, movie trailers, songs and advertising targeting the 12- to 24-year-old demographic. The CDs hit retail stores April 26. The CDs will be released through Fontana, a new distribution company of Universal Music Group.

In its first-ever release, the company wants to give advertisers a new way to reach teens and young adults by marrying the popularity of music with sponsors, Bob Chiappardi, co-founder of WARCON Enterprises, said.

“We are trying to take the traditional record company approach to selling the records and [putting] more of a twist to it,” Chiappardi said. “A DVD is a product kids might want to go buy. By buying one of the CDs, you get [a DVD] as a bonus.”

The DVD magazine, which will run one to two hours, will include “products that fit into kids’ lifestyles,” Chiappardi said. For example, Eagle Vision, the visual programming division of Eagle Rock Entertainment, plans to add content to the DVD featuring footage from The Sex Pistols, Nirvana and Motorhead, he said. The DVD will also include video game promotions and a movie trailers from Lions Gate.

“Free stuff is cool,” Chiappardi said. “Free stuff [consumers] can relate to is also cool.”

For now, the company plans to release four CDs a year, he said. P-O-P, Internet materials, TV spots and print ads will support.

WARCON Enterprises, LLC is the brainchild of Chiappardi, the founder and CEO of Concrete Marketing, LLC and Kevin Lyman, co-founder of the Vans Warped Tour—the longest running music and extreme sports festival tour in the world. In addition to its record label, the entertainment company has touring, publishing, design, media management and clothing divisions. The company formed in October 2004.