Hitting the Stands

Infinity Resources Inc., publisher of the Critics’ Choice movie video catalog, will distribute copies of a magalog this month through an unusual mail order channel — newsstands. And if past experience is any guide, the response rate for sold copies will top that of the firm’s regular print catalogs.

Two similar newsstand ventures last spring achieved 15% response rates, compared with 1% for prospecting catalogs. They also helped the firm, which mails 20 million catalogs a year, save on costs.

At the same time, Infinity is also trying to broaden the Critics’ Choice customer base. While the firm doesn’t want to lose its core customers, 79% of whom are over age 45, it hopes to add people between 25 and 34, says CEO Dennis Abboud.

The company, which has annual sales of $40 million, expects to distribute around 200,000 copies of its Big Book of Movies on newsstands nationwide; the exact number hasn’t been determined. It will also mail or sell roughly 750,000 copies to existing customers.

One earlier newsstand promotion was tied to the release of the movie “Pearl Harbor.” The first few pages of the magalog were devoted to the making of the film, but the rest — 48 pages — featured war movies, many in the DVD format favored by younger viewers.

Buyers could order the films by calling a toll-free telephone number, by mailing in an order form or by visiting the newly designed Critics’ Choice Web site (www.ccvideo.com). Online customers are 20% more profitable than other buyers, according to Abboud.

He concedes that the average order wasn’t as high as the $60 one generated by the print catalogs. But the response rate was higher, and people paid $5.75 apiece for the magalogs.

“The old traditional prospecting methods are just not cost-effective,” he says. “Aligning ourselves with a publishing partner, we are able to get some interesting content, which is a way to get a customer to buy your magazine.”

He adds that “It qualifies them as a customer by the fact that they’ve bought the magazine.”

An Academy Award magalog, The Academy Movie Special Edition, did even better, pulling an average order of $40. This book listed the nominees for 2000, with biographies of the actors, but 73 of the pages were devoted to offers of Oscar-winning movies.

Abboud is unable to specify the exact number of copies sold, but says that roughly 200,000 copies were distributed, with a newsstand price of $6.95.

H & S Media Inc. created and distributed the magalogs for both promotions. The spending for both was incremental, and did not require reallocation of Infinity’s regular marketing budget.

This success has Abboud eager to try new newsstand promos.

“Those two magazine promotions reached around 200,000 customers apiece,” he says. “If we were to mail them catalogs, it would cost us $210,000 to get maybe a 1% response. With the magazines, there’s a risk that people won’t buy them, but it costs less than $50,000 to do it through magazines.”

Sweetening the savings is the fact that Infinity uses its own fulfillment house. When Infinity bought Critics’ Choice from Playboy last November, a fulfillment house, which has since been renamed i-Serve, was part of the deal. I-Serve helps defray costs and reduce risk, while functioning as another revenue stream servicing direct marketing clients.

Infinity is also working on several other new projects. For example, it plans to launch a direct response space-ad campaign this fall in four magazines — Teen Style, Wow, The Edge and Hot!.

It will get the space through barter arrangements in which it gets ads in return for banner ads on its own Web site, and subscription ads in its catalogs.

It is also pursuing a heavy mail schedule, and plans to send five million catalogs during the fourth quarter.

Its flagship catalog is Critics’ Choice Classics, a 60-page book mailed to customers and prospects. Then there is Critics’ Choice Contemporary, which rolled out in June with a mailing of roughly 500,000 copies. Designed for a younger audience, the new book carries only DVDs. It is sent to prospects, and to dormant Critics’ Choice Classics buyers.

The firm’s total mail circulation is “up slightly from last year, but down a little from two years ago,” Abboud says.

The two catalogs have a combined database with 4 million customers.

Meanwhile, Infinity is on the lookout for other opportunities.

This summer, it did a promotion in which The Critics’ Choice logo and Web site URL were published on 100 million bags of Frito Lay products. Dubbed the “Summer of Cash,” it featured a game in which consumers could win $5, $10 or $100 discounts off DVD purchases.

There was a huge surge in visitors to the Web site, but the response rate was “not as high as mail or newsstand on a percentage basis,” Abboud says.

And why?

“If you give someone a $5 coupon, they are looking for something that costs $6,” Abboud remarks.

Great branding experience, though, Abboud allows. “To get 100 million impressions at every retail store that’s selling what we’re selling isn’t so bad,” he says.

In addition, it only costs about $2 to acquire those new customers, vs. the average customer acquisition cost of $20. “But,” cautions Abboud, “bear in mind they might not be high-quality customers.”