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Toshiba, with its HD DVD format, and Sony, Panasonic and the others that developed the Blu-ray standard, will release rival players and discs that are expected to confuse consumers and infuriate retailers and could stunt the growth of what promises to be a multibillion-dollar market.
Toshiba's players began trickling into stores last week. To drum up sales, the company started running a 30-second spot on cable channels that broadcast in high definition, including Discovery HD, HDNet, HGTV HD, INHD and Universal HD.
The limited approach was calculated to reach the consumers most likely to buy the first two models, which cost $500 and $800. Since just 19 percent of American homes have HD sets, Toshiba saw little need to reach a broader audience just yet.
Toshiba's players are half the cost of the Blu-ray machines, which are not expected to reach stores until at least this summer. But rather than hype its price, the Toshiba ads highlight high-definition's lifelike pictures, which are particularly well suited to action films and sports.
With that in mind, the spot opens with a helicopter whizzing between buildings in downtown Los Angeles, a young woman dangling perilously from the arm of her beau, who is himself gripping the outside of the helicopter. As he struggles to pull her up, the city looms below. After grabbing on with her other hand, she flashes a devilish grin: Instead of climbing into the copter, she yanks her hero down ... onto a sofa in their living room.
The two cuddle as they watch a movie, presumably in high definition. An announcer chimes in with the tag line, "Toshiba HD DVD: So real, you can feel it."
"Real," but worth it?
The spot, created by Della Femina Rothschild Jeary & Partners in New York, resembles a movie trailer (the film "True Lies" comes to mind). There's no talk of disc capacity, aspect ratio or picture resolution, just an appeal to see how realistic pictures can look in high definition.
"You really start to lose yourself when the movie is that clear," said Michael McLaurin, the creative director for the Toshiba campaign at Della Femina Rothschild. "We wanted to create something that would stay in your brain so that once you tuned in to it, you'd stay with it throughout."
The Orphanage, a California-based effects company founded by visual artists who worked with George Lucas, produced the spots, which will run off and on this year.
Simpler print advertisements from Toshiba stress the realism of HD pictures combined with some whimsy. Short stories poke fun at mothers-in-law and ex-boyfriends and draw readers to the selling points in the text. The ads are appearing in consumer electronics trade publications like Twice and Sound & Vision, as well as in Men's Journal, Rolling Stone and Wired.
"The TV ads give you the sense of being so real, and the print ads take that and apply it to your life," said Tina Tuccillo, the vice president of marketing at Toshiba, who declined to say how much her company was spending on the campaign.
While the ads appear to push many of the right buttons, many analysts wonder whether they will do enough to help Toshiba hold off Sony, Panasonic and other Blu-ray companies that are poised to enter the market. Just three major studios will make movies for HD DVD players, while the Blu-ray group has seven lined up.
With Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, LG, Pioneer and others planning to produce Blu-ray machines, Toshiba's players may get lost in the stores, too. Sony also remains one of the most familiar and trusted brands in the electronics industry, while Toshiba is a middling player, according to research from Forrester, a technology consultancy.
Even without a competitor, evidence of Toshiba's product introduction was scant last week. At one Best Buy in Midtown Manhattan, only three HD DVD movies were available and the store had sold its allotment of three machines. The managers did not know when new players would arrive. There were no signs in view promoting the format.
"It's not going to be a big-bang launch, but a trickle launch," said Ted Schadler, an analyst at Forrester.
Still, Schadler and others say Toshiba has a chance to win over mainstream shoppers, not the video aficionados and home theater buffs that Sony often aims at. Toshiba's machines are cheaper than the coming Blu-ray players, and consumers are increasingly aware of the benefits of high definition. Sales of high-definition televisions are expected to outpace those of analog sets for the first time this year, according to the Consumer Electronics Association.
Then there is the branding. Toshiba's format combines two widely known acronyms, HD and DVD, while Sony and its allies may have to work harder to introduce Blu-ray to consumers. Though the Blu-ray companies often emphasize the sophistication of their technology, consumers might miss that message if they do not know what to look for, Schadler said.
This gives Toshiba, like the dangling woman in its television commercial, a chance to grab shoppers and set them down in front of its new machines.
"Toshiba is in a gold rush by being first," said Don Patrican, the executive vice president of the Maxell Corporation of America, which is making discs in both the HD DVD and Blu-ray formats. "And now they can pan for that gold."
____
Captain
CRABshit
Toshiba's players began trickling into stores last week. To drum up sales, the company started running a 30-second spot on cable channels that broadcast in high definition, including Discovery HD, HDNet, HGTV HD, INHD and Universal HD.
The limited approach was calculated to reach the consumers most likely to buy the first two models, which cost $500 and $800. Since just 19 percent of American homes have HD sets, Toshiba saw little need to reach a broader audience just yet.
Toshiba's players are half the cost of the Blu-ray machines, which are not expected to reach stores until at least this summer. But rather than hype its price, the Toshiba ads highlight high-definition's lifelike pictures, which are particularly well suited to action films and sports.
With that in mind, the spot opens with a helicopter whizzing between buildings in downtown Los Angeles, a young woman dangling perilously from the arm of her beau, who is himself gripping the outside of the helicopter. As he struggles to pull her up, the city looms below. After grabbing on with her other hand, she flashes a devilish grin: Instead of climbing into the copter, she yanks her hero down ... onto a sofa in their living room.
The two cuddle as they watch a movie, presumably in high definition. An announcer chimes in with the tag line, "Toshiba HD DVD: So real, you can feel it."
"Real," but worth it?
The spot, created by Della Femina Rothschild Jeary & Partners in New York, resembles a movie trailer (the film "True Lies" comes to mind). There's no talk of disc capacity, aspect ratio or picture resolution, just an appeal to see how realistic pictures can look in high definition.
"You really start to lose yourself when the movie is that clear," said Michael McLaurin, the creative director for the Toshiba campaign at Della Femina Rothschild. "We wanted to create something that would stay in your brain so that once you tuned in to it, you'd stay with it throughout."
The Orphanage, a California-based effects company founded by visual artists who worked with George Lucas, produced the spots, which will run off and on this year.
Simpler print advertisements from Toshiba stress the realism of HD pictures combined with some whimsy. Short stories poke fun at mothers-in-law and ex-boyfriends and draw readers to the selling points in the text. The ads are appearing in consumer electronics trade publications like Twice and Sound & Vision, as well as in Men's Journal, Rolling Stone and Wired.
"The TV ads give you the sense of being so real, and the print ads take that and apply it to your life," said Tina Tuccillo, the vice president of marketing at Toshiba, who declined to say how much her company was spending on the campaign.
While the ads appear to push many of the right buttons, many analysts wonder whether they will do enough to help Toshiba hold off Sony, Panasonic and other Blu-ray companies that are poised to enter the market. Just three major studios will make movies for HD DVD players, while the Blu-ray group has seven lined up.
With Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, LG, Pioneer and others planning to produce Blu-ray machines, Toshiba's players may get lost in the stores, too. Sony also remains one of the most familiar and trusted brands in the electronics industry, while Toshiba is a middling player, according to research from Forrester, a technology consultancy.
Even without a competitor, evidence of Toshiba's product introduction was scant last week. At one Best Buy in Midtown Manhattan, only three HD DVD movies were available and the store had sold its allotment of three machines. The managers did not know when new players would arrive. There were no signs in view promoting the format.
"It's not going to be a big-bang launch, but a trickle launch," said Ted Schadler, an analyst at Forrester.
Still, Schadler and others say Toshiba has a chance to win over mainstream shoppers, not the video aficionados and home theater buffs that Sony often aims at. Toshiba's machines are cheaper than the coming Blu-ray players, and consumers are increasingly aware of the benefits of high definition. Sales of high-definition televisions are expected to outpace those of analog sets for the first time this year, according to the Consumer Electronics Association.
Then there is the branding. Toshiba's format combines two widely known acronyms, HD and DVD, while Sony and its allies may have to work harder to introduce Blu-ray to consumers. Though the Blu-ray companies often emphasize the sophistication of their technology, consumers might miss that message if they do not know what to look for, Schadler said.
This gives Toshiba, like the dangling woman in its television commercial, a chance to grab shoppers and set them down in front of its new machines.
"Toshiba is in a gold rush by being first," said Don Patrican, the executive vice president of the Maxell Corporation of America, which is making discs in both the HD DVD and Blu-ray formats. "And now they can pan for that gold."
____
Captain
CRABshit