Riese, Hmv Try Marketing Music Where Customers Eat

HMV and Riese Restaurants, operator of several restaurant chains here, are partnering on a joint marketing campaign to promote new music and the retailer's Manhattan locations.

The four Manhattan HMV music stores and 100-plus Riese Restaurants are collaborating on a CD sampler promotion starting Labor Day week. As part of the program, monthly compilation CDs will be played daily at such ubiquitous Riese restaurants as Houlihan's, TGI Friday's, Dunkin' Donuts, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, and Roy Rogers.

Cuts from CDs by featured artists are played with 15-second front- and back-end announcements (intro and outro), informing listeners of the artist's name, song, CD, and the nearest HMV location at which the album can be purchased.

The promotion was conceived and is being coordinated by the RieseMusicNetwork (RMN), co-founded by music veterans Steven Garrin and Rudy Mallasch. Dennis Riese of Riese Restaurants is a partner in the new venture.

RMN, a division of Garrin's VideoActive Productions, a video- and sound-editing company, was created to give better positioning to established and new artists through what Mallasch, a former marketing director with Universal Classics Group, calls "direct impulse marketing. We're going where repeat customers are every day."

Each day, an average of 400,000 people dine at Riese restaurants in Penn Station, and around 350,000 at outlets in the vicinity of Grand Central Station. Other high-traffic areas where Riese restaurants are located, such as Times Square and Fifth Avenue, will also be included.

Featured artists will have endcap positioning for each album in the HMV outlets. Coupons for discounts on the albums at HMV, such free premiums as CD samplers, and discounts for selected Riese restaurants will be included in the RMN program. The compilation CDs will not be for sale.

customers in common

"When RMN approached us, it was obvious that their [restaurant] customers and ours crossed over and also gave us a new audience," says Eden Yariv, HMV USA national marketing manager. "We liked the intros and outros with the retail tagline, and [RMN] is layered on top of activity we're already doing."

The endcap commitment upped the ante for the program, and HMV is working on coupons and giveaways with the participating labels and RMN. "The in-store exposure reminds customers of our cross-branding and emphasizes the relationship and partnership we're building with RMN," Yariv adds. "We definitely want to track the effectiveness of artist-specific premium items and samplers."

Confirmed tracks on the first RMN sampler—mostly from Universal Music Group (UMG) labels, according to Mallasch—include Bon Jovi's "One Wild Night 2001 Mix" from One Wild Night Live (Island Def Jam), Jesse Powell's "Something in the Past" from JP (MCA), Corey's "Hush Little Lady" from Just Corey (Motown), Remy's "The Way I Feel" from the album of the same name (Motown), One Body Against Another's "Touching" from Butt a Pat (Roadshow), Sharissa's "No Half Steppin' " from Issues (Motown), and Damian Marley's "Still Searchin' " from Halfway Tree (Motown). Also included are "I Shot the Sheriff"/"No Woman No Cry" and "Is This Love"/"Jamming," both from A Twist of Marley (GRP).

Each label or artist-management group pays $4,000 per track, Garrin says: $3,000 for the cut, a $500 setup fee, and a $500 distribution fee for coupons, which the label also supplies. Each song is played at least three times a day per location, resulting in 9,000 plays per month. Locations will also display corresponding posters.

When Mallasch approached his former label group, UMG associate advertising director Dan Cappiello recalls that he saw RMN as "an interesting new way to get our music heard." He liked the intros and outros and the multiple daily plays.

a complete marketing puzzle

"Riese restaurants are part of people's daily routines, and the retail element with HMV and the coupons were additional pieces of what seems to be a completed marketing puzzle," he says. "The labels will decide on their own coupon offers, and while any new opportunity sounds good on paper, we have high hopes for its success."

MCA Records VP/marketing director Michelle Joyce says, "I needed to find new and alternative ways to expose our artists and wanted to take a lifestyle approach to bring their music to consumers. RMN provides a perfect opportunity, and the HMV retail tie-in is a great bonus." MCA will offer a special coupon offer with the Jesse Powell album as its September commitment to the program.

Garrin has produced, directed, acted, and performed voice-overs since 1986; he founded the VoiceWorks voice-over workshop in 1988. He started VideoActive Productions in 1989 and lists among his industry clients VH-1, Dover Audio, Simon & Schuster Audio, Putnam Audio, NPR, MTV, Universal Studios, PolyGram Records, and UMG. His recent editing credits include the behind-the-scenes segment on George Benson's Absolute Benson CD and the trailer for the Before Night Falls soundtrack from Julian Schnabel's Oscar-nominated film.

Mallasch started his career as a saxophonist and clarinetist in Germany. He came to the U.S. in 1991 on a Berklee College of Music scholarship. At Universal Classics, he created and managed the marketing and release campaigns of such core and crossover artists as tenor Russell Watson, violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, Elvis Costello, and Anne Sofie von Otter.

Garrin has approached both BMG and the Warner Music Group for the October CD sampler and reports positive responses. HMV has the retail exclusive through the end of the year, with Tower Records among other interested chain outlets, he notes.

Depending on the success of the pilot program, Garrin and Mallasch hope to expand RMN nationwide in early 2002. Mallasch says, "An immediate tie-in with retailers at high traffic locations with daily repeat customers makes this program the logical next step in the promotion and marketing of music, DVDs, and other entertainment products."