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HP Uses Power of Cinema to Promote Printer

HP is taking a grand visual approach to promote its HP Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web printer. Forget about television, print and radio ads, HP is going for gold and taking advertising to the next level – advertising the printer in larger-than-life cinematic splendor.

All that pomp and grandeur will undoubtedly take big bucks, and HP reportedly has a seven-figure budget to back it up. The campaign is called “Touch the Web. Print the Web,” which started in November and is expected to run through the day before Christmas, December 24th.

Touch the Web. Print the Web. The campaign includes a 30-second spot and HP-themed interstitials. These run in the pre-feature program on the more than 17,300 theater screens of National CineMedia (NCM), as well as on the theater network of Screenvision. The spot is also running on 2,600 plasma screens in the NCM Lobby Entertainment Network.

All this larger-than-life audio-visual campaigns are not enough, though. On top of that, HP sought to bring the printer itself to the consumer, engaging in a lobby interaction strategy. This is being employed in 15 theaters in major American cities that include New York, Chicago and San Francisco, among others. Theater lobbies are practically transformed into HP printer stores, where all sorts of signage, including banners, standees and holographic 3D kiosks serve to attract consumers. There are manned booths for live demos, and HP is also handing out $50 coupons for the $399 printer.

During the off-hours, the theaters are transformed into training venues for HP’s retail partners: Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart, Staples and Office Depot.