Panasonic Launches $100 Million 2011 Road Show, Marketing Push

Panasonic’s “Experience Amazing” road show, which kicked off Monday at Manhattan’s Grand Central Terminal, is funded by a part of a $100 million 2011 marketing budget the company allocated to continue an effort to boost awareness of the Viera TV and Lumix camera brands in the U.S., company executives said.

Vic Carlson, vice president of Panasonic’s consumer marketing group, said at a news conference Monday that the Lumix imaging and Viera video brands had built a following internationally, but were “best-kept secrets” in the U.S. Last year’s marketing effort, a nine-month program that ended in January, netted a nine-fold awareness bump for the Viera brand and a 12-times increase for Lumix, Carlson said.

Panasonic previewed four new commercials rolling out this spring for the Viera and Lumix lines. Created by Arnold Worldwide, the ads push picture quality first and then 3D and apps features for TVs and ease of use for cameras, Carlson said. When asked if Panasonic would have a commercial in response to LG’s current ads showing corded versions of active-shutter glasses to tout its battery-free glasses, Carlson said he had “no comment” on the LG ad but that Panasonic planned to celebrate its technology and product quality instead. “Inflating the negative aspects doesn’t translate well to consumers,” he said. Also as part of the 2011 marketing plan, Panasonic will sponsor the U.S. Open tennis tournament again this year, he said.

Stressing the critical “last three feet” of the retail experience, Carlson said Panasonic will deliver 3,000 interactive end caps to dealers to help consumers learn more about six key product areas for Panasonic: plasma TV, home theater, 3D playback, 3D capture with digital imaging products, connected TV and Skype. Consumers can tap a touch-sensitive screen to learn more about the various areas and can watch 2D or 3D versions, Carlson said. The end caps will be available to stores including Sears, Best Buy, and regional dealers, he said, adding there will be “a broad assortment."

A Panasonic spokesman told us the company had a goal of reaching 10,000 consumers during the weeklong product showcase in the Grand Central train station lobby. Last year’s mall road show played to 50,000 consumers in 12 days during the Christmas season, according to Carlson. Panasonic “product ambassadors” are staffing the booth at Grand Central, but in some other locations local retailers will help spread the Panasonic word to consumers, Carlson said. The booths are divided by content: movies, audio, games and communication. Hardware products in each section support the content, he said.

Literature at the events includes cards directing consumers to local retailers that carry the products, typically within five to 10 miles from the event. Not all local Panasonic retailers are listed and those who are were selected according to “proximity and size,” Carlson said. In addition to big box retailers, regionals are also included, he said. New York-area retailers listed on the handouts we picked up at the Grand Central event were Best Buy, Sears, Costco, 6th Avenue Electronics, B&H Photo, Adorama, P.C. Richard & Son, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Target, J&R Electronics, Fotocare, 17th Street Photo, Hunt’s Photo & Video, Penn Camera, and Showcase Camera.

Special offers associated with the Panasonic tour include $150 off a Lumix GF2K camera when purchased with a 45-200mm lens and $100 off a GF2C camera when bought with any Lumix G lens. Consumers who buy Viera DT30, D30, ST30 or GT30 TVs before April 16 get a Skype camera for free, and consumers who buy a Viera X3, S30, E3 or E30 TV during the same April 3-16 timeframe can get a free wireless USB adapter, according to a flyer. Qualifying 3D Blu-ray disc players or 3D home theater systems include a mail-in offer for a free Avatar 3D on Blu-ray. Panasonic retains exclusive rights to Avatar 3D on Blu-ray through February 2012, according to Jim Sanduski, senior vice president of sales for Panasonic, who said he wasn’t at liberty to discuss other promotions in the works.

The focus of the 2011 lineup of Viera plasma and LCD TVs will be connected and 3D TVs, Panasonic said. New this year is Viera Connect, based on Panasonic’s open apps platform that includes a software development kit for third-party content suppliers. Viera Connect is the next generation to follow Viera Cast, Panasonic’s apps service that launched in 2008, which used a proprietary walled-garden system. Sanduski said 90 percent of Panasonic’s 2011 line will be connected models, including higher-end Viera Connect models and entry-level units with Easy IPTV, a closed app system similar to Viera Cast that will come loaded with six apps for video services such as Amazon on Demand and Netflix. Viera Connect models, by contrast, will sport 40 apps out of the box, with most being service apps such as Netflix, Amazon on Demand that require a subscription directly from the content provider, Sanduski said.

Viera Cast TVs don’t have the processing power to accommodate more demanding apps created using the SDK, Sanduski told us. Viera Cast TVs and Blu-ray players will be able to handle some emerging apps, depending on the processing power required for the programs, he said. Jordan Shen, director of interactive content and services for Panasonic, said Hulu Plus will not be backward-compatible, but less-demanding new apps, such as those from The Associated Press and AccuWeather, will be accessible by older Viera Cast TVs via an automatic firmware update. “Technology built into the application will determine whether they're backward compatible or not,” Shen said. Sanduski wouldn’t comment on the business model for the connected TV apps. “It isn’t about recurring revenue as much as it is about providing compelling entertainment for our customers,” he said.

All Panasonic Blu-ray players for 2011 will continue to be Viera Cast models due to “horsepower” requirements, Sanduski said. “It makes more sense to add that capability to a $1,000” TV, he said.” It’s a “possibility” that future Blu-ray players will be Viera Connect versions, he said.

On a day when Internet security loomed large in consumers’ minds after a security breach at email firm Epsilon that affected Best Buy, Walgreens, JP Morgan Chase and TiVo customers, we asked Shen what measures Panasonic had put in place to ensure that hackers wouldn’t have access to the living room now that Panasonic was expanding its apps infrastructure from a closed to an open one. “We have a whole team working on making sure that our platform is very secure,” Shen said. “So far we have been very successful with it."

Panasonic estimates call for the total U.S. market for TVs to reach 37 million by 2015, up from 35 million last year, Sanduski said. Connected and 3D models will play a larger role in the future, he said, with connected TVs representing 70 percent of the total market and 3D TVs accounting for 40 percent by 2015, he said.