Blockbuster is one retailer that’s not had an easy time of it over the last couple of years, as new services such as Lovefilm and streaming service Netflix are muscling in on its territory.
The movie rental chain is attempting to hit back, however, with its “most aggressive” customer acquisition campaign to date. It’s offering two weeks of free physical film rentals to those who sign up in its stores, with press and radio activity running until the end of the month.
It’s also promoting its exclusive movies offering – it has exclusive rights to certain films for three weeks before rivals get access – and its 99p-a-night DVD rental service.
Screening service Netflix launched in the UK earlier this month, and staged its own promotional activity at around the same time. It remains to be seen whether UK customers will take to the service but it’s certainly a threat, and Blockbuster is wise to go on the offensive in the face of such well-promoted competition.
Blockbuster is still languishing at the hands of structural changes in the sector as more consumers choose to watch films on their computers or via televisions with web access.
However, the retailer is reportedly planning a streaming service of its own later this year and its name will be better known among UK consumers than Netflix, so perhaps its campaign to beat the digital competitor will work. If the music industry’s experience over the last 10 years is anything to go by, it could have quite a fight on its hands.
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