WEA Corp. and Tower Records Make History With First Point of Purchase
NEW YORK, NY AND BOSTON, MA, Jul 20, 2005 -- WEA Corp. (NYSE: WMG), Warner Music Group's U.S. sales and retail marketing company, and Tower Records unveiled a groundbreaking sweepstakes on July 7th that gives music fans a chance to win a trip to see Warner Music Group artists Transplants and My Chemical Romance on the VANS Warped Tour simply by snapping a picture with their mobile camera phone.
Massive tours and huge outdoor festivals like the VANS Warped Tour have become a summer ritual, attracting hundreds of thousands of people each summer. Fans naturally want to get their hands on albums by bands on tour in advance of the concert and to relive their experience at the show. WEA and Tower Records make it easy for music fans to "Get Your Hands on the Bands" by featuring CDs from performing artists from the summer tours in custom standup displays available nationally at all 83 U.S.-based Tower Records stores now through August.
These 6-foot stand-up displays are the focal point for the "Get Your Hands on the Bands" sweepstakes powered by Mobot, a leader in visual search and recognition technology. Customers visiting Tower Records stores can enter to win by taking a picture with their mobile camera phone of the official "Get Your Hands on the Bands" logo located on the retail displays. Mobot's visual search and recognition technology recognizes the image and, within seconds, sends back a message to the phone confirming entry into the sweepstakes. An alternate method to enter the sweepstakes is to take a picture of the full-page "Get Your Hands on the Bands" advertisement running in the August issue of Alternative Press magazine (street date July 7) or enter online at www.tower.com. The sweepstakes ends July 21st and one lucky entrant will win a trip for two to New York City on August 13th to see Transplants and My Chemical Romance appearing as part of the VANS Warped Tour.
"The Mobot sweepstakes is a brilliant idea! It's easy to understand and a fun way for fans to participate. We expect it to drive a tremendous amount of foot traffic into our stores," says Tower Records head of National Audio Advertising, Joe Andrules.
"The Mobot sweepstakes makes our in-store, print advertisement and marketing campaigns more interactive for consumers," said Adam Mirabella, Senior Vice President, e-Commerce, WEA Corp. "We are thrilled to work with Tower Records for this offering as a new and exciting way to enhance our fans' experience."
"We are excited to offer WEA and Tower Records a powerful new tool to interact with their customers," said Russ Gocht, CEO of Mobot, Inc. "Mobot lets customers react to an offer instantly -- right at the moment their interest is piqued. With the Mobot technology we help make print ads, CD cases and retail displays interactive. We can easily incorporate artist information and gameplay like scavenger hunts that makes it fun for customers and puts the focus on products."
For a retailer or advertiser, Mobot is easy to deploy because it doesn't require any changes to the visual -- no URLs, short codes, or product codes are necessary for Mobot to recognize an image. To ensure the widest user adoption, Mobot is available on all national U.S. wireless carriers and works with all camera phones.
About WEA Corp.
WEA Corp. was the first major music distribution company in the U.S. and has continued to set the standard for sales and marketing in the music industry for more than thirty years. In addition to the Warner Bros., Elektra and Atlantic labels, WEA distributes audio and video releases from Rhino Entertainment, Asylum Records, East West Records, Word Entertainment, Time-Life Music, Warner Music Latina, and Curb Records, as well as several other labels. Headquartered in New York, WEA Corp. has regional offices in Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York and Minneapolis. WEA Corp. is a Warner Music Group company.
About Tower Records
Since 1960, Tower Records has been recognized and respected throughout the world for its unique brand of retailing. Founded in Sacramento, CA, by Chairman, Russ Solomon, the Company's growth over four decades has made Tower Records a household name.
Tower Records stores are represented in fourteen countries throughout the world and in 218 different locations as wholly owned operations, licensees and affiliations. The company opened one of the first Internet music stores on America Online in June 1995 and followed a year later with the launch of Tower.com. The site was named among the top 50 retail websites by Internet Retailer magazine.
Tower Records' commitment to providing its customers with a superior and specialized shopping experience is key to the organization's retail philosophy. Tower forges ahead with the development of exciting shopping environments, presenting diverse product ranges, artist performance stages, personal electronics departments, and digital centers. Tower Records maintains its commitment to providing the deepest selection of packaged and digital entertainment in the world merchandised in stores that celebrate the unique interests and needs of the local community.
About Mobot
Mobot is the leader in visual search and recognition technology that makes marketing effective and innovative using mobile devices. Launched in 2004 to help companies cultivate rewarding relationships with the world's 1.5 billion mobile phone users, Mobot gives marketers, content providers and carriers the tools to make it easy for any consumer with a mobile device to interact with their environment. For more information about Mobot, please visit www.mobot.com.
Mobot and Mobot.com are trademarks of Mobot, Inc.