MediaBuyerPlanner: The holiday season may be a cutthroat one for big box home improvement retailers. As the housing industry’s woes trickle down to the home improvement market, retailers will have to work hard to grab market share.
Jumping into the fray with both feet, Home Depot is planning a gift card initiative, offering pre-paid gift cards with a twist: the broad plastic cards double as DVDs, complete with 25-minute how-to videos of home improvement tasks, writes DM News.
This is not a first-of-its-kind move. Circuit City has twice used such interactive gift cards, which have offered music downloads, a video game, screen savers, links to a product catalog online and a Pirates of the Caribbean movie trailer (also, a pirate aptitude test).
The cards are made by digital publisher Serious. They cost the vendor about $1.50 each, compared to about 20 cents for a regular plastic card.
Pre-paid cards were a $76 billion business last year, according to the National Retail Federation.
Related stories:
- Wal-Mart Blames Housing Market for Disappointing Sales
- Home Depot Ends SendTec Agreement
- Home Depot May Sell Wholesale Supplier Business
- Home Depot Change-Up May Portend Power Shift among Marketers
- Home Depot CEO Resigns
- The Home Depot Moves Into China
- Home Depot Continues to Target the Wealthy
