When Rick Andrade became frustrated while figuring out which video to buy, he retaliated by starting a company.
SeeView Promotions Inc., based in Los Angeles, makes a small binocular-like device that fits inside a DVD case. The SeeViewer allows customers to preview 12 images of the film, game, music video or TV show inside.
“Current DVD cases just don’t have enough information to help consumers make the best choice,” said Andrade. “So I say give them more. Give your customers a better chance to be won over by your DVD.”
The patented SeeViewer fits into the bottom of a slightly elongated DVD case. The viewer shows three-dimensional pictures and works with available light no batteries required.
Customers get the viewer with the DVD and keep it as a collectible gift. Test marketing indicated people would pay $3 more for the viewer, but the SeeView has managed to lower the price point to $2.
Andrade has yet to sell a major studio on the device, but he developed it with two executives at Universal, which he hopes to make his first customer. “Creating awareness at the studio level is a key success factor for us,” Andrade said. “We are looking for multi-title deals and high unit volume orders.”
Unfortunately, SeeView may have caught the DVD market at its peak. In a report titled “The DVD Party is Over,” Pali Capital Inc. analysts Richard Greenfield and Mark Smaldon recently wrote they feel “confident that 2007 will be the first year that consumer spending on DVDs declines domestically.”
The Pali report follows a 2005 report from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. that predicted DVD sales would drop 8.2 percent this year. Both reports point to the nascent distribution system of downloading video through broadband Internet connections.
But Andrade remains confident. “The DVD market has been hit by a deluge of declining DVD sales news,” he said, “but we think we can help increase sales by offering a better packaging experience.
“We focus on selling the ‘wow factor’ at retail. With all the talk about DVD saturation and Blu-Ray versus HD-DVD, consumers just want the ‘wow’ back. And we’re ready to supply as much as we can.”
