By James Wells

SYDNEY: Sony Australia is gambling on another cross-promotion with its sister company, Sony Pictures, by running a sales promotion capitalising on the upcoming release of the James Bond movie Casino Royale in 400 electrical retailers nationally.

Sony claims that the Casino Royale promotion is already exceeding the response from the entire Da Vinci Code promotion earlier this year.

Sony Australia national sales manager, David Hargreaves, said that of the 3,300 entries receive from the 400 retail shopfronts, 31 per cent have been from New South Wales and 26 per cent from Victoria.

The promotion provides consumers which purchase selected Handycam high definition models and BRAVIA Theatre products in the Sony range with an entry into a major prize draw to win a suite of Sony’s Full HD products, including a BRAVIA 40-inch X Series LCD TV, Handycam HC3 camcorder, VAIO AR18GP Blu-ray notebook and a STRDA5200ES receiver.

Retailers have two opportunities to win during the promotion. Sony has already distributed tickets to Casino Royale to 10 stores in each state which have dressed their store in the theme of the promotion.

“We knew James Bond would create a lot of hype, but we are amazed by just how popular this promotion is,” Hargreaves said.

“The promotion has already exceeded targets for the Da Vinci Code, and is on track to drive significant sales in HD product categories during the key buying period.”

In addition to the free tickets, Sony will award Gold, Silver and Bronze prizes of petrol vouchers at the end of this month to the stores that keep their displays up for the duration of the promotion.

In addition to the major prize draw, sales of Bravia Theatre and new format Handycam models are being driven by individual promotions. The Casino Royale promotion will run until 20 December, the Bravia Theatre element of the campaign will run until 20 December and the Handycam cashback offer will run until 31 December.