Garth Brooks Top Seller In Promo Deal

NEW YORK—McDonald’s golden arches have turned platinum. The fast-food chain has reportedly registered sales of more than 9 million albums since its monthlong promotion with EMI Records Group North America started Sept. 2.

The music premium deal, which officially ended Sept. 28, offered McDonald’s customers the opportunity to buy special compilations by Garth Brooks, Elton John, Tina Turner, and Roxette at a major discount with purchase of a meal. A dollar from each purchase goes to Ronald McDonald Children’s Charities (Billboard, July 23).

Although the final numbers are still being tallied, EMI Records Group reports that the Brooks compilation of non-single tracks from five of his previous records was the top seller at approximately 4 million copies. Both John and Turner’s greatest-hits packages have surpassed the 2 million mark. Roxette’s offering, a 10-song sampler of its new album, “Crash! Boom! Bang!,” is approaching the million-unit total. Two releases offered regionally, a Latin music collection and a hip-hop/jazz compila-tion, help round out the figures.

“We came, we saw, we conquered,” says Charles Koppelman, EMI Records Group North America chair-man/CEO. “We really accomplished what we set out to do from both McDonald’s and our own point of view. We demonstrated that with the campaign we set forth, we could drive people back into regular retail outlets to buy records of the artists featured on the campaign. And we proved that with the [$20 million] media campaign by McDonald’s, we can sell an amazing amount of records to people in a short time, and that we ourselves don’t scratch the surface in reaching people who do buy records.” A spokeswoman for McDonald’s affirms the success of the campaign.

“Because it was such a successful operation, a lot of the operators are continuing to sell [the remaining records],” says Malesia Webb-Dunn. “Most of them will sell them until they sell out. We don’t anticipate having any left.”

In an effort to encourage patrons back into retail stores and boost catalog sales, each of the records sold through McDonald’s included a discount coupon redeemable at Musicland, Sam Goody’s, and OnCue, applicable for product by the participating artists. Musicland officials did not return calls by press time.

Additionally, Cema offered all retailers deep discounts on catalog by the involved artists and encouraged them to plan their own promotions.

The result was a surge in catalog sales, primarily for Brooks, who also served as the spokesman for the campaign. All five of his albums (minus his Christmas collection) made gains on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart during the promotion, and four of his albums showed increases on The Billboard 200. Although none of the other artists’ previous releases showed significant gains on the Billboard charts, EMI’s Koppelman says, “We were pleased with what Tina’s and Elton’s back catalog were doing. Each one [showed] significant incremental progress.”

Many retailers objected to the promotion because it offered customers the chance to purchase records outside of the traditional retail environment. Several were especially irate about the Roxette collection, since it featured 10 new tracks at a discount before they were ever offered at retail. The store version featured 15 tracks.

Koppelman says he believes even retail can appreciate the McDonald’s experience and learn from it. “Though I recognize (some retailers) felt this was anti-retail, and I understand their public position, they’re all smart people and they realize the power of what we’ve done and what we can do together.”

In fact, some retailers had vowed not to purchase the new Roxette album, which arrived in stores Oct. 4, or to buy lesser quantities as a protest against the promotion. Best Buy, an 175-store chain based in Bloominton, Minn., purchased only two copies of the new record per store, as it had promised to do when it learned about the promotion (Billboard, Sept. 10).

A month ago, William Teitelbaum, CEO/president of the 126-store National Record Mart chain, vowed not to purchase any copies of the Roxette album. However, random calls to several National Record Mart stores by Billboard revealed that they were stocking the release. Teitelbaum, who was traveling and therefore out of his office, says he was unaware the album had been orderer and planned to investigate the issue further.

For his part, Per Gessle of Roxette says the benefits of the promotion experienced by the group far outweigh any anger felt by the retailers.

“It’s impressive that we’re able to sell almost a million copies of [a record] that people haven’t heard,” he says. “You can’t go to EMI or Warner or any label and get the kind of money that McDonald’s spent on TV and radio ads, and in the end, we raised all that money for the kids.”

To cap the promotion, EMI executives, Turner, Brooks, and Roxette plan to present a check to McDonald’s totaling between $9 million and $10 million on Monday (10), at a ceremony in Cologne, Germany.