Finally time for No Time to Die? The champagne's been on ice

Los Angeles

A DAY before No Time to Die started playing in American theaters last Friday (Oct 8), Bollinger - James Bond's champagne of choice - held a pre-screening bash at a swanky theatre in New York's South Street Seaport.

VIPs in sequined dresses and tuxedos posed for photos on the red carpet, ate caviar and drank a limited edition wine dedicated to 007 - both during the movie and for hours afterward.

If the scene felt familiar to some attendees, that is because it was. "It is very strange," said Alexander Michas, president and chief operating officer at Vintus, Bollinger's New York importer. "It is a bit like Groundhog Day."

After all, two years ago, before the original spring 2020 release date of No Time to Die, Bollinger participated in a similar bash. The James Bond signs, the guest list, even the attire were similar; some attendees wore the same outfit to both parties.

For Bollinger, a small, family-owned Champagne house, the Bond connection is invaluable.

"It helps people understand what Bollinger represents," Michas said. "Why would James Bond drink Bollinger? Because it's the best. Everything he does is the best. We see sales go up when a Bond movie comes out."

Globally, Michas said, he had heard estimates of around a 20 per cent increase in sales around a film's opening.

Bollinger has so much at stake with Bond, it will throw as many do-over parties as needed, said Alyssa Faden, who works for Vintus and plans the parties.

"Bond is our big moment to shine," she said. "Even if the release is postponed over and over, we will be there to celebrate it."

The James Bond franchise currently has several dozen partners, diverse brands from Adidas to Land Rover to the Jamaica Tourism Board. Some brands, like Bollinger, were written into the original

James Bond novels by Ian Fleming. Others are much newer. Triumph Motorcycles, for example, became a partner for No Time to Die after the company formed a relationship with Bond stunt coordinator Lee Morrison.

Partner companies generally spend their own resources promoting Bond films with television commercials, magazine spreads, social media campaigns, window displays, Bond-related products, events for influencers and more. The marketing value from the partner companies is worth more than US$100 million, said Stephen Bruno, chief marketing officer of MGM, which distributes the Bond films.

But the value to those partner companies, both in terms of hard sales and generating brand awareness, is so valuable that they will do anything, even market the same movie not once, but twice.

"We call it the Bond effect," said Adam VanderVeen, marketing director for Triumph Motorcycles America.

Before the opening of No Time to Die, the company released 250 of what it called "Tiger 900 Bond Edition" motorcycles.

"The US allocation sold out in 45 seconds," VanderVeen said. "Other very rare products take hours or days to sell out."

Cars play a particularly prominent role in the Bond universe. Sam Mendes, who directed Spectre introduced the Aston Martin DB10 from that film as a cast member.

Aston Martin has four cars in No Time to Die and, since the film opened in the UK on Sept 30, the company said it has seen nearly a 30 per cent increase in users visiting the website.

"It's all about brand recognition," said Marek Reichman, Aston Martin's executive vice-president and chief creative officer. "To say to everyone that Aston Martin is being driven by the coolest guy on the planet, go buy it. We definitely see spikes in sales from that."

Being a Bond partner is so valuable that some brands don't even have formal contracts with the Bond franchise.

There are strategic discussions about their campaigns before the premiere, but "there are no specific demands", Bruno said. "Our partners see the value of being associated with Bond and invest accordingly."

With no specific demands, of course, there is no clear sense if the double-party outlays are worth it. Brands have to calculate if their efforts make sense, and many feel that they are.

"We have a family-to-family handshake agreement," Michas said. "We do our part because we love the association."

So when the pandemic delayed the theatrical release of No Time to Die, Bond partners did not complain even though many had already released limited-edition products; staged events; and put time, energy and money into advertising campaigns that were about to start.

Instead, they geared up to do it all over again as soon as the Bond team said "go".

"We planned this event much more quickly than a typical Champagne Bollinger event," Faden said.

She even stashed away some champagne so it would be ready when the Bond franchise told her the movie was coming out, however short the notice.

Some brands even benefited from the delay, reaping the Bond effect not once but twice.

"In early 2020 they had already released the No Time to Die trailer, which showed our motorcycles in it," VanderVeen said. "We had already announced our partnership, so we could enjoy it for a bit longer than we would have if the movie hadn't gotten postponed."

Aston Martin was in the same position. "In the trailers it showed the DB5, so we can could go ahead and talk about it," Reichman said. The delay essentially meant there were two periods of hype around the movie's release. As he put it, "We got to double dip." NYTIMES