Video Ezy

Video Ezy is Australia's largest video and DVD rental chain with over 550 stores within Australia as well as over 140 stores in New Zealand and 200 throughout South-East Asia. It was founded in 1983.

Competition

In Australia Video Ezy's major competition comes from Blockbuster, Civic Video, Network Video and to a lesser extent Movies 4U (also known as Top Video or Leading Edge Video). Video Ezy dominates the massive Sydney market. However in other Australian states like Queensland it has a similar number of stores to rivals Civic, Blockbuster and other minor companies. In February 2007, Blockbuster announced it would be selling its Australian subsidiary and franchising rights to Video Ezy, subject to approval from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.cite web |url=http://www.reuters.com/article/consumerproducts-SP/idUSN2217493920070223 |title=Blockbuster to sell Australian business to Video Ezy |accessdate=2008-01-05 |format= |work=Reuters]

History

Video Ezy first opened their doors in 1983, opening up their first store in the suburb of Hurstville in Sydney, New South Wales. The first New Zealand store was opened in 1988. In early 1999 Video Ezy expanded into the South East Asian market. Also that year the franchise undertook major changes as DVDs became a part of the Australian home video market.

In late 2000 Video Ezy introduced Ezyretail, a video store specific point of sale system exclusively used by Video Ezy. The software was first developed at Video Ezy 's Sydney head office in 1999. It replaced VideoMinder, a then DOS-based system still used by Blockbuster and some older Video Ezy franchisees.

In 2003 Video Ezy sold its corporate stores in Australia leaving only 2 stores - Narellan and Rosehill, some 10 minutes from its new Head Office at Rhodes, although recently in 2006 it has acquired additional corporate stores.

In 2003 Video Ezy also went on to market a subscription model with DVD Unlimited (not associated with the New Zealand company with the same name).

Video Ezy has also began to sell retail DVD's in recent years.

Marketing

In 1993 the "Get it first time, or get it free" was launched. Video Ezy re-launched their guarantee under the "Movie Guarantee" umbrella in April 2007. This includes Rental Guarantee, Price Guarantee and an Ex-Rental Guarantee.

Video Ezy utilises rent-only releases with the "Rent It - The Only Way To Get It" campaign.

Another advertising campaign used by Video Ezy is "Upsize Your Entertainment" - when a consumer rents a specific title they have the opportunity to upsize by buying a specified similar title for only $4.95 - in April 2007, Video Ezy had Charlotte's Web as the rental title & Paulie as the upsize title.

Slogans include:
* "In the Mood"
* "Ezy does it"
* "Get it first time, or get it free" (defunct, being re-released in April 2007)
* "The choice is Ezy"
* "We have so many copies of our Rental Guarantee title, we guarantee you'll rent it now, or Rent it free" - Video Ezy Rental Guarantee as of April 2007

Industrial relations

The company established a training facility in 2006 to develop staff expertise. They had previously run a subsidiary called "Rascals" which promoted the use of Australian Workplace Agreements.

Presence in other countries

Video Ezy has stores in the following countries outside Australia:
* Singapore

External links

* [http://www.videoezy.com.au Official site]
* [http://www.videoezy.co.nz/ Official NZ site]

References