By Aimee Chanthadavong

Blockbuster Australia is launching a multi-million dollar national branding campaign to meet Australia’s need for take home DVDs.

The campaign that will be rolled out in six months intervals over the next 24 months will target Australia’s DVD rental market, which is the largest per capita in the world, with over 180 million movies rented in Australia in 2009.

Additionally, some Blockbuster franchisees achieved double digit rental growth last year and in the latest Australian PricewaterhouseCoopers Entertainment and Media Outlook 2010-20143 predict demand will stay strong for a number of years.

Dennis Banfield, Blockbuster Australia’s general manager, operations, told Retailbiz that the company’s aim is to transform the brand to be the “entertainment destination for Australians” starting with redesigning its stores and staff uniforms.

“To gain a better understanding of what our customer wanted from their DVD rental store, Blockbuster Australia conducted extensive customer research with over 5,000 Australians last year. What we found is that our consumers and franchisees wanted a modern, fresh look and feel to the stores,” he said.

“It’s a new era for the Blockbuster brand and we want our stores to reflect that. The various elements of the new look and feel such as the new signage, new wall headers and uniforms are direct responses to the consumer feedback that came out of the research we conducted.  It also makes navigating around the store much easier.”

To compliment its interactive customer experience in-store, Blockbuster Australia will also be redesigning its website, which will feature a number of new multimedia content, as well as a new Facebook page.

“The new website and the launch of the Facebook fan page is the first step in our social media campaign, which will see further developments to interact and connect with our customers, franchisees and suppliers online,” Banfield said.

“Trailers, news, interviews and reviews on the website broaden the customers experience and practical tools such as the store locator and library help make things as easy as possible.”

As part of the first stages of the campaign, the company will also be advertising across radio, TV and outdoor sites.

With over 280 stores nationwide, it operates completely independently from the troubled Blockbuster Inc in the US.