CfM's management created the first systems to deliver products only on street date. As home video was coming of age, the possibilities of street dating were made dramatically evident. Promotional campaigns were targeted to the date of the products' release, coupled with same-day national availability, produced groundbreaking results.
The film industry was awakened to the possibility of a new targeted mass market for home video sales, of significantly greater value than the video rental business. A new revenue stream had been discovered by creating a second critical sales event in a film's life cycle. Best of all: no longer was the industry captive to first received, first sold street-date violations.
In 1996 CfM was founded to take advantage of emerging technologies and communications that would immensely expand the possibilities of this revolution in delivery.
Street dating has now long been the customary method used in Hollywood for the launch of home video and DVD products. Other consumer packaged products in which sales can be enhanced with simultaneous nationwide or worldwide availability, such as new software upgrades, new consumer electronic devices, and new pharmaceuticals, will also be embracing street dating.
Street dating was used in an especially ambitious way for the worldwide launch of Microsoft's Xbox, in which CfM played a critical role as freight forwarder. The vertical integration of the supplier presented extreme challenges. Microsoft was not just launching one specific unit, but many: software, hardware, peripherals, and store-keeping units. All of these elements DVD, video game console, cabling, keyboards and more were expected to be available simultaneously at 20,000 retail outlets on a specific launch date.
With the media and retail environment becoming ever more cluttered, more and more businesses will turn to street dating to maximize marketing and sales.
No longer was the industry captive to "first received, first sold" street-date violations.