Elvis Still Selling Elvis Best

The Commercial Appeal from Memphis did a story on "selling Elvis". Here it is:

Ever wonder how the marketing minds at Elvis Presley Enterprises keep the king's pop culture reign going nearly 30 years after his death? "We just answer the phone," said Scott Williams, EPE marketing and communications director, in a presentation Wednesday to the Public Relations Society of America's Memphis chapter.

There is, of course, more than that to creating all those tie-ins -- Elvis and Budweiser, Elvis and Harley-Davidson, an all-Elvis channel on Sirius Satellite Radio-- that keep the singer's name, image and music prominent. It was all to make Williams' point that "Elvis sells Elvis better than anything we can do."
But just answering the phones at EPE must be a chore, because they apparently ring a lot.

"I think only 3 percent of the licensing applications get approved," Williams said. "One thing about EPE that's really great is, they really think through the planning of the products and promotions."

He highlighted one that made the cut -- a partnership with Hershey's that's led to limited-edition Reese's peanut butter and banana creme cups.

Reese's also will be giving away a pink Cadillac and a trip to Graceland.

"They're also going to give away ... some checks that Elvis wrote -- that have been canceled," Williams said.

"This is what's so fun about working with brands like this -- they just have some great ideas."

Williams, during his address to the PR types, also put in a pitch for elvisweek.com. That's the Web site devoted to next month's 30th anniversary edition of Elvis Week.