Connecting the cinema-goer
Digital Cinema Media’s CEO Simon Rees shares his thoughts on the challenges of connecting with today’s increasingly connected consumer – and tells us a bit more about the new mobile app currently trialing in ODEON cinemas…
Engaging with the increasingly connected consumer has been a key theme in the last couple of weeks, both in Cannes and the equally glamorous Cannon Street for MediaTel’s own Connected Consumer event.
A common theme from both events was the danger of focusing solely on the connections and missing the importance of great content. Advertisers, whether using one channel or multiple channels, have to think about the relevance of content and how this will resonate with people.
Connected consumers are empowered consumers and, while technology is driving changes, powerful storytelling remains at the heart of the best work.
In cinema, we’ve been facing our own challenge – how to respect and protect the most powerful storytelling medium while evolving our offering to deepen multiple interaction points for our advertisers.
The result is cinime – a mobile application that we’re currently trialing in 11 ODEON cinemas across the UK, with further roll-out planned this summer. Developed by the cinema industry for the cinema industry, cinime aims to further entertain people before and after, but crucially not during the movie.
The cinime app, developed in partnership with Yummi Media Group, harnesses image recognition and bespoke audio watermarking technologies to deliver and unlock brand and film-related content on smartphones.
Connected devices now allow the film fan to plug into the experience at every step from preview to review, watching trailers, getting show-times and booking tickets – not just when they’re in the foyer or sitting in front of the screen. Brands are increasingly looking to be part of this whole journey, including product placement within the film itself, and we have to evolve our offering to reflect this.
All supposedly ‘traditional’ media owners have to adapt and help brands communicate in this social, mobile world. It was interesting reading the Evening Standard’s feature on Cannes this week. Gideon Spanier spoke to Dominic Proctor, president of Group M, who said: “The evidence is the legacy media owners aren’t here,” referring to broadcasters and publishers who used to be out in force at Cannes. Instead it is the new digital media owners who dominate.
Another theme from the piece was that the obsession with digital is set to intensify. Jonathan Mildenhall, Coca-Cola’s vice-president of global advertising strategy, is planning for the 2014 football World Cup and says: “It’s all going to be real-time marketing.”
However, I believe the key is finding the synergy between these different points of connection while respecting the idea and maintaining the storytelling thread. Amidst all the technological innovation on display, it was great to see Channel 4’s Meet the Superhumans promo for the Paralympics win the UK’s only Grand Prix in the Film Craft category. This piece of work really lived up to the title of the category and moves the brand firmly into the content rather than advertising space.