Kia extends DCM independent cinema partnership

Kia UK has extended its support for independent cinema via its partnership with Digital Cinema Media (DCM) for a third year.

In addition, Kia has also signed a partnership with Pearl & Dean’s Curzon chain.

The deal was first brokered by Havas Play in 2022. Kia has been sponsoring DCM’s independent cinemas, which serve a fifth of UK cinemagoers, including Picturehouse, The Light, Reel, Savoy and more than 170 other venues.

Including Curzon venues, Kia now supports 242 independent cinemas across the UK.

As part of the extended partnership, Innocean UK has created new work for Kia featuring the EV9 and Sportage models. Ads will be shown ahead of every feature film across DCM’s 60-second Gold Spot and at Curzon screens, reaching more than 12m people per year.

“With an array of exciting summer blockbusters due in cinemas soon, we believe this is a fantastic opportunity for Kia to once again take centre stage, support local businesses and entertain communities through independent cinema,” said Sanka De Silva, marketing director at Kia UK.

Davina Barker, sales director at DCM, added: “We’re extremely proud of this fully immersive, integrated partnership with Kia in the independent cinema space. Year two alone increased brand perception among cinemagoers by 208%.”

At The Future of Audio and Entertainment event in April, representatives from DCM, Havas Media and Innocean discussed how the partnership helped Kia stand out in a noisy market and change the “value” perception of the brand.

As Robert Breese, managing partner at Havas Media UK, explained: “The three big things we did were moving towards more attentive audiences and paying more for addressing those; it’s about longer-term continuity; and it’s about shifting the mentality to a long-term perspective and measurement.”

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