The Future Of Cinema Advertising
The future of cinema advertising and the multiplex was the subject of yesterday’s conference hosted by Carlton Screen Advertising. The Empire Leicester Square provided the venue for a morning of intense discussion into the fastest growing medium by revenue over the last decade.
Adam Poulter, managing director of Carlton Screen Adverting, opened the conference, explaining that it was necessary to “explode the myths, expose the truth and to drag cinema out of the perception of the 1% medium.” He said that there was lots going on in the cinema industry at the moment, and the medium was ever growing in popularity. He used, as an example, the people who hadn’t been to the ‘Flicks’ in years, but had returned for the re-release of the Star Wars Trilogy.
Steve Knibbs, managing director, and Paul Biggins, head of marketing, both from UCI, provided a double act. Knibbs, was also overwhelmed by the success of The Trilogy: “There was great enthusiasm from the British public even though the film had been released 20 years before.”
Turning the spotlight onto his own company, Knibbs said that UCI had many plans, including the development of Megaplexes that will have 16 screens or more amongst other leisure amenities. Inside the auditorium, technology will vastly improve the quality of sound and vision. His forecast for the year 2000 included better customer service, more integration of leisure with retail, better quality of design, more offers, the rise of the Megaplex in major conurbation’s and he also predicted that Pay TV/Cinema will dominate the way people see films in the future.
Paul Biggins went on to show how UCI Cinemas view themselves as a brand and not a building. As a case study, he referred to the opening of a UCI Cinema in Dublin, showing how UCI go about promoting and launching a new cinema and getting public awareness of it.
Patrick Morrison, head of strategic planning at Manning Gottlieb Media, spoke briefly about why they choose cinema as a way of advertising and how they create and implement strategy for cinema. He said that cinema-goers provide many brands with an opportunity, and when buying cinema advertising it can be targeted at different audiences, for example, targeting at a specific film, admissions or genre.
Ken Hoggins, art director at Banks Hoggins O’Shea, commented again on the advantages of the cinema’s captured audience. You have people’s attention without doing anything, you can have selected audiences by picking the right film and people are ‘in the mood’ because they have gone out willingly.
Neil Duckworth, managing director of Tag Heuer UK, explained why they use cinema, pointing out that products look better on the big screen, they are brought to life. The medium is also cheaper than television with more impact. While concentrating on his own product, he said that not many watch brands are advertised on cinema, so Tag Heuer stand out and are remembered.
Jayne Rumsey, head of client sales at Carlton Screen Advertising, talked about the impact of cinema and put it in context with other media. She said it was: “a bigger, classier and more impactful medium than television” and even though cinema has twelve times the impact it is not twelve times the price. She pointed out that when you are planning to advertise on the big screen, it is more accurate than doing it by any other media because you have the evidence of actual admission figures. She finished off by saying: “Let cinema make your brand bigger, louder and have more effect!”
All the speakers agreed that cinema was the major leisure activity of the moment, people go willingly to the pictures, you have their full undivided attention, so why not make the most of it?
Carlton Screen Advertising: 0171 439 9531