Cinema advertising: Stars of the silver screen

releases such as Harry Potter and the Order Of the Phoenix and Shrek the
Third combined to help drive the UK box office to a 32-year high in
July, while admissions jumped by 23% to 49m in the third quarter,
according to the Cinema Advertising Association - equivalent to 3.7m a
week.

Sodden film fans were not the only ones flocking to the cinema over the
period. A growing number of brands have been snubbing other media in
favour of the big screen. Cinema's rising star has helped to lure new
advertisers, including Pizza Hut, Subway and Woolworths, as well as
enticing lapsed clients, such as IKEA, back to the fold.

The latter dropped cinema ads from its marketing strategy two years ago,
but was drawn back by the medium's ability to reach a growing audience.
'Cinema is an appointment-to-view medium where there is massive impact,'
says Vala Magnadottir, IKEA's UK external marketing specialist. 'The act
of watching ads in the cinema is part and parcel of the whole event,
with people arriving early to see the ad reel. People talk about what
they have seen after the film.'

She points to cinema advertising's directness as a further benefit. 'Our
ad gave us a platform to get a new and interesting message across
without any distraction. The message behind the ad cut through at a high
level.'

Research carried out by Carlton Screen Advertising supports this view.
'People might remember thematics from a TV ad, but at the cinema they
can remember the precise details such as straplines or a bank's interest
rates,' says Chris Hall, research account director at the ITV-owned
cinema ad sales house. 'You have a captive audience - heads forward,
lights off.'

As well as gaining the undivided attention of its customers, cinema can
also deliver a broad range of demographics. 'Over the past 10 years
there has been a huge growth in the five- to 14-year-olds sector due to
films such as Shrek,' says Ian Cartwright, creative solutions account
director at Carlton Screen Advertising. 'Family films also bring in
parents and grandparents, so there has been a huge growth in the 34-plus
audience.' Capturing the family in one fell swoop is no mean feat. 'It's
very rare in TV, but cinema can still deliver that,' says Hall. 'Family
packages have proved very successful in bringing a lot of the FMCG
advertisers that want to attract parents and kids at the same time.'

Carlton Screen Advertising and Volvo tapped into this family market in
October, running live interactive gaming sessions at 12 cinemas showing
the Disney-Pixar film Ratatouille. Using motion-sensor technology to
track an audience's combined movements, filmgoers acted as 'human
joysticks'. Their hand motions controlled a virtual Volvo XC70
four-wheel drive car around a large-scale driving terrain. According to
Carlton Screen Advertising, it was the first time gaming had been used
as part of an in-cinema campaign in Europe.

'The concept was developed to engage a group of people and take video
gaming, traditionally an individual pastime, to a truly sociable
environment,' says Anita Fox, head of marketing communications at Volvo
Car UK. 'By working together as a team, having fun and sharing the
experience, it's the perfect way to communicate Volvo's "Life is better
lived together" brand message.'

Interactivity is also a key ingredient in the use of Bluetooth
technology, which is helping to distance cinema advertising from the
ticket stubs and popcorn buckets of old. The medium's first UK test, for
a Toyota campaign, made audio content available for download via
Bluetooth at 25 Vue cinemas. It offered an original piece of music
created for the Toyota Aygo and mixed by Michael Fakesch, which could be
played or saved as a ringtone. Toyota bought 10,000 downloads on a
cost-per-click basis and ran a two-week poster campaign, with the aim
that the 10,000 downloads mark would be reached in a week. The target
was actually achieved in two days.

The use of the medium has been extended, with the biggest investment yet
put behind a UK Bluetooth ad campaign to back the integrated launch of
LG's Viewty camera phone. Bluepod Media helped LG offer movie clips for
consumers to download to their mobiles at Vue and Cineworld cinemas. The
aim was to reach 370,000 downloads in a month, but 432,000 was hit in
three weeks - 62,000 extra, 10 days faster than expected.

'It illustrates how this cinema audience is in tune with this type of
technology,' says Mike Hope-Milne, enterprise director at cinema ad
sales house Pearl & Dean. 'If they have the right copy, one of the
advantages for advertisers is that they only buy the "click" for the ad
that's downloaded. If it's good, the chances are it will be passed on,
potentially making it very cost-efficient as a viral campaign.'

Innovative advertising doesn't always have to involve flashy,
cutting-edge technology, though. Last summer Red Bull promoted the
London leg of its Air Race World Series with 3-D cinema, TV and outdoor
activity. The energy-drink brand booked a slot with Carlton Screen
Advertising to run a 30-second 3-D ad prior to screenings of Shrek the
Third and Harry Potter. Cinema-goers were given 3-D glasses as they
entered Odeon and Cineworld screens in the South East. They were then
shown a two-minute introductory film on the Red Bull Air Race before the
3-D spot was screened.

'Our only concern was that the glasses would not be distributed to some
people,' admits Chris Carter, planning manager at Red Bull UK. 'We used
dump bins and had agreements where possible for the cinemas to hand out
the glasses as they checked tickets. The trouble is, you're not
personally there to give them out, so with the best will in the world,
some people miss out.'

Despite the anxieties, he believes it was worth the effort. 'We had
amazing recall and more than 75% of Londoners were aware of the event,'
he says. 'When you factor in word of mouth, which we also researched as
we expected people to tell others, we got a great return on investment,
even taking into account all the production costs.'

Cinema owners have also been trying to give filmgoers a taste of
alternative content, such as live entertainment or sporting events. Vue
has sold tickets for screenings of concerts by Take That and Genesis,
comedy shows by Ross Noble, Formula One racing and a live red carpet
feed from the premiere of Kylie Minogue's White Diamond documentary.
According to Pearl & Dean, the idea now is to find commercial partners
this year for the three core strands of music, sport and comedy.

'Alternative content offers more choice and can bring in different types
of people,' says Mark de Quervain, sales and marketing director for Vue
Entertainment. The artists involved also stand to make huge gains from
cinema exposure. 'They get a massive outreach in a way they wouldn't
otherwise be able to, particularly when their live shows are sold out,'
says de Quervain. 'They also get a huge amount of marketing from
us.'

Fuelling all this activity is cinema's ability to generate revenue for
advertisers. 'All the research we have done shows that cinema
advertising makes a very real contribution to ROI, especially as we have
a range of brands looking to target an audience that is typical of
cinema-goers,' says Richard Brooke, communication buying manager for
Unilever in the UK, which plans to spend between 4% and 6% of its
advertising budget on cinema in 2008. 'There is also the advantage of
real relevance for our ice-cream brands such as Ben & Jerry's, Wall's
and Magnum, which have long been part of the cinema experience.'

Brooke is unequivocal about cinema's contribution to Unilever and his
thoughts neatly sum up its attraction to a wide range of brands. 'It
allows us to reach the consumer at a time when his or her concentration
is absolute, when the anticipation of being entertained is high and ad
avoidance is low,' he says. 'It's marketing gold dust.'

CASE STUDY - ORANGE

Over the past five years Orange's cinema campaign 'The Film Board' has
become an established part of the British movie-going experience.
Occupying the so-called 'gold spot' - the much coveted last ad slot
before the film begins - the work has seen a list of famous names pitch
their movie ideas to a fictional Orange panel obsessed with product
placement.

'Cinema is a hugely important part of our advertising structure,' says
Mat Sears, entertainment brand marketing manager at Orange, pointing to
its sponsorship of the Bafta film awards and £13.5m spend on
cinema advertising in 2007. 'Cinema is where the 16- to 34-year-old
audience indexes highly and that audience is essential to us as a mobile
operator.'

Although the ads do not push products or services, they have helped
create a strong link between Orange and the cinema. 'From our brand
tracking we know we are the number-one brand associated with film in the
UK,' says Sears. 'That's very powerful. We are also the only mobile
operator advertising at the cinema.'

Orange is mulling over adding more product-specific cinema ads to its
portfolio, according to Sears, but for the time being, he is more than
happy with the gold spot's performance. 'It allows us to put our brand
on a pedestal and make people laugh,' he says. 'We can use other
channels to talk about products. If you take the gold spot and then add
the Orange Wednesday two-for-one film tickets offer, people really start
to warm to us.'

CINEMA AD REVENUES



2007: £203m

2009: £215m*



Source: Cinema Advertising Association

*Predicted