The Fact That Cinema Is Constantly Changing Is Good News for Brand.
Cinema is becoming a more alluring component of the media mix for businesses, with total UK cinema admissions up 10% annually and cinema ad revenues up 33% in the second half of 2022 as compared to the same period in 2021. What opportunities exist as the industry continues to innovate?
1. In what ways can your brand bring value to customers when they are most receptive?
Location-based marketing is being used more frequently by businesses to target customers with pertinent mobile messaging while they are close to their store or movie theater. According to Berg Insight, location-based marketing and advertising are really predicted to account for 7% of digital advertising by 2018, or 2% of the total worldwide ad expenditure across all media.
Earlier this year, marketing experts SmartFocus' Kym Reynolds noted that "major companies are now giving personalised discounts and coupons to their users' cellphones while they are in-store, while cinema chains are sending individualised notifications to moviegoers once they have left the cinema."
For instance, "Rate the Spiderman: No Way Home movie and we'll enter you in a raffle to win free tickets to the movies."
2. Consider the Digital Opportunities Presented By The Release Of Movie Trailers
Although movie trailers have traditionally been effective marketing vehicles, the manner in which studios disseminate this material is evolving.
Filmmakers and production companies are now making their film trailers available to potential moviegoers through mobile platforms such as Twitter Q&A, SnapChat, and other popular social media platforms to encourage more and more people to see such movies at the cinema.
3. How Can Your Brand Use the Internet to Access the Glitter and Glamour of a Movie Premiere?
Film premieres are frequently live streamed on Yahoo, providing its viewers with immediate access to the events. The trick, according to Michael Pennington, head of entertainment at Yahoo!, "is to offer a large swath of the audience access to material while simultaneously providing that critically important impression of exclusivity, so long associated with the glitz and glamour of movies."
Over 151,000 people watched the live YouTube video of the international premiere of the then-most recent James Bond movie, Spectre, in October 2015.
According to Michael Pennington, bringing offline experiences like the thrill of the red carpet online is a great way to engage more people and create anticipation for a movie with the potential to increase brand exposure.
4. One area of growth and opportunity is event cinema.
Event cinema is expanding and experiencing a boom, demonstrating that audiences enjoy it. The industry's revenues have increased by 35.2% over the last two years, reaching around $300 million in total in 2019 before the COVID interruption, and are expected to reach $1 billion (£645 million) globally by 2023.
According to the study, which was carried out by IHS, War Horse, performed by the UK's National Theatre, came in first place globally, followed by One Direction in concert, Billy Elliot: The Musical, and Monty Python. Additionally, the New York Metropolitan Opera broadcast live performances in over 2,000 theaters in 67 countries last year, generating over 2.4 million ticket sales.
According to David Hancock, head of film and cinema at IHS Technology, theater has replaced opera and ballet as the new popular genre in the event cinema industry. With the help of new experience-improving technologies, event cinema has a crucial role to play in redefining the cinematic experience.
5. Subscription Services Are Increasing Traffic To The Cinemas And Require New Methods Of Marketing
Although consumers are consuming more long-form content on a variety of devices, such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones, audiences are still going to the movies, according to research conducted by Yahoo! in 2021 in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy.
The good news for movie studios is that this is not an either-or pattern of consumption. According to our study, the same demographic that uses online streaming services is 14% more likely to purchase movie tickets. Regardless of screen size, people interact with the material.
How to appeal to this audience that is becoming more digitally sophisticated through a variety of venues is the challenge—and opportunity—for both filmmakers and companies that collaborate with films. I'd say that that interaction isn't primarily found inside the theater, as Simon Rees, CEO of DCM, stated at the first Cinema of the Future conference in London in December 2014. It is about how mobile and social media are used by films to engage their audiences.
6. How Can Brands Reach Cinema Goers In Their Seats Using Mobile?
DCM created the CiniMe app with the goal of assisting companies in interacting with viewers both before and after a movie. When a moviegoer's phone detects audio messages from the theater screen, an advertiser can push out content via the app.
According to Simon Rees, CEO of DCM, cinema is the finest immersive experience and is starting to come to life for many brands. It is a very cutting-edge, flexible, and digital environment.
With the release of its 2 Series Coupé in May 2014, BMW used the CineMe app to market to guys between the ages of 25 and 44. Cinemagoers get the option to complete a lap of the BMW test track using the app on their smartphone as part of the Cine BMW: Ultimate Driver Challenge, which was developed to run alongside the big screen advertisement. They were given the opportunity to compete for a chance to win a test drive of each new BMW model introduced in 2014 after their scores were added to a leaderboard.
Rees observed that "brands are progressively waking up to that opportunity."
7. iBeacon technology can allow brands to contact customers directly upon arrival.
In an experiment conducted last year, Odeon Cinemas used iBeacon technology to welcome visitors to the theater and inform them via their mobile devices of any special promotions. The movie theater company also considered scanning technology that would enable patrons to scan movie posters with their smartphones to view movie trailers and receive notifications when new movies are released.
Odeon believed that iBeacons would give it the chance to learn more about the people who were visiting its theaters. Around 2.5 million of its clients, or around one third, signed up for its loyalty program last year, and another third authorized CRM.
8. The UK's first 4-D cinema opened in January 2015, including touch and smell in the film experience.
With seats that move, rumble, spray water, and generate bursts of air to synchronize with the action in the movie, 4D immerses the audience in the action onscreen rather literally. The technological advancements are intended to mimic effects like a gunshot whizzing past your ear. In order to draw viewers closer to the action, operators can also release various scents into the theater, such as the perfume of flowers or coffee (perhaps a specific brand of coffee?).
9. Will virtual reality change the cinema?
In order to make their movies come to life, filmmakers may now use a variety of cutting-edge virtual reality (VR) tools that require viewers to wear headsets like the Oculus Rift and the Samsung Gear VR: Innovator Edition.
With the release of 11:57 and Affected, VR movies have gained popularity over the past 12 months, especially in the horror category. It is a genre that works particularly well with VR, completely enveloping the viewer in a 360-degree nightmare.
10. To further the story, smartphones are also used in the movie.
During the sci-fi movie Terminator Genisys this summer, certain theaters in the US urged patrons to use their smartphones.
A custom smartphone game allowed viewers to take part in three multiplayer man-versus-machine situations by connecting to the Wi-Fi in AMC IMAX theatres in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, and Dallas.
It undoubtedly creates new opportunities for material for movies and brand partners to engage with passionate audiences in pertinent settings. To make sure it enhances rather than detracts from the experience, it must, however, add genuine value.
