Cinema has had a rocky couple of years due to unprecedented circumstances. But, thanks to a little movie magic the channel is staging a comeback. DCM (Digital Cinema Media) told us everything we have to look forward to in the wonderful world of cinema, and why brands should jump on the opportunity to advertise alongside some of the biggest movies during the DCM Upfronts. Here is everything you need to know about the future of cinema so that you don’t miss out!
How did the pandemic impact cinema?
Over the last couple of years, cinema saw its lowest admissions ever due to the impact of covid. The channel was one of the most affected due to cinemas being forced to close, preventing ads from hitting the big screen.
However, cinema has always fought back against challenges. Whether the rise of subscription services, or global pandemics, this media channel always wins in the face of adversity because one thing remains constant – peoples love of movies!
We have already seen audiences flock back to their local theatres thanks to big hitters like No Time to Die and Spider-man: No Way Home, and this will only continue. We even predict a return to pre-covid levels, possibly to the heights of 2019, which was the highest grossing year ever thanks to Avengers: End Game (£89m), The Lion King (£76m) and Toy Story (£66m)
What to expect from cinema in 2022 and beyond?
2022 has really been the year of momentum! With society returning to ‘normality’ we can finally be confident that those releases that have been promised will come to our big screens and we can see our audiences sitting in front of them again.
Over the next couple of years, we have an incredible film slate to look forward to that draws in significant youth audiences – perfect if you are looking to target 16-24 year olds in your media plans.
December 2022 sees the release of Avatar: The Way of Water, which has been in the making for the past 7 years. Timothy Richards, founder and CEO of Vue Cinema, believes that Avatar will be the highest grossing film ever, showing promise of the most intricate special effects and the greatest advanced specialist animation beyond it’s time! Therefore, your brand could be part of history, sitting alongside one of the greatest films of all time, and in front of huge audiences to increase your brand awareness.
As if that wasn’t exciting enough, 2023 is set to be even bigger! The UK is one of the most important markets for film studios globally – consistently in the top two markets in Europe alongside France. That means we get access to the highest quality content which advertisers won’t want to miss out on! We will see new takes on classics like ‘Barbie’, ‘Wonka’ and ‘The Little Mermaid’, as well as some beloved Marvel content, making for a perfect day out at the cinema for the whole family!
Why is this great news for advertisers?
Dr Joseph Devlin, Head of Experimental Psychology at UCL, took us through behind the scenes of why cinema is designed to make a lasting impact. In his summary, the exposure of audiences from the big blockbusters, alongside various behavioural strategies designed to grab and capture the audience with little distractions, results in greater success for brands.
If we tap into the effectiveness databank from DCM’s latest project ‘Centre of Attention’, brands could see the following, incredible results:
- Ad Awareness up +17%,
- Recall +50%,
- Brand Perceptions +19%
- Better Brand Impression +25%,
- Consideration +16%
- Intention to Act +23%
Therefore, exposure to cinema ads generate uplifts across key metrics, with cinema being the ‘attention’ leader thanks to 77% of “Viewable time spent viewing” the ads.
For more information on why cinema should be included in your media plans contact our Broadcast Team today!
Author: Eli-Louise Madden - Broadcast Executive
Eli works on the Broadcast team as their Account Executive. Outside of Planning and Buying media, you can find her on her next quirky Air BnB stay and drinking far too much coffee.
