Boxoffice - October 2016

VENDOR CHAT > CINEMA ADVERTISING
to get the bigger picture of moviegoers and
give advertisers a clear analysis of who our
movie audiences are and why they are so
valuable. We’re also expanding our Strategic
Insights and Analytics Group to have a team
exclusively focusing on ROI—making sure
that brands know and understand how cinema
works to achieve their specific marketing
goals. And all of that data can also really
benefit our affiliate partners and help them
better understand their audiences as well.
In fact, our relationships with our
exhibitors will be a key renewed focus of our
business going forward. With new executive
management, Andy England, our new CEO,
and myself as president, we’ve challenged
our organization to consider what NCM
does well and what we can do better, and we
want to do a much better job of being
more communicative, streamlined,
thoughtful, and consultative
in our relationships with our
network of over 40 great
affiliates. To that end, we’re
creating a brand-new affiliate
partnerships team led by
veteran NCM executive Stacie
Tursi (who will take over from
the retiring Bob Brouillette) as
our new SVP of affiliate partnerships.
Stacie will report directly to me, and for the
first time in my career, I will take a more
active role working with our NCM affiliate
partners. We want to be the first choice for
affiliates, and I’m excited to be working
more closely with them to ensure that they
get the most out of our cinema-advertising
programs.
On the advertising and creative side,
we’ve also done some rather groundbreaking
ad partnerships and campaigns in recent
months, including bringing AT&T, AMC
Theatres and Regal Entertainment Group,
and Movietickets.com together to launch
the new Ticket Twosdays program, which
rewards customers with a free movie ticket
when they buy one at full price through
AT&T THANKS. As the AT&T Ticket
Twosdays program continues to grow, we
plan for other leading national and regional
movie theater circuits across the country to
join the list of participating theaters, so it is
a great opportunity for our NCM affiliate
partners as well.
In June, Airbnb’s “Double Feature”
campaign launched in NCM theaters in
the U.S., as well as theaters in the U.K.
and Australia, using the first-of-its-kind 3D
technology to show two different travel experiences
on the same screen simultaneously.
An onscreen message prompted the movie
audience to put on their special 3D glasses
provided by Airbnb, and instructed them to
simply tilt their heads up or down to change
experiences. The unique Airbnb spot creative
allowed moviegoers to experience different
versions of the same vacation being shown
on the screen depending on their personal
perspective and whether they looked through
the top or bottom of their glasses. It was a
big hit and a groundbreaking example of
how we can collaborate with an agency and a
client to help them tell their story in cinema
in a way that simply can’t be done anywhere
else.
NO POLITICS, PLEASE
I think our decision to stay out of the
political fray was the right one for
our exhibitor partners, our
audiences, and our advertising
clients. We respect the
fact that people go to the
theater to enjoy themselves
and escape into the magic
of the movies, and it is very
important to honor this
entertainment experience.
People are bombarded with
politics in every other medium,
especially this election season, and I don’t
know a single person who isn’t overwhelmed
by it. NCM’s FirstLook is an oasis, not only
for audiences but for brands who don’t want
their messages to be running alongside all
of that clutter and negativity. While we
compete aggressively for all other ad dollars
in the video sphere, making the decision to
walk away from political spending really set
NCM apart, and both brands and audiences
have thanked us for it.
2017 OUTLOOK
We’re looking forward to 2017, especially
as we launch our new Data Management
Platform (DMP) into the marketplace to
help us better compete on the data front
with digital companies like Facebook and
Twitter. Data is king in the ad world, and
brands expect detailed metrics on audience
targeting and ROI. Our NCM “big data”
initiative will be tremendously helpful in securing
deals and helping brands make more
and better use of cinema advertising.
As I mentioned earlier, we will also be
really focused on adding new affiliates to our
national network in 2017, and we plan to be
much more proactive in working with new
exhibitors to come on board with the number-one
theater network in the country.
EVOLUTION
Cinema advertising needs to keep pace
with the digital revolution, and NCM is
evolving to become more focused on things
like data, audience targeting, beaconing, and
interactivity on the big screen. Our millennial
movie audiences are driving the conversation,
and they are changing the way the world enjoys
entertainment content. We are investing
significantly to make sure we continue to be a
part of their passion for movies.
We believe that anyone seeking an 18
to 34 or 18 to 49 demo will use cinema
for its broad national reach, but with our
new DMP, we are now really able to target
specific audiences in cinema in a way that’s
never been done before. We’re breaking
new ground with financial and investment
companies, CPGs, and other industries that
are not traditional spenders in our medium,
because we are able to better target their key
demos through our NCM network, and
that’s an exciting change and growth opportunity
for our business.
PARROT FILM
Shane Adams
Director
THEATER PROFILE
We specialize in the independent theaters
in smaller markets. We love the local theaters
that have one to five screens, and most of the
theaters we work with are in towns that have
less than 15,000 people. In fact, we even have
a few theaters in towns of under 3,000 people,
although we also have theaters in towns such
as Indianapolis and Minneapolis, so we do
service independent theaters in larger cities as
well, and we couldn’t be happier to have all
of them as part of the Parrot family. We have
theaters all over the country from New York
to California, and as long as it’s an independent
theater we are more than happy to work
with them no matter where they are located.
STANDING OUT
We are a family-owned-and-operated
company that my grandfather originally
worked for and my father eventually bought,
and since we work with smaller markets
we have to have an emphasis on customer
service. While our product is top notch, it’s
our everyone-is-family attitude that puts us
apart from the big guys.
ADVERTISING SECTORS
Health care in general seems to be really
making a push, from long-term-care facilities
70 BoxOffice ® OCTOBER 2016