Boxoffice - July 2019

Spotlight Cinema Networks reported alcohol as
a consistent performer. “We have adult audiences
who come to our theaters looking for a date night
or evening out, and we’re uniquely positioned to
appeal to those consumers,” says Sakin.
The key for continued growth in cinema
advertising lies in the power of data analytics.
“NCM is, first and foremost, a media company,”
says Marks. “The brands we’re working with are
making decisions about where they spend their
marketing dollars. Do they put them in Google,
Facebook, Snapchat, Amazon, or do they put
them in cinema? For cinema advertising companies
to be most competitive as media entities, we
must be able to be as accountable and attributable
as other media players. We need to be competitive,
and if we can’t garner good first- or second-party
data, we’re not going to be able to be
competitive with the media industry, television,
digital, and social. The revenue we bring to the
exhibition community will go down if we cannot
be as competitive with the digital media industry
as we need to be. For us, data is critical to be a
modern media company that can tell brands what
we’re doing with their money and how we can
help them drive more sales.”
“Addressable advertising is our biggest challenge
right now,” agrees Spotlight’s Sakin. “Advertisers are
making a considerable investment in creative and
media, and they want to know they are getting the
right eyeballs. Cinema advertising’s challenge is going
to be how we answer this addressability question.”
It’s a challenge that every company in the
space is actively working on, whether it’s through
first-party data or second-party channels. The future
of cinema advertising will rely on the insights
advertisers can draw from moviegoing audiences—and
their ability to refine their targeting and
re-targeting campaigns. Cinema, after all, offers an
increasingly elusive proposition for advertisers: a
captive audience.
“We are all part of a great industry,” says Tocchini.
“As long as Hollywood keeps telling great stories,
people will flock to cineplexes, and brands will want
to be a part of that experience. [Cinema advertising]
just needs to deliver to exhibitors, brands, and
moviegoers alike: keep it interesting, keep it relevant,
keep it simple, and we will all be successful.”
JULY 2019
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