For cinema,
a very healthy picture
Spending on movie theater advertising grows 12.7 percent
By Toni Fitzgerald
Mar 29, 2011
Out-of-home media had a pretty decent 2010, growing by 4.1 percent after a year in which nearly all media showed declines.
But one segment of out-of-home grew at an even more rapid pace. Cinema advertising, which continued to see incremental growth during the recession, had a very strong 2010, with spending up 12.7 percent.
Revenue climbed from $584.07 million in 2009 to $658.3 million last year, according to figures released yesterday by the Cinema Advertising Council, growing at roughly double the rate of the overall media economy, according to Kantar Media figures.
"The major driver was the volume of new categories and brands," says Clifford E. Marks, president and chairman of the CAC.
"The best thing that's happened to us is new brands and categories try it as a test, they measure it and they like it. They come back, and they become customers."
He says that over the past few years, the number of national brands using cinema has gone from between 120 and 130 to more than 200.
Last year saw strong spending from automotive, entertainment, consumer packaged goods, financial and insurance, wireless communications and military.
Categories that have lagged in initiating cinema campaigns include fast food restaurants, snack and confection companies and tourism, and Marks notes that one advertiser in a category will often try out cinema advertising before others start funneling in.
Of course the big buzzword in movies these days is 3D, and that contributed to a small part of the increase, too, although it will probably be a bigger driver in future years, as the number of 3D screens and film offerings continues to increase.
"We had 10 3D advertising deals [last year], from auto to wireless to CPG to military. We see a lot of brands are thinking about 3D," Marks says.
By next year, he says there will be more than 10,000 3D screens across the country.
Regional and national advertising accounted for 80.2 percent of all spending. Local's share decreased for the third straight year, as more national brands become interested in advertising, to 19.8 percent of all spending.
Though local's share decreased, advertising in the category was actually up 8.2 percent, while regional and national was up 13.9 percent.
"Now that cinema has national scale in every market, and digital technology that links it together, we are really technically not any different than NBC, ABC, ESPN, Discovery or any national network, defined as a group of affiliates to play a common show," Marks says.
"We're just a network except our affiliates happen to be called theaters."
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