From Connecticut to California, advertisers are sponsoring free film festivals as a way for families to beat the heat and catch up on the top G and PG movies.

To find out how to get your client’s message inside cool theaters on hot summer days, read on.

This is one in a Media Life series on buying the new out-of-home venues. They appear weekly.

Fast Facts

What
Sponsorship of free family films.

Who
National CineMedia, headquartered in New York.

How it works
Advertisers sponsor public showings of family-oriented movies on summer weekdays. They typically are shown in the afternoons.

Regal Entertainment Group and Georgia Theatre Co. chains host the Free Family Film Festival. Summer Movie Clubhouse is at Cinemark theaters and Summer Movie Camp is at AMC locations. Cinemark’s program costs $1 per ticket. The others are free.

Sponsorship includes on-screen and theater lobby components. A teaser campaign includes box office handouts, 30-second spots on the big screens and a banner on the network’s web site. During the film festival, 30-second spots are shown on both the big screens and lobby screens. There are also posters, box office handouts and other lobby displays like standup movie characters.

Other components include special appearances by celebrities representing sponsors, giveaways and product displays. The program runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Movies are usually scheduled on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. This summer’s lineup includes “Curious George,” “Happy Feet” and “Charlotte’s Web.”

Sponsors are primarily national brands, says president of marketing and sales Cliff Marks. “At the local level, theater managers have brought in local pizza or ice cream shops as well.”

There are two major sponsors who buy the network for the entire summer. Product exclusivity is built in.

Sponsors primarily focus on branding. “But a promotional arm could be extended,” Marks says. “If a company wanted to hand out a coupon or send a kid to a web site or hand out a soundtrack or DVD, it could be promotional.”

Summer movie sponsorship is usually part of a media mix.

Markets
The network includes screens in New York, California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Texas, Massachusetts, Georgia, Florida, Arizona, Washington, Minnesota, Ohio, Colorado, Missouri, Maryland, Indiana, North Carolina, Connecticut, Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, Nevada, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Arkansas, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Hawaii, Maine, Louisiana, Mississippi, Idaho, Oregon, Alaska, Washington, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Numbers
Two million people attended last summer’s free family film festivals, according to communications director Amy Jane Finnerty.

The National CineMedia network has 14,000 screens in 154 markets, including 49 of the top 50 DMAs.

How it is measured
Measurement is based on ticket counts.

Research
According to a study by Certified Marketing Research (CMRS) of New York:
-Unaided recall was 64 percent for one major sponsor
-Aided recall came in at 98 percent

What product categories do well
Entertainment, snack food, toys, computers, apparel and fast food are top categories.

Demographics
“You're going to target, by definition, 6- to 12-year-olds, with their mothers and sometimes their grandmothers,” Marks says.

The adult audience is skewed 81 percent female, says senior vice president for research Doug Pulick. “Seventy-eight percent of the adults are the children’s primary caregivers, and the rest are family friends or a camp counselor or day care worker.”

The breakdown for children, according to the CMRS study:
-40 percent are age 2-5
-44 percent are 6-11
-16 percent are 12 and older 

The family income breakdown, according to the CMRS study:
-54 percent of the audience have a household income of $50,000 or more
-28 percent fall into the $75,000 category
-13 percent come in at $100,000 or more

Making the buy
Lead time is six months. Cost is based on program components.

Who’s already sponsoring free films for families?
Discovery Channel’s Animal Planet “Meerkat Manor” show is sponsoring the Free Family Film Festival in Regal Entertainment Group theaters.

Suave and Kimberly-Clark have sponsored the AMC Summer MovieCamp and Cinemark Summer Movie Clubhouse.

What they’re saying
“What this allows us to do is bring all of our marketing to life in theaters. To showcase our content and interact with our audience at a much different level. All of the pieces we do to engage the customer and hopefully get them up to date on the show. Handing out one-pagers at the box office, the 'Meet the Meerkat' sweepstakes, content pieces in the lobby and snack trays as collector items help us connect with a lot of families.” – Chris Schembri, senior vice president at Discovery Network

Web site info
National CineMedia is at www.ncm.com