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Blockbuster growth for cinema ads Movie theater spending up 20 percent in 2005 Jun 23, 2006 Last year wasn’t a great year at the box office, but it was a blockbuster year movie theater advertising. The Cinema Advertising Council reports that ad revenues were up 20.6 percent over 2004, bringing spending to a record high of nearly $528 million for the year. Those figures include both on-screen commercials and off-screen promotions and events. But screened advertising makes up most of the business and also accounted for the greatest growth, up 21.2 percent year to year. The report, based on data from Miller, Kaplan, Arase & Co., says the greatest growth was in the automotive, home video/DVD and consumer electronics categories. Robert Martin, CAC’s president, credits much of the growth to new technologies, led by digital projection for pre-show advertising, which is becoming more common. It means better quality compared to the slides or rolling stock film of the past. Theaters are also better able to provide advertisers with audience data, which is now tracked by Nielsen. “There’s a growing acceptance of in-cinema advertising,” Martin says. “The traditional media audience has fragmented, while we have solid attendance and high recall rates.” He predicts advertising will continue to grow as it gets harder to reach younger audiences, which make up the bulk of moviegoers. Matthew Kearney, president and CEO of Screenvision, which represents more than 14,000 screens across the U.S., says advertisers now better understand the demands of creating a pre-show commercial, which can go longer than a typical 30-second TV spot, but must have better production and entertainment values. “We don’t want the advertising to interfere with that environment of entertainment,” Kearney says. “If something is magnified on a 40-foot screen, it has to look good. It’s a different medium, so they have to adapt their creative accordingly.” While local ads have been a mainstay, improved distribution technology, allowing ads to be placed in theaters across the country, has brought in a larger share of national advertisers, says Kearney. Beauty, health, wireless technology and cell phones have all gone on the big screen in recent years, joining early adopters like automotive.
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