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where the boys are
TV screens in mall arcades and theater lobbies
By Kathy Prentice
Video ads are showing up almost everywhere that people wait—in elevators, airports and grocery stores.
The latest hot venue is at entertainment outlets, such as game arcades, theater lobbies and movie rental stores, with advertisers often targeting young consumers with loose change in their pockets and a surprising amount of disposable income, notably boys.
To find out how to get your client in front of consumers seeking leisure time activities, read on.
This is one in a Media Life series on buying the new out-of-home venues. They appear weekly.
Fast Facts
What
Full-motion video advertising delivered via television screens in entertainment venues targeting a specific demographic.
Who
Channel M, headquartered in Los Angeles.
How it works
Ads are full-motion video with sound. Length can vary from 15, 30, 45 and 60 seconds, with 30-second spots the most common.
Three venues are available. Ads can be bought in mall-based video arcades, theater lobbies and Blockbuster video outlets.
Advertisers can buy one or more of the venues.
“What they have in common is that each is an entertainment network,” says Eric Hebel, Channel M vice president and co-owner.
“An advertiser can buy all three. It depends on the demographics. Teens are in arcades, spending their leisure time. Theatergoers are in the mind-set to relax and enjoy entertainment, and Blockbuster visitors are there to rent a movie or video game,” he adds.
“The goal is to reach every person in a venue at least once,” Hebel says. The average time that individuals spend in each type of location—arcades, theaters and Blockbuster outlets—is used to determine how frequently an ad will be aired.
Arcades are located in malls. Each arcade has an average of 10 screens. Ads in arcades run once every 40 minutes, with 80,000 exposures per four-week flight. Each set at a location runs the same program and ad loop.
In theater lobbies, screens are found above the concession stand, near the box office, and wherever people are standing in line.
“Sometimes the wait is 20 minutes for tickets or popcorn,” Hebel says.
The size of screens and placement vary from a single 100-inch video wall to multiple standard-size screens scattered throughout a lobby.
Ads in the theater lobby network run once every 20 minutes, with 280,000 exposures per flight.
Blockbuster has an average of four to six screens per store, Hebel says.
“It depends on the size and layout of the store and on the market. The sets are placed strategically so that no matter where customers are in a store they can see and hear one.”
Ads in Blockbuster stores run once every 15 minutes.
Entertainment segments vary with venue.
“Content programming is tied into the demographic,” Hebel says.
NBC develops fresh creative for each place-based campaign.
“We know that what you put up on the screen has to have an extremely high entertainment value,” says Marla Goldstein, senior director of media planning for NBC.
“If people see what they’ve already seen on their television, they’re going to be unhappy.”
Creative can be the same copy that an advertiser uses for TV commercials. “It should be made to fit the demographic they’re trying to reach and be appropriate for the environment,” Hebel says.
Arcade programming is aimed at 12- to 24- year-old males and includes music videos, sports footage and movie and sports trivia. “We use high energy music. Rap, punk,” Hebel says. “They don’t want to listen to slow music. It puts them to sleep. Unless it’s Britney Spears or Jennifer Lopez that we play because of the visual. ”
Programs in arcades are two-hour loops played on average 11 hours per day. Ad frequency is 16.5 times daily.
“The important thing about arcades is that in reaching young males it doesn’t get much better,” Hebel says. “They’re either at home playing video games or outside playing sports or at the mall in the arcade, the movie theater or the food court trying to pick up girls.”
Theater-lobby programming is primarily movie trailers and music video clips. Movie studios don’t advertise in theater lobbies as they are already showing their previews inside on the big screens.
Rolling stock—commercials on the big screens that run before the feature—can be bought at some theaters.
Blockbuster uses movie trailers, behind-the-scene segments and trivia as programming. The same loops are run in every screen in a market.
An advertiser has the option of sponsoring a program instead of running creative about its product.
“The U.S. Army bought 30-second spots in arcades, and every half-hour there was an announcement that programming was provided compliments of the Army,” Hebel says.
Promotions can be designed to complement screen ads in theaters and arcades and can include posters, coupon distribution, product sampling, sweepstakes and popcorn bags.
Distribution of promotional items can be targeted to a segment of the moviegoing population. For example, coupons for sampling a kid meal or toy can be handed out only to customers buying tickets to G-rated films.
To further refine the market, a Harry Potter item can be handed out only to visitors buying a ticket to the Harry Potter movie.
Blockbuster receipts are printed with coupons.
“Fast food and pizza go hand in hand with movie rentals,” Hebel says. Segment couponing, based on time of day, location or type of movie is also available.
Product exclusivity varies among venues and is available in arcades and theater lobbies for a premium. Some locations are in long-term marketing agreements that provide exclusivity. For example, many arcades use Nintendo systems and don’t take ads for others.
Regional as well as national companies use on-screen advertising. Advertisers can buy a region or the entire network.
Markets
- Arcades have 174 locations in the top 200 DMAs, including 52 in the top 10, 68 in the top 20, 111 in the top 50 and 149
in the top 100. Namco Cyberentertainment, Dream Machine and Powerstation are major location partners.
- Theaters in the lobby network include 400 locations in 200 DMAs, with 355 in the top 100, 301 in the top 50, 221 in the top 20 and 176 locations in the top 10.
Theater chains include United Artists, General Cinema, Cinemark, National Amusements and Loews.
- Blockbuster is in 5,300 locations throughout the U.S.
Numbers
- Arcades draw six million visitors every four weeks.
- Theaters in the network draw over 14 million visitors every four weeks.
- Blockbuster draws an average of three million visitors a day.
How measured?
Arcades use Nielsen and on-site surveys that they conduct with customers.
- Theaters use Motion Picture Association of America data on theater traffic and demographics.
- Blockbuster uses Nielsen Media Research for twice-yearly studies.
Research
What product categories do well?
Entertainment, including movie releases, television, home videos and video
games, is at the top of the list.
Merchandise with tie-ins that are sold on- and off-site, like trading cards and kids’ meals,
complement entertainment products.
“Watch theaters with Harry Potter coming out,” Hebel says.
Automotive, communications and electronics, credit card and other financial products, food and beverages, packaged goods, sportswear and
the Armed Services also do well.
Campaigns aimed at youth, on topics such as drugs and smoking prevention, are also appropriate for these venues, Hebel says.
What doesn’t make sense, Hebel says, are categories
such as energy, high-tech, investments, beer, spirits and tobacco.
Demographics
- Arcade visitors are 73 percent male and 27 percent female. Nearly half, or 47 percent of visitors, are 12- to 17-year-olds. The remaining age breakdown is 6- to 11-year-olds, at 12 percent, 18- to 24-year-olds, at 20 percent, 25- to 34-year-olds, at 10 percent and 35 years and up, at 11 percent, according to Nielsen.
- Theater visitors are 51 percent male and 49 percent female. Age breakdown is 12- to 17-year-olds, at 17 percent, 18- to 24-year-olds, at 22 percent, 25- to 34-year-olds, at 21 percent, 35- to 49-year-olds at 22 percent, 50- to 59-year-olds, at 10 percent and 60 years plus at 8 percent, according to the Motion Picture Association of America.
Making the buy
Ads are sold in four-week flights for arcades, theater lobbies and Blockbuster stores.
Arcades and theater-lobby campaigns can go up in one week.
Lead time for Blockbuster is two weeks.
Factors that affect pricing are the length of an ad and the length of the flight.
A combination of all three networks—arcades, theater lobbies and Blockbuster stores—sells for $300,000 for a four-week flight.
The arcade-only rate is $55,000 gross for a 30-second spot for a four-week flight.
The theater lobby network sells for $131,040 for a 30-second spot for four weeks at 400 locations. Regional campaigns are also available.
Blockbuster ads cost $175,000 gross for the entire network for a 30-second spot. The cost is for one four-week flight.
Rolling stock is sold on a CPM basis.
Sales offices are in Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago and New York. Contact the Los Angeles headquarters for specifics.
Who’s already on Channel M?
Movie studios include New Line Cinema, Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Universal, Artisan Entertainment, Destination Films and USA
Films. Television networks include NBC, ABC, CBS, USA, the WB, the Cartoon Network, Food Network and Turner
Broadcasting. Video game companies include Mattel, Nintendo, Titus, UbiSoft, Activision, Blue Byte, Lucas Arts, Electronic Arts.
Other products include Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, Lego, Nike and the Coast Guard.
What they’re saying
“There are loads of ways to get to preteen and teen girls, but virtually nothing in conventional media to reach out to boys. Originally that’s why we went to Channel M. To get into the arcades on Saturday mornings.”–Marla Goldstein, senior director of media planning for NBC
Web site info
Channel M at www.channelm.com
Etc.
Channel M also produces customized programs for in-store environments through its Retail TV division.
October 29, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Kathy Prentice writes about out-of-home advertising for Media Life, penning her stories from the resort town of Traverse City, in the upper reaches of Michigan.
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