Brands are increasingly targeting the captive environment of the cinema with engaging messages. We identify how brands can turn a visit to the movies into an entertainment experience.

 

Cinema may not be consumed as regularly as, say, TV and radio, but it is arguably a more engaging medium, broadcasting its ads to a captive, attentive audience that has made an appointment to view the upcoming film.

Creative on traditional ads is getting stronger but agencies and brands are also coming up with a variety of new ways to take advantage of an audience that will have little to occupy its attention other than the advertising around them.

For a lot of people going to the cinema is an event – they arrive early to absorb the atmosphere, they spend time in the lobby buying snacks and then head into the auditorium to catch the ads and trailers.

A simple but effective way of amplifying an on-screen ad reel message is by incorporating it in the cinema experience, with foyer activity such as six-sheet posters and experiential ads. Use of bluetooth technology is also an emerging trend in cinema foyers as consumers are invited to download clips of upcoming releases directly onto their mobile phone.

While product placement is well established as one way to get brands a noticed, the key value is often how these relationships are harnessed outside the cinema. For the Ford the 2006 Bond movie Casino Royale included clear product placement of the Ford Mondeo and the link was also taken through to consumer competitions and dealer advertising.

Another way of grabbing the audience’s attention is via live in-cinema ads that feature planted actors reacting to on-screen messages and so creating a talking point and memorable cinema experience. It's all about using cinema as a theatre for brand entertainment.

A less subtle but by no means less memorable way of getting an ad message across has been to create content outside the auditorium before posting it up on the silver screen.

Audiences in India were stopped before they went into a film and asked to give their point of view on the recent cricket series. A handful of the most interesting opinions were then made into a three-minute film which was shown during the interval, following an HSBC ad.

A recent multi-platform promotion from UK milkshake brand Frijj that asked consumers to make their own Frijj-branded film clips came to a finale with a showcase of the best films being shown in cinemas as part of a film festival.

With cinema offering opportunity for real-life audience participation that few other mediums can offer, many brands are using the latest technology to involve the entire audience in their ad.

Before a number of movies last summer the US online news provider MSNBC screened a real-time game on the cinema screen which involved the audience becoming a “human joystick”, moving as one to control the movement of a paddle as part of a paddle-ball contest involving branded content.

It’s a sign that digital technology will open up new ways for brands to use cinema, making it an even more eventful media environment.