I Like Cinema Adverts.

 

I don't know the credibility of the above statistic. It's merely used as a stock photo.

So I've been going to the cinema often this year, more than I usually go. I don't know, 2023 has been a great year so far for movies. Up until now, I've seen Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, The Little Mermaid (it was an axiomatic decision, I had no choice, but it wasn't as bad as I anticipated), Insidious: The Red Door and recently Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer. And if God wills it, I shall be watching a few more this year. 

But as we know, before the movie starts rolling, we have subjective tedious adverts to watch. Now I say subjectively because they are objectively the most enjoyable aspect for me based on my recent experience at the cinema. 

I've been exposed to so many that I'm weirdly unable to recall any, but they are equally intriguing in their own unique ways. Organisations mainly comprising Samsung, Royal Marines, The Open University, Indeed, Coca-Cola and many, many more utilise this in-direct channel to communicate their product, services and opportunities. 

What makes them so effective is that marketers strategically exploit a range of factors. 

Firstly, the audiences are captive and engaged. They aren't at their humble abodes riddled with distractions. Instead. they're sitting on a seat, viewing a large screen. Plus they are restricted from tapping the bottom right corner to skip the advert. 

Secondly, the screen is MUCH bigger and the projector is more powerful, and the sound is more immersive. This theoretically warrants a bigger budget and enables a more memorable experience. 

Thirdly, depending on the advertising platform and cinema owners, they can effectively target their audience based on the movie that is being shown and other factors. In essence, it is effective for targeting. For example, if a bank or building society has created a campaign to invite young adults to open a bank account and want to target a young target audience, they may display their adverts before Barbie (2023) screenings, instead of Oppenheimer (Barbenheimer).

However, as expected cinema advertising is quite expensive. For example, a 30-second advert shown across multiple screenings with over 80,000 audiences could amount to £5,000. And that's excluding production costs. But think about the exposure the campaign will achieve.

Regardless, I feel it is worth briefly exploring the underlying psychological factor of having a cinema advert. From what I deduce, seeing a company advertise their product or service on a large cinema screen connotes reputation, success, and prestige, to an extent. In contrast to other in-direct forms of marketing such as billboard advertising. 

This is my opinion anyways. Let me know if you feel the same down in the comments.