Blockbusters set to reprise franchises in 2015
Cinemark has indicated that 2015 will see the reprise of many of Hollywood's top franchises, including Terminator: Genisys, Fast & Furious 7, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Jurassic Park, with a title heavy-weight releasing on big screens across South Africa nearly every month.
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Cinema movie line-ups present a marketing opportunity for brands, not only through attendance but also through social media engagement, a typical example being Ted. The previous instalment not only generated over US$330m at the global box office but 13 million Facebook fans, the largest for any animated character to date.
TGI indicates that the cinema audience accounts for 23% of the urban population, which is responsible for 52% of urban credit card uses per month, 34% of urban monthly mobile phone spend, roughly 43% of most recent motor vehicle spend and 58% of urban holiday spend. Cinema targets high-value customers.
The cinema landscape is also largely made up of a younger audience, with around 62% of the audience being under 35. This is aspirational, social, trend setting 15 to 34 year olds in the current middle-to-upper market and future middle market. Research shows that roughly a 1/3 of cinemagoers are in LSM 6-7.
Audiences remember ads
The cinema audience is focused which means that this heightened level of attention delivers greater memorability of ads. In a recent 2014 study, conducted by Cinemark locally, it was found that cinema takes first place when it comes to holding attention, with 72% of cinemagoers paying attention to the screen while advertising is taking place while only 60% of viewers pay attention to television adverts and less than 50% to other media. Around 46% of cinemagoers have bought or investigated a product or service directly because of a cinema advert.
An independent study by Millward Brown carried out locally in 2012 showed that cinema in conjunction with television improves the youth's ability to recall advertising messages by roughly 44%. To achieve this level of engagement by investing more in television would require the purchase of an additional 200 AR's. This type of purchase is significantly cheaper in cinema relative to the diminishing returns on television. Cinema also provides unique reach in comparison to television when it comes to the youth environment.
These findings are evident in global markets as well. A recent Millward Brown study conducted in Australia revealed that 57% of moviegoers felt they took more notice of cinema ads than any other medium and 80% found cinema ads more entertaining.
