Cinema advertising goes interactive

To date, the ability to interact with audiences has been limited at best. Many interactive experiences in Cinema have relied heavily on stopping the cinema reel for live demonstrations. LiveXperience! is different in that it maximises the potential to reach a far greater number of people than was possible before without stopping the reel. It also optimises the array of digital technologies available today and uses them creatively for maximum impact.

A combination of digital cellular imaging, GPRS, email, satellite transmission and digital cinema content delivery, LiveXperience! is the brainchild of marketing solutions company Yellow Crossing. It works like this: Walking into a heavily branded cinema foyer, you are approached by a product representative who shoots your picture and informs you that you could win a prize. You supply your email address for feedback purposes and walk into the movie. As the advertising reel starts to roll, an ad that reinforces the message you just heard in the foyer fills the screen. Then your face appears on screen and you're asked to collect a prize at the front of the theatre. You take a bow. You, and the rest of the audience, share the story with friends and forward them the email the next day, with the name and picture of the winner, sent to all entrants.

LiveXperience! was recently launched by Yellow Crossing, with partners Cinemark and Spectrum Visual Networks. Explains Yellow Crossing MD, Anjela da Silva: "It allows brands to create mass impact through digital, real time experiential cinema campaigns. Marketers always need innovative ways to make direct contact with their consumers, and LiveXperience! allows them to interact with their consumers in an immediate, novel and fun way."

Da Silva believes that given the conventional wisdom that word-of-mouth (WOM) surpasses conventional advertising in terms of efficacy, the combination of excitement and brand exposure creates the potential for positive, powerful WOM. "LiveXperience! provides another option to marketers who want to exploit the relative cost efficiencies and demographic accuracy of cinema advertising. The cinema environment has amazing youth and upper LSM appeal, with the added advantage of a captive audience. This ensures higher awareness potential as well as the ability to make first-hand contact with your consumers. Digital Cinema is also unique in that it allows creative market segmentation; thereby ensuring messages are carefully targeted and therefore more effective.