Cinema advertising reaches $540M in 2007

According to some new research released by the Cinema Advertising Council (and as reported by Mediaweek), 2007 was a very good year for movie theater advertising companies. Despite dwindling audience sizes and increasing operating costs, "cinema advertising crossed the half-a-billion-dollar milestone last year climbing 18.5 percent to nearly $540 million." The most interesting part, to me, was that, "a cinema buy is also no longer a one-shot deal. Advertisers, which often dip into TV budgets for cinema, are placing yearly campaign schedules further in advance when TV upfronts are planned," indicating that cinema is being treated as a new medium or outlet that must be planned in conjunction with other parts of a multichannel campaign. While we've seen outdoor billboards treated that way for a while (especially with huge companies like Clear Channel holding so many billboards as to make a national buy possible), doing so with a relatively new medium like digital advertising in theaters marks another high point for the digital signage industry.


While digital signage "purists" often don't include cinema advertising when talking about digital screen networks, it pretty well fits my definition of "the electronic delivery of a message to a screen at a specific place and time", so I have to chalk this one up as a win for all of us.

Tags: digital signage, cinema advertising

Screenvision expands movie theater advertising network

Cinema advertising firm Screenvision announced that they have acquired the assets of Cinema Screen Media, bringing its total reach to over 15,000 screens in 2,300 theaters nationwide (which themselves are situated in about 91% of the DMAs). Screenvision supplies digital preshow advertising for both local and national advertisers, as well as a host of more traditional cinema-related ad mechanisms including cinema slide shows and in-lobby displays.

FWIW, Screenvision is a joint venture between ITV plc, the UK’s largest commercial television network, and Thomson, a global supplier of technology, services, and systems to the media and entertainment industries, and owner of PRN, the company responsible for the Wal-Mart TV network in the US.

Tags: Screenvision, cinema advertising, digital signage