Val Morgan eyes second screen cinema app, pledges blockbuster audiences for 2015
Jurassic World will screen in 2015
The cinema advertising side of sales house Val Morgan is eyeing second screen advertising play to launch next year, while the outdoor arm of the company launched a new audience measurement system for its digital signs called DART.
Whilst advertising revenues have been a lot softer for cinema this year than in 2014, with the latest set of SMI data showing ad revenues from agencies down 44 per cent on August last year, managing director for cinemas Daniel Hill said those figures were not consistent with the numbers they had seen through the business.
“SMI data is not always that accurate, and certainly there’s a lot that happened this time last year with the Federal Election which helped boost the numbers,” he added, but admitted it had been a “softer” year for ad sales.
But he pointed to a slate of franchise content coming through in 2015, including new Star Wars, James Bond, Hunger Games, The Hobbit and Mad Max films next year as signs audiences are going to burgeon, proclaiming it “the year of the franchise”.
The Second Best Marigold Hotel (Image 1)
He told Mumbrella: “In the average year we have seven or eight blockbusters coming out, but next year we’re seeing 15 or 20. There’s a lot of franchises and they have already built audience loyalty and drive a lot of interest.
“The studios have all talked to each other so they are really spaced out throughout the year, which is going to make things much more consistent for audiences. It’s a virtuous circle, as the more people go to the cinema, the more the studios get back and the more they can spend on good content.”
He said there had already been more bookings from advertisers for releases next year than this time last year.
Hill was tight lipped on exactly what the second screen app would look like, although he stressed it would allow people to interact with things like movie posters in the foyer, and provide complementary experiences for advertisers in pre roll, pointing to existing offerings in the UK and US.
The outdoor team also launched DART at the upfronts today, the digital outdoor audience in real time measurement. The system differs from the industry’s MOVE metric as it measures actual engagement on the digital interface, which it claims is a “far more valuable and relevant metric for advertisers”.
It is also claiming it will have the “largest digital screen network in shopping centres” in the world with 430 locations with some new investments, with an additional 600 panels being added to the PumpTV network taking its presence in petrol stations to 2,000 screens in 350 locations.
Alex Hayes
topics
2015
Advertising
app
audience measurement
cinema
hunger games
James Bond
Jurassic World
Mad Max
second screen
SMI data
Star Wars
The Hobbit
UK
Us
Val Morgan
It feels like they’re confused around exactly what a “second screen” is.
I might be wrong, but unless they are using the app while watching a movie, and interacting with that movie, then it is just an app.
Using it to interact with things in the foyer doesn’t make it the second screen, in fact, it makes it the first screen.
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Stopped going to the cinema because of all the ads. 1080p torrents don’t have any.
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Harry, you beat me to it.
I read the article headline in the hope that I would be able to download the movie to my phone or tablet and watch it when I want.
I’d probably pay for that too…
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