Cinema advertising up 28 per cent after blockbuster releases
Following the recent box-office success of films such as Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, cinema-advertising revenues increased by 28 per cent in 2001 to reach &£164m.
The Cinema Advertising Association (CAA), which released these figures, says that the rise is partly the result of cheaper television advertising rates, which have freed advertisers’ budgets and enabled more of them to advertise at the cinema.
More brands than ever used cinema, and motoring advertising overtook drink brands as the biggest sector. The BMW Mini and Peugeot 206 used cinema as the launch broadcast medium in their 2001 marketing strategies.
The highest spender was COI Communications, which doubled its yearly expenditure to &£7.5m. The highest spending individual brand was Channel 4 at &£6.4m (AC Nielsen/MMS).
Pearl & Dean national sales director Craig Harris, speaking on behalf of the CAA, says: “I think the downturn in the TV market helped. A lot of clients had the flexibility to look elsewhere.”
He adds that the CAA predicts a 15 to 20 per cent growth in revenue this year, with a number of sequels to blockbusters looking increasingly like guaranteed hits.
The CAA believes cinema will have increased its share of display advertising by 1.4 per cent once the Advertising Authority confirms the figures.
Altogether seven films took a UK box office of more than &£20m in 2001, compared with four films in 2000. Cinema admissions were also at their highest since 1972, up nine per cent on 2000 to 155.9 million (AC Nielsen/EDI).
