Feature: Cinema Is Still Going Strong

Cinema, a newfangled miracle at the start of the last century, began this one as decidedly old media. Yet despite an increasing number of rivals for adspend and even the role of showing movies, the medium has held onto, even increased its place in the industry.

The last fifteen years have seen a steady increase in cinema admissions, which reached a total of 142 million last year, double that of 1985 (Cinema Advertising Association). The total number of people visiting reached 47 million, according to CAVIAR, the highest since records began. Advertisers have responded to this, increasing cinema’s admittedly small share of the total UK adspend from 0.5% in 1985 to 1.2% last year (Advertising Association).

The same period has also seen an increase in non-terrestrial TV and DVD penetration, yet Debbie Chalet, president of the CAA, claims: “Technological developments are not going to damage cinema-going in the future. Pay per view and DVDs are creating an atmosphere of excitement about film and the cinema industry is reaping these rewards.”

The US film industry obviously benefits the UK cinema industry as well, with the hype and the increasing cult of celebrity emanating from Hollywood helping to maintain audiences. Product placement has also come to the fore, with car and phone brands featured in films such as Tomb Raider and Charlie’s Angels receiving high profile coverage, backed with traditional ad campaigns around the films.

Cinema’s pulling power may be small in comparison to other media, but it offers an advantage to advertisers in that, while the CAA’s CAVIAR research shows the fastest growing group of cinema attendees are over-35’s, the medium’s most important audience is teenagers and those in their early 20s. Chalet explains: “Going to the cinema has become part of the social make-up of the UK, with more screens and multiplex developments.”

This group is known to be hard to reach with other media, but advertisers evidently recognise cinema’s role in the social spectrum, as the top spenders in the cinema last year, according to CIA Medialab, were all ‘young person’ brands: Smirnoff, Virgin Internet, Red Bull and Haagen Dazs.

The positive trend shows little sign of slowing, with the CAA’s figures regularly reporting increased attendance and box office sales. Again, this is expected to be reflected in ad revenues, as Chalet announced in May this year that in defiance of the ad revenue slowdown, cinema was expected to see an increase of 15-20% this year.

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