MUMBAI: While cinema may have a lower reach than television in India, it is a far more cost effective and high impact medium for advertisers, according to a report by Group M.
According to the report titled This Year, Next Year: India Media Forecasts, the strong growth of cinema in India in the last five years has implications not just for film producers, distributors, audiences and cinema hall owners, but also for advertisers reaching out to film-going audiences as well.
The improved production quality and the multiplex ambience have also been instrumental in pulling audiences back to the theatre.
As per the study, the high growth in cinema advertising has three factors:
• Continuing roll out of multiplexes: This is resulting in more people going back to the movies, and the superior aesthetics of the environment has lead to increased advertiser acceptance of the medium.
• Organised players getting into the space and providing end-to-end solutions: Local players are becoming more organized with some entering into tie-ups with overseas players, thereby raising the quality of the medium.
• Digital cinemas have rolled out at a fast pace and now account for about 15 per cent of total screen universe across town-classes. Since this results in assured print quality and monitoring of advertising has become easy, there is no time delay in the advertising message reaching even the smaller towns.
Cinema advertising is finding easier acceptance in the media plan, for many brand categories. Advertisers use cinema to effectively showcase their brands against an entertainment backdrop and access the star power that drives consumers to theatres.
Food and Beverage (F&B), cellular phones, automobiles and entertainment brands see this space as having a logical fit. Additionally, other brand categories see cinema as an extension of their television communication.
As per the report, brand categories are attracted to the multiplex spaces for the quality of the TG and the controlled environment in these spaces. Cinema advertising is a dynamic medium offering advertisers the opportunity to reach their target consumers in a distraction-free environment.
