SAWA releases set of Digital Standards
23rd May 2006

(Cannes, 20 June 2005) – Cinema advertising will feature prominently at this year’s Cannes Lions festival thanks to several initiatives by the Screen Advertising World Association (SAWA). Cinema advertising has been gaining increasing recognition as the advertising medium with the highest impact and recall rate. As well as holding its own two-day event, SAWA will host a session in the Palais on Monday, 20th June 2005 on the unique way that Orange has embraced the film and cinema medium as a key differentiator for their brand and be the first to publish a set of digital standards and specifications for cinema advertising.

The impending digitization of cinemas looks set to enhance big screen advertising proposition even further, offering quality improvements of sound and picture, lowering costs and introducing greater flexibility. The Cannes Lions festival will see the launch of the first ever document to set out comprehensive standards and recommendations for the digital distribution and exhibition of cinema advertising. This will help the process already underway and that will see close to 25,000 cinema screens (close to one in five of all first run screens world wide), go digital specifically for cinema advertising by the end of the year.

“This is a document that SAWA members have been putting together for the past twelve months and represents the Digital Standards for the Deployment of Cinema Advertising,” comments Cheryl Wannell, General Manager of the SAWA Secretariat. “Cinema has always been a high impact visual medium and as cinema moves from film to digital projection in the coming years, it is critical that we have a standard that replicates the level of excellence on screens today.” The document will be circulated to all SAWA members, over eighty of whom will be represented in Cannes this year, and it will form the baseline for future digital screen advertising efforts.

UK’s Carlton Screen Advertising (CSA), one of the first major European cinema advertisers to embrace digital, will address the opportunities offered by big screen advertising in conjuncture with its client Orange. CSA chief executive Debbie Chalet & President of the CAA UK affirmed that “the market has never been better for cinema advertising. Cinema is a powerful medium and there is no better place than Cannes to highlight its strength. We are proud to have worked with Orange to help make cinema and films central to their brand strategy.” The Orange campaign won 1 Cannes Lion Gold award in 2004.

SAWA at Cannes Lions on the Monday
The Seminar will feature the Digital World Premiere of Orange’s “Darth Vader” commercial, as well as a cavalcade of the past commercials that have helped make the mobile phone operator synonymous with cinema in the UK and Ireland. Julian Diment, Head of Commercial and Brand Partnerships of Orange, said that “we are proud to be bringing our latest cinema advert to the Cannes Lions and to screen it in digital. Having worked with the cinema advertising council in the UK and exhibitors for several years, we feel that we have achieved our unique profile in large part, thanks to our strong association with the cinema going experience.”

The session at 14:30 on Monday 20 June in the Estérel theatre will include presentations from Orange and Carlton Screen Advertising, followed by a panel discussion and a screening of the Orange clips on 35mm and finally the digital execution.

For further information on the SAWA Convention contact; Cheryl Wannell, General Manager, SAWA Secretariat, London on cwannell@pacific.net.au or by phone on +44 (0) 207 730 4313 or +44 (0) 771 737 7110.