SAWA demonstrates power of digital 3-D cinema “Advertising on the Big Screen”
19th June 2006

Preview of Hollywood’s digital future shows that cinema remains the most memorable and innovative medium for advertising.

Cannes, France Monday, 19 June 2006. Demonstrating that cinema is the driving force for new trends and technologies in advertising, this year’s Cannes Lions will see it’s first ever showcasing of 3-D digital cinema. Arranged by SAWA (the Screen Advertising World Association) and sponsored by Dolby, Technicolor, Barco, Bug Norway and NuVision, the event entitled “THE BEST IDEAS COME FROM CINEMA - IN 3D” will be held in the Esterelle Cinema on 19th June at 15:00, and will spotlight how the current global transition from analogue to digital cinema is enabling new forms of entertainment and creating new advertising opportunities. Long recognised as the advertising medium with the greatest power to captivate audiences and create the highest recall rates, cinema is about to be enhanced with digital switch sanctioned by the Hollywood studios and cinema trade bodies. As well as allowing for more flexible and cost effective bookings of advertising, digital cinema creates new entertainment opportunities, of which stereoscopic or 3-D feature films have generated tremendous interest in recent years.

Movies such as Sony Picture’s “Monster House” and Disney’s “Family Robinson” are being released this year in digital 3-D and “Titanic” director James Cameron predicted in his keynote speech at this year’s NAB Digital Cinema Summit that “We will reach a point in a few years when every major studio will ask how many of its four or five annual tent poles should be in 3-D.” Directors such as George Lucas and Peter Jackson will also re-release their “Star Wars” and “Lord of the Rings” trilogies in a re-rendered 3D format in the next few years. The 3-D seminar at the Cannes Lions, which is the world’s most prestigious advertising industry event, will include a 3-D screening of the Disney hit “Chicken Little” in Dolby Digital Cinema, with enhanced image and enhanced sound that creates a 3D image through a new revolutionary design for 3-D active cinema glasses by NuVision Technologies LLC. “Chicken Little” attracted three times as much business in cinemas that screened it in 3-D digital as those showing it on 35mm film. The event will also include the premiere of the world’s first digital 3-D advert, created by Norwegian BUG.

Speaking on behalf of SAWA, which is sponsoring the Cannes Lions, the organization’s General Manager said that “we are absolutely thrilled to bring the very latest in new technology to this year’s Cannes Lions, to demonstrate that great ideas have always been translated from the world of cinema to the world of advertising.” The message was echoed by NuVision , who noted “while television is only slowly embracing high definition, cinema is onto the next level and is already today demonstrating the future of how films and other forms of entertainment will be seen, through the power of digital 3-D.”

The screening and associated presentations are part of the push by SAWA to show how the advertisers are looking for alternative ways to reach the consumer and finding new cut thru opportunity. As part of this, the cinema advertising trade body will also publish a report on Alternative Revenue Streams other than the big screen later in 2007.

For more information contact;
Screen Advertising World Association (SAWA)
Cheryl Wannell (General Manger) on +612 994 00077 or mobile +61406215561.