Research & Scientific Marketing
Digital Cinema Media Releases Cinema Effectiveness Roadmap
February 2024
SAWA member Digital Cinema Media has partnered with insight consultant Anna Sampson to publish a Cinema Effectiveness Roadmap paper designed to emphasize to advertisers how they can measure the high-impact channel and better understand the value it delivers within the media mix.
The roadmap brings together robust evidence to clearly lay out the complementary role cinema can play within the broader AV mix, clarity on the data and measurement options available to advertisers, and compelling case studies of successful campaigns from the likes of Wagamama, Deliveroo, and IKEA highlighting how cinema can deliver on brand and sales metrics.
Emotional Tracking: Weischer.Cinema Study Proves the Emotional Effect of Cinema Spots
Hamburg: March 30, 2022
SAWA member Weischer.Cinema used a study to investigate which emotions are triggered by cinema commercials. The results proved the advantages of cinema spots. In the cinema, 95% of all advertising seconds were attentively viewed. On the other hand, the corresponding figure was only 55% on TV and only 25% for online video.
Four fields were defined in advance as emotions relevant to advertising: relevance, reflections, attraction and sympathy. In each of the areas, the results prove the leading position of the medium of cinema.
1. Relevance: the feel-good atmosphere in the cinema, shielded from outside influences, helps to create a high emotional relevance for advertising content among the audience.
2. Reflections: the mental engagement with the scenes on the cinema screen is exceptionally high, which is why cinema commercials are viewed more consciously.
3. Attraction: the audience is attracted to what is shown and develops a feeling of “wanting to have” to have it. This in turn offers the best conditions for brands to showcase themselves and communicate effectively.
4. Sympathy: describes a general liking or liking of what is shown. This also allows us to draw conclusions about how annoying advertising is deemed when using media. In the case of the cinema, it shows that the commercials on the cinema screen are accepted as part of the cinema experience.
Read the press release
View the Study
Kantar Media Reactions 2020 Report
Media Reactions is a new Kantar study which introduces a global ad equity ranking for media channels and media brands.
Media Reactions will help both media and advertiser brands by providing a longer-term perspective on what people expect from advertising environments, particularly content-led and social media. The report provides an overview of the best channels and brands, along with explanations of their success.
Pearl and Dean:
Brand Benefits Study – How Different Audio-Visual Media Affect Advertising
HOW MUCH GREATER IS THE IMPACT OF AN ADVERT SEEN AT THE CINEMA COMPARED TO WHEN IT’S SEEN ON FACEBOOK OR YOUTUBE?
Even with an artificially levelled playing field, cinema still significantly outperforms VOD on all aspects tested.
Cinema Drives:
Greater recall and memorability
A more positive feeling towards advertised brands
Enhanced brand perceptions:
Quality, Premium and Relevance.
Greater uplift in brand preference
Uplift in Brand Preference vs Competitive Set
+21% for Cinema
+13% for YouTube
+13% for Facebook
The Relationship Between Movie Theatre Attendance and Streaming Behavior
Survey dated February 2020 that shows behaviour of streaming and movie goers Respondents that were aware of movies’ in-theatre releases were always/usually 62% more likely to stream a movie when they knew it was released in theatres.
Of the 2,520 total respondents, 79% of the respondents streamed at least one hour of online content per week over the last twelve months, and 69% saw at least one movie in theatres and streamed at least one hour of online content per week in the last twelve months.
Click here to view the report
Realeyes Study: UN World Food Programme 2019 “Feed Our Future” Global Cinema Campaign
SAWA and National CineMedia, enlisted Realeyes to employ its emotion AI technology to better understand the impact of the UN World Food Programme’s Feed Our Future global Cinema ad, “Keep Their Voices Alive” conceived and and directed by Sir John Hegarty. Among other findings, the research shows how an emotional soundtrack encouraged global cinemagoers to tackle world hunger.
MESH study for SAWA and UN World Food Programme 2019 Feed Our Future Cinema Campaign Evaluation: January 2020
Study Objectives:
– To evaluate the 2019 wave of the WFP campaign airing in Q4
– Show the value of using Cinema as a highly effective medium
The study focused on understanding the creative takeout, the impact on the brand and how Cinema as a medium helps to amplify this.
Read the survey summary by clicking here.
NCM: Foursquare Beyond Pancakes
Campaign Wrap Report
December 2019
Case Study:
Using a geo-location tracking service (i.e. Foursquare the social media service) they place a geo-fence around your theater and then track the movement/location of the device IDs in their panel as they “cross that geo fence” and monitor where those patrons go after leaving the theater (where they’re been exposed to the in-theater advertising).
In this instance, the patrons exposed to the on-screen advertising had a 14% higher visitation rate to IHOP restaurants than the unexposed patrons over a 14 day period of monitoring both of their foot traffic to IHOP restaurants surrounding the theaters where the ad campaign ran.
Findings:
-Per every 1,000 consumers exposed to an ad, there were roughly 4.27 visits. This resulted in 39,118 incremental visits throughout the duration of the campaign.
-A 14% attributable lift between exposed and control visits to Beyond Pancakes at the overall campaign level was measured.
Download the research summary
NCM Tune-In Location Lift: Animal Kingdom
May 2019
The primary objective of this study was to correlate the effectiveness of NCM movie theater advertisements on increasing the tune-in rate of a specified television program.
Case Study: Using another geo-location tracking service (i.e. PlaceIQ) that can match their device IDs with a Cable Set-Top Box sample of US TV sets, they can geo-fence your theater and rather than track the location of the device ID, they track what they watched on their TV sets because those pre-registered devices also record what they watch on their TV sets.
In this instance, the device IDs that were exposed to the Animal Kingdom promos in-theater, had a higher tune-in level that the unexposed group of movie goers.
Tune-in rates were calculated for the Animal Kingdom season premiere episode at 9 PM on May 28, 2019.
Summary:
-Households exposed to NCM Animal Kingdom advertising during the campaign period were 12% more likely to tune-in than those in the control group would.
-Households exposed, on average, viewed the Animal Kingdom program for a total of 29 minutes and 7 seconds, about 38 seconds longer than the control group did.
Download the research summary
Val Morgan, Australia: The Great Escapers – Shining a Light on Cinema’s Re-emergence
SAWA Member Val Morgan commissioned research whose aim was to build on the sentiment analysis of people “wanting to return to the cinema same/more than before” and to provide some context to the value/mindset of the audience coming back into cinema. The research found 3 key points;
- Our fundamentals in cinema are as strong as ever, if not stronger given the lockdown – engagement, immersion, escapism, affordable indulgence
- The cinema going audience has been largely in ad-free/SVOD environments and are going to be watching less of most mainstream media options (FTV, STV, BVOD) now that things are opening up. This means that cinema should be a must on brand schedules as we continue to deliver a hard to reach, low TV consuming audience that we believe have been even harder to reach during lockdown as they’ve been in SVOD environments.
- The cinema going audience is inherently more open, positive and ready to spend – therefore more valuable for brands to be speaking to + audiences want to see positive/confident brands in our environment
Val Morgan called this audience “The Great Escapers” – a nod to lockdown fatigue, minimal media choice and, of course, Steve McQueen.
Val Morgan believes the research has a good shelf life, taking Cinema into 2021, as audience numbers recover and the content release patterns start to settle down again. So far, it’s been well received by clients and agencies in the Australian Market who are looking for more info to keep us top of mind to clients who perceive us to be challenged.
Read the research.
WARC STUDY: GLOBAL AD TRENDS – CINEMA
HALO EFFECT
Val Morgan has released a thought leadership piece, The Power of the Big Screen: The Role of Cinema in the Mix. Conducted by Kantar Millward Brown, the study validates the role of cinema in the broader audio visual mix.
Key findings show that cinema;
- Provides valuable incremental reach to both TV and digital campaigns across a broad age range, but particularly to light or non-TV viewers.
- Cost effectively builds brand measures.
- Play both a complementary and synergistic role with other channels.
- Sustains campaign metrics over time through unrivaled resonance.
- Delivers strong impact per spot and high retention.
Read the full report by clicking here.
CINEMA THE SUPERHERO MEDIUM
Ground-breaking global study reveals the brand impact generated by cinema’s experiential effectiveness
BRIGHTFISH, BELGIUM – CINEMA ADS RECEIVE 85% ATTENTION
Watching a movie in the cinema with other people results in enhanced attention. And watching with family members or loved ones increases attention even more. The whitepaper ‘‘Monkey See, Monkey Do” by professor Jelle Demanet, researcher at Profacts and Ghent University associate, supports how watching entertainment together with people you love increases the impact of advertising. In this whitepaper, he takes an objective look at how the chameleon effect works and at how oxytocin affects your brain and your advertising communication.
The results are literally eye-catching! In the case of online advertisements, a mere 1.4% of them are, on average, actually viewed. TV fairs a little better, ringing in at 23.1%. Cinema, however, leaps out with a massive 85%. All without distracting our gaze.
Download the whitepaper by clicking here.
View the video by clicking here.
THE POWER OF THE BIG SCREEN – THE ROLE OF CINEMA IN THE MIX
Today, advertisers battle a fragmented environment, declining reach, and technology that skips ads. It is often difficult to say with confidence that an ad even reached its intended audience or had any impact. Cinema however, works in a different way to any other media. As evidenced by growing spend, Cinema’s appeal with brands is constantly broadening.
Cinema advertising is uniquely placed to overcome today’s advertising challenges: The big screen is difficult to ignore. There are minimal distractions. Ads cannot be skipped or muted. And advertisers trust the safe environment of its content.
With wall-to-wall screens and surround sound in a darkly lit environment, cinema offers an immersive and high sensory experience unlike any other. Because of this, cinema advertising is processed much more consciously and therefore yields results that other advertising mediums cannot.
To help further explore cinema advertising’s effectiveness, reach, and engagement, Kantar Millward Brown undertook research with Cinema Advertising partner Val Morgan Australia to understand the unique role it plays in a brand’s media allocation.
Dowload the study by clicking here.
NCM: Ad Length Measurement via Bio Metrics (Realeyes)
May 2018
Case Study: Using a bio-metric (Realeyes, international) methodology that employs facial coding that tags facial expressions into human emotions, we can begin to do an A – B comparative test of which creative length performed better based upon the emotional scores from the facial code readout.
Summary of Sarah & Juan Extra Gum Ad campaign from May 2018.
Overall, Sarah & Juan – 60sec was the strongest performer, with an above average EmotionAll® score compared to our global database of 13,500+ videos. Sarah & Juan – 15sec performed slightly below average compared to NCM’s global database.
Based on gender segmentations, both videos performed better with females (particularly the 60s version).
The 60s version performed best with the 50-65 age group while the 15s version performed best with ages 18-29. This is perhaps not surprising given the 15s version focuses on their high school romance while the 60s version focuses on their long-term romance.
Both videos have a strong narrative and upwards trend in Engagement driven by Happiness. Sarah & Juan – 60sec uses its extended length to drive higher levels of emotional Engagement through additional context it is able to provide. However, Sarah & Juan – 15sec is a successful cut in that it manages to elicit an earlier peak response. This could help to increase view-through-rates in skipping environments.
Download the research summary.
BRAINSIGHTS 2018 MEDIA STUDY
In Canada, Cineplex Media commissioned Brainsights to conduct research that would determine the effect of the media viewing experience and environment on a given advertisement. The high Encoding scores show that if advertisers’ objective is to build associations between their brands and specific properties, Cinema must play a part of their media mix.
Click here to view and download the study.
Valmorgan Cinema Network: Media Engagement Study
“How does the engagement of Cinema compare to TV?”
Independent studies found that cinema generated:
6 times the impact of TV
6 times the ad memories of TV
6 times the engagement of TV
Measure: proven ad recall measured day after exposure on Cinema and TV