Being digital: The digital transformation six months on

Six months ago, DCM embarked on the most significant change in the history of cinema advertising. It has been an ambitious and challenging journey and its successful implementation has been made possible by the support and commitment of all DCM’s exhibitor partners nationwide.

With your help, cinema advertising can now compete with other media on a level playing ground as a faster, more flexible, even more creative advertising option.

Brands are buying into these new digital benefits meaning that DCM has been able to accept campaigns over the past six months that would not have been possible in the pre-digital world.

To give you an idea of the scale of this achievement, during the six months between 28 September 2012 and 28 March 2013, 1,898,985 playlists were generated. That works out as 73,000 playlists per week over 26 weeks.

In a 35mm world that averaged 3,000 playlists per week or 78,000 in the equivalent time-frame. For DCM to deliver as many 35mm reels as digital playlists distributed over the last six months it would take 632 years or 32,915 weeks.

None of this would have been possible, of course, without the cinema industry’s investment in digital projectors, satellite dish installation and hours of software development. We appreciate that for many of you this has meant the implementation of new technology, the installation of new systems and the adoption of new processes to make this work.

Advertisers are buying into digital cinema

DCM is now able to work with brands to offer innovative advertising solutions that will drive new marketing spend into cinemas. Highlights of the past six months that would not have happened in the 35mm world include High Street retailer River Island choosing cinema for its first broadcast campaign to coincide with the release date of Twilight; brands including cinema in tactical campaigns such as Nurofen’s new product launch media takeover; and brands like Sony Home Entertainment seizing the opportunity for copy changes pre and post product releases.

According to Mary McClenahan, offline and events marketing manager at River Island, “Cinema is a powerful medium that has yet to be exploited fully. The move to digital will make cinema more of a consideration for fast turnaround retail brands that can use it in a tactical way.

“It gives us the opportunity to engage with a captive audience: we like the social aspect of cinema and believe it will deliver impact and ultimately cut through for River Island. We recognise the power of the Twilight Saga and cult following among our target customers so it was the perfect fit for the brand. It’s exciting to be part of the experience.”

Previously certain brands were less likely to consider cinema due to long lead times, which did not allow brands to plan and target effectively.

Angela Porter, Head of Grocery Advertising at Tesco, said, “Even with our bigger brand campaigns we are often working to the last minute to refine [the campaign], which ruled cinema out of the mix because you could never have cinema and TV running at the same time.

"From our point of view we have to be reactionary in the marketplace and it would result in TV being out considerably earlier than cinema. The best way to get them to work together would be to have them running together, so when cinema entered into digital and cut the lead times significantly, it helped.”

The team at DCM recognises and thanks its exhibitor partners for their collaboration in making all of this possible. It is a very exciting time for the industry as digital cinema has injected new creativity and vigour into film making and cinema advertising alike.

The next six months in digital cinema will bring yet more innovative digital firsts to the big screen. We look forward to celebrating these on 28 September 2013 when we mark the first anniversary of digital cinema.