Cinema is the Original Social Media

THIS ARTICLE IS SUPPLIED BY NCM & FILM JOURNAL

Steve Ochs, SVP Marketing at NCM, the US advertising sales house, talks about how movies are the ‘original social media’ and how the experience keeps on going after the credits have rolled and the audience have left the auditorium. The ‘Millennials’ make up over 50% of the movie going audience in the US, and for them being ‘in the know’ about the latest movies is a critical form of social currency.

2014 is shaping up to be another blockbuster year, as movie fans gear up for big films like The Amazing Spider-Man 2, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Maleficent and The Fault in Our Stars, just to name a few. Audiences have turned out in record numbers for the past two years, and with what film experts are calling the “perfect storm” of hits on the horizon in 2015, the future of cinema looks brighter than ever.

And if you think about it, movies are the “original social media”—not just the moviegoing experience itself, but the “water cooler” effect that lasts long after the credits have rolled. Today, especially for the coveted Millennials demographic (ages 12-34), being “in the know” about the latest movies is a critical form of social currency (2013 NRG American Moviegoing Report, Nielsen). In fact, to the surprise of many who view the Millennial generation as primarily digital cord-cutters, over 50% of the moviegoing audience is Millennial—they go to the movies more than ever!

And today’s moviegoing experience doesn’t begin or end at the theatre. Just as it has with every other aspect of our lives, digital and mobile technology has dramatically changed how America goes to the movies.

Bear with me for a moment as I inundate you with a few statistics from the recent “Mobile and the Movies” study (InMobi with the IAB and Decision Fuel). 84% of all moviegoers use mobile to help plan their trips to the theatre and 56% use their mobile phones to learn more about movie and entertainment options (on par with TV). In fact, mobile phones dwarf PCs (used by 39%) and print media (used by 26%) as ways to gather information before going to see a movie. And 88% of moviegoers are involved in at least one social network and 80% use movie apps and websites (Nielsen NRG’s 2013 American Moviegoing Report)!

The bottom line is that moviegoers are digitally savvy consumers who use digital platforms and their mobile phones to research movies, watch trailers, check movie times, buy tickets, “check in” at the theatre, and post reviews and comments about the movie on social-media channels after the show.

For cinema advertising networks, the key takeaway from all of this data is that, in order to effectively reach today’s moviegoers where they are already spending their time, it is our job to help marketers master the art of integrating mobile and digital elements into a comprehensive media strategy—before, during and after the moviegoing experience.

At National CineMedia (NCM) and NCM Media Networks, we work with brands to “connect the dots” of every step of the moviegoing process with exciting digital, mobile and social-media initiatives that add value to the entertainment experience. And we do that through a combined strategy of both internal innovation and partnerships with best-in-class digital companies.

A great example of this is our partnership with Twitter Amplify. NCM is developing a new branded entertainment series that will bring the best movie conversations, Tweets and Vines to the big screen. Powered by Twitter, the new one-minute weekly show will feature quick moving segments, taking a fun and revealing look at the “social conversation” around movie and entertainment content on Twitter and Vine. Not your typical red carpet and gossip coverage, this series will be the first onscreen program that invites moviegoers to join the conversation and help shape the content of each week’s show. Via hashtags, Twitpics and Vine videos, fans will be able to join the conversation—maybe even seeing their own Tweets and Vines up on the silver screen alongside some of the biggest names in Hollywood. Expected to launch later this year, the show will be seen in movie theatres nationwide as an anchor segment in NCM’s FirstLook pre-show program, distributed via NCM Digital and also through Twitter’s Amplify program, the social broadcast network service’s innovative video promotion tool.

As the user-generated content creation arena continues unabated, NCM is delivering a unique way to empower movie fans with FirstLookYou, a new movie-focused social video platform. Movie fans will be able to give an immediate review of the movie they’ve just seen—in 20 seconds or less—in specially created FirstLookYou booths set up in select theatre lobbies across the country. The booths’ green-screen capability allows NCM to incorporate a sponsoring brand’s logo and messaging in these reviews, allowing them to benefit from the viral value as the videos are shared across social-media channels including Twitter and Facebook. The best of these reviews will also be featured in onscreen segments in FirstLook and on NCM’s Lobby Entertainment Network (LEN).

NCM has also created the largest online and mobile entertainment network in the marketplace called NCM Digital Networks, featuring over 39 top entertainment related websites and over 100 mobile applications that engage consumers before, during and after the movie. In addition, NCM Digital has now expanded into the digital video space by creating the cinema industry’s own “full episode player,”FirstLook5. A five-minute online and mobile version our FirstLook cinema pre-show FirstLook5 features world-class entertainment content along with advertising for a truly integrated original video platform.

These are just a few of the ways in which NCM continues to evolve our cinema network alongside the moviegoing audience. For cinema advertising to take its well-earned and powerful place in the new video centric marketing landscape, we need to go beyond the big screen to offer the best in content, reach and engagement across multiple platforms—the same platforms that our consumers are leveraging to enhance their moviegoing experience. At NCM, we’re striving to be the go-to network for everything movies delivering value to our circuit partners and affiliates while helping brands reach the most engaged audiences when they go to the movies—the “original social media.”