Digital Cinema Media’s (DCM) An Introduction to Cinema took place this week at Vue West End. A full house was in attendance from across media land to hear speakers talk about the cinema industry and how brands can maximise new digital cinema advertising opportunities.
The day kicked off with Phil Clapp, CEO, of the Cinema Exhibitors Association and an update on the performance of the cinema sector in terms of box office revenues and cinema attendance figures. He also outlined the 2015 film slate, stressing the quality of content coming to UK cinema such as Avengers: Age of Ultron, Fast and Furious 7 and Star Wars: Episode VII.
Phil Clapp, CEO, Cinema Exhibitor's Association
Phil was followed by David Fitzgerald, Agency Lead, DCM, who introduced the attendees to a short history of DCM. David focussed on the client sectors DCM serves and key statistics relating to cinemagoers, such as age, socio-economic grouping and average household income versus non-cinemagoers.
Alex Wright, Research and Insight Manager, took to the stage after David, introducing the assembled attendees to the key insights relating to the core audiences of cinema, 15-34’s. Alex broke the audience down further to look at how the different genders consume cinema, including average group sizes, visits per year and some of their other media habits, such as technology adoption and life stage observations.
Alex Wright, Research and Insight Manager, DCM
Zoe Ibrahim, Account Manager, DCM, followed Alex by giving a breakdown of cinema buying routes available to the media sector, covering the Audience Guarantee Packages (AGP), such as the Premium AGP, the Family AGP and the newly minted local targeting package, to mention just a few.
Roxanne Harley, Client Head, DCM continued the show, giving the audience a snapshot of the Sponsorships, Partnerships and Innovations available to the media sector via DCM. She detailed the variety of partnerships available to clients with DCM. She spoke about the impact a brand can gain by aligning with the Opening Weekend sponsorship package and discussed innovations in the cinema space. These included Finch 37 Degrees Split Feed 3D technology, which allows a brand to simultaneously show two different creatives on one screen and cinime, DCM’s cinema companion app.
Before a well-deserved break, Vicky Wharam, Account Manager, DCM, issued the live brief for the attendees to complete for a chance to win exclusive cinema goody bags.
Attendees hard at work on the live brief
Last, but certainly by no means least, Tom Linay, Head of Film, DCM took to the podium, to give his unique take on the upcoming film slate. Tom gave an update on upcoming summer blockbusters, such as Godzilla, which is unleashed 16 May, X-Men: Days of Future Past, which follows a week later on 22 May and Guardians of The Galaxy, slated for release on 1 August.
A highlight of the upcoming schedule are the All-Star comedies, such as Bad Neighbours, A Million Ways to Die in the West and 22 Jump Street.
Tom Linay, Head of Film, DCM
Finally, Tom finished the session by taking a look at the big hitters of Q4 2014, including thriller Gone Girl, releasing 3 October, Christopher Nolan’s next effort, post the dark knight trilogy, Interstellar, is due in cinemas 7 November and the final instalment of the Hobbit Trilogy, The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies, which will hit UK cinema screens 12 December.