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| Author | Mia Blakeney |
Digital Cinema Media has unveiled the latest edition of its industry-leading Building Box Office Brands series: ‘Maximising price: The role of media’.
Conducted in partnership with expert research agency, everyday people, the study details cinema’s power to enhance brand value perception and drive financial success in today’s high-stakes pricing landscape.
The full research piece was presented to guests in attendance at DCM’s annual Upfronts event, which took place on the morning of Thursday 27 of March at Odeon Leicester Square.
In addition, Michael Tull, DCM's Head of Strategy and Insight, hosted a panel discussion featuring a roster of major brands. These included Unilever's Personal Care Media Lead – UK & Ireland, Ashley Goldie; Three’s Head of Marketing & Communication, Chris Gough, and Barclay UK’s Head of Media Planning Chris Hoon. Each presented their use of cinema as a tool to maximise campaigns, underscoring the study’s findings.
Context can strengthen prices
Amid the current challenging economic climate, brands must navigate rising costs while consumers seek to manage their spending. Only 1 in 3 consumers feel they have discretionary income after essentials, while 88% hope to maintain or reduce spending across most categories this year (Source: DCM/everyday people 2025). This makes it more important than ever for advertisers to communicate quality and value effectively.
Cinema is a well-established home for high-end media placement; however, the medium’s premium context has greater potential for a wider range of consumer brands. DCM and everyday people set out to explore the significance of advertising context and the influence of media channels on price perception.
The study used a fake brand (TIXE) and a generic description of the service it offers to isolate the effect of the media channel choice on price perceptions of the brand.
Evidenced across nine channels in the study, media channel choice positively affected the way consumers perceived quality and what they considered to be ‘good value’.
Conclusively, the research found that a brand’s media channel choice can significantly improve the ‘optimal price’ consumers are willing to pay for the product.
For example, when participants were presented with a TIXE laundry detergent brand set to launch in cinema, the research delivered a +14% higher ‘optimal price’ vs. the all-channel average.
Similarly, when presented with a TIXE mobile network brand, the results showed a +10% higher ‘optimal price’ when told it would launch in cinema vs. the all-channel average.
On average, across the two categories tested, cinema delivered an uplift in optimal price of 12% vs. the all-channel average.
Cinema’s premium, high-attention immersive environment makes it uniquely effective in positioning brands as high-value and trusted, reducing price sensitivity, and ultimately increasing their ability to command higher prices.
Andrew Tenzer, Co-Founder, everyday people, commented: “The industry narrative has often been about how advertising influences price perceptions, however our research with DCM highlights that the role of media needs to be included in this conversation. The study clearly demonstrates that context matters, and if marketers want to optimise their impact on price perceptions, they need to think of the context the advertising is seen in as well as the impact of creative messaging”.
Karen Stacey, CEO, Digital Cinema Media commented: “In this time of heightened price scrutiny, price perception is absolutely key to brand success and our research showcases how cinema enhances a brand’s ability to maintain strong pricing power and optimise perceived value. Cinema stands apart – it's immersive, fully engaging, and captures attention like no other medium, forging a deep connection with viewers. Our research bolsters this experience with real data, reinforcing the importance of context and the power of premium video to build long-term brand value.”