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| Author | Zoe Aresti |
In a blog post written for MediaWeek, Digital Cinema Media's (DCM) Karen Stacey discusses Fifty Shades of Grey's huge opening weekend, what 2015 means for cinema and why it provides great opportunities for brands.
Since the very first trailer debuted for the much-anticipated Fifty Shades of Grey movie back in 2014, buzz around the film was instantly high. With over 100 million books sold, the trailer amassed over 250 million views worldwide and was named the most watched trailer of 2014.
It may therefore come as little surprise that the best-selling book’s highly anticipated reincarnation as a Hollywood blockbuster saw Fifty Shades of Grey’s opening weekend amass a colossal £13.6m at the UK Box Office, the highest ever opening for an 18-certificate film. The film has become a worldwide phenomenon, grossing $248.7 million (£161.6m) globally. That’s the highest global debut of 2015 so far and the 21st biggest opening of all time. Continuing to break records, this is also the most lucrative box office opening of a film directed by a woman ever.
From the outset, we also saw huge demand from advertisers looking to align themselves with the Fifty Shades of Grey film. With the book becoming a global phenomenon, the film took on a ready-made audience, meaning there were a lot of moviegoers to share a brand message with. Consequently, a wide-range of brands looking to attract a broad, predominantly female audience booked in to leverage this amazing opportunity.
The list of brand names that booked into Fifty Shades of Grey ranges from Renault to Revlon to Calvin Klein (who has never advertised on cinema before) to Baileys, to Estée Lauder to Nike and Durex.
Female cinemagoers represent an upmarket, hard-to-reach audience who see cinema as a social staple and an opportunity to spend time with their friends or partners. 88% of 15-34 year old females are cinemagoers who visit the cinema on average 6.5 times a year. They’re light TV viewers, early adopters and are interested in sharing the experience and finding out what others have been up to, proving to be extremely active on social media.
Since going digital in 2012, cinema as a medium has become a must-have for brands, offering highly targeted campaigns, shorter lead times and lower productions costs, with a 60% increase in brand count, which is hardly surprising considering the flexibility digital cinema now offers. For the first time in 13 years, the most prestigious advertising position in cinema, the Gold Spot, is also now available to advertisers on a more flexible and targeted basis, meaning brands can reach and engage with their target audiences.
Cinema also offers a unique experience in today’s changing media landscape – one that is reflected in the power of cinema advertising. Our research, 'The Bigger Picture’, shows how ads on the big screen offer eight times more engagement, three times more brand recall than ads on television and four times higher emotional engagement. Cinema advertising can spark powerful awareness of a brand and brands and agencies understanding the massive potential of tapping into this level of engagement will look to make the creative of their ads ever more cinematic.
Fifty Shades of Grey is just one of a huge array of blockbusters slated for 2015, which is set to be an outstanding year for advertising in cinemas. The slate includes new instalments of the Star Wars, James Bond and Jurassic Park franchises, and predictions are that cinema admissions will soar to levels not seen for 40 years. With such a varied range of titles on offer, brands and advertisers have the opportunity to engage with a number of key consumer demographics through cinema, with a huge range already making the most of such opportunities.
This article first appeared on MediaWeek.