Michael Cullen on Irish people’s abiding interest in going to the cinema
Ask a media agency director for an opinion on the value of cinema to major advertisers and many of them they may well say it tends to be overlooked in schedules and is often not given its due consideration. Fiona Field, deputy managing director, Mediaworks, has an interesting take on it. Field compares cinema to a supermodel in the corner of a pub that no one chats up.
Admittedly, cinema only accounts for one per cent of media spend at €9 million. Having said that, its advertising take has remained consistent in recent years while other media have seen share drop. The Irish are the biggest film fans in Europe, data from the International Union of Cinemas (UNIC) shows, at 3.3 admissions per head, more than double the EU average of 1.6. Irish people go to the cinema more often than any of our EU counterparts.
France is second with 3.1 admissions per head and the UK is third with 2.7 admissions. Ireland saw an increase of 5.6 per cent with over 15 million admissions last year. Eoin Wrixon, chief executive, Wide Eye Media (WEM), says Irish people see cinema as a favourite past-time.
It is an average 1.25m entries through the turnstiles every month. Total box office receipts in the Republic in 2015 were up by four per cent to €104m, from almost €100m the previous year. The year belonged to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which storm-trooped the box office and became the highest-grossing movie, despite only being released mid-December.
Clocking up admissions: Ireland has the biggest cinema-going market in Europe, with an average of 3.3 visits per head a year. Brooklyn, Room, The Revenant and Star Wars did great business at the box office. Action fans have Star Trek Beyond, Doctor Strange with Benedict Cumberbatch and Assassin’s Creed starring Michael Fassbender to look forward to this year.
WEM sells cinema advertising at 101 locations throughout Ireland with 708 screens, all of them digital. Procter & Gamble (P&G) household and personal care brands topped the list of advertisers last year, ahead of Vodafone, Diageo, Virgin Media, Mondelez International (Cadbury’s), Red Bull, Emirates, Fáilte Ireland, McDonald’s and, curiously, Netflix.
Wrixon does not see Netflix as the big bad foe in the same way as video and DVDs were in the recent past. Cinema is all about targeting people who enjoy going out to watch movies on the big screen. As far as Wrixon is concerned, the pub poses more of a threat than Netflix or Sky Atlantic. Terrestrial TV broadcasters like RTE have to worry more about Netflix.
An independently, Irish-owned business, backed by Electric Media owner Dermot Hanrahan, WEM works with IMC, Odeon, Movies@, Cineworld and Omniplex chains. It has ad sales for all screens in the Republic to itself, while selling north of the border for Pearl & Dean and DCM. Its Film Monitor tracking by Millward Brown delivers market profiles.
Permanent TSB surprised moviegoers as they took to their seats, the lights went down and they began tucking into their buttered popcorn and Coke. A booming voice resonated around the auditorium, but it was not a movie trailer. In a parody of an upcoming movie, the bank screened two cinema-specific ads for home improvements and first time mortgage holders.
The 20-second spots, created by Publicis with media by PHD, jokingly mimic a blockbuster movie trailer. Wrixon says cinema’s laid-back atmosphere and big screen with surround sound belting out makes the spoof trailer an ideal fit for the advertiser’s target audience. All campaigns are booked on a week-to-week basis, running from Friday to Thursday.
“Admissions are everything in targeting cinema advertisers,” Wrixon says, “and with on-going audiences we can deliver cover, frequency, GRPs and CPTs for movie packs. The Cinema View research tracks campaign recall and advertising effectiveness for brands.
“It’s been an incredible year so far, with first quarter admissions up by 11 per cent on last year, from 3.6m to over 4m,” he adds. Batman v Superman, Captain America with Robert Downey and the restaging of Disney’s 1967 cartoon classic Jungle Book have pulled in the punters. The success of Deadpool was unexpected and sequels are planned.
Oscar fever is always good news for cinema. The Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and Spotlight, about a sex abuse cover-up in the Catholic Church in Boston, hiked up box office receipts. With Brooklyn, starring Saoirse Ronan and Lenny Abrahamson’s Room, making the Oscar shortlist Irish interest peaked. Room took over €1.3m at the box office nationally.
Wrixon says Irish films are a big draw for cinemagoers: movies like Sing Street, with Jack Reynor and its nostalgic look at young romance and 80s music. Cillian Murphy and Oscar winner Brie Larson (Room) star in Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire, a Quentin Tarantino-style black comedy set in Boston in 1978 about an arms deal that goes horribly wrong.
Sebastian Barry’s novel The Secret Scripture, directed by Jim Sheridan (In the Name of the Father and My Left Foot), is also due out later this year. Irish moviegoers also show a healthy appetite for art house movies which get a limited release in cinemas like The Lighthouse and IFI. Movies like Laszlo Nemes’ provocative Oscar-winning lo-fi Holocaust drama Son of Saul and Terrence Malick’s Knight of Cups, starring Christian Bale and Cate Blanchette.
High drama: Former ITV sales executive Eoin Wrixon, right, is CEO at Wide Eye Media. Wrixon’s lead team comprises marketing and research manager, Sarah Clohessy, Eoin O’Connor, sales and exhibition director and Cassandra Joyce, agency and client director. The company sells space on 708 screens in Ireland.
With holidays on the way, summer releases include Finding Dory, the sequel to Finding Nemo, Ice Age: Collision Course, Trolls and Roald Dahl’s The BFG directed by Steven Spielberg. Women’s choices due out in July include Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie, Bad Moms and Ghostbusters, reuniting Bridesmaids stars Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy.
Last year, WEM rolled out its CineD HD screens in cinema foyers in 13 locations, with full motion/animation, live RSS and Facebook and Twitter feeds. Managed by Nicky Boylan, the OOH network allows advertisers geo/time-sensitive target people out enjoying themselves and being entertained. This year sees the launch of RetailD screens in shopping centres.
Last year, Heineken’s Desperados tequila-flavoured beer became the first advertiser to hyper-target cinemagoers using CineD. The campaign runs on the release weekend of the most appropriate movies of the year on the 55” foyer screens. Three executions are shown on 12 screens, each one selected to match movies like Pitch Perfect, Mad Max and Entourage.
WED teamed up with the Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland (IAPI) in backing the new Young Lions film category. Havas duo Laura Halpin and Ronan Jennings qualified to compete at the international Cannes creative festival in June. Lenny Abrahamson (Room, What Richard Said and Frank), who directed Carlsberg ads, shot the winning script.
Getting back to why cinema is sometimes overlooked, Fiona Field says that in broadcast media, there is “always another mouth to feed”. In recent years, video on demand (VOD) has commanded much attention, perhaps at cinema’s expense. “It shouldn’t be the case – there’s room for both,” Field says. It has a lot to do with the behaviour and attitudes of millennials.
“Today, we know that the average Gen Z, or whatever we are calling the latest generation, are only half watching the average ad – with one eye stuck to Snapchat and the other on whatever has managed to capture their hard to get attention. Cinema has an opportunity to step in and take advantage of our growing attention-deficit deprived society,” Field adds.
Nothing beats the smell of popcorn and a movie rolling, demanding people enjoy the experience and switch off mobiles. “No other medium can deliver such a powerful and captive experience. During the recession, cinema suffered more than other media, as brands turned off the charm and on the sell. Cinema was almost crying out ‘No!’” she says.
Wrixon makes the point that production costs have come down hugely. While advertisers could have expected to pay up to €5,000, today’s asking price is about €1,000. There was a time not so long ago that getting a cinema ad from media plan to screen was, in the words of Fiona Field, “a painful process” digital has made life a lot easier for media agencies.
As well as digital and Dolby surround sound, cinemas themselves are set to change in the coming years. Laser projectors are on the way. To enhance the experience, some chains in the US have taken out all the old seats and put in rockers. It may mean cutting capacity by up to a third but as Wrixon says it is quality over quantity and a market for premium tickets.
Field says advertisers need to look at how to use cinema smartly and give audiences better experiences. Brands advertise geographically using out of home (OOH) ads near main branches or retail outlets in a bid to drive footfall. Digital has stepped into the space. Similar options are available on cinema, but how many advertisers are actually acting on it?
Mediaworks ran an Easter campaign for Lidl block booking cinemas with family fare. Lidl seasonal brands featured and the movie was brought to them by the German discounter. As director Martin Scorsese once said: “Cinema is a matter of what’s in the frame and what’s out!” Perhaps more brand owners need to chat up that supermodel in the corner.
