IN-CINEMA ADVERTISING

In-cinema Advertising
Advertisers are trying out innovation and direct messages to market their
wares in theatres. By Devesh Gupta
T
he buzz in cinema circles - apart from
Kick getting into the `200 crore club and
the release of Singham Returns - was the
recent takeover of Satyam Cineplexes by
Inox Leisure for `182 crore.
With this acquisition, the number of screens
for Inox went up by 38 to 358, placing it behind
leader PVR Cinemas, which has 444 screens across
India. Together, the two control more than 40 per
cent of the multiplex screens in the country. Big
Cinemas has 280 screens, Cinepolis 84 screens and
Fun Cinemas, 82 screens. Today there are over
1,500 multiplex screens while five years ago this
number was around 250.
More screens and more movies make for more
advertising space for what is called in-cinema
advertising. As footfalls grew, film releases gathered
momentum, distribution improved and cinema
became digitised, in-cinema advertising aroused
the interest of a number of national advertisers.
The genre grew at a compounded annual growth
rate (CAGR) of 20 per cent in the last five years.
According to a KPMG report, in-cinema
advertising is varyingly between `400 to `600 crore.
Consolidation is taking place in the multiplex
business.
and off-screen branding that consumers see in
theatres. “Many mainstream brands today,” points
out Harshavardhan Gangurde, vice president,
marketing, Inox Leisure, “are using in-cinema
advertising and have upped spends after realising
the impact.” In the on-screen space, a brand can
run the traditional 30-, 45- or 60 second promos or
10-second static slides giving information.
The interactive use of on-screen space has
clicked too. Nokia designed a short film in
November last year for the Lumia. In it, the
Innovation pays
ow, over a century old, the Indian film
industry is worth `13,000 crore. Nearly 30
films across 10 different languages are released
every week. Experts point out that an estimated
3.5 billion tickets are sold annually and an average
Indian visits the theatre thrice every year. It has
also built up a great eco-system for brands to
interact with audiences.
In-cinema advertising refers to on-screen
protagonist, who is trapped in a maze, calls a
person from the audience to help him out. The
activation-cum-on-screen film ends with the
protagonist coming out in person and gifting the
viewer a Nokia Lumia.
In the off-screen space, there is a mind-boggling
variety of options ranging from seats, audi name(or
door), lobby, wall, floor, box office, security check
point, popcorn counter, lift, kiosk, product display,
staircase, washroom, ticket jackets, interactive
N
the big boys
(The top five advertising categories)
Now on multiplexes (in %)
100
94
80
77
60
60
40
57
54
20
0
Food and
Beverages
Personal Banking and Consumer
Care
Finance
Durables
Media
June 2014; Source: Ipsos MediaCT 808 screens
zones or kiosks, poster box and sampling.
Piramal Healthcare partnered with Big
Cinemas across 100 screens and placed the
I-Sure (an ovulation test kit) communication
in women’s washrooms. Sachin Rajpal, general
manager, marketing, consumer products, Piramal
Enterprises, says, “The dialogue between the brand
and the consumer happened very well.”
No remote button
autam Dutta, COO, PVR Cinemas, says,
“Cinema delivers unparalleled impact as
brands play with the senses of the consumer.” A
brand manager is upset if the consumer switches
channels, closes a browser or chooses the YouTube
ad skip button but he is happy at a theatre because
it does not allow the consumer this luxury.
“Brands get a captive audience glued to the
screens,” says Devang Sampat, business head,
strategic initiatives, Cinepolis. Kapil Sharma, vice
president, marketing, 9X Media (an advertiser
in this space), however, argues that the attention
wavers because of the commotion caused by
people coming and going.
Brands, however, get to know who they are
interacting with and that the chances of spillover
are less. Ronita Mitra, senior vice president, brand
communication, insights and online, Vodafone
India, says. “Cinema gives you a unique audience
in every show and we can advertise in select
geographies with different propositions.” In
2012-13, for instance, 9XM ran campaigns in
100 Cinemax screens (now PVR) in the Hindispeaking markets to promote its Bade Chhote
characters. Says Sharma, “Since we play Bollywood
music, theatres were the perfect destination.”
The medium allows even the small retailer
G
to advertise and play longer ads that could be
prohibitively expensive on TV. The effect,
however, may not be the same. “It is not a
frequency building medium. The cinema screen
acts as an ancillary to any large TVC,” adds
Gangurde of Inox. Theatres are great for sampling.
Samsung, for instance, placed small fridges in the
aisle next to the seats in PVR’s Gold Class filled
with eatables and encouraged viewers to consume
the products and judge the efficacy of the fridge.
day of release. Kick, for example, was released
simultaneously in 4,000 screens. Producers push
films on as many screens on Day One but their
shelf life is low.
Multiplexes monitor footfalls and provide
brands with a log of the ad (when, where and
how many times it played) thereby bringing
transparency. Most multiplexes have a capacity of
The joy of growing
here are many reason why in-cinema
advertising was not explored much in the
past. Single screen theatres used print rolls that
were prone to damage, expensive to produce and
had to be distributed individually to each theatre.
These theatres were not designed for offscreen branding and mostly reported incorrect
footfall numbers. Piracy also lead to several single
screens shutting down. All that has changed.
“The emergence of multiplexes and their rapid
expansion to tier I and II cities is a big reason
why this change has begun,” says Ajay Mehta,
managing director, Interactive Television, part
of GroupM. In 2013, growth came from tier II
and III cities. PVR added 60 screens, Inox 21 and
Satyam Cineplex (now Inox) 12 that year.
Multiplexes have better ambience and good
picture quality and drew SEC A, AB, A+ audiences
back to the theatres. A KPMG report points out
that the occupancy levels for major multiplexes
rose from 23-27 per cent in 2011 to 30 per cent
in 2013. PVR claims to get more than 72 million
viewers annually, while Big Cinemas gets 40
million. According to the report, average ticket
prices went up from `150-160 in 2011 to `168-175
in 2013 for leading multiplex chains.
Other developments have changed the moviegoing experience. Digitisation has improved film
quality. Digital prints cost less than analogue
and are easy to distribute. Today, viewers in
big and small cities get to see the show on the
200-500, giving them the flexibility to run small
ticket films, giving more options to the advertisers.
Them and us
hen it comes to in-cinema advertising, are
there watertight compartments? Do regional
brands advertise with big-ticket Hindi or English
films? Will a national brand advertise in a regional
W
T
The Norton ‘security check’
The Polo window
A Kotak moment
the high-visibility brands...
Brands across multiplexes (in %)
(The top advertisers in multiplexes, June 2014)
100
80
88
67
60
45
40
45
41
39
34
31
30
28
Whirlpool
Refrigerator
HDFC Life
IIFA Awards
Xolo
Vicco WSO
20
0
Chocon
Pepsi
Kesh King
Kurkure
Mirinda
Source: Ipsos MediaCT All data in % except bases Base (All screens audited)=808
...and where they placed themselves
(Brands can choose their moment of appearance)
Usage of slots, in %
62
60
94
5
18
Before movie starts
93
62
4
51
During interval
film? “We measure capacity on demand and assign
the number of shows. A regional brand would not
mind advertising with any other language movie if
it can benefit,” says Dutta of PVR.
Swaroop Reddy, managing director of the
Chennai-based Sathyam Cinemas (no connection
with the Delhi-based Satyam chain) differs.
He says that the fact that a movie is regional,
Bollywood or English does affect advertisers’
decisions. Gangurde of Inox points out that most
brands tend to go for larger Hindi releases with
assured eyeballs. Sampat of Cinepolis adds that
advertising depends on the resources available,
not whether the movie is regional, Bollywood or
Hollywood. “If the brand is allocating budgets to
its regional offices then advertising with regional
and small budget movies is more. But if it is only
from the central pool then it is mostly the national
campaigns with big ticket films,” he explains.
70
Screen vs screen
ore than 70 per cent of the 13,000 cinema
screens in India are single, which are less
monetised from an advertising perspective. The
rest are multiplexes. On the revenue front, the
latter gets 70 per cent of its income from ticket
sales, 20 per cent food and beverages (F&B) and
10 per cent from ads. Both F&B and in-cinema
advertising make multiplexes profitable.
M
38
40
95
82
38
96
49
30
7
6
Chocon
Pepsi
Kesh King
Kurkure
Mirinda
Whirlpool
Refrigerator
HDFC Life
IIFA Awards
Xolo
Source: Ipsos MediaCT All data in % except bases (Base = No. of times the ad played across cinemas)
I Sure in
women’s washrooms
Vicco WSO
With the consolidation in the multiplex
business, brands and agencies now have to deal
with fewer people. Inox-Satyam is the latest in a
line of acquisitions - PVR acquired Cinemax in
2012 and Inox Leisure acquired Fame Cinemas in
2010. Many brands opt for cinema deals based on
cost per thousand (CPT). According to Sharma of
9X Media, there will be low and high days because
weekdays in north India see thin attendance.
On the other hand, footfalls are heavy through
the week in the South, especially Tamil Nadu.
Surprisingly, brands prefer to advertise more in
western Indian theatres.
To attract crowds on weekdays, tickets are priced
low and marketing initiatives used in collaboration
with brands such as Vodafone, Vivel, Kotak, and
Freecharge.in. These are win-win situations for all
parties. Cinema houses co-invest with brands to
make them grow. It works quite well.
PVR’s ad revenue for last three fiscal years
rose from `85 crore to `140 crore between 201112 and 2013-14. Big Cinemas’ revenue went
up from `18 crore to `44 crore, while Inox
Leisure saw revenues move from `33 crore to `50
crore in the same period. Many single screens
are trying to transform themselves or converting
to multiplexes. Companies like UFO Moviez
(which holds rights for 3,500 single screens)
provide digitization solutions. The audience is
larger (SEC B and C) and it is cheaper to advertise
here. Government ads that attempt to educate or
spread awareness go for single screens. However,
Gurudutt Monas, senior manager, corporate ad
sales, UFO Moviez, says, “Corporates are also
taking this route and look to full year deals.”
B loc k b u s ter s
O
nscreen ads are still the most preferred among
brands. A multiplex plays an average of 23 ads
(30 seconds each) or 12-15 minutes of advertising.
The rate differs from chain to chain and could range
from `7,000-20,000 for a 30-second ad. When it
comes to off-screen models, poster branding costs
between `15,000 and `30,000 a month per poster box
while a standee costs around `18,000-25,000.
Brands are now beginning to opt for quarterly,
semi-annual and annual deals. A niche or an upmarket product goes for screens attracting the SEC A+
audience, while a mass product goes for SEC A, AB
screens. Says Shirish Srivastava, senior vice president - marketing & sales at Reliance MediaWorks,
‘‘Today, 50 per cent of brands opt for the annual
deals.’’ It insulates the brand from box-office failures.
Annual deals give companies the chance to use
the space to advertise different products at different
points of time. Media agencies help theatres get 40
per cent of the deals struck, while the exhibitors get
the rest themselves. The innovations are executed
by the outdoor agencies. Theatres have adopted the
‘pay per eyeball’ model where brand pays for the
number of people visiting the theatre in that period.
For now, only premium brands get this offer. "Kotak,"
says Karthi Marshan, EVP and group head marketing, "assesses its investments based on the eyeballs
reached and not the number of ads aired."
Recall and returns
ith increasing disposable incomes, families
don’t mind spending at multiplexes. On
an average, a family of four in big cities spends
at least `1,500 in theatres during the weekends.
Every brand is after this audience. The best part
about in-cinema advertising is that the recall is
higher compared to other media. “Cinema is a
much better place to advertise as people are more
receptive than in their offices or homes,” says
Dutta of PVR.
Measuring the return on investment (ROI) is,
however, difficult. According to Karthi Marshan,
EVP and head group marketing, Kotak Mahindra
Bank, cinema amplifies brand campaigns running
on TV so there is no direct ROI for it. Brands can
measure kiosk sales and leads, but it’s difficult to
put a number to the impact from static branding.
The cost per contact may be high but people
like Cherian Peter, CMO, Muthoot Group, feel
that it is not a problem. “Everything cannot be
looked from an ROI perspective because there are
certain things we do for brand building purpose,
not for ROI,” he says. Another problem is the
limited reach of the medium. Brands have to run
multicity and multiweek campaigns since they
want more accuracy and transparency.
The density of screens in India is low. There
are just eight screens per million people compared
to 117 per million in the US. Metros are saturated
and next set of investment is coming in the nonmetro cities. Brands, unfortunately, are not as
bullish about these markets as the theatres would
like them to be. n
W
devesh.gupta@afaqs.com