Screenvision to Pitch Advertisers on Granular Data and Success With Streamers

Screenvision, the nation’s second-largest seller of ads in movie theaters, will make an upfront presentation to advertisers on May 23 in New York. The pitch: By placing ads across thousands of its movie theater screens, marketers can get more granular audience data while captivating a deeply engaged audience. Just ask Netflix. Connected TV networks led by Netflix, Amazon Prime and Peacock doubled their spending on cinema advertising in 2022 with Screenvision compared with the period prior to the pandemic, when video streaming platforms were just starting to emerge as a media-buying force. By comparison, travel brands increased their ad spending with Screenvision by 25% during the same period. All told, CTV brands were the second-largest spending category, trailing automotive, across Screenvision’s 13,500 screens operated by its approximately 2,000 theater partners. “CTV brands understand something crucial about how streaming and movie audiences obviously overlap,” Christine Martino, chief revenue officer of cinema ad network Screenvision Media, told Adweek. “They’re looking for people that are willing to pay for premium content. And that’s the definition of a moviegoer.” Is It Time to Hit Play on Movie Theater Ad Buys? As streamers search for new subscribers and sources of growth, venues and platforms that would otherwise be thought of as direct competition to Screenvision’s core product—e.g., movie theaters—are suddenly in play. And the company is now making the case that its first-party data and brand lift studies can produce actionable results for marketers in a matter of weeks. The strategy appears to be working. Screenvision nearly doubled its revenue from 2021 to 2022. While the theatrical releases continue to see uneven attendance—it’s either blockbuster or bust—Screenvision reps say the company is experiencing strong momentum in 2023. They anticipate year-over-year growth of 30-40% by the end of the year. That momentum is clearly driven by CTV. The selling features Movie theater attendance hit its highest mark in 2002, when over 1.5 billion tickets were sold, according to The Numbers, a market researcher tracking the cinema business. So far, 2023 is expected to reach 853 million tickets sold, a 17% gain from 2022’s 729 million. It’s been a steady return since 2020’s 223,000 ticket sales, yet still well below 2019’s 1.2 billion. Yet, those numbers don’t exactly tell the story of movie advertising’s appeal to marketers, according to Anthony LaVerde, CEO of Emagine Entertainment, the ninth-largest movie theater chain with 30 locations across the Midwest. “It’s important to recognize that the success of the movie theater industry is highly dependent on the quality and appeal of the content they show, rather than on the willingness of people to attend,” LaVerde told Adweek. “By continuing to offer a diverse range of high-quality content and enhancing the overall movie-going experience, theaters can continue to attract and retain audiences well into the future.” As Screenvision prepares for its own annual upfront presentation in May—its second in-person event since the pandemic interrupted its decade-long marketing roadshow—the company is making the case that movies and movie advertising is back, despite the hurdles and headwinds that the movie industry is grappling with. Rather than rely solely on rising numbers of mass moviegoers, Screenvision and its theater partners are emphasizing a promise of the right audience, with the right mindset, in the right place at the right time. Among the stats the company shared ahead of its pitch to brands and media buyers: In 2019, there were 115 wide-release titles (movies that opened in over 2,000 theaters); in 2022, there were 71; despite the shortage of inventory, the average box office per title was $96.8 million in 2022 compared with $90.6 million.There were nine $100 million opening weekends in 2022 compared with seven in 2019.Studios are investing significantly in production; in 2023 production budgets are expected to average $77 million per film versus $47 million in 2019. Moviegoing is becoming much more of a destination event, where moviegoers are planning going to the movies: 60% of Screenvision’s network is offering reserved seating.50 exhibitors within Screenvision’s network are “destination” locations, meaning they offer onsite activities like axe-throwing, mini golf and laser tag.There are now 550 theaters within Screenvision’s network that serve alcohol, up from 500 in January 2022. “Brands—even brands that can be described as both TV and digital—appreciate the single share of voice, the ability to target movie audiences more contextually and the viewability metrics we can provide to advertisers,” Screenvision Media CEO John Partilla, told Adweek. Screenvision’s convincing arguments and stats will face a big test at the network’s May 23 upfront presentation. IPG’s Magna’s generally optimistic March 2023 forecast revised cinema ads’ growth down slightly to a 46.7% gain over 2022 from the media analyst unit’s expectation of a 49.9% rise year over year. The pitch to advertisers is premised on engagement, Martino said: “People’s eyes are on screen at the movies.” First-party data in lights But the value of a movie audience’s attention is enhanced by another unique aspect of cinema advertising: Movie theaters possess crucial first-party data. As third-party cookies continue their slow march towards obsolescence, the case for cinema ads gets a bit stronger. Even when theaters were closed at the start of the pandemic and Screenvision couldn't bring advertisers inside the multiplex, the ad network data was still able to deliver the data on moviegoers to marketers. The company’s access to theater-owners’ first-party data makes so many other means possible, Martino noted. The data is accessed when moviegoers purchase a mobile ticket, which is then matched anonymously with geo-fencing around a movie theater in Screenvision’s network. On top of that, in 2022, Screenvision unveiled its own CTV app for watching movie trailers on Roku, which allows the ad network to gather analytics from the app’s users. It also has its own data management platform, which gives it insights on targeting moviegoers across the web. So, when the film projectors were off, Screenvision turned on its ad network’s past collection of first-party data using mobile retargeting as well as CTV advertising. In all, Screenvision’s database contains more than 50 million unique moviegoers. From there, the company has a combination of first-party data from interactions based on in-theater screenings and second-party data from the loyalty programs with its cinema operator partners and ticketing platforms. Screenvision can layer both on top of third-party data from online additional sources. “We’re able to target moviegoers when they are out of the theater because we know that they’ve been exposed to the ad, but we know the type of movies they went to,” Martino said. For example, Screenvision can target ads directly to specific groups of consumers—such as its database of 20 million sci-fi fans—whether they’re looking at their phone or watching a show on CTV outside the theater. The changing face of the cineplex also contributes to Screenvision’s brand lift story. Citing data from 50 studies the company has run over the last four years, compared to linear TV advertising, Screenvision claims its ads drove unaided awareness 32% higher, along with 17% greater brand favorability. As performance has become more important to advertisers, Screenvision also claims purchase intent from cinema ads is 20% versus TV. During the Screenvision preshow, 84% of the time moviegoers’ eyes are on screen during the ads and average brand recall is 60%, Martino said. That compares to 30% eyes on screen for traditional linear television. Peacock Gives Advertisers a Cinematic Experience With New Ad Formats “Cinema enables streamers to connect with a highly attentive and engaged audience with a mix of long-form, two-minute content or 30- to 60-second spots, all on a 40-foot screen,” Martino said. “That’s why cinema has become a priority to reach this highly elusive audience.”