National CineMedia (NCM) Upfront 2016: For America’s Movie Network, It’s All about Millennials, Content, and Data
May 18 2016 - 2:45PM
Business Wire
National CineMedia (NCM) presented its fifth annual upfront
event at the AMC Lincoln Square movie theater in New York today,
and it was all about Millennials, content, and data for America’s
Movie Network.
NCM’s new CEO, Andy England, started off the presentation by
noting that he had finally found all of the hard-to-reach young
people he had been searching for in his many years as a marketer —
they’re at the movies. “358 million tickets were sold to
Millennials at our theaters last year. Put simply, we have more
Millennials visiting our theaters in one year than there are people
in the United States, 36 million more. So, why do Millennials love
the movies? Because this is the best content there is. We have this
highly desirable audience because we have the best content. Opening
weekend for movies are, by definition, culturally relevant.
Millennials want to see films as they are released because it puts
them in the know. It gives them social currency. Having a point of
view on Deadpool or the Jungle Book, or being excited about Bad
Moms, is to be part of the narrative or to be woven into the fabric
of popular culture.”
Millennials
NCM’s newly appointed president, Cliff Marks, then took the
stage to talk about Millennial moviegoers, noting, “NCM is the #1
weekend network for all demos, reaching over 700 million moviegoers
every year. But the really big news is that our Millennial
movie-going audience grew over 16 percent in 2015 and is already up
8 percent so far this year! We are now a premier Millennial
network, with an average A18-34 weekly rating of 9.9 in 2015 —
that’s any given week of any given month of the year. Nobody else
but NCM can deliver an engaged Millennial audience with that level
of viewable GRPs on a consistent basis.”
NCM also unveiled new research from a joint study with Omnicom
Media Group’s Annalect and CivicScience about Millennials’
movie-going habits, which offers some great insights for
advertisers, studios and theater owners. Millennials make up the
largest frequent movie-going age group, and this generation is
highly invested in the overall movie-going process:
- Millennials are 50 percent more likely
than the general population to say that movies are a passion of
theirs.
- Millennials want to talk about their
movie-going experience, and are more likely to be influenced by
social media (Facebook and YouTube in particular).
- 46 percent of Millennials aim to go to
the movies on a film’s opening weekend.
- The most frequently reported reason for
seeing a movie in a theater is that Millennials don’t want to miss
out by waiting until a movie is available at home.
- Exclusive theatrical formats like IMAX
and 11.1 surround sound, coupled with luxury amenities like
recliner seating and upgraded food options, are key drivers for a
generation willing to pay more for a better experience.
- Millennials are the age group most
likely to purchase movie tickets in advance.
- 86 percent of Millennials arrive early
to the movie theater.Click here to view the full study, Now
Showing: Millennials’ Movie-Going Experience.
Marks added, “And we all know, Millennials don’t just want
content pushed out to them; they like to personally interact with
it as well. We’ve listened to the demand for brand interactivity,
and NCM is proud to be working with Audience Entertainment and
TimePlay to bring both gesture-based and mobile phone-based
interactivity to cinema. We’ll be launching on approximately 500
screens and growing to over 1000 in the near future so consumers
can interact with your brands live on the big screen.”
Content
2015 was the biggest year ever at the movies, but as Paul
Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore, pointed out, the
good news doesn't end there. “2016 is off to a blistering start,
pushing year-to-date box office revenue up nearly 8% vs. last year.
The line-up of films on tap for Q4 2016 through Q3 2017 is,
according to comScore’s PreAct service, already resonating on
social media, and that is a compelling indicator that the marketing
campaigns for these films are effectively creating excitement among
potential moviegoers and thus implying continued solid attendance
in movie theaters down the road.” Dergarabedian concluded, “This
overall growth is not an anomaly, it’s a long-term trend. And this
trend is going to continue since going out to the movies remains a
singular, viable and integral part of today’s entertainment diet
while at the same time serves the very human desire to enjoy the
communal and immersive experience of the movie theater itself.”
The 2016/17 movie season truly has something for everyone, with
great new film slates from established and emerging studios alike.
NCM showcased content from several highly-anticipated movies
throughout its presentation, including The Edge of Seventeen, a wry
coming-of-age comedy from STX with a refreshingly authentic voice
introduced by Hailee Steinfield; Walt Disney Studios’ Rogue One: A
Star Wars Story, about resistance fighters who have united to steal
plans to the dreaded Death Star; Marvel’s Doctor Strange starring
Benedict Cumberbatch as the sorcerer supreme; Bad Moms a new comedy
from STX and the writers of The Hangover, and Rings, the third film
of Paramount’s Ring horror series. There was also a very special
sneak peek from The Walt Disney Studios VP, Cinema Partnerships,
David Sieden, featuring the long-awaited sequel Finding Dory, which
takes moviegoers back to the extraordinary underwater world of
Finding Nemo after 13 years; and Moana, the animated tale of an
adventurous teenager who sails out on a daring mission to save her
people.
Marks added, “Film planning has really changed in recent years,
and the studios have recognized the need to spread out major
releases throughout the year. There’s still a myth out there that
only summer and holiday movies deliver big audiences, but NCM’s 1st
Quarter 2016 Millennial audience was 97% of our 4th Quarter
attendance — nearly identical — which just goes to prove that
cinema is a year-round advertising solution for brands.”
Data
“NCM is the connector between brands and movie audiences,” NCM
Chief Revenue Officer Bennett Fogel told the upfront crowd. “This
statement defines our commitment to not only help you make that
valuable connection, but to do so in more effective and efficient
ways than anyone ever thought possible. As part of our
transformation into a state-of-the-art premium video platform, we
have developed a completely new inventory management system and are
launching the first ever Data Management Platform for a cinema
network with the Nielsen Marketing Cloud.”
Fogel then went on to introduce the new and exciting ways that
America’s Movie Network is bringing cinema advertising into today’s
world of enhanced targeting and big data:
- Effective this upfront cycle, with the
full rollout of NCM’s Cinema Audience Targeting Optimizer
(CATO), advertisers to go beyond targeting by MPAA rating
(G/PG, PG13 and R) to build media schedules at the film and genre
level. NCM can now more effectively target a brand’s key audience
by matching it to the movie titles and/or genres that can best
deliver that audience in a given campaign schedule.
- To further enhance the connection
between brands and movie audiences, NCM will also be filtering
media schedules through its new Nielsen Marketing Cloud Data
Management Platform (DMP). NCM’s DMP will house thousands of
first-, second- and third-party consumer data sets, including rich
moviegoer data derived from loyalty programs, mobile panels, beacon
networks and credit card purchases. NCM’s alliance with the Nielsen
Marketing Cloud DMP — the first of its kind in the cinema industry
— will allow it to offer transaction-based insights, better
targeted campaigns, and closed-loop ROI.
- NCM’s Cinema Accelerator
identifies moviegoers’ mobile devices as they enter a theater, and
re-engages them with a brand’s messages wherever they are consuming
content — on mobile, social, or online. This additional digital
touchpoint provides an ideal way to leverage a big screen ad with
small screen activations to drive traffic and transactions.
Fogel concluded, “Aside from all of the predictive data that we
can provide on the front end, quantifying business lift is the key
ROI metric that we are all being held accountable for today. Our
physical locations give us the unique ability to track audiences
from our theaters to your businesses. By working with geo-location
based research companies, we have partnered with clients to conduct
dozens of studies in the retail, QSR, and CPG categories. The
results have been consistent, and almost startling, in terms of
incremental traffic and sales lift!”
CEO Andy England perhaps best summed up NCM’s upfront message
when he said, “Huge Millennial reach and the best video content
aren’t enough. Giving you the important data to help your brand
reach and target the audience you need; while finding new ways for
you to connect with the audience before, during and after the
movies — that will be the next generation of cinema advertising.
NCM will put your brand in front of a huge Millennial audience
watching the best content available, and support you with data and
digital marketing. Welcome to the movies.”
About National CineMedia (NCM)
National CineMedia (NCM) is America's Movie Network. As the
#1 weekend network in the U.S., NCM is the connector between
brands and movie audiences. More than 700 million moviegoers
annually attend theatres that are currently under contract to
present NCM's FirstLook pre-show in over 40 leading national and
regional theatre circuits including AMC Entertainment
Inc. (NYSE:AMC), Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CNK)
and Regal Entertainment Group (NYSE:RGC). NCM's cinema
advertising network offers broad reach and unparalleled audience
engagement with approximately 20,400 screens in approximately 1,600
theaters in 187 Designated Market Areas® (49 of the top 50). NCM
Digital goes beyond the big screen, extending in-theatre campaigns
into online and mobile marketing programs to reach entertainment
audiences. National CineMedia, Inc. (NASDAQ:NCMI) owns a
43.6% interest in, and is the managing member of, National
CineMedia, LLC. For more information, visit www.ncm.com.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160518005359/en/
National CineMediaMEDIA CONTACTS:Amy Jane
Finnerty, 212-931-8117amy.finnerty@ncm.comorLeslie Obletz,
212-931-8119leslie.obletz@ncm.comorARTWORK:http://nationalcinemedia.smugmug.com/
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