National CineMedia has joined forces with the Grammy Awards to launch a new entertainment marketing program on the big screen, raising awareness of the awards ahead of their February 8 air date. The
partnership is focused on highlighting the close ties between music and movies to boost consumer engagement with the Grammys, and includes video, interactive, and event components.
The first three
NCM Grammys episodes feature artists, including Idina Menzel, the voice behind the character Elsa in the ubiquitous Disney movie “Frozen”; Australian singer-songwriter Vance Joy, who
reveals the artistic process behind his first album, “Dream Your Life Away”; and U.S. alt-pop band Echosmith, due to appear in a third episode in February.
For the event component,
NCM and the Grammys are hosting a sweepstakes where movie and music fans can enter to win a trip for two to the Grammys in Los Angeles in 2015 and 2016. The program is promoting the sweepstakes with
box office handouts as well as online, mobile, and social media elements.
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The NCM Grammys program debuted with Glade air freshener as a launch sponsor through March 5 of this year. The package
includes advertising for Glade with creative touching on the themes of music and inspiration.
NCM has forged a number of strategic partnerships in recent months. In November, it tapped Shazam
to bring mobile interactivity to every NCM-affiliated theater across the U.S., by integrating Shazam audio recognition technology into NCM’s FirstLook package of pre-show entertainment and
advertising.
The NCM-Shazam partnership enables moviegoers to engage with pre-show content by using mobile devices equipped with an audio recognition app to detect Shazam-marked content during
the FirstLook presentation.
Also last year, NCM announced the acquisition of its main competitor, Screenvision, for $375 million in cash and stock. However, the deal has run into regulatory
obstacles, with the Department of Justice suing to stop the merger on anti-competitive grounds.