• by J. Max Robins , Featured Columnist, April 24, 2015

Whether it's HBO, Showtime or Netflix, one of the biggest challenges marketing upscale TV programming is how to reach an affluent audience. Same goes for those marketing luxury goods, whether it's Louis Vuitton or Porsche. Since its late-2011 launch, Spotlight Cinema Networks has offered a targeted platform for brands such as those to reach a blue-chip market. 

Part of Mark Cuban's media empire, Spotlight Cinema Networks is the industry leader in reaching a select audience via premier, luxury and “bistro” theaters screening independent and “smart” Hollywood films with its 15 minute pre-show .

Such exhibitors as Angelika Film Center, Laemmle Theatres and Landmark Theatres. On average, that 15-minute pre-show features three to four short films, usually two minutes to three minutes in length that have touted everything for the new season of “House of Cards” to Porsche and Cadillac, interspersed with trailers and selected shorts. That means relatively little clutter. Tune-in advertising dominates. If the advertiser creative isn't up to snuff or the brand is too down-market, Spotlight will just say “no,” says the company's president Michael Sakin, adding, “We're really about matching the advertiser's content with the exhibitors' audience.”

Sakin knows his market. Prior to Spotlight, he was SVP of ad sales for Landmark Theatres, and did a stint running the western and midwest regions for Screenvision. 

Sakin operates in a distinct “niche,” much different from Screenvision or the other major player in the pre-show game, National CineMedia. (The two tried to merge, but the feds put the kibosh on the deal last March.) The pre-shows those big dogs are more likely to traffic in show short films for Coca Cola, McDonald's or WalMart, before the lights go down and latest popcorn superhero noise fills the screen. He's extremely mindful to keep the right mix in each pre-show of the 150 venues and 750 screens that Spotlight serves. 

“You aren't going to see packaged goods or pharmaceuticals, or fast foods in our pre-shows. We're just not the right platform those categories,” says Sakin. “Porsche and Louis Vuitton don't want to be next to fast food, not that there's anything wrong with Burger King or McDonald's.”

A couple of weeks ago, Spotlight launched CineLife, a free app targeting film enthusiasts to find and buy tickets to art houses, what the company is touting as the app going after the indie crowd. It features content from several sources including Indiewire, Metacritic and Eat Drink Films. Obviously, CineLife was designed as a content marketing platform to work hand in glove with the screens Spotlight represents.

Sakin knows he is handing his advertisers a “captive upscale audience,” whether it's one of the art house venues or upscale exhibitors that likely serve gastropub grub and top-shelf booze. And launching new platforms such as the CineLife app complements the core business. “The audience going to the theaters in our networks doesn’t watch a lot of advertisers-supported TV and, if they do, they record it and fast-forward,” says Sakin. “If it's a Netflix, HBO or Showtime, we deliver the exclusive audience they want, who can be extremely elusive to find. If we didn't, they wouldn't keep coming back.”