• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, May 14, 2014

NCM Media Networks, the nation’s largest cinema ad network, held an upfront this week on a scale to match its cinematic medium, with announcements of a number of new mobile and video content partnerships.

The list of new offerings included a new partnership with Shazam for mobile interactivity and marketing partnerships with Maker Studios and The Grammy Awards.
 
First up, NCM trumpeted the new partnership with Shazam, which until recently was partnered with NCM’s longtime rival -- but now recent acquisition -- Screenvision.

The Shazam partnership should enable advertisers in NCM’s FirstLook package of pre-show entertainment and advertising to engage with consumers via their mobile devices, using Shazam’s audio recognition technology. Moviegoers with Shazam on their mobile devices can use the devices to detect FirstLook programming in order to identify, explore, purchase and share that content. Shazam interactivity can also call up additional information and interactive ad messages on mobile devices.
 
NCM also announced that “FirstLook5,” a five-minute digital video version of FirstLook which is already garnering over 2 million views a week via desktops and smartphones, will also be updated with a new FirstLook design.

On the social front, NCM introduced “FirstLookYou!,” a user-generated social video platform that allows moviegoers to give their own 20-second reviews of movies using special kiosks in movie theater lobbies, then share them across Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
 
In terms of content partnerships, NCM announced a deal with Maker Studios, acquired by Disney earlier this year, to bring Maker’s online stars and content to the big screen. NCM is also partnering with the Grammy Awards to create special products highlighting the role of music and artists in movies. Finally, NCM is tapping Ideas United to help advertisers created branded content for the big screen.
 
The overriding message was hard to miss, as NCM (like Screenvision) continues to make an unabashed pitch for TV ad dollars. On that note, NCM president of sales and marketing Cliff Marks stated: “NCM’s average unduplicated weekly audience represents a Nielsen rating of 7.4 in adults 18 to 49 -- that’s massive when you compare it to the average of 1.6 for a broadcast program or 0.9 for the top 20 cable networks in prime time.

"It puts our weekly FirstLook pre-show squarely in the top 10 prime-time shows every week throughout the year. And if you look at our biggest movie weeks, NCM’s FirstLook delivers ratings as big as the biggest live events on TV, with no DVR."
 
Marks added: “Just like TV, NCM will be offering Nielsen Post Buy Analysis and demo guarantees to our upfront advertisers beginning in Q4 2014, making it easier than ever to include cinema as part of a video-agnostic upfront buy.”
 
Looking ahead, NCM is working on a “Cinema Audience Targeting Optimizer” system, scheduled to launch in 2015, which will enable advertisers to target audiences more precisely using geographic and demographic data, as well as film genres .