• by Seana Mulcahy , March 28, 2005

As many of you know, I spend my days eating, sleeping, and breathing brands. Many of the brands I have worked on have had a long shelf life. As an ad geek, I admire the brands that we all know and love. Many of them have been around a long time. Think Tony the Tiger. Or the Pillsbury Dough Boy and Aunt Jemima? Have you ever put your heart and soul into a brand that only sticks around for a few weeks or even days? Ask anyone in the movie biz and they'll nod their heads.

A colleague brought this to my attention recently. His job is to get "butts in seats." Just think about it... We talk about clutter in the advertising business every day. We create presentations letting our bosses or clients know that indeed this idea will "cut through the clutter."

When you want to go to a movie nowadays, what do you do? Well, if you are reading this, you most likely go online or to a device to find movie information, reviews, and theatre times from the likes of AOL's Moviefone, Fandango, Movietickets.com, iFilm, Hollwood.com or Yahoo! Movies. Yea sure, some of you might pick up the phone or even a newspaper. However, these numbers are smaller these days.

I am certainly a product of an on-demand generation. I hate to admit it, but typically I have no idea what movies are out (let alone which I'd like to see). I've been a Netflix girl for years. When I watch the Oscars I root for my favorite actors and actresses but haven't seen half the movies in the top categories. Why? Because my time is spread super thin. No one knows this better than movie advertisers. They are all fighting for your Friday night.

Take a look at online creative out there. Who's doing the best job? You'll most likely some up with some online trailers you've seen recently. Did you know that the name "trailers" was dubbed because they were generally played after the movie? Now they are played before the movie. The Internet has kind of turned this theory on its head. Just think about it, you now select to view a trailer online to see if you want to watch a movie offline.

As I was writing this I searched and searched for stats. I was trying to find out just how many people viewed either online ads or online trailers for movies prior to watching the movie. Unfortunately I couldn't find any. I'd like to ask you if you have seen any. If so, please share them with us on the SPIN board. I would think a company like Fandango or Moviefone would be able to directly correlate movies viewed by imagery or text (via SMS) to tickets purchased. Maybe they don't want to share that with us? I think it would be quite the swan song for the industry if they did.

The Online Publishers Association (OPA) recently released its full year 2004 Paid Online Content U.S. Market Spending Report. The study, conducted in partnership with comScore Networks, found that consumer spending for online content in the U.S. grew to $1.8 billion in 2004, a 14 percent increase over 2003, driven largely by growth in the Entertainment/Lifestyles category. Movies make up a big chunk of this pie. This is nothing to bat an eyelash over. This is a HUGE potential for digital marketing and advertising.

As the on-demand culture continues to be more... on-demand, we need to capture eyeballs quicker and smarter than ever. There always seems to be sizzle around entertainment advertising. Will there be more and more pressure for warp-speed advertising for movies that come in and out in a flash? Will we start seeing more advertising for DVD rentals because a heck of a lot of us just can't keep up with the pace, or the crowds, or the trip to the good old-fashioned movie theatre? Will we tread toward only watching movies at home? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Post them to the SPIN board.