Fast Food: Not So Fast To Use Silver Screen

During the past five years, the growth and acceptance of in-theater cinema advertising has attracted nearly all the major ad categories, with one notable exception: quick service and fast food restaurants.

Screenvision, the cinema ad network that provides "Cinema Spots" to advertisers on more than half of the nation's 30,000 movie screens, is looking to change the view that audiences who are munching on popcorn will respond to ads for food.

"Just about every ad category is growing for in-cinema advertising," said Matthew Kearney, president and CEO of Screenvision, which recently struck a deal with cell phone marketer Sony Ericsson to put its ads on-screen. "It started with autos, and we recently added health and beauty, financial services, consumer electronics. The one thing that surprises me is that we haven't seen quick service restaurants(QSR)/fast food."

Three out-of-home media buyers cited the competition from theater concession stands.

"It makes sense to advertise Coca-Cola in a theater as long as it doesn't sell Pepsi, since the audience sees the ad and might be motivated to buy a drink," said one. "But you can't get to Burger King or McDonald's from your movie seat. That's the reason for the reluctance."

advertisement

advertisement

Kearney is well aware of that dilemma, but he believes that the general habits of the audience when they go out of a movie would be enough to entice moviegoers to visit a fast food place following the movie.

"One thing I know about going to the movies from personal experience, is there's always the question of food: to go out before or after the film--and more than half the time, the choice is to go after, so you don't miss the movie," Kearney said. "And usually, where there's a multiplex, there's usually a QSR near by. So it makes perfect sense for a QSR to want to reach people when they're out."

Another media buyer agreed. "People watching TV at home tend to have even more choices for food a few feet away from the television, yet fast food ads are one of the most common," he said. "Plus, they don't have to wait on line or pay for the food if they're suddenly inspired by a restaurant spot. So just because movie theaters sell popcorn, it doesn't necessarily mean that audiences wouldn't respond to a QSR ad."

Kearney also cited stats from a recent survey of cinema ads the company did with TNS, which claimed that "moviegoers who saw in-theater advertising are 44 percent more likely to remember the ad than consumers who saw it on TV."

The Cinema Advertising Council, a trade association that is also headed by Kearney, plans to announce that media spending on cinema ads increased to more than $400 million in 2004, from $356 million in 2003--a 12 percent increase.

Next story loading loading..