• by Erik Sass , March 9, 2007

Moviegoers are more amenable to watching ads in a theater before the film starts, than watching TV ads, according to Arbitron's 2007 Cinema Advertising Study, released on Thursday. Fifty-three percent of moviegoers find ads before movies acceptable, beating out the 46% who deem TV ads acceptable. What's more, 59% of moviegoers remembered seeing an ad before the last movie they watched in a theater, Arbitron found in its random phone survey of 1,010 teens and adults.

The Arbitron study, titled "Making Brands Shine in the Dark," contains more good news for the growing cinema advertising industry. Ads in movie theaters connect with a young audience: 81% of teenagers and 67% of adults ages 18-24 say they have been to the movies in the last month.

Overall, cinema advertising is one of the fastest-growing sectors of the ad industry, along with the Internet and out-of-home generally. Cinema advertisers expect that revenues will more than double from 2004 to 2008--from about $480 million to over $1 billion.

Who are the ads reaching? Frequent moviegoers tend to be so-called "early adopters," with 40% saying they feel "ahead of the curve" in buying new products, compared to 22% of the American population at large.

Further, pre-show movie advertising delivers ads to people who otherwise avoid them, according to Arbitron--which found that moviegoers are more likely to use ad-avoiding technologies like DVRs and pop-up blockers. In movie theaters, where the projectionist is in control, this is clearly not an option. Plus, movie advertising reaches its audience with "surround sound," so to speak: in addition to the pre-movie ads, advertisers can also deploy posters, branded food and drink containers, and lobby music and video displays.