movie advertizing

[MudMoney]

Our town has only one movie theatre with 4 screens,businesses are allowed to buy spots before the shows start ,one can buy just a still with voice background or video.Contracts are for a year and covers all four screens.My thoughts are I would have a captive audience,movies change weekly and so do the viewers.I was thinking about doing the video option as I was going to do a winter segment and a summer one highlighting our features.Anyone done this before and feedback pros and cons.

 

[DavidM]

I have done this twice. The results were not great. The major problem I found was that the ads played mostly to empty theatres. What I discovered is that all the previews before the movie have trained people to show up later, maybe right on time but never early for a movie. I went to a movie that sold about 75% of the seats for that showing but when the ads were playing, only about 10% of the people were there.

I thought it would be great, captive audience, nothing to do but look at the screen, people with extra money to spend, the demographic seems perfect. Unfortunately, in our theater the ads played too early and it was somewhat expensive. Would have been a good deal if everyone that went to the movie actually saw the ad though.

If you decide to try it, let us know how it goes for you.

David

 

[LibertyCarWash]

I tried this a few months ago. There is a 12plex theater one block away from my wash that charges $750/month for a 20 second ad that plays 3 times before each movie. I put together a nice video showing our automatics and included a code for $2.00 off the top wash. Even with having a discount I didn't get enough business from it to break even with the cost of the ad. Plus a lot of those people using the code were probably customers anyways. I'm hoping it brought me a few new customers who will continue to use it, but I have no way of verifying it. Won't be something I do again.

 

[raisetheprice]

The only thing we got out of it was free movie passes for a while. We gave a discount with movie receipt and didn't get many takers.

 

[Waxman]

I think there are many ways that are cheaper and more creative than the Movie ad idea.

There is a book called "gorilla marketing" that is good, as is Pat Crowe's 'SS Carwash Tech Bulletins', and I'm reading a new one by Ira Feinberg.

Do a little more research before you spend $750/mo. or similar.

 

[MudMoney]

I go to the movies on a weekly basis as I have another business relationship with the company and I will keep a count on those that appear early vs later.Last time I checked the annual fee was $1600,this by no means is a done deal.

 

[jimbeaux]

I tried it one time. I offered a discount with a mention of the ad and did not have even one taker. Wasted money for me.

 

[Bossman]

I considered this as well, but simply went to a movie first to see what the ads looked like, and yes, most of the ads were playing to an empty room. What I ended up doing was getting an ad in a flyer that advertises the schedule for the next month. The cost was much less, (never accept the first price they quote you) and I figured there's a good chance that if they're picking up the flyer, they'll look at the ads.