If there is one thing that the people of India have in common, it’s their love for the movies. People in our country go to the theatres week after week to get themselves entertained in huge numbers and the various offers on online booking portals have led to an increase in them on a consistent basis. This meteoric rise in footfall in theatres is why cinema advertising has become more important than ever before and every piece of real estate inside a multiplex is appreciating in value. Let us point out a few reasons as to why cinema advertising should be an important part of your overall marketing mix.

Firstly, multiplexes are often located in prime locations and are visited by people with high spending capacity. That makes places like PVR cinemas an advertising hotspot and many companies have started to acknowledge them as network to communicate with their target audience.

Secondly, cinema advertising offers more than just one option to a product or service in terms of how it can be presented. Advertising in INOX and advertising in PVR is increasing leaps and bounds not only because of the ads they play during the screening of the movie but also the standees, kiosks and posters that are available outside the movie hall which can be utilized to make a difference. Washroom branding in cinemas is fast becoming a popular trend. We can even find pamphlets at the ticket counter. All this only goes to show how every place where a person spends time inside a multiplex can be used for marketing and spreading information.

Lastly, cinema advertising brings in an experiential aspect and that can also be clubbed in with a movie. There is no better place to tell a story for your brand than somewhere where stories are shown day in and day out. People can touch, use and know exactly what the product is about and that increases the probability of them buying it there or even afterwards. Parking lots and even the back of cinema seats can be used to then retarget the same people and get them as close to buying the product as possible.

Citing the benefits mentioned above, it is pretty clear why cinema advertising deserves a portion of your advertising budget and is good enough to get you a return on the same.

With the rise in the number of multiplexes across the country and an increased footfall there, these places have become a hotspot for companies to market themselves at scale. This can also be attributed to the increase in the number of movies screened in these places both domestic and international, which allows advertisers to assign multiple spots for commercials to companies and help them advertise their products to a targeted audience. From theatres to the food counters, even the parking lot has become a place to advertise in multiplexes.

Cinema chains have allowed for hundreds of screens to come under the same banner which has made it easier for companies to negotiate advertising deals with them. This would have been impossible a decade ago when single screen theatres accounted for most of the screen count in the country. There are instances of the same company advertising its product both on and off screen in the same theatre which has proved beneficial for them. A company can show the commercial for a product during the screening and then have it on display outside increasing the chances of a sale later on.

It should also be kept in mind that people visiting multiplexes have a higher percentage of people with better purchasing power. This should also be an encouraging factor for companies that are looking to make use of this medium. The demographic of the audience that more likely to watch a particular movie helps companies to decide which products should be advertised when that movie is being played. This is will help eliminate wastage of screen time both for the theatre chain and the advertiser.

Also, people going to theatres always anticipate commercials and companies can use this medium as a tactical tool to communicate messages from the brand and even target audiences on a geographical basis. In fact, this is one of the few mediums which assures that as people go to watch movies in nearby theatres. That along with the increase in app based bookings can do wonders for companies in driving audience-specific marketing campaigns. Improvements in technology for creating immersive experiences is bound to make this medium an attractive investment opportunity from a marketing perspective.

Ours is a nation that is both invested and influenced by the movies, so there’s no doubt about the value this medium has and what it has to offer. In the years to come, this is bound to become one of the most profit yielding marketing channels across the industry.