Press relese from Access Public Relations
Australia’s leading cinema advertising company Val Morgan today announced the results of a world-first research study which proves that cinema advertising increases consumer propensity to buy and drives return on investment for advertisers.
Conducted by AMR Interactive, the study is the largest ever commissioned by the cinema advertising industry and sought to quantify cinema advertising’s ROI for the first time.
The research found that when cinema advertising was added to a TV campaign, there was a three-fold lift in consumers’ propensity to buy, compared to TV alone.
“Previous research has found that cinema enjoys eight times the recall of other broadcast media – but there was nothing to show how it impacts propensity to buy and advertising ROI. Today we have that proof,” Val Morgan CEO Graeme Yarwood said.
AMR Interactive conducted extensive research among more than 4,000 people across 11 advertising campaigns in a broad range of categories including automotive, telecommunications, alcoholic beverages, finance, fast food and fast moving consumer goods (food, beverage and personal care brands).
Eleven advertising campaigns were tested, each with the same executions on cinema and TV and which were airing concurrently.
The report found that per media dollar spent, cinema and TV advertising in combination was 36 per cent more effective in driving increased propensity to purchase than TV alone.
“What this means is that cinema used in conjunction with TV will deliver a higher uplift in propensity to buy for advertisers than the same budget spent on TV alone,” Yarwood said.
In addition, Val Morgan has developed a sophisticated modelling solution for media buyers that enables the lift in propensity to purchase to be projected for an ad campaign using cinema and TV in combination versus using TV alone.
“The modelling really brings the results of the research study to life and demonstrates the value of including cinema with a TV schedule,” Yarwood said.
Cinema advertising also contributed to positive uplifts in brand measures. For example, there was a 66 per cent positive message takeout amongst those recalling cinema and TV advertising, compared to 59 per cent for those recalling TV alone.
Brand attributes of liking, brand image, advocacy and value rating amongst those recalling both cinema and TV advertising also outperformed those recalling TV only.
“This groundbreaking research offers some compelling reasons for advertisers to add cinema to their TV campaigns. Cinema really punches above its weight in contributing to a significant uplift in propensity to buy,” Yarwood said.
To ensure representation and relevance, respondents were screened to be product category users and within the target audience for each campaign. AMR Interactive also engaged an independent statistical expert, Dr Bill Callaghan, as part of the research team, with a specific focus on design and analysis.
“We are confident that ‘best practice’ research was undertaken to ensure a rigorous study of the effectiveness of cinema, relative to TV, was carried out. The study was designed with the input of Dr Callaghan to ensure it was totally objective in assessing the relative merits of TV and cinema,” AMR Interactive Chairman Brian Fine said.
“The key findings from the study demonstrate that cinema advertising exposure, across the 11 campaigns, had a significant impact on propensity to purchase the brands tested, and delivered a greater ROI for expenditure, than using TV advertising alone.
“It also showed there were greater positive impacts for the brands tested than TV alone .These included higher recall, positive brand empathy, positive brand perceptions and propensity to purchase the brand. A combination of both TV and cinema was seen to have a synergistic impact which uplifted these measures,” he added.
The cinema industry is enjoying record box office this year, with sales up 20 per cent year on year, buoyed by strong consumer interest in 3D films. With blockbusters such as Iron Man 2, Robin Hood, Sex and the City 2, Shrek Forever After, Toy Story 3 and Twilight Eclipse launching in the coming months, cinema can expect to continue its healthy audience numbers.
“Cinema is a unique medium because not only does it have a captive audience but one that sees the ads as an enjoyable part of the cinema experience,” Yarwood said.
“Cinema advertising has an $80 million slice of the advertising pie but we believe this research, along with our record box office this year, demonstrates beyond doubt that cinema deserves a larger commitment from advertisers.”