National CineMedia (NCM) Launches New Offerings to Transform Cinema into a Modern, Full-Funnel Media Solution
Expands opportunities for advertisers with programmatic buying, self-serve automation, and business outcome guarantees
Releases findings of new attention study, reaffirming cinema as the #1 premium video platform for consumer attention
Announces United Airlines, Hyundai, Indeed, SEGA of America, Mazda, and e.l.f. Beauty as top brands leveraging cinema advertising to drive business and brand impact
NCM, the largest cinema advertising platform in the US, today announced its new offerings for the 2024-25 upfront, providing brands with full-funnel solutions to reach sought-after audiences, including programmatic buying and self-serve automation. NCM is also leveraging its data-driven approach and deep understanding of moviegoers to provide business outcome guarantees for select advertisers in their upfront deals, ensuring a return on their ad spend. In addition to these industry-firsts, NCM released the findings from its second attention study, reaffirming cinema as the number one platform for attention.
"NCM is driven by our commitment to innovate and transform cinema advertising into the most effective performance and brand building solution in today's media marketplace," shares Scott Felenstein, President of Sales, Marketing and Partnerships at NCM. "We are a true premium video solution and continue to develop new capabilities that provide advertisers with unrivaled reach and scale; a coveted young, diverse audience; and the highest attention metrics, all in a brand safe and culturally relevant ad environment."
Category leaders including Hyundai, United Airlines, Indeed, SEGA of America, Mazda and e.l.f. Beauty have all tapped NCM in the last year, leveraging long form content and targeted buys with a range of campaign goals spanning across upper, mid and lower funnel metrics.
"Hyundai's experience with cinema advertising has helped us reach audiences that are fully engaged and receptive to messaging," said Angela Zepeda, CMO, Hyundai Motor North America. "By offering captivating content that's featured on the biggest screen available, the movie screen, we have further enhanced our impact with hard-to-reach audiences."
Innovations in Programmatic and Self-Serve Transform Cinema
NCM's industry-leading launches of programmatic and self-serve buying expand the ways in which current and new advertisers can tap into the company's highly valued big screen inventory.
- Programmatic: For the first time, media buyers can access real-time, data-driven trading of cinema ad inventory, bidding on available audiences during NCM's show, Noovie®. Buyers can choose from programmatic guaranteed (PG) and private marketplace (PMP) options for brand safe, 100% human-viewed premium cinema video impressions across NCM's platform. Additionally, programmatic buys can be customized by reach, geography, film rating, day of the week and time of day.
- Self-serve: NCM's new Campaign Manager, the first fully automated self-serve solution in cinema advertising, empowers local and regional companies to plan, buy, and schedule their ads to run on the big screen. Additionally, NCM is working with video creation platform Waymark to support clients who seek to create ads by leveraging the power of AI. A first in cinema, the Waymark collaboration with NCM will provide more small and mid-size advertisers who cannot afford to produce their own ads broader access to the big screen.
New Attention Study Reaffirms Cinema as the Top Video Platform
NCM today released the findings of its second attention study. Conducted by Lumen Technologies in October 2023, the study reaffirmed cinema as the number one ad-supported video platform for attention and provided new insights. Using eye-tracking technology to measure second-by-second viewing of ads, the study examined fourteen categories, a variety of ad lengths, and an expanded list of media competitors encompassing premium AVOD, FAST nets, podcasts, social media, digital platforms, desktop, and mobile devices.
Key findings include:
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Cinema ranks as #1 in attention, surpassing premium video platforms including linear (sports), digital premium video, and premium podcasts, with an expanded competitive edge (3x-6x) when compared to FAST nets and premium AVOD
- Attention scores remain high across key demos (A18-34, A18-49, A25-54) and all ad lengths, and prove consistent across blockbusters (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) and smaller indie movie gems (The Creator and Dumb Money)
- Cinema's attention advantage shows diverse consumers pay 3x-4x attention versus competitive norms
- Cinema shows a significant advantage in categories such as automotive, pharma, and insurance – all high-value, complex products/services that often require consumer education and trust-building
- Year-over-year growth of +17% in average seconds viewed in cinema, with an average of 25.5 seconds of viewing a :30 ad in cinema
Supported by the new study results, NCM is providing industry-first attention rating guarantees for select clients in their upfront deals through a partnership with Adelaide, the attention measurement leader. This new guarantee lets advertisers transact against the attention metric with Adelaide providing attention ratings versus norms, allowing an apples-to-apples quality comparison across premium video platforms. Notably, the Adelaide attention unit ratings analysis has already shown that cinema campaigns rank in the top 5% of all media.
Guaranteeing Business Outcomes in Cinema
NCM is doubling down on their ability to deliver hard to reach audiences and will now be guaranteeing business outcomes such as advanced audience, sales lift, and increased foot traffic to select clients. In collaboration with various attribution partners, NCM conducted extensive testing throughout the fourth quarter of 2023 which revealed that brands across retail, QSR, and automotive sectors can effectively reach holiday shoppers through cinema advertising. Across these categories, cinema ads led to double-digit increases in critical business metrics such as consideration, foot traffic, and sales lift.
According to analysis by Affinity Solutions, NCM campaigns also resulted in notable improvements in key sales metrics including spend rate, shop rate, purchase rate, and spend per shopper. These findings underscore the undeniable business value of moviegoers. With these guarantees, NCM is unlocking the accountability, transparency, measurability, and return on ad spend that brands are seeking in today's competitive marketplace.
Transforming the Movie Experience with New Brand Campaigns and Creative Content
As part of its goal to transform cinema advertising and drive scalable impact for marketers, NCM has released a wide range of custom content solutions including turnkey editorial sponsorships in The Noovie Show, takeovers with long form brand films, immersive experiential activations in theater lobbies, themed trivia segments leveraging movie IP, and fully integrated marketing campaigns tied to film titles or pop culture themes.
Noovie Studios, NCM's in-house creative studio, is also launching three new sponsorable content platforms as part of the 2024-25 upfront:
- Sustainability – Directly appealing to NCM's socially conscious Gen Z audience, "Wonders of the Ocean" will immerse moviegoers in spectacular underwater footage provided by Ocean X, the non-profit focused on protecting the oceans to drive positive change.
- Fashion – In partnership with the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), NCM is launching "Going Behind the Seams with the CFDA and Noovie," a series that follows up and coming fashion designers Collina Strada, Wiederhoeft, Zankov, and others, as they prepare for runway shows.
- Hollywood – "Close Up with Perri Nemiroff" features film critic Perri Nemiroff interviewing top Hollywood talent such as the cast of Mean Girls: The Musical, Jack Black (Kung Fu Panda 4), Michael Chaves (director of The Nun II), and John Carney (director of Flora and Son).
Other recent editorial launches in The Noovie Show include "Religion of Sports" about inspirational athletes, and "Bowl'd Entrepreneurs" from One37PM.
About NCM
National CineMedia (NCM) is the largest cinema advertising platform in the US. With unparalleled reach and scale, NCM connects brands to sought-after young, diverse audiences through the power of movies and pop culture. A premium video, full-funnel marketing solution for advertisers, NCM enhances marketers' ability to measure and drive results. NCM's Noovie® Show is presented exclusively in 42 leading national and regional theater circuits including the only three national chains, AMC Entertainment Inc. (NYSE:AMC), Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CNK) and Regal Entertainment Group (a subsidiary of Cineworld Group PLC). NCM's cinema advertising platform consists of more than 18,400 screens in over 1,450 theaters in 190 Designated Market Areas® (all of the Top 50). National CineMedia, Inc. (NASDAQ:NCMI) owns and is the managing member of, National CineMedia, LLC. For more information, visit www.ncm.com.
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