In cinema ads surge as post covid effects wear off

New Delhi: Cinemas have started seeing a surge in advertising after a long lull following the pandemic, when not many big Hindi movies were releasing, and those that did hit the theatres failed to excite the audiences. A 15% jump was seen in the second and third quarters of FY24, compared with the same period last year, and theatre owners say they are inching closer to pre covid levels of in cinema advertising.

While southern markets were quicker to recover from the impact of pandemic, advertisers are now signing up long term campaigns with theatre owners even in the north, with FMCG, consumer durables and financial services categories leading the surge. “In cinema ads have increased significantly in the last few months.

This happens every year around the holiday period, from October to December, and it’s like a tradition for companies to advertise more during the festive season. Some really big Hindi movies came out in the second half of the year, like Gadar 2, Jawan, Tiger 3, Animal, and Dunki," Devang Sampat, CEO, Cinepolis India, said.

“More people in the theatres mean more chances for ads to be seen, and that makes sense for advertisers because they get more value for the money spent." In 2023, about 31% of the money the company made from advertising came during this holiday period, Sampat added. In the past few months, theatre owners have seen a notable surge in in cinema advertising, overcoming challenges posed by the OTT boom.

The unique cinematic experience and different movie formats with focus on enhanced guest experiences continues to draw audiences, Rahul Puri, managing director, Mukta Arts and Mukta A2 Cinemas, said. That said, things were looking up for cinema advertising even beyond the enthusiasm induced by the festive period.

Led by good content and more footfalls in theatres, advertisers who were reluctant to do cinema campaigns or were only cherry picking movies, started to do more consistent campaigns and signed up long term deals, resulting in a rise in brand count and revenue, said Yogesh Kapil national sales head, Qube Cinema Network, a digital cinema technology provider.

“FMCG, consumer durables and BFSI categories were the most active and a lot of new clients came on board in the second half of the year. Also, thanks to social media, there is now a general awareness of the box office numbers that earlier used to be restricted to the trade domain. This helps clients understand the power of cinema as a media vehicle," Kapil said.

Other than the recent successes thrown up by Bollywood, a steady line up of southern films, apart from other big ticket releases, kept advertisers interested, Kapil added. Advertisers like those in the lifestyle (jewellery) space, FMCG and organised retail contributed to a significant jump in revenues.

Still, challenges continue to abound for cinema advertising. Theatre owners say the overall revenues are still 10 15% lower than pre pandemic levels. “The southern market that is completely retail driven has bounced back, more or less. The issue lies with the north, which is dominated by corporates," said Amit Sharma, managing director of Miraj Entertainment, a company that operates multiplex theatres.

“We’re hoping to see overall recovery by 2025," he added. Over the last four years, content consumption patterns have changed dramatically, which had led to wider consumption of regional content, said Siddharth Bhardwaj, chief marketing officer and head of enterprise sales at cinema distribution network UFO Moviez.

“The trend has been picked by cinema advertisers, and they are now prepared to advertise on regional films, not limiting campaigns to the south but prepared to run the same in markets beyond southern states," Bhardwaj said. Livemint tops charts as the fastest growing news website in the world to know more.

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