Benedict Advertising - Business Building Solutions

by Donna Cooper, Jr. Copywriter

As the strike carries on into it’s 4th month, a new threat looms on the horizon. Advertisers and media buyers are looking for new ways to put their dollars to use. With the TV season looking like a sinking ship, move theaters all across America are in the sites of advertisers.

The once unspoiled domain that was the movies is the new target for developing advertising space. While it’s understandable that they don’t want their ad dollars to go to waste, it’s a touchy subject as to whether it’s a good idea to start advertising in movie theaters. The majority of moviegoers relish the fact that they can spend anywhere from 90 to 180+ minutes immersed in commercial free entertainment. Infringing upon that enjoyment with unwanted product advertisements that they try desperately to avoid using TiVo and DVR at home, will only succeed in annoying them further at the theater, what used to be a safe-haven from commercials.

Theaters in recent years, have been leaning toward using their giant screens for more than just local advertisements. Nowadays before the trailers start, you can see a wide variety of spots, but they typically have to do with the movie itself, the industry, or are sponsored by the products available in the theater lobby. But, if the strike continues and more and more buyers start looking for new ways to spend their money, we can expect to see Tide commercials at the beginning of Rocky XVII.

Even if the strike ends tomorrow, all might be lost for the untouched domain of movie theaters. Because of the prolonged state of the TV season, nobody is sure if TV is going to be a viable option for advertising anymore. With more and more people already gravitating to more interactive forms of entertainment (YouTube, MySpace, and Online TV shows)—the strike exacerbating the situation—it’s likely that people are going to turn their backs on TV.

Not only will it be likely that we will watch a series of commercial spots before the movie, but expect to see displays and interactive experiences in the theater lobby, as well.

If the strike goes on much longer, our movie going experience, as we know it might come to an end. In fact, it might already be too late.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 28th, 2008 at 2:28 pm and is filed under What's the 411?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.