NEW YORK: Cinema ads for consumer packaged goods can deliver a 37% higher return on investment (ROI) than equivalent spots shown on TV, new research has said.

This claim was outcome of research undertaken for the Cinema Advertising Council by Prof. E. Craig Stacey, research director for the NYU Stern Center for Measurable Marketing.

Stacey examined an eight-week campaign for a major cereal brand that ran across cinema, national broadcast and cable TV and local TV. For the cinema part of the campaign, ads were placed on the two leading cinema ad networks, NCM MediaNetworks and Screenvision.

The 37% outperformance total was reached by comparing ad spending with incremental units of sales volume. "Our particular type of statistical modelling is time-series based in order to get a truer read in sales response over time", explained Stacey in remarks reported by MediaPost.
 
"In addition, these models are well-suited for measuring the interdependencies and synergies among media channels in today's complex marketing ecosystem," he said.

Other research has also pointed up cinema's ROI. A meta-analysis undertaken last year by BrandScience found that cinema delivered €3.07 additional revenue for every euro spent across Europe. In addition to performing well in its own right, it also enhanced all other main media so assuring higher campaign ROI, The Drum reported.

But a separate study from Cologne University highlighted a potential division between cinema owners seeking to maximise product sales and advertisers wanting to get their message across to viewers. This found that eating popcorn made people immune to advertising by disturbing inner speech patterns.

Separately, the growing reach of cinema among baby boomers – 30% compared to an average of 17% – was noted by Blackett Ditchburn, of Digital Cinema Media, in an article in Admap, where he argued that they were an engaged and informed group that should not be ignored.

Appealing successfully to this older group would, Ditchburn suggested, require brands to pay greater attention to their competitive benefits, and to ensure these were available not necessarily in every communication, but somewhere.

Data sourced from MediaPost, the Drum, Guardian; additional content by Warc staff