*CYBERTORIAL: Cinemark’s Guaranteed Audience Package, launched in March, is an innovative way for advertisers to be offered an auditable audience as guaranteed audience members, no matter what the attendance figures and content. The first in cinema buying in South Africa, Cinemark is committed to what is seen internationally as best practice in cinema advertising, writes Eric Blignaut.
“Guaranteed audiences are the way of the future,” explains Group Managing Director of TheMediaShop, Chris Botha. “With the ever increasing media proliferation and uncertainty, clients and agencies are looking for solid platforms that guarantee returns. The GA model adopted by Cinemark in South Africa is not only forward thinking, but a view of things to come for other media owners.”
With cinema and digital channels now the only media types that provide an empirically audited audience, the Cinemark team is not relying on surveys and sample panels to establish the scale of its viewership anymore.
Since its launch, the Guaranteed Audience offering appeals to clients who need and want more as their media budgets come under ever increasing scrutiny, explains Acting National Sales Manager for Cinemark, Eric Blignaut.
He says, “In order for the current iteration of GA to be successful, advertisers would need to think different about how the platform delivers. I’d like to say to them, be prepared to relax your view on cherry-picking complexes and titles and consider the depth that this product gives you. Aside from a guaranteed audience reach, you still get the benefits you originally bought the big screen for – unbeatable impact and an affluent demographic delivered in a state of the art environment.”
Cinema as a medium now offers advertisers two advantages. Firstly, it continues to offer a unique environment where the audience is there because they love the movie experience and are completely immersed in the content – both adverts and the movie itself. Secondly, it now offers advertisers the opportunity to pick the exact size of the target market they’d like to reach.
Botha says, “Cinemark has taken a media platform that has traditionally struggled with the unpredictable nature of its product and brought a layer of certainty to it. Well done to them.”
To find out more about Guaranteed Audience visit www.cinemark.co.za or enquire at Enquiries@sterkinekor.com
About Cinemark
Established in 1971, Cinemark is a premiere advertising sales company representing Ster-Kinekor and select independent cinemas. Initially founded through a tri-company merger, Cinemark was subsequently bought by Primedia, one of the largest media players in South Africa. It provides a platform for advertisers to utilise the cinema medium for marketing, based on the fact that it is a medium that boasts high visual impact and evocative sound, engaging attentive and captive audiences while they are in a relaxed and receptive mood.
