A feature on research conducted by Kantar
Living through the recent lockdown, citizens are starting to realise what they are missing. As Boris Yeltsin said in 2003, “We don’t appreciate what we have until it’s gone. Freedom is like that. It’s like air. When you have it, you don’t notice it.” So, what are people most looking forward to doing after COVID-19?
Kantar applied human and artificial intelligence to social media conversations around COVID-19 to identify what people are most looking-forward to doing after lockdown.
You would think that seeing friends and family would be the most anticipated activity people are looking forward to. It is in some respect, with hanging out and doing things with our friends and family present in 10 out of the top 12 activities they identified. Going to visit, see and spend time with family and friends is also a category in its own right. However, it is not the top one. Here is Kantar’s count-down of post COVID’s most wanted activities.
1.Pampering
What people want to do after lockdown is get some beauty therapy. This includes going to the barber, salon, getting our hair cut / dyed, having our nails or eyebrows done. As one user aptly summarised “my eyebrows and nails have gone rogue”. So, if you own a hairdressing business or beauty salon, prepare for a boom in business once quarantine is over. We might also expect to see an increase in demand for beauty and make-up products. For brands looking to reconnect with consumers it is going to be about demonstrating the value of the brand experience.
2.Eating Out
“First thing I’m doing when this quarantine is over is going out to eat!!”
Many people want to head straight to their favourite restaurant and feast on their favourite food. The meals people seem to be looking forward to most are Sushi, Mexican, Steaks, Ribs, Seafood and Pizza. Some of the comments combined eating out with catching a movie. People are also looking forward to take-away food.
3.A Night Out
Clubs, pubs and alcoholic drinks brands will be pleased to hear that a night out is high on list of post-COVID activities. This could be on a date or with friends, but for many it means having a post COVID-19 party.
4.Festival and gigs
With festival season almost upon us, but with all the main events cancelled, it’s no wonder that the public craves live music. Experiencing one’s favourite band live again is high on the priority list. Some are already considering booking tickets and looking forward to tours. Expect any live shows and performances to be sold out, quickly.
5.No changes
Staying at home suits some people just fine. They quite enjoy being alone, reading, watching Netflix or playing video games and seem to be enjoying the same thing during the lockdown as they would normally do… and will do the same after.
6.The Outdoors
Going to the beach and enjoying the experience is among the activities consumers crave, including reconnecting with nature. After one week, the thought of a prolonged quarantine is already giving these people itchy feet. Beaches, national parks, and mountain resorts/lodges be prepared for many people taking road trips to escape the confines of their city abodes.
7.Retail therapy
Online shopping is still possible but not quite scratching the itch. The thought of shopping in retail outlets, trying on and buying new outfits, is far more appealing. This is good news for high street fashion retailers with some of the sensory experience of traditional shopping being essential to fashion-conscious consumers.
8.Travel
After just a week, people are already starting to think about their next vacation. Many just want to jump on plane or book a flight with no specific destination in mind. It is too early to say, but airlines could expect significant bounce back as desire for an escape, anywhere, will lead to heightened demand. Some people are already booking trips, giving them something to look forward to.
9. Sporting events
Watching or playing sport is also top of the list for some people. With loyal fan bases, most sports will undoubtedly experience a bounce back. What will be interesting is what the impact of COVID-19 has on sports participation. Time will tell if the quarantine has motivated more people to take up a sport. Some people also just want to get back to their routines, go to work or go to the gym.. the things we perhaps took for granted.
One thing is for sure: social media posts strongly indicate an inherent desire for social interaction. While people are resorting to video conference and video calling apps, it is clear that social interactions are a key priority.
As we likely near the end of lockdown, the marketing and communication industry has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create engaging, entertaining, brand-building and above all memorable content. The challenge will be to strike the right balance and stand out.
Source – Kantar (What are people looking forward to most, post-pandemic?)
A feature by Kaleem Aftab as published in BBC (Culture).
Theatres are closing around the world. Jobs are being culled. No one knows when projectors will be fired up again. Cinema is far from unique in being an industry under threat in the time of COVID-19. But there is a particular irony in the fact that many of us have turned to streaming platforms to deliver entertainment to fill the long hours of isolation, often watching content originally made for the silver screen. Audiences have increasingly been consuming more films at home anyway, of course. But now that trend has become a fact of life, many are questioning whether the culture of cinemagoing will resume in the same way once the pandemic abates.
The evidence from China doesn’t bode well. In recent years, China has posted huge box-office figures. In February 2019, Chinese audiences spent $1.63 billion on tickets, a record for a single month anywhere in the world. The contrast to February 2020 could not be greater.
A staff member sprays disinfectant at a Shenyang cinema on 25 March. Photograph Credits – AFP via Getty Images
Chinese theatres shuttered when the virus hit. In mid-March, an attempt to tentatively start opening cinemas again after the easing of the lockdown saw distributors refuse to release new films and audiences stay at home. Already, the almost 500 cinemas that tried to open have shut down again after receiving a letter from the government. Cinema-goers argued that it was too soon to open auditoriums and it was safer to watch films at home, especially when no vaccine for Covid-19 exists.
The situation is bad all over. In the UK, the popular Tyneside Cinema has started a donation campaign to ensure that it will be able to open its doors again. In New York, the world-famous Lincoln Center, home to the New York Film Festival, is one of many to serve redundancy notices as it faces a financial battle to keep going.
Compounding the misery for cinema owners is the fact that film studios have responded by putting films only very recently released in cinemas online. Last week, Disney made Pixar animation Onward available to rent on video-on-demand services, just over a month after its US premiere, while Universal have similarly uploaded The Invisible Man and The Hunt. And the same thing is happening with key indie films too: recent Berlin Film Festival award-winner Never Rarely Sometimes Always has also made the leap to streaming just a couple of weeks after its US opening. The consequence of all this is that studios may wonder why they’re sharing revenue with exhibitors if they can get a bigger cut by going straight to homes.
Indeed, while cinemas are on their knees, streaming platforms are profiting. Demand for home entertainment is so high that services such as Netflix and Disney + have announced they will reduce their picture quality in order to cut the data going to our homes by 25% so that the internet doesn’t get bottlenecked, slowing download speeds to a standstill.
But before we start imagining the liquidation signs going up at our local picture houses, it’s important to remember and celebrate how cinema has weathered societal storms throughout its history. Proclamations on the demise of the cinema have been a regular occurrence through the decades. And yet in 2019, the global box-office revenues from cinema were higher than ever.
How cinemas dealt with a past pandemic
A century ago, there was even the worry, as there is now, that cinemas would be permanently shut down by a virus. From 1918 to 1920, the so-called ‘Spanish Flu’ took the lives of 50 million people worldwide, coming right at the end of World War One, where 40 million died. When the flu hit, cinemas closed around the globe, although not quite in the same blanket way that they have today, with the decision on whether to close or not made by municipal governments in most countries.
The Invisible Man (Image Credits – Universal Pictures)
Orders to close cinemas didn’t come lightly and proved controversial in places like the United Kingdom. Indeed as film historian Lawrence Napper notes, during World War One “for most of the time, they were open and very popular”.
The British government saw cinema as an essential tool for public well-being. “Cinema was the major leisure activity – it kept people occupied, and it helped keep them calm. It also kept them out of the pubs!” says Napper. “Drunkenness was a major issue for the authorities. But also cinemas became a key site for propaganda and a key point of contact between the individual, the local community and the national war effort.”
There was no single moment during the flu outbreak when all the cinemas in the UK shut, and some jurisdictions simply imposed mitigating measures. In London, cinemas were required to be ventilated for 30 minutes every three hours. Those in Wolverhampton banned children and removed carpets. A Walsall cinema showed a 15-minute public information film that featured a Dr Wise and a foolish patient. The advantage of this piecemeal localised policy-making for the industry was that, with films struck onto celluloid prints, and canisters moving from cinema to cinema, movies could shift around to areas that did not have restrictions in place.
Mirroring some of the debates being had today, about balancing the economic impact against the cost of lives, some cinemas owners complained about closing, Napper explains. “There are a lot of letters to the trade press from cinema managers saying the closing of cinemas because of the flu is nonsense, [and asking] ‘What about sporting events and factories? Why should it be cinemas that take the financial hit?’”
Cinemas were encouraged to open around Armistice Day, however, and a week of packed cinemas and celebrations followed – apart from in Edinburgh where influenza restrictions were kept in force. The film journal Kineweekly reported from the city that “there was a feeling that it was the hardest of hard luck that what should have been a record week was one of several which will rank as one of the most disastrous in the history of every house.”
Likewise, in the US, the closing of cinemas because of the flu happened on a regional basis. Critically, the home of the studios, Los Angeles, was severely affected and cinemas in California closed for seven weeks. Production companies withheld new releases and Hollywood studios stopped making movies in this period.
However, it should give us cheer to note that while the film industry in America was certainly impacted, it did not suffer overall but rather changed shape – and in fact flourished even further. As the film writer Richard Brody recently noted in an article for the New Yorker drawing parallels between now and then: “Many smaller companies went out of business, and the resulting shakeout led to a consolidation that made the big ones bigger, creating the studios that became the masters of production, distribution, and exhibition together; the flu, combined with the end of the war, gave rise to the mega-Hollywood that’s being duplicated again today.”
And with this organisational change, audiences only increased – in fact, attendances in the 1930s were higher than in any decade before or since. After The Great Depression of 1929, movies played a critical role in keeping people entertained. It was one of the few affordable means of escape. By numbers of attendees, 1939’s Gone With the Wind remains the most successful cinema release of all time.
World War Two was also, against the odds, a time in which cinema prospered. Many countries, including Britain, saw the cinema as a propaganda tool: a place to give information and boost morale, despite the obvious perils of congregating in public spaces. British cinemas closed for a week at the start of the war before reopening to much fanfare. “Cinema was a site for community activity [and] raising money for charity, [as well as a way for those abroad] to make contact with those at home,” says Napper.
The threat of television
The caveat to looking back at how cinema weathered turbulent historical times is that this all happened before television became ubiquitous. From the 1950s, cinemas didn’t have a monopoly on audio-visual entertainment. Governments also could now channel news directly into people’s homes, so cinema became less important as a propaganda tool. (The current epidemic has seen such dissemination of public information taken a step further with text messages sent straight to mobile phones.)
Television was the new game in town – it was also free to watch after the initial outlay, and creatives and producers suddenly became enamoured by the small box.
In Britain and the US, cinema admission figures have never been higher than in the year 1946, but after that, audience numbers dropped off steeply year by year. Both the McCarthy witch hunt of the early 1950s outing so-called communist sympathisers making movies, and the end of the Hays Code controlling sex and violence, meant that the cinema was suddenly perceived as a less wholesome, more morally tainted space, while television was deemed a safer experience. Meanwhile those in the industry themselves started lamenting the death of cinema as an artform. Legendary producer David O Selznick argued in 1951 that “Hollywood’s like Egypt, full of crumbled pyramids. It’ll never come back.”
The invention of VHS tapes was seen as a danger to cinemas, but in fact it only served to enhance the value of the big-screen experience – Image by Alamy
But cinema was far from down and out. Rather, it was revitalised in the 1970s with the arrival of the summer blockbuster: the very thing that to some represented the ultimate desecration of cinema as an artform, but which reversed the decline in audience numbers. From Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975) onwards, blanket releases with mass-marketing became increasingly prevalent.
Then in the 1980s came another even more direct challenge to auditoriums. If television had wounded the size of audiences, it was thought that videotapes might steal them away completely. Invented in 1976, the VHS cassette tape (which quickly usurped its Betamax rival) made films available to own at home, or as more commonly occurred, to rent from video stores. No longer was the cinema the only game in town for cinephiles.
In fact, though, this rival medium served only to enhance the value of the cinema experience. Even though Quentin Tarantino has called the 1980s the worst era in American movies, national box-office returns almost doubled in that decade. Rather than being the death of cinema, video meant film studios had a whole new revenue stream to capitalise on, while home ownership only increased consumers’ passion for film, therefore making them hungrier to see new films from their favourite directors on the big screen. Cinema owners in turn came up with the cleaner and more modern ‘multiplex venues’. The industry rallied.
But if history would show that the cinema slayed the video, as one foe vanished, a new monster emerged for it to do battle with – streaming platforms. In the last few years, the likes of Netflix and Amazon have struck a double blow because at the same time as these companies have offered access to more and more films from the sofa, the original small-screen content they have served up has become ever better and more expensively produced. In 2015, Dustin Hoffman, one of the most celebrated movie stars of all-time, said “I think right now television is the best that it’s ever been and I think that it’s the worst that film has ever been – in the 50 years that I’ve been doing it, it’s the worst.”
Then, adding further peril for movie theatres, Netflix has increasingly lured in big-name directors like Martin Scorsese and Noah Baumbach to make feature-length work for them – but refused to play by the old rules and respect the so-called ‘theatrical window’, which gave cinemas exclusive screening rights to a film for a period of months before its home release.
Pre-pandemic, there were already signs that the culture of cinemagoing was starting to crack under this pressure. In 2018, the average price of an admission ticket in the United Kingdom went down for the first time in decades. The price fell again in 2019. And while overall box-office figures climbed, a smaller pool of films, mostly involving comic-book superheroes, were making the tills ring, and fewer studios were making all the money. Disney made over $11 billion in 2019, but small distributors have been struggling to survive, not helped by the fact that the bigger studios have started to open up their own streaming platforms, monopolising the ancillary market as well.
The new normal
However in the new Coronavirus-afflicted world, the battle with streaming platforms seems like relatively small fry. Since the coronavirus has spread across the world over the last couple of months, cinemas have closed, not in the patchy, ad-hoc fashion of 1918, but all at once.
Productions around the world have stopped shooting. Film Festivals have announced postponements and cancellations. The Fast and the Furious, sprinted to a 2021 release date, while the new James Bond film No Time To Die has been pushed back to November, and Black Widow has been delayed indefinitely. The livelihoods of millions around the globe have been threatened, by a collapse, not just of cinema, but of the industry itself. If cinemas are only closed for seven weeks as they were in Los Angeles in 1918, it would seem like a miracle. Some may never open again. Are we living out the text at the end of Jean-Luc Godard’s Weekend (1968): the fin… du cinema?
The level of the crisis and uncertainty facing the whole industry means it is difficult to contemplate the future at this moment in time, says Adeline Fontan Tessaur, the co-founder of French sales agent Elle Driver. “How can we anticipate anything and make definitive declarations? It’s way too early. We are trying right now to protect our industries. Everyone in the field is trying to anticipate the future and its damages. Of course, whether it’s productions, festivals, sales, or distributors, everything is on hold until we get more news. What happens is beyond one specific industry. We will have to adapt like everyone to this new world. Step by step.”
The effect of the virus has already been to make things that seemed unimaginable a month ago a reality. Hollywood studios have joined Netflix in breaking the theatrical window. Cannes has been postponed. Film festivals such as CPH:DOX and Visions du Reel are going online, with audiences watching premieres in the comfort of their own home. Arguments about the primacy of cinema have been rendered meaningless by the necessity to simply keep people watching.
And given that blockbusters rely on huge marketing campaigns, it’s unlikely that studios will want to take an immediate risk with their bigger titles when cinemas do eventually re-open – before they are sure if audiences are ready to embrace cinema again.
“There’s no doubt [the virus] is a huge challenge that affects all elements of the industry from development and production through to distribution and exhibition,” says Curzon CEO Philip Knatchbull, who runs a chain of cinemas in the UK as well as overseeing the Artificial Eye distribution label. “The immediate problem of course is weathering the financial impact of the loss of box office. When cinemas reopen there will be all sorts of challenges right along the supply chain, some of which won’t be immediately obvious right now.”
Why we shouldn’t despair
Cinemas are in a fight for their lives. The consequences of the current situation could be a wholesale shift in attitudes to streaming platforms and theatrical windows. Curzon had already moved to a day-and-date, simultaneous cinema and on-demand release model before the outbreak. “The theatrical v streaming debate has been very heated in recent years,” says Knatchbull. “There has been lots of speculation recently about how lockdown will impact on viewing habits. I don’t think that’s especially useful; this is a completely unprecedented and, hopefully, unique situation. That said, now is probably not the time for this discussion. Exhibitors and distributors need to work together creatively to see us through this period.”
But for all the sense of impending doom, history suggests that cinema will adapt and bounce back. Crowds flocked to the cinema after the 1918 pandemic, and videos only made people more interested in cinema, not less. After several weeks or, more likely, months cooped up indoors, watching films on our television sets and computer, the experience of seeing a film in cinemas the way they were meant to be seen will be all the more magical. It’s impossible for a home screening to match the technical quality of a film projected in the cinema – and there is also the indefinable adrenaline rush that comes from viewing a film in a large group, with audiences feeding off each other to create an intoxicating atmosphere as Bond gives chase, Daniel Blake starts protesting or Marcello Mastroianni raises an eyebrow. By the same token, most directors would continue to affirm that they first and foremost want their films seen in a cinema because it’s a unique experience.
Other reasons to be cheerful include the fact the overall global box office has only been rising recently, while the record-breaking box office of Oscar-winner Parasite in western countries shows how cinema has also been becoming a truly more globalised enterprise. What’s more, when it comes to movie theatres themselves, they have been getting more luxurious yet again of late, in a progression akin to the advent of the multiplexes.
Knatchbull agrees that cinema will find a way, as it has done throughout history, to thrive again. “Of course! Cinema has survived wars, pandemics and a host of technological changes. There is something elemental about gathering together in a dark room to watch a great film. I’m sure the reopening of cinemas will be a cause for a huge celebration and we’ll see audiences, desperate to get out of the house, flocking back to watch films on the big screen together.”
Source – BBC Culture (Why cinemas will bounce back from the Coronavirus crisis)
A feature on cinema post-pandemic by Jim Amos, as published on Celluloid Junkie.
It hasn’t been a pleasant two months for the movie industry, as moviegoing has been completely upended, along with the rest of the entertainment sector, by the coronavirus. With rare exception: Tenet, Mulan, Wonder Woman 1984, to name a few, most summer tentpoles have shifted to later in 2020 or early 2021 and there is lingering doubt in what numbers moviegoers will return to cinemas when we start to get the “all clear” sign by governments from around the world.
But here’s the good news. We are starting to see faint signs of hope on the horizon. The fact that studios are keeping their July and August releases on the schedule shows that they believe that moviegoing should be in a relatively fortuitous place by mid-late summer. Many ‘pundits’ who follow the film business are highly skeptical that films such as Tenet or Mulan will make their summer release dates but when you think about it there’s actually good reason for that glimmer of hope.
First, we have a population that has been sequestered in their homes and, gulp, hanging out with their families, for weeks now and are undoubtedly dying to get out to do something. Anything. People may not be ready to congregate with 80,000 of their closest friends at college football games or at stadium rock concerts but they may be more willing to head to movie theaters with 80-100 other people, especially if in-cinema social distancing measures remain in place or there is the available option to attend matinee shows which theoretically should have fewer patrons in attendance.
There is also the issue of ticket prices. Fans of concerts and live theater are undoubtedly going to be leery of dropping $100-200 for an upcoming show if there’s a chance that the virus returns in the fall or winter, as some predict, and events are once again canceled or postponed. It’s one thing to spend $10 for a movie ticket. It’s quite another to plunk down a rent payment for tickets to a concert that may not happen and if today’s cancelation clarification from Ticketmaster is any indication, concertgoers shouldn’t be looking to the ticketing giant for any kind of financial consideration.
‘Meet me at the multiplex.’ “WW84” – “Wonder Woman 1984” (Image Credits – WB)
The other thing to keep in mind is that a large percentage of people who buy tickets to shows and sporting events end up buying them ticket resale outlets at greatly inflated prices. Good luck getting your money back on those.
So yes, the movie industry as a whole, and the cinema industry specifically, are in very difficult straits. Some cinemas – large and small, are debating whether they’ll have the available cash to reopen. Those who do, however, might very well find themselves on the front line as the population starts to “toe dip” into the world of OOHE, or out of home entertainment. And studios are in a unique position where they can pivot quickly and actually move their release schedules forward if patrons start returning to cinemas in greater numbers than expected. Sporting events, concerts, live shows and the like don’t have that flexibility.
In addition, the move of tentpoles back to later in the year should provide independent studios such as Lionsgate, Focus, STX, and others the opportunity to grab summer playtime — albeit somewhat muted playtime — that they might not have enjoyed previously if the rest of the industry takes more of a wait-and-see approach.
Yes, there is a chance that moviegoers return slowly to cinemas but content consumers who are tired of streaming, terrestrial TV and their relatives could be salivating for any new content and their best bet would be a return to movie theaters. That doesn’t just apply to feature films but also to event cinema productions which may provide fans the opportunity to see concerts, filmed performances or events such as The Met opera, which they have been shut out of while they shelter in place, and at a fraction of the price. For fans of the band, Coldplay on screen is better than no Coldplay at all.
Not streaming to a device near you. “Tenet” – Only in Cinemas. (Image Credits – WB)
As well, this might also be the perfect time for studios and cinemas to come together on variable pricing plans. Luring moviegoers back to theaters with two-for-one deals or different levels of pricing for different films could be a welcome tonic for movie fans who might still be hesitant to return to cinemas or have been hard hit financially by COVID-19 yet still need a “night out” that won’t break the bank. Try getting that by buying a ticket to an Ed Sheeran concert or an Arsenal match.
The cinema industry hasn’t been a pretty sight these past several weeks and though we’ve seen articles galore about the plight of cinema chains we seem to have lost sight of the impact that coronavirus has had on individual movie theater workers, those employees who give up their Friday and Saturday nights, all for a poverty-level USD $15 an hour (if they’re lucky). Even if there’s precious little to play, cinemas will want to get their theaters open as quickly as it is safe to do so for several reasons, not the least of which is to rehire their workers in some form or fashion.
The good news is there is a light at the end of the tunnel and the movie industry is in a unique position to hold the lantern. There are still difficult times ahead but at least there is a path of opportunity that most other entertainment sectors simply don’t have.
See you at the movies. Hopefully soon.
Source – Celluloid Junkie (When We Return To “Normal,” the First Stop May Be The Movie Theatre)
As published in Digital Cinema Report.
ScreenX, the innovative 270-degree panoramic movie-going format by CJ 4DPlex was awarded Gold in the Media, Visual Communications & Entertainment category at this year’s Edison Awards.
“We are incredibly honored to be receiving recognition from the Edison Awards for ScreenX,” said CJ 4DPlex CEO JongRyul Kim. “In the last few years, ScreenX has grown exponentially in footprint and content, screening more than 12 Hollywood films a year and reaching new heights of innovation to a wider global audience. We thank our partners in the exhibition and studio space and the entire global ScreenX team across offices in Seoul, Beijing and Los Angeles for their hard work and efforts.”
Among the entries from some of the best products, services, and businesses in innovation for the year 2020, the innovative cinema format was chosen as a winner by a panel of more than 3,000 leading business executives from around the world. “After a thorough review, the Edison Awards judges recognize ScreenX as a game-changing innovation standing out among the best new products and services launched in their category,” said Frank Bonafilia, Executive Director of the Edison Awards.
ScreenX is the world’s first multi-projection theatre technology that allows a 270-degree panoramic movie watching experience, allowing the audience to go beyond the frame of the traditional movie screen, utilizing a proprietary system to expand the center screen image to the side walls, surrounding audiences with imagery and providing a sense of being inside the movie. To date, the format is available in 326 auditoriums and 36 countries worldwide.
Motivate Val Morgan represents two cinema chains in the Middle East offering the Screen X experience – Reel Cinemas (The Dubai Mall) and Muvi Cinemas (Mall of Arabia and U Walk).
Source – Digital Cinema Report
It is that time of year again, some say the most wonderful time of year. It’s also the time that many retailers put their hard-earned money in Santa’s sack, with Christmas campaigns tempting shoppers with stories of the season.
Not only is Christmas an ideal time to introduce brands to new customers, but it is the perfect reason to reconnect with existing shoppers.
As the festive season approaches we see more and more memorable adverts arrive on cinema screens to showcase what the big retailers have to offer – but which is the best Christmas advert for 2019?
Check out our compilation of popular and heartwarming Christmas ads from across the globe and decide for yourself!
John Lewis & Waitrose – Excitable Edgar
The John Lewis advert marks the start of the festive season and this year’s offering will melt your heart – as well as the ice.
John Lewis’ 2019 Christmas advert is about a young dragon named Excitable Edgar. Edgar is a dragon living in a small town who can’t play with the other children at Christmas because his ‘firey’ breath keeps melting all the snow.
The grown-ups also begin to turn on him when he accidentally sets fire to the town’s Christmas display.
But with a bit of ingenuity, one local girl proves that Edgar’s fire can prove useful after all.
It’s John Lewis’ first joint campaign with Waitrose and it reportedly cost £7million to make. It’s no surprise that it’s flaming good.
Walkers – All Mariah Carey wants this Christmas
This festive ad is full of everything we expect of Christmas – from red sequined dresses to elves and even Mariah Carey! Walkers have pulled out all the stops for their Christmas campaign and have called it their “biggest ever Walkers Christmas advert”.
The advert comes on the 25th anniversary of Mariah’s 1994 album Merry Christmas. And it’s said to have cost the retailers a whopping £9million to have her face on 50 million packets of crisps.
Tesco – #DeliveringChristmas
Tesco’s Christmas advert features a delivery driver travelling through time in a Back to the Future influenced celebration of the company’s 100th anniversary.
The UK’s largest supermarket has kept its festive advert closely under wraps and sent social media into a frenzy when a Tesco van was spotted on top of a house in Cheshire, England.
Tesco is the last of the major retailers to release their advert, which they have said is intended to highlight its role ‘delivering Christmas to the nation for the past 100 years’.
In the ad, a Tesco delivery driver called Joel, is transported with his van full of food to various years throughout the past century, after his van gets caught up in Christmas lights.
Visa – #WhereYouShopMatters
Visa‘s Christmas advert calls on shoppers to support the UK high street in the face of struggling sales and an increase of online shopping.
The campaign features 13 real shopkeepers including a bookseller, greengrocer, antique dealer and café owner.
Visa said the message is to encourage shoppers to think more about where they’re buying from.
Sainsburys – Nicholas The Sweep
Sainsbury‘s heartwarming Christmas advert tells a story of how Santa started out as a chimney sweep who was accused of stealing a clementine.
The retailer is marking 150 years in the business and so has set its festive ad outside the first Sainsbury‘s store in Drury Lane in 1869.
Sainsbury‘s says that the tale is a “totally true story” but in reality “Nicholas” has been created in the spirit of Christmas and there’s no real evidence of the retailer’s founders ever having saved a child in this way.
The ad is directed by award winning Ninian Doff, who has also directed a handful of commercials for brands such as Hula Hoops, 02 and GiffGaff.
Aldi – Leafy Blinders
Aldi has used Kevin the Carrot for the fourth year in a row in its Christmas advert.
New character Russell Sprout, and his Brummy gang of “Leafy Blinders“, are boiling with rage about Kevin and his family of carrots stealing the show as the star Christmas vegetable.
The sprouts are dressed in tweed caps, much like characters from popular Netflix drama – Peaky Blinders.
Tiny Tom – a little tomato – comes to Kevin’s rescue after the sprouts tie him up.
Amazon – The Singing Boxes are Back!
Amazon‘s Christmas ad features a whole host of people singing and dancing to Solomon Burke’s classic track, “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love”.
The heartwarming, feel-good advert shows families, friends, colleagues and strangers from all walks of life coming together while singing and dancing along with the cheerful Amazon boxes.
At the same time, people are giving or delivering gifts to loved ones that are, of course, inside Amazon boxes.
Boots – #GiftLikeYouGetThem
Boots shows customers how to get presents for the most difficult loved ones in your life.
The ad introduces Boots’ new range of in-store gift edits – called “Bootiques” – there to take the hassle out of Christmas shopping.
There will also be an online option to create your own Bootique so you can hint to loved ones what you want this Christmas.
Asda – Let’s Make Christmas Extra Special
Asda’s festive campaign is all about making Christmas extra special – but there’s a heartwarming story behind its advert.
The ad follows a young girl – Tilly – inspired by stories from her Grandad about Santa’s leftover magic.
The advert focuses on people who go the extra mile during the festive season, making it a special time for all.
M&S – Go Jumpers for Christmas
The best thing about Christmas is obviously knitwear, and that’s something Marks and Spencer has tapped into brilliantly for their latest ad. Directed by Jake Nava, the director behind Beyoncé’s Single Ladies video, this promo will have you jumping around with your jumpers in no time at all.
Emma Willis and Paddy McGuinness star in this year’s M&S Christmas advert.
The pair are seen at a snow-covered “M&S Food Christmas Market” where they sample festive treats at different stalls.
Other famous faces that appear in the market include popular television presenters Amanda Holden and Rochelle Humes.
Very – Get More Out of Giving
Very.co.uk showcased an emotional advert which celebrates the joy of community as stars from previous years returned to the tv screens.
It follows the residents of Chester Street as they give up their time to make sure their elderly neighbour Sidney isn’t alone at Christmas.
It is accompanied by a cover of Rudimental’s 2012 hit Feel The Love recorded by The Social Singing Choir.
McDonald’s – #ReindeerReady
This year’s Christmas advert follows adorable little girl Ellie as she befriends a lovable reindeer called Archie.
The 90-second advert follows the animated journey of Ellie who is at home and eager to play a game of ‘reindeers’ with her older sister Jenny – only Jenny is uninterested in playing games with her younger sister and slams the bedroom door on her.
Celebrate the magic of Christmas through the eyes of Ellie, in this advert which illustrates scenes recognized by parents across the world, as the whole family comes together to get Reindeer ready.
Click here to watch more 2019 Christmas commercials.
Don’t miss out on your chance to target consumers this festive season! Contact us for cinema advertising opportunities alongside blockbuster movies at the cinemas and spread the festive cheer.
Sources:
HouseBeautiful, Mirror UK
Bank Muscat booked a 12 sec. on screen greeting ad through Motivate Val Morgan for a period of 1 week – 18th to 24th July, in celebration of Oman Renaissance Day – observed on 23rd July of each year to mark the day Sultan Qaboos bin Said ascended to the throne of Oman in 1970.
The ad screened across VOX Cinemas – City Centre Muscat, City Centre Qurum, City Centre Sohar, MGM, Sur, Salalah, Suhar Plaza and Shatti, and played right after the main spot of Bank Muscat – an ad campaign booked on an annual basis from February 2019 to February 2020.
Reach out to a member of our sales team for more information on on-screen greeting ads across our cinema circuit in the Middle East.
Unable to attend this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity?
Don’t worry! You can still be part of the Festival with the Cannes Lions ‘Digital Pass’!
Here’s your chance to experience the Festival from anywhere in the world. Filmed in glorious detail by dozens of HD cameras, the daily stream is produced by an award-winning production team and fronted by world-class journalists.
Broadcasting for 12 hours every day of the Festival on canneslions.com, the ‘Digital Pass’ gives you access to the mainstage as well as exclusive interviews and behind the scenes goodness.
Crafted to give a flavour of the entire Festival, the ‘Digital Pass’ means you get the inside track on the latest innovations, insights behind the award-winning work and the big new ideas influencing the market – all of which will be available to watch live and on-demand (even after the Festival draws to a close).
Purchase the pass for €195 + sales tax.
Don’t miss out on being part of the world’s biggest gathering for the entire creative marketing community.
Click here to find out more.
Motivate Media Group and Motivate Val Morgan are the official representatives of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in the UAE
With few days to go for this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, here are some initiatives to make your ‘first time delegate’ experience better.
2019 Initiatives:
Motivate Media Group and Motivate Val Morgan are the official representatives of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in the UAE.
Motivate Val Morgan in partnership with Roxy Cinemas, hosted a ‘Private Screening’ of the most anticipated movie of the year – Avengers: Endgame, for our distinguished clients and advertisers at Roxy Cinemas – City Walk on Tuesday 30th April 2019.
With an attendance of over 100 guests – a mix of agency and direct clients (and their family members), the ‘Private Screening’ was a monumental success.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Roxy Cinemas for helping us organize and execute this screening – making it a memorable one!
Finally, a big thank you out to our invitees who attended, contributing to its immense success.
Stay tuned for more updates on future ‘Private Screenings’ by Motivate Val Morgan.
As part of the Festival’s plan to extend its learning opportunities throughout the year, Cannes Lions has announced a new series of online courses, produced in conjunction with digital learning provider 42courses.
The new suite of learning products – designed to teach creative marketers from around the world the key skills needed to excel in the world of marketing, will extend the reach of Lions training content, far beyond the Festival’s previous reach.
Each course features practical, step-by-step masterclasses from high profile creative leaders from around the world, as well as insights from the festival itself and Lion-winning work to provide tangible skills.
Among the industry experts contributing to the course are:
The courses take less than a day to pass, can be taken on any device any time and available on demand with lifetime 24/7 access and support.
Each course costs $100 and is split into a number of short bite sized enjoyable lessons that are made up of a mixture of videos, case studies, text and questions.
Earn points, climb leaderboards and learn from others from around the world as they progress. The person topping the leaderboard as of 17th May will win a free pass to Cannes Lions 2019.
The first course to be made available is a course on storytelling:
This new offer adds to the Cannes Lions School, which takes place during the festival in June. It is designed to bring an extensive list of training courses to young festival attendees and has been a core part of the Young Lions experience since 1995.
Learn more about upcoming courses and available company packages. Download the information sheet on 42courses for more information.
Sources: Cannes Lions and WARC
