VOX Cinemas wins the Highest Grossing Exhibitor in The Middle East 2020-21 award for generating revenue amounting to US$171.7 million in the Middle East from October 2020 to October 2021 at the META Cinema Forum Awards 2021.
VOX Cinema’s US$171.7 million box office revenue represents more than 21 percent of the US$800 million box office revenue expected in the Middle East in 2021, according to research by Omdia.
The 4th edition of the META Cinema Forum – the largest cinema convention, covering Middle East and African markets, powered by Yummz Hot Chips Cafe, took place between 26th and 28th October 2021 at the Atlantis, The Palm in Dubai.
Eight winners were honoured with the highest industry accolades at the META Cinema Forum Awards for their achievements – based on the numbers collated from industry sources – making it the most authentic industry awards based on performance. Two of the awards were presented by META Cinema Forum while the rest 6 were presented by Comscore.
VOX Cinemas won the Highest Grossing Exhibitor in The Middle East 2020-21 award for generated revenue amounting to US$171.7 million in the Middle East from October 2020 to October 2021.
Cinemarine Cinemas won the Exhibitor of the Pandemic Period of Turkey. Cenk Sezgin, Chief Executive Officer, Cinemarine Cinemas, received the award for his organisation.
Murat Cemcir, Enterprising investor, Producer, Artist, was adjudged the Fastest Box Office Success in a Very Short Seasonal Period in Turkey. His organisation saw 21 million in admission and TL226 million Turkish Lira box office revenue in 10 movies.
Four Star Films won the Highest-grossing English Title in the Middle East 2020-21 for Fast & Furious 9 with box office revenue reaching US$16.98 million in the Middle East.
Empire Entertainment and Orient Films won the Highest-Grossing Arabic Title in the Middle East 2020-21–for Waafet Reggaala, which generated US$15.08 million box office revenue in the Middle East.
Film One won the award in the Highest-Grossing Title in Africa 2020-21 category for Omo Ghetto: The Saga, with box office revenue reaching US$1.66 million in West Africa.
Muvi Cinemas won the Exhibitor of the Year 2020-21 award for its recent accomplishments in growth and development during a period of great uncertainty having established 121 screens over 13 locations across Saudi Arabia.
Eagle Films won the Distributor of the Year 2020-21 in recognition of the support and dedication to deliver a pipeline of quality films during a period of risk and instability having more than 46 most films released during October 2020 – to October 2021 – including Wrath of Man and The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard.
Unlike other industry awards that are based on either corporate marketing presentations, public perception or jury nominations, META Cinema Forum Awards is based on pure numbers that puts them at the top of the ranking in each category where the names were chosen from.
Leila Masinaei, Managing Partner, Great Mind Events Management, said, “This is a true reflection of the best performance in each category in the film industry and we are pleased to honour them with their well-deserved awards.
“The numbers dictate who wins the awards. For example, Four Star Films won the Highest-grossing English Title in the Middle East 2020-21 for Fast & Furious 9 that is based on the box office revenue figure, reaching US$16.98 million in the Middle East. No one can dispute its rank as top-grossing film in the region.
“As MENA Cinema Forum matures as the largest cinema convention in the Middle East and Africa, we want to make thing more transparent to ensure authenticity of the awards that are based on third-party research.”
Box office revenue in the Middle East is set to cross US$800 million in 2021, US$1 billion in 2022 and US$1.3 billion in 2024, recovering from US$250 million in 2020 – marking the fastest recovery in the world, according to research by Omdia.
More than 500 industry delegates, experts and participants discussed the opportunities and challenges faced by the industry stakeholders at this year’s META Cinema Forum. The three-day mega film industry conference took place just a few weeks into Dubai Expo 2020 – the largest event in the Middle East and Africa region.
The Middle East and Africa region has one of the fastest growing entertainment industries in the world and governments are investing heavily to diversify economies and reduce dependency on a single economic sector
Motivate Val Morgan was a media partner for this year’s META Cinema Forum.
Sources: Press Release (Great Mind Events Management)
Saudi Arabia celebrated its 91st National Day (also known as Al-Yaom-ul-Watany) on 23rd September 2021, commemorating the birth of the modern Saudi nation.
This year’s theme and slogan was ‘Heya Lana Dar’, which means ‘A Home for Us’ – appreciating the spirit of the country’s cultural diversity that makes everyone (Saudis and foreigners) feel at home.
To honour and celebrate the transformative journey the country has embarked on over the past 91 years, leading brands in Saudi Arabia launched cinema campaigns across the country:
Saudia
The national airline of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia launched its national day cinema campaign emphasizing the spirit of being a Saudi national and its prosperity through generations.
Commercial Duration: 60 sec.
Campaign Duration: 21 – 24 September 2021
Locations: VOX Cinemas (Riyadh Front and Red Sea Mall), Muvi Cinemas (Nakheel Mall and Mall of Dhahran), AMC Cinemas – Stars Avenue and Cinépolis Cinemas – Lulu Mall
STC
Saudi Telecom Company launched its cinema campaign that parades the evolution of digital life in the kingdom.
Commercial Duration: 90 sec.
Campaign Duration: 23 – 25 September 2021
Locations: VOX Cinemas (Riyadh Park Mall and Red Sea Mall), AMC Cinemas – Panorama, Muvi Cinemas (Mall of Arabia and Nakheel Mall) and Cinépolis Cinemas – Lulu Mall
Banque Saudi Fransi
The Saudi based banking group’s national day campaign celebrates the vision and achievement of Saudi Arabia as a nation in various sectors.
Commercial Duration: 30 sec.
Campaign Duration: 21 – 27 September 2021
Locations: VOX Cinemas (Riyadh Park Mall, Kingdom Tower, Riyadh Front and Red Sea Mall), AMC Cinemas (Panorama and Riyadh Gallery) and Muvi Cinemas (Nakheel Mall Riyadh, U Walk, Mall of Arabia, Nakheel Mall Dammam and Mall of Dhahran)
Tamimi Markets
One of the fastest-growing supermarket chains in Saudi Arabia booked an ad to commemorate the Kingdom’s prosperity and greatness.
Commercial Duration: 15 sec.
Campaign Duration: 22 – 28 September 2021
Locations: 25 locations covering multiple VOX, Muvi, AMC and Cinépolis cinema locations
The General Presidency for the affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque
The government agency launched its campaign welcoming pilgrims and aiming to facilitate worshipers to perform the religious worship at the grand mosques with a prompt for being dutiful and generous in the times of the pandemic.
Commercial Duration: 60 sec.
Campaign Duration: 23 – 25 September 2021
Locations: VOX Cinemas – Town Square, Muvi Cinemas – Nakheel Mall in Dammam and AMC Cinemas – Azizia Plaza
With National Days of Oman (18th November), UAE (2nd December), Bahrain (16th December) and Qatar (18th December) around the corner, contact a member of our sales team for more information on cinema advertising opportunities to mark these special days!
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings – Marvel’s first epic to star an Asian hero and Disney’s first theatrical-only release since 2019, had a lot of factors against it, but it didn’t just overcome them, it practically somersaulted over.
According to tracking website Box Office Mojo, Shang-Chi earned $8.8 million from Thursday night (September 2) previews which began at 7pm across North America, the second highest preview result of the pandemic era behind Black Widow‘s $13.2 million, but rang up an estimated US$75.5 million at U.S. theaters between Friday September 3, and Sunday September 5 (labor weekend). As of September 19, the blockbuster has garnered US$160.9 million and US$112 million at the domestic and international box office (respectively), which equates to over US$272.9 million at worldwide box office (1.8 times the production budget of US$150 million), and is the second biggest opening of 2021.
Bob Chapek, Disney’s CEO, described the film as an “interesting experiment”, for the movie was the first franchise by studio to exclusively release in theatre, without the simultaneous release on Disney+, since the outbreak of the pandemic. But Simu Liu, the lead actor in Shang Chi, wrote on twitter – “We are not an experiment… We are the surprise.”
Media and industry pundits too labeled Shang-Chi as a ‘gamble’ for the studio’s choice of committing to a theatre only release, citing various reasons: the pandemic affected box office ticket sales, the fact that Labor Day weekend is typically slow for theaters, and the protagonist is a newcomer (with tweethearts of social media even referring to Liu as ‘Shang-Who’). However, based on movie reviews and box office figures: Shang-Chi broke the high-risk perception by major studios of releasing exclusively in theatres and not having a simultaneous streaming release, proved that the pandemic won’t stop people showing up for Marvel, and that even on a traditionally slow weekend, audiences were willing to return to the big screen for highly anticipated blockbusters.
After Black Widow, Jungle Cruise and Cruella concurrently released on Disney+, the studio announced last week that the rest of its 2021 slate — including Marvel’s Eternals and Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of West Side Story — will each screen exclusively in theaters. The news is promising for cinema exhibitors, for Disney films are routinely among the highest-grossing of the year.
Next up for Marvel are Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Eternals and Spider-Man: No Way Home, releasing October 21, November 4 and December 16, 2021.
Contact us for cinema advertising alongside these upcoming blockbusters.
Sources: npr, The Numbers, Variety, Vulture, L.A Times and Cinemablend
Brands have a huge role to play during these uncertain times of COVID-19.
A recent study conducted by Edelman has revealed that as well as offering new products and services that specifically target pandemic-related life challenges, brands have an important role to play as communicators.
The study also showed that what people most want to see from brands at the moment is tangible and helpful action. Transparency, empathy and compassion being paramount!
The majority of people in the study also indicated that how well a company responds to the coronavirus crisis, will have a huge impact on their likelihood of buying from it in the future. Many, too, have started using a new brand because of the innovative or compassionate way the brand has behaved since the pandemic began.
So with no manual for these uncertain times, how have brands handled this new norm of advertising? While some have withdrawn from the scene in a crisis, others have seized the opportunity to reach out to the community and stay relevant.
From heart-warming and comforting ads, to Ramadan-centric, storytelling and informative ads, here’s a list of must-watch video brand campaigns from across the Middle East:
Till We Meet Again – Visit Dubai
Abu Dhabi: Stay Home, Stay Safe, Stay Curious – Visit Abu Dhabi
Ode to Empty Roads – Nissan Middle East
Do You Remember – Emirates
We Are One – Expo 2020 Dubai
A Message From Expo 2020 Dubai – Expo 2020 Dubai
A World We Deserve – Babyshop
Proud of You – Bank Dhofar
Ramadan Lives On – stc Kuwait
Stay Home. We Deliver – Domino’s
#StayHome – Honda
#Homemade_Ramadan – du
Thank you Heroes! – Cafu
Ramadan 2020 | An Ooredoo Story – Oooredoo
Together In Spirit – MG Middle East
Our colleagues and partners…We miss you and we’ll see you soon – TECOM Group
Covid-19: Preventive Measures – Motivate Val Morgan
Source: Edelman, Campaign Middle East and YouTube
VOX Cinemas – owned and operated by the cinema arm of Majid Al Futtaim Group, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.
As the largest and fastest growing cinema chain in the Middle East, VOX Cinemas presently operates over 500 screens across 49 locations in 8 countries across the MENA, and is in the midst of a Dhs1.2bn investment to expand its operation to a further 300 screens by 2020.
The cinema chain has also announced grand plans to invest Dhs1.96bn to develop 600 screens across Saudi Arabia by 2023.
We at Motivate Val Morgan would like to extend our best wishes to VOX Cinemas on this milestone and look forward to many more years of success as business partners.
In an exclusive interview with Gulf Business, Cameron Mitchell, CEO of VOX Cinemas, Toni El Massih, Chief Content Officer and Michelle Walsh, Chief Marketing and Innovation Officer outline the company’s blockbuster performance over the last 20 years and why they stand strong despite the rise of streaming services.
The interview is as per below:
GB: What would you say are the three biggest highlights of the last 20 years for Vox?
Cameron Mitchell: “The first would be reopening Vox Mall of the Emirates in 2015. That cinema, even to this day, is one of the best cinemas in the world – if not the best in the world. And I think it was a massive step change from cinema as being just a place to watch movies to a place where you’re entertained. Everyone that walked in after the first week went ‘wow’ because of the LED, the graphics, the whole experience of that location.
“Number two was when we won the award for the ‘Best cinema in the world’ at Cinema Con in 2017. We are a small Middle Eastern cinema exhibitor – there’s companies around the world that are 30 and 40 times bigger than us – and for us to be invited to go to Las Vegas and be recognised as being best in the world was amazing.
“Number three would be Riyadh Park opening. There was a ban on cinemas in Saudi for 30 years and we were working with the government of Saudi Arabia for probably two years before the law changed to allow cinemas.
“Toni had hosted several teams of people from Saudi who came to Dubai and we introduced them to the UAE censors, design details and other aspects. And then roughly six months before the law changed, we approached the government and asked if we could build a four-screen cinema in a Magic Planet that we have in Riyadh – which they could use for testing. So, we committed to an investment of about $6m – $7m in advance of the law changing.
“The law changed about two weeks before we finished building the cinema. And we were the first multiplex cinema to open in Saudi Arabia after 30 years.
All of this is in line with Majid Al Futtaim’s DNA – the group is focused on the future and in always ensuring that we put our money where our mouth is and do what’s right for the business in the country.”
GB: You have ambitious plans for the Saudi market. How are you meeting such stiff targets?
Cameron Mitchell: “Normally the standard time for opening a cinema is about two and-a-half-years. But at the end of 2019, we had 90 screens open in Saudi Arabia and we’ll have 200 at the end of 2020. That’s because we are getting approvals to build these cinemas based on sketches and we’re actually designing it as we’re constructing the cinema.
“And it’s not from purely a financial perspective; we’re doing it because the government is sort of saying to us – ‘we’ve given you a licence and we’ve promised the people that you’re going to build cinemas, so please build them’.
“Most of us are working seven days a week to make sure that the standard of cinemas in Saudi Arabia is the best in the world. There’s about 10 licences granted to operators in Saudi, but as of today, we have 80 per cent market share of the screens in the kingdom.”
Michelle Walsh: “The Saudi story is also interesting because before that, we were a traditionally small market from a Hollywood Studios standpoint. But Saudi is suddenly this new frontier market.
“And more competition is coming in now, which just means we are going to have to work even harder. But we’re seeing what they’re bringing to the market and we still believe that our customer experience is far superior and our food and beverage is much better.”
GB: Can you elaborate more on your food and beverage offering? Has that been a key differentiator?
Michelle Walsh: “Food and beverage (F&B) is obviously a huge revenue stream for us and has been our focus for the last couple of years. We started with the collaboration with Gary Rhodes in Mall of the Emirates (THEATRE by Rhodes and GOLD by Rhodes), and working with him gave us a hospitality mindset. He pushed us to recruit better chefs, have better service standards and build better designed kitchens like the hotel grade ones.
“Recently, we also added food and beverage to our app to give people the chance to avoid queues. That’s a really complex process, especially for creating hot foods. So we had to completely transform our back-end operations.”
Cameron Mitchell: “You also have to look at each country individually in terms of how you serve customers, and what kind of food you might serve. For instance, in Saudi we have local chefs preparing Saudi food that has a certain sort of spice to it.
“One of the challenges in our industry is that everyone is showing exactly the same films. So for us, it has to be the other factors. What we can control is the seat, the experience, the service, the app, the food, the ambience in the foyer, the arrival experience, the exit experience and technology.”
GB: Another challenge has been the rise of streaming services, with ominous threats about the death of cinema. What are your thoughts on this?
Cameron Mitchell: “There was a little bit of nervousness a few years ago when there was one massively strong streaming company that looked like it would monopolise everything. Now, if you look, there’s multiple streaming platforms which have become what free TV used to be.
“There’s also been a lot of studies internationally that have said that streaming actually encourages people to go to the cinema more often. The experience of going to a cinema is different. If it’s just a place to watch movies, you might as well watch it at home. But we are focused on the experience – we want to be the fun, cool place to go and have fun with your friends and family.
“Also, in this region, you look at the mall culture and the social family environment we live in – everyone loves going out.”
Toni El Massih: “We also make sure that we offer content for everybody. So, it’s not only Hollywood films that we release. Out of India, every week, we have five different regional language films. We also cater to Europeans with French and Italian films and also release Korean and Chinese films. Recently, we also had a successful run with a Turkish film. We cater to all demographics.”
GB: Are you also getting into original content?
Toni El Massih: “Yes, we have partnered with Abu Dhabi’s Image Nation and NBC Saudi to produce regional content, with a focus on Egypt and Saudi Arabia. There is a strong appetite for Arabic content, but there’s hardly any films coming out of places like Saudi – this year, there’s only been one film.
“As of now, Arabic content comprises only 5 per cent of the total box office. So we are going to start producing a lot of original content and focus on commercial films. We’re not into documentaries yet, more so films that are going to attract the audience to come to the cinema.”
GB: Looking specifically at the Vox brand, when did you realise its strength and influence?
Toni El Massih: “The day we went from being Cinestar to VOX Cinema. That happened in 2011 and then we spent about six months working on the re-branding. That’s when we knew we had a very strong brand. We had a strong team, and we were confident about taking it forward and building it from there.”
Michelle Walsh: “Being part of the Majid Al Futtaim group gave us the impetus, the investment, the belief and the ambition to expand.”
GB: You have had a partnership with Motivate Val Morgan for cinema advertising since the beginning – for the last 20 years. How has the relationship evolved?
Cameron Mitchell: “Motivate, I think, is the only partner that we’ve had from day one, because they are clearly the best in the region at what they do. They are very closely aligned with us and everything we are doing, and they share that same sort of consumer focus that we have. Everywhere we go, they come with us.
“So now in the UAE, we have more than half of the market share of screens, in Saudi it’s about 80 per cent, we are about 85 per cent in Oman and in Bahrain, we’re about 60 per cent. In Lebanon, we’re about 20 per cent. We don’t disclose market share numbers for Egypt. In all of those places, Motivate’s our partner and they represent us for on-screen advertising. We have an amazing relationship with the team.”
We at Motivate Val Morgan would like to extend our best wishes to VOX Cinemas on this milestone and look forward to many more years of success as business partners.
Nezo – salt manufacturer, recently booked an off-screen popcorn box branding campaign through Motivate Val Morgan at various VOX Cinemas locations across the UAE.
The branded popcorn tubs were distributed to moviegoers starting Thursday 21st November 2019, and will continue to be dispensed until stocks last.
The aim of the campaign was to highlight the importance of Nezo salt in food items, similar to the importance and significance of having popcorn while watching movies at the cinema.
A total of 50,000 popcorn boxes were branded with Nezo graphics. 5,000 boxes were allocated at each cinema location. The campaign kicked off at VOX Cinemas – Mall of the Emirates and also ran across the following VOX locations:
Mall of the Emirates
Cineplex Grand Hyatt
Mercato
City Centre Deira
Burjuman
City Centre Sharjah
City Centre Ajman
Marina Mall – Abu Dhabi
Al Jimi Mall – Al Ain
The campaign also ran across VOX Cinemas – City Centre Mirdif.
Other off-screen advertising opportunities include:
Got a campaign which would require off-screen cinema advertising?
Contact a member of our sales team for more information on branding options and on/off-screen advertising opportunities across the Middle East!
Related Articles:
Landmark Group | Pillar Branding | VOX Cinemas – Mall of Egypt
Sony PS4 | Marvel Spider-Man | Cinema Campaign
Cinema is appealing to a more diverse group of consumers than ever before, making it an attractive platform for many brands to utilize. In order to ensure brands reach and engage their target audience effectively with their cinema promotion, there are certain consumer trends to be kept in mind, considering their potential impact on the outcome of a campaign.
The following article was published on LinkedIn by Casey Story – Organization Development Professional | Learning & Development Specialist | Sales Trainer & Coach
Kurt Wagner from Recode Media wrote an article stating that, “2019 will mark the first-time digital ad spend in the US outpaces TV and print combined.” Marketers will attest to this trend as there is a noticeable change in expectations among clients. Media planning conversations use to focus mostly around aspects including: Audience, engagement, reach, recall, like-ability, however the stakes have been shifting since 2008. Which most will remember as the year we all started walking around with cash registers in our pockets (personal smartphones).
Shifting of expectations from brands are steering agencies and media sales professionals to steer towards a ‘Positive Business Outcome’ approach to their media strategy. These teams are now focused on identifying the right consumers, reaching them in the right environment, engaging with them at the right time, and on the right devices to achieve and prove delivery of the KPI’s set forth by their clients.
While digital advertising allows brands to achieve several of these key components in the new outcome-based approach to planning, there are several considerations including: identifying the right consumers, reaching them in the right environment and engaging with them at the right time, that must still be supported by other channels in the traditional media space.
The following are three US consumer trends in 2019/2020 that make cinema advertising a more viable channel than ever to support brand goals:
Subscription Movie Going is Still Alive
Similar to blockbuster, taxi services and the music industry, the movie going industry did not feel a major disruption of their consumer’s expectations for a long period of time. The model was straightforward: negotiate with studios to fill theaters and auditoriums with blockbuster hits, sell tickets and concessions, invest in capital improvements that enhance the overall experience if/when needed. The main purpose was that the content on screen should be enough to encourage consumers to spend $10-20 dollars per ticket to see the films. Here’s where MoviePass makes its entrance.
The long-term arithmetic reflected in MoviePass’ model made it clear that without improved compensation from the circuits, the company was working on both borrowed time and money. As we know, the negotiation never happened, and MoviePass has been written down by its holding company.
The low-cost subscription model that MoviePass introduced however dramatically changed the consumer expectation regarding the cost of going to the movies. For the first time in years the exhibitors (Cinemark, Regal, AMC) have had to adjust their pricing strategy and are introducing subscription plans of their own. These actions have been well received by consumers. AMC recently announced that since launching their Stubbs A-List program (a $19.95 monthly subscription) in June of 2018, they have enrolled over 700,000 members.
This trend is important for advertisers considering cinema campaigns, because the data shows that when consumers have access to lower priced movie tickets, they see more movies. In the same article published in Variety, AMC noted that Stubbs A-List members had accounted for over 14 million movie ticket sales in the same amount of time.
Cinemark, Regal, and regional affiliates throughout the US are all working to finalize or develop their own subscription-based models to adapt to this shift in consumer expectation. What this means for advertisers is that passionate movie goers, those same consumers that drive 73% of spending in the US will be coming out in record numbers to their local movie theaters throughout 2019 because for the first time in years, they have a more affordable way of doing so.
Hollywood’s Franchise Era
The question, “When will Hollywood introduce us to new stories?” often rings in the minds of movie-goers alike. Ben Fritz’s book The Big Picture – The Fight for the Future of Movies answers this and discusses Hollywood’s shift towards the ‘franchise movie model’.
The reality is most consumers want two things when they choose to go to the movies:
Consumers may argue that they would prefer more adult dramas, romantic comedies, horror films, etc. However, the facts (historical ticket sales), reveal otherwise.
Looking at 2019’s slate of films, it is safe to say that we are in the heart of the Hollywood franchise era. The opportunities to experience something larger than life and culturally relevant are already driving record box office sales.
Captain Marvel (2019) made a total of $1,126,129,839 at the Worldwide Box Office. While remakes of popular Disney classics have been making cinema rounds. Classics such as: Dumbo made a total of $347,866,307 since its release in March 2019. Cinema-goers have also witnessed a rise in live-action remakes of popular Disney films this year, with movies such as The Lion King which made a whooping $1,638,761,919 at the box-office (to date). Whereas, the live-action version Aladdin’s live action version made a total of $1,037,017,346 since its release in May 2019.
From the Marvel Universe, the concluding film of the franchise- Avengers: End Game broke records at the box-office banking a total of$2,795,473,000 and continued to run in cinemas for 20 weeks across cinemas in the US.
The last quarter of the year holds great promise for the box office with mega sequels such as Frozen II, Jumanji: The Next Level and the concluding film of the Star Wars series: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker soon to release across cinemas worldwide.
Advertisers considering cinema campaigns should look closely at the historical success of the franchise model in domestic ticket sales. In the last four years, the highest grossing movies yearly in the US have come from within a franchise. This trend appears to continue throughout 2019. With the increased occurrence that moviegoers will be visiting theaters due to: Lower priced subscription service tickets and quality of content, advertisers have a unique opportunity to extend their reach among this audience year round.
Content Marketing: A Driving Force for Customer Connections
As digital spending eclipses traditional media spend this year, the digital marketplace has certainly become increasingly noisy. When adopting a positive business outcome marketing strategy, the goal is less about a brand’s ability to yell louder and more often than their competition. The goal, hence must shift, and brands must identify innovative ways to engage with their audience in an authentic manner, a trend that is leading the shift toward content marketing.
There are generally two approaches to developing a content marketing strategy:
When a brand has done well adopting either strategy, they pull their audience to their message instead of simply pushing more content into an already crowded marketplace. The impressions delivered from a content marketing strategy are much more valuable because customers actively seek out the content and actively share the message to other, like-minded, potential consumers.
Cinema is one of the last channels available for brands to tell an authentic story, at scale, in an environment with no ad skipping devices, and in front of consumers looking to be entertained.
Content marketing pieces delivered in this environment cut through the noise. Campaigns resonate with consumers, and the transparency of the cinema platform provides piece of mind for brands seeking to reclaim bot served impressions and eliminate wastage of advertising resources.
Are these trends similar in the Middle East?
Movie Ticket Offers
Leading cinema chains in the Middle East have tied up with mobile network providers (Example – du and Etisalat in UAE), offering cinemagoers to buy one movie ticket and get the other free. Similarly, numerous banks also provide customers a range of Debit and Credit card offers to availing movie-ticket and/or a free upgrade on the size of popcorn and beverages at the candy counter. Certain bank cards also offer moviegoers a buy 1 get one get one free movie ticket deal.
Such offers affirm the fact that when consumers have access to lower priced movie tickets, the frequency of cinema visits increase.
Love for Franchise Films
The craze among movie-goers for popular franchise films isn’t limited to the United States alone. Cinema statistics in the Middle East reveal the love and commitment among movie-goers in the region.
Following are statistics of UAE admissions for MEGA blockbuster franchise films:
Captain Marvel (2019)
Ran for 12 weeks and did over 425K admissions
Dumbo (2019)
Ran for 12 weeks and did over 180K admissions
The Lion King (2019)
Did over 697K admissions in the first 8 weeks since release
*The movie is still screening across select cinemas in the UAE
Avengers: End Game (2019)
Ran for 15 weeks and did over 848K admissions
Cinema Experiences like Never Before
A number of cinema chains in the Middle East offer unique cinema experiences – thus catering to the increasing demand by cinemagoers to watch movies like never-seen before. Audiences can now enjoy the latest blockbusters on mega screens such as IMAX, MAX, Dolby Cinema, nibble on gourmet delights at Dine-in Cinemas or opt for a luxury experience such as Gold by Rhodes, Theatre by Rhodes and Platinum Suites, while lounging in a comfy reclining seats, or dive into action on with 4DX and ScreenX.
VOX Cinemas recently launched a concept of ‘Distraction- Free Cinema’ to ensure cinemagoers immerse themselves entirely in the cinematic experience by tuning out all the distractions from theatres which include: no use of mobile phones or smartwatches, no late arrivals and no guests under the age of 18. Ninja-like staff are on surveillance inside the cinema throughout the screening.
In summary….
As price discovery, consumer targeting capabilities continue to improve the effectiveness of a brand’s digital execution, it’s important for marketers to identify the channels that allow them to reach a brand’s right consumer, in the right environment, at the right time, with a creative and authentic message.
Based on the forecast of movies, the trends in consumer behavior, and a shift in how brands are building relationships with their audience, there has never been a better time to double down in the cinema space.
Source: LinkedIn, Vox.com, AdAge, The Numbers, MVM Statistics
