• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, June 9, 2014

With so many movie theaters located in or near malls, cinema advertising and place-based digital video networks in malls seem like a natural combination to reach consumers near the point of sale.

That’s the idea behind an alliance between National CineMedia, which in addition to cinema advertising, operates a Lobby Entertainment Network, and Cinema Scene, which reaches moviegoers in theater lobbies via its Trailervision network, and Adspace Networks, which operates a digital place-based network in malls.
 
The partners are entering in a joint selling agreement that will enable advertisers to create coordinated campaigns combining assets from all three networks, boosting reach and frequency for digital video campaigns.
 
Altogether, NCM’s Lobby Entertainment Network and Cinema Scene’s Trailervision combined network consists of a total of over 3,600 lobby video screens in 1,687 theaters across 189 DMAs, including 52-inch portrait screens, 42-inch landscape screens, and 138-inch video walls. The lobby networks will display ads on a four-minute loop for greater frequency, with ads interspersed with movie trailers and behind-the-scenes footage.
 
For its part, Adspace’s Digital Mall Network consists of over 2,800 screens in 211 malls located across the top 45 DMAs. Altogether, the three networks form a digital place-based network reaching 2,000 venues via 6,500 screens.
 
Adspace Networks Chief Revenue Officer Susan Danaher stated: “This new larger digital place-based network provides advertisers an affordable means of achieving continuity against the coveted mall and movie-going audience,” with “sufficient frequency to drive high consumer ad recall.”
 
This is just the latest in a series of moves toward consolidation in the digital out-of-home marketplace, either through partnerships or outright acquisitions. In May, NCM announced the acquisition of its main competitor, Screenvision, for $375 million in cash and stock. The combined NCM-Screenvision network will include theater affiliates in nearly all 210 DMAs across the U.S., consisting of 3,900 theaters with over 34,000 screens, and a total annual audience of 1.1 billion moviegoers, including repeat impressions.
 
Also in May, NCM unveiled a new partnership with Shazam, which should enable advertisers in NCM’s FirstLook package of pre-show entertainment and advertising to engage with consumers via their mobile devices, using Shazam’s audio recognition technology.