VAL Morgan may not think cinema slide advertising is a profitable venture in Western Australia, but a former senior executive Tony Brooks believes there is a strong market for the 15-second still ads.
VAL Morgan may not think cinema slide advertising is a profitable venture in Western Australia, but a former senior executive Tony Brooks believes there is a strong market for the 15-second still ads.
Mr Brooks launched CINEads Australia last August to pick up where Val Morgan left off.
Val Morgan, owned by Kerry Packer’s Hoyts group, shut its slide business late last year and a fortnight ago closed its entire WA operation.
CINEads focuses on slide advertising and targets small to medium-size companies, rather than the large advertising agencies traditionally targeted by Val Morgan.
Mr Brooks worked at Val Morgan for more than a decade, helping Australia’s largest cinema advertising company expand into the US and New Zealand.
But a desire to live on the beach and avoid long-haul flights prompted Mr Brooks to establish his own cinema advertising business in Perth.
“What Val Morgan did very well was the national advertising agencies with million-dollar accounts, but it was becoming difficult for them to manage small and medium size businesses,” Mr Brooks said.
“We picked up the slide show business straight away but what we are doing is changing the creative. I can see it getting more professional when digital comes in, but at the moment we’re concentrating on providing good, simple creative and giving clients greater recall rates.”
Mr Brooks has secured contracts with a number of cinemas as an exclusive advertiser group.
“We’ve just secured the Astor in Mount Lawley. From April 1 it will be branded CINEads,” Mr Brooks said.
“They [Val Morgan] will supply us with their customers’ ads and we have the opportunity to look after those clients at a local level and renew them when the contract expires, based on improved creative and getting their category exclusive.”
Others to use CINEads for commercial screenings include Ace Cinemas, Luna Cinemas and Grand Cinemas.
Mr Brooks said small and medium-size businesses were keen to advertise in the growing cinema market. Recent clients include Subiaco-based seafood retailer Zen Sea, radio station Sonshine FM and the Blockbuster video chain, he told WA Business News.
“In the past 10 years the cinema audience has grown,” Mr Brooks said. “People who go to the movies pay to be there. They are relaxed and there are no interruptions. The recall rate is five times greater than that of television.”
He said his company was keen to reduce the number of ads screened before each movie.
“It will be a couple of minutes maximum and we will be providing premium space,” Mr Brooks said.
Attracting major cinema groups such as Greater Union was also on the agenda.
“We want to do this far better than it has been done at a local level so that we are more attractive for the major cinemas,” he said.
