MARTIN BOWLEY - MANAGING DIRECTOR, DIGITAL CINEMA MEDIA
- What films will be the most exciting/bring in the best audiences this summer?
Twilight is already out of the starting blocks and doing really well. I've seen Toy Story 3 in 3D and it is unmissable. You'll laugh out loud at the Barbie and Ken thread, and when Buzz gets "reset" I was crying with laughter. Leonardo DiCaprio's Inception is something else. Twenty brilliant scenes strung together in a weird dream sequence, it makes you think. Angelina Jolie's latest film, Salt, is out later this summer, which I'm quite intrigued to see - that could be fantastic. And for complete male brain-trash, catch The Expendables.
- What are likely to be the best advertising innovations around the big summer blockbusters?
It's pretty hard to beat this summer's Triumph catwalk campaign and Jonathan Glazer's 3D Sony ad for cinema. The biggest innovations are coming from the Hollywood producers themselves, whether with 3D or special effects - this is the future for advertisers and you'll see it in cinemas first. From The Red Carpet, DCM's fortnightly 60-second entertainment show screened in all DCM digital cinemas ahead of the film trailers, will be launching a free iPhone app this summer. It will contain all the latest film gossip, exclusive trailers and interviews with stars, and you can win premiere and cinema tickets to all the latest films. Don't miss out!
- How good is the cinema business at marketing itself to the ad industry?
I'd say, for our size, we're making a pretty good job of it. The addition of a dedicated client unit and creative agency team is paying dividends. We've invested in an annual cinema industry event held in September, this year chaired by Daniel Kleinman. We've launched our new website for agencies and clients to access the latest cinema advertising research and ads at www.dcm.co.uk. We run ads in cinema promoting cinema and we're engaged in understanding ROI. A lot to do but a good start.
- What was the most creative piece of cinema advertising you have been involved in recently?
O2 and the screening of the RBS Six Nations - live and in 3D. Tickets sold out in two hours, press coverage of the campaign reached far and wide, registrations at O2's Blueroom rose dramatically and the experience was great. It was a first for cinema, a first for O2 and it offered customers something exclusive. The Get Close Film Festival in Picturehouse cinemas to promote Gillette's new Venus Embrace razor had promotional activity across the Bauer Media titles Heat, Closer and More!. With competitions online and on Kiss Radio, cinemagoers could pick their favourite female films that were screened in cinemas. Developed with Starcom, it was a great link-up between two media owners and should win an award.
- If you could use a cinema to watch any film, ever, with any film star by your side, what would be the film and with whom would you watch it?
I watched Sexy Beast with Ray Winstone the other week -hard to top that. However, I'm going to choose Goodfellas with Robert De Niro. The movie that had the most impact on me, as a 14-year-old schoolboy trapped in windy Torquay, was Easy Rider - check out the opening sequence on YouTube. I saw this in the ABC1 cinema at Castle Circus with my best mate Gareth Jenkins. We immediately wanted to get two choppers and hit the road, which was difficult in those days as they weren't readily available in Devon.
SIMON WILLIS - HEAD OF CINEMA, GROUP M
- What films will be the most exciting/bring in the best audiences this summer?
It is difficult to choose - legions of teenage fans voted with their feet during the opening weekend of Twilight: Eclipse. The film that seems to be achieving the most momentum with the critics is Inception, Christopher "The Dark Knight" Nolan's mindbender starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Marion Cotillard. However, the most likely winner in the summer box-office stakes is Toy Story 3 in 3D, which was the biggest ever opening for a Pixar film in the US and will no doubt provide further proof of the UK cinemagoer's appetite for the 3D platform.
- What are likely to be the best advertising innovations around the big summer blockbusters?
There is a big growth in interactive technology; for example, interactive ads on screen, Bluetooth and six-sheets. Interactive floor projections in the cinema foyer are a great way to entertain and engage with cinemagoers while they are waiting for the film to start.
- How good is the cinema business at marketing itself to the ad industry?
Given that there are only two players in the market, the cinema industry comes across as a far larger one than it actually is. This is principally due to the determination of the two contractors involved and their commitment to ensure that clients and agencies engage with cinema as much as possible, such as taking them to see their ads in situ when campaigns break. A series of roadshows, technology demonstrations, film clubs and great business-to-business websites all augment cinema's role as a major presence within the ad industry.
- What was the most creative piece of cinema advertising you have been involved in recently?
I have recently been involved in renewing the Orange Gold Spot - a property Orange has made its own through the activation activity that has been used to support it. Orange has a unique relationship with film, and alongside Orange's other agencies we continually look for new ways to amplify this. We support the burgeoning Orange Film Club on Facebook and have also promoted the Orange Wednesdays iPhone app. We're proud of MovieZone - where Orange "hosts" a Channel 4 ad break made up entirely of film trailers. It's become such a fixture that other agencies see it as a media opportunity in its own right - PHD described it as an "appointment to view", perfect to help launch Warner Bros' Inception! Fallon's new take on the Gold Spot has certainly brought a smile to my face with its recent A Team copy, which incidentally won a bronze Film Lion at Cannes in the Corporate Image category.
- If you could use a cinema to watch any film, ever, with any film star by your side, what would be the film and with whom would you watch it?
Scarface with Al Pacino or, alternatively, Baywatch: The Movie alongside David Hasselhoff (or his lookalike, Martin Bowley).