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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Author
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Topic: The Business End Of On-Screen Slide Ads
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Aaron Mehocic
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 804
From: New Castle, PA, USA
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 06-20-2000 04:47 PM
I'm cooridinating our cinema's campaign to land on-screen slide advertisers. I have some questions that need answered:1. On average, how many local businesses do you have advertising on your sceens? 2. How many slots in the carousel do you a lot to each local business that advertises? 3. Do you charge a flat advertising rate for "X" amount of weeks -OR- do you charge a fee to advertise and a seperate fee for the production and duplication of slides during that same "X" amount of weeks? I understand most of you folks will be reluctant to answer question #3 for business reasons; however, this is the most important question that needs answered, and the reason for this post. Thank you for your responses.
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Scott D. Neff
Theatre Dork
Posts: 919
From: San Francisco, CA
Registered: Oct 1999
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posted 06-21-2000 02:22 AM
We use C & A Advertising --- they do it all for us and just send us the silly slide and tell us to put it in. Every three months they send us new generic stuff.I have NOO idea what they charge. Something ridiculous I think, as not TOOO many people advertise. We have an 80 slot carousel, and each advertiser has 3 slides --- we only have about 5 advertisers. But it's a nice painless operation for our managers. ------------------
Scott D. Neff
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www.cinema-west.com
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Scott Norwood
Film God
Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 06-24-2000 08:32 AM
I don't like slide ads, but film ads (usually video->35mm blowups of TV commercials) are much, much worse. It makes the theatre experience feel like television, which is something that the industry is doing to much of already. I'll make exceptions for theatre-related stuff like Pepsi/Coke and charity stuff like Jimmy Fund/Will Rogers ads, but just about anything else is really annoying.
Slide ads can be done tastefully, using two xenon projectors with a crossfade device and screen curtains that close as the slides end a few minutes before the show starts, but this is expensive and is almost never done.
Most commonly, theatres use underpowered slide projectors with no fade-in/fade-out at all. This just looks tacky.
For theatres that use automation systems, I wish that there were some way of setting up the automation to _not_ turn on the slides and non-sync music if the failsafe drops before the end-of-show cue. If something goes wrong, the audience really shouldn't be subjected to advertising and movie tunes while it is being fixed...
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Lance C. McFetridge
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 135
From: Penn Yan, New York
Registered: Jul 99
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posted 06-24-2000 04:45 PM
Scott,
While I can appreciate your personal dislike for screen ads. Perhaps you should look at the economics of the situation and distance yourself from your projectionist experience. I firmly believe that once a person becomes a projectionist or technician, presentation is never viewed the same. Oh for simpler times when we all didn't count the seconds between changeover cues, or look for those cap code dots. An independant theatre must first of all make money. If film rental isn't paid, all the high tech equipment that makes for a perfect presentation won't do much for a dark screen. In a perfect world, I would get 8 bucks for a ticket, each patron would spend 3 bucks each at concession, but being in a summer resort town in Upstate NY, it gets a little slim here around February. Slide ads has supplemented our income so that we can stay open, upgrade as we can, and give near flawless presentations..........thanks to film guard  . Perhaps you should look at the hard reality..........income.
lance
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Brad Miller
Administrator
Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99
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posted 06-24-2000 05:54 PM
Scott, I completely agree with your beefs. I share them too. Fortunately, the CA21 can be set up to NOT turn the slide projector back on "if" something were to go wrong during the show. Also, we were tossing the idea around of running the slides, then the video commercals on film (junk like shampoo, jeans, etc), THEN closing the curtains, pause for a minute, then reopen the curtains with the previews. I think that would make things more professional and fortunately the automation can do it. Still, Lance has equally valid points. Even I have had to put a "commercial free" environment aside and place ads here to help offset costs. While I'm trying to figure out a way to control the ads that are displayed, whatever happens I've decided to take the extra income and put it all into the site to improve it more. I know some theaters do that (one fellow said he buys digital units with his slide money) and I have the utmost respect for that kind of thinking. Unfortunately, many theater owners/chains are just running ads to make more money, nothing else. Oh well. Better to keep the theater open with ads than to shut it down. 
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Kevin Crawford
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 207
From: Sacramento, CA, USA
Registered: May 2000
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posted 06-25-2000 01:48 AM
One theatre that I work at has nothing but ads on screen. There is one for gift certificates, and two policy slides. The other 78 are for paid advertisers. The guy selling them wants to try 120 slot carousels so he can sell more.Now tell me that anyone is going to look at a screen of nothing but ads. Would you watch TV if it was all ads? I understand the economic need for these horrible things, but there should be a limit. That chain sells the ads themselves using the guy that wants to try the 120 slot carosels. Then has a professional company make up the slides. Another chain that I work for uses NCN. They are not too bad. There is regular change out of trivia and such. But they subcontracted the repairs of their slide projectors. Since then at least one screen has been dark out of six. One time there were three out, when the replacement projectors showed up all three did not work. In addition, NCN also sells the pre show countdown. Actual film commericals that last from 30 seconds to 1 1/2 minutes. Including one that featured the annoying Pepsi girl. Necessary in the grand economic perspective.......? Yes. But put some limits on this please.
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Scott Norwood
Film God
Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 06-26-2000 01:45 PM
Don't misunderstand--I'm not oblivious to the economic reality. I am, however, painfully aware of how this industry seems to be doing everything that it possibly can in order to self-destruct. Individually, things like slide ads, high prices, sloppy presentations, etc. may not be enough to drive customers away, but the combination will. This industry needs to wake up and learn that they should give up some opportunities for temporary economic gain which will cause serious long-term harm.
Take the place where I worked last night as an example: It's a more-or-less typical (maybe a little above average) mall-area multiplex. Ten screens (two THX, two HPS-4000), recent construction (1994-ish). The customers paid $8 per ticket just to get into the place. Once inside, they had the opportunity to pay sky-high prices for concessions of average quality (popcorn, pepsi, etc.). Then, they went into the auditoria and watched slide advertisements and listened to movie tunes. When the film started, they saw 2-3 film ads, a Jimmy Fund beg-for-money ad (it's actually a really good charity, so I won't complain about this), and a bunch of trailers advertising upcoming movies. That's just way too much advertising for a place that charges $8/ticket.
Like I said, I don't think that advertising is evil at all. I'm absolutely in favor of having as many movie posters and standees as possible in a theatre lobby, and tasteful ads for local merchants are perfectly acceptible on printed material like theatre schedules, etc. It's just when it becomes so pervasive that it becomes somewhat offensive and begins to make the "theatre experience" become almost exactly like the "television experience," only with higher prices, lower-quality food, and a bigger screen.
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