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Topic: Current going rate for on screen slide ads?

Brad Allen
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 688
From: Evansville, IN, USA
Registered: May 2000

posted 02-13-2002 09:35 PM

Whats the current rate for on screen slide ads?
How many times do you show each advertisers ad per session?
Where do you get your trivia slides?
What projector is most reliable?
Thanks

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James R. Hammonds, Jr
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 931
From: Houston, TX, USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 02-13-2002 10:41 PM

The best slide projector is an invisible one that shows invisible slides.

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Wes Hughes
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 175
From: Raleigh, NC, USA
Registered: Aug 2001

posted 02-14-2002 02:28 AM

I LOVE those invisible slides!!!

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Jerry Chase
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1068
From: Margate, FL, USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 02-14-2002 10:11 AM

I like the ones of curtains.

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Lance C. McFetridge
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 135
From: Penn Yan, New York
Registered: Jul 99

posted 02-14-2002 01:23 PM

I love the fact that mine paid to upgrade an auditorium to DTS. And working on the second one.
lance

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Dave Macaulay
Film God

Posts: 2321
From: Toronto, Canada
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 02-14-2002 07:17 PM

I don't know what they pay like. Big chains get their slides from a service - National Cinema Network is one of the biggest. They supply the projector and all the slides, with weekly update slides (labelled with screen and tray slot numbers!). They pay a flat fee, you basically rent them the screen time.

NCN uses Telex projectors, they seem a bit "el-cheapo" to me.
My personal pick would be the Kodak Ektagraphic AFT, made specifically for cinema use with a simple built-in timer/fader (looks better than the no-fader Telex) and autofocus (so plain mount slides are OK). They have a 3 year warranty, maybe 4.

Most reliable? This gets into economic choices. The Kodak Ektapro units are quite reliable but cost $$$, they are made for full-time commercial use in multiprojector dissolve systems and have auto lamp changers, serial data ports with random slide access - and other big-buck stuff... overkill for a cinema...

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 02-14-2002 09:12 PM

At least some of the Telex projectors have simple dissolve functions built into the timers. I don't know if this is a factory configuration or a later modification, however.

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Bill Enos
Film God

Posts: 2081
From: Richmond, Virginia, USA
Registered: Apr 2000

posted 02-16-2002 12:15 AM

We get $250 per slide per month. National are rarely accepted as they are too much trouble and are very slow to pay. We run 18 to 25 ads and each is displayed twice before each film. The ad presentation is started so that is complete in time to start the film at the advertized time. At present the line up includes local businesses, a church advertizing a divorce counceling program, an art gellery, and a university dance dept. program. Advertizers say these ads work! Several have been with us continuously for several years.

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Richard C. Wolfe
Master Film Handler

Posts: 250
From: Northampton, PA, USA
Registered: Apr 2000

posted 02-16-2002 03:58 PM

Bill. Slides at the Byrd? I'm surprised. How do you do them? Do you stop them and close the curtain before you start the show? We still have an ad curtain, but it wouldn't work for slides. However, it does give me an idea. Since most ad curtains had a city street scene with the ads painted on rooftop or wallside billboards, why not have a new ad curtain painted with a large blank billboard in the middle with a scenescape around it. We could then project the slides on the billboard and still have it look period to the theatre. Then at showtime have the ad curtain go up and have the organ play a short medley in front of the house curtain and start the show from that point as usual.

My apologies to most of you who have no idea of what I'm talking about. But I'm sure Bill does.

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Chad Souder
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 962
From: Waterloo, IA, USA
Registered: Feb 2000

posted 02-18-2002 10:46 AM

We use a company called USA productions (unique screen ads), but it seems to me as if they have a lot of turnover. Timers are unreliable, so we are running everything continuous which means your ad could get shown 2-4 times between shows. I don't know what they charge for their ads, or what they pay us to use our screens, but I would guess each customer pays around $3000 for a six month run on all 12 of our screens.

------------------
"Asleep at the switch? I wasn't asleep, I was drunk!" - Homer Simpson

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Jerry Chase
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1068
From: Margate, FL, USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 02-18-2002 01:25 PM

I'm going to make a rare pitch here. I know that there are a lot of people that love the idea of on-screen advertising and think that slide presentations are a great way to go. Personally, I think most of the results are marginal at best for the advertiser and do not represent a good return on the advertising dollar.

When I watch an audience before a movie, those that are seated are normally talking or only passively watching the slides. Most don't come in early enough to see even a half of the carousel, and many customers don't arrive until after the previews start.

Anyone with access to the attendence figures and half a head at math can do their own analysis. The cost per advertising "hit" with slides is huge. Slide companies gloss over the fact of empty auditoriums, late comers, burned out bulbs, dim images, etc.

Part of the concept of my ticketing program was to use a ticket large enough to accomodate advertisements and coupons on the ticket. These ads are less expensive to the advertiser than slide advertising, they provide the advertiser with positive feedback of effectiveness, and every customer with a ticket gets the ad. That is a 100% hit rate!

The ticket advertising is effective enough that a mobile home dealer once advertised (as a joke, I think) a free washer and dryer with his ad on the movie ticket, as long as the person purchased a mobile home, and had a taker.

Fast food restaurants have learned that these ads are a perfect placement. Their cents-off coupons go directly into the hands of moviegoers, who may be looking for something to eat immediately after the show, providing an almost immediate response.

Those slide shows may be more popular, and easier to sell to people with big egos, but my Skinny Elephant tickets are a far better deal.

Besides, those coupons can take some of the curse off customer complaints of high ticket prices.

I do like Richard's idea of the scenescape. It is novel and allows the slide presentation to be brighter, and makes the big picture of the movie itself more impressive. I suggest a scenescape with a drive-in theatre as the scene.

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