This is topic The Business End Of On-Screen Slide Ads in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Aaron Mehocic (Member # 15) on 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.
Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 06-20-2000, 07:07 PM:
I'll edit this when I have the answers to 1 and 2. Don't know for sure off the top of my head.
Posted by Lance C. McFetridge (Member # 95) on 06-20-2000, 07:10 PM:
Aaron,
I have a three screen theatre, and a slide projector in each. I offer a three month program costing 250 bucks for the three months. This gives the advertiser two slides per carousel. I have timers set to change slides every 13 seconds. I offer 4 passes if the advertiser pays all at once and I will stretch it out over 3 months with $100 down and $50 per month. Last year it paid to upgrade one auditorium to dts and it paid to change a two channel to a 4 channel auditorium. So, people suffer through a few minutes of ads so I could give a better presentation. Which I say is a fair trade off. I also have a professional studio prepare the ads and image the slides, so it is well done.
hope it helps
lance
Posted by Scott D. Neff (Member # 185) on 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.
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Scott D. Neff
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www.cinema-west.com
Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 06-21-2000, 06:21 PM:
Doh! Forgot to look at the exact numbers. I am in the smae boat as Scott, C&A does our ads. Each advertiser has 3 slots. I think we have 6 advertisers.
Posted by David Johnson (Member # 173) on 06-23-2000, 04:11 AM:
In Australia slide advertising has been a part of life since limelight. We use mostly "Kodak Ektapro" at one time we had a cassette deck with a 1 KZ tone at the end of each announcement, this was decoded and advanced the slide, a pulse head was fitted to detect the last slide which advances the automation and starts the projector or closes the curtains. Now we use "Sony Mini disc players" each announcement has a track number, this is used by the automation to detect a slide change, the number of slide changes are counted by the automation to advance the auomation and start the projector or close the curtains.
David
Posted by Aaron Mehocic (Member # 15) on 06-23-2000, 11:22 AM:
Does anyone know of any industry articles written about the benefits (or drawbacks) of on-screen advertising?
Posted by Barron Dripp (Member # 483) on 06-23-2000, 02:34 PM:
my theatre has about 12-15 advertisers on the screen that plays before the show starts. Although the revenue that is obviously made for both our theatre and the companies advertising is a good amount, they are a roayl pain in the a**! THe movie theatre staff cannot stand having them on there, because of times when they start up during a show (usually our fault, but it can happen accidentally.) This takes away from the movie the patrons are watching. Also, for anyone who lives in the area the advertisers are things they run into a daily bases and when they come to a movie they are not to thrilled with having to see "commercials" for local business' on the screen. Numerous people complain about them on a daily basis. That's just my op.
Posted by Lance C. McFetridge (Member # 95) on 06-24-2000, 07:50 AM:
I find it interesting that people have been complaining about the ads on the screen. I have been showing ads for about 4 years, and I have never, to my knowledge, had a complaint. It has actually worked out so many of the partons in this town, remark to the advertisers that they saw the ads at the theatre. My projectors are hooked to the automation. A relay switches off any power to the slide projector as soon as the show starts. The only time the slides could come on during the feature is if the relay fails or a failsafe shuts down the movie projector. Of which I have had no problems with. The additional revenue is well worth the time invested. Just be sure to put high quality ads on. What else do the patrons have to do before the show? I also offer special interest groups reduced rates on the screen, such as Kiwanis, Rotary, Lions to mention a few.
lance
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 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...
Posted by Lance C. McFetridge (Member # 95) on 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
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 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. 
Posted by Kevin Crawford (Member # 469) on 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.
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 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.
Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 06-29-2000, 12:29 PM:
Its easy to say that when you pay $8 a ticket that you shouldnt have to put up with advertizing on screen. Its a great train of thought but completely impractical. Most people fail to realize that the movie theater charging the ticket price does NOT get to keep the whole thing. In many instances they get to keep very little. Remember that the movie studios do have to make thier money back, and admission is how it is done. Do we all remember how Lucasfilm reamed us on SW1? If it wasnt for the onscream advertizing, we would all be out of business. And yes I did mean onscream!!!Dave
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"If it's not worth doing, I have allready been there and done it"
Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 07-03-2000, 10:56 PM:
We are a single screen 20's vintage movie palace. Usually there are 16 to 20 advertizers. At Christams there are typically 24 to 26. The fee is $250 per month if the client supplies scanner ready art or a c.d. or floppy that requires little work other than sizing for our format. Our projector is a Brenograph original to the building. The slides are transparencies made on an inkjet printer and mounted between two 9 by 9 pieces of glass. Cost to produce the slice is about a buck. All advertizers are local and most are within a few blocks of us. Each slide is on screen for 15 to 20 seconds twice before each feature. We get few complaints about the price and there is frequently a waiting list of those wanting a spot. National ads have too many conditions attached and are not accepted, there are too many good local people. Ads. are sold by the sales staff of a local tabloid owned by the theater operator. We get very few complaints from patrons. Screen ads are a vital part of our operation. Ads are cross faded and the curtain is closed before they start and at the end of the ad. presentation. The 2000 watt arc lamp provides excellent brightness and the 4 inch images very good resolution.
Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 07-08-2000, 02:54 AM:
Does anyone know of who to contact regarding getting set up with on screen advertising? We already have the screenvision, but are looking into slide presentation. If any of you have company names with phone numbers that would be great.Dave
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"If it's not worth doing, I have allready been there and done it"
Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 07-09-2000, 11:33 PM:
C & A Advertising out of Des Moines, IA
1-800-SELLS-4-U (hows that for chessy?)
They are a decent bunch to work with, down to Earth.