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| Author | Zoe Aresti |
Welcome back to the latest edition of We Love Cinema. As the warm weather gradually comes to an end, we can look forward to this winter’s film slate to help keep us warm across the cold months of Q4. Key titles such as Minions (£47m), Inside Out (£37m) and Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation (£21m) have joined Jurassic World as this summer’s most successful blockbusters, while smaller releases such as Straight Outta Compton (£7.5m) and Legend (£10m) have shown their significant appeal by smashing their box office predictions after just one week onscreen.
This month, we’re focusing on the role that cinema can play for alcohol brands in Q4 and beyond, and which titles your brand should target to deliver a resonating, seasonal message in the most engaging environment.
There are a number of films across Q4 which will appeal to all adult tastes, whilst the months in the run up to Christmas see an increase in alcohol consumption to coincide with the festive season. In December alone, there is a 40% increase in alcohol consumption across the UK. This presents the opportunity to all alcohol advertisers to target adult cinemagoers with different products across a variety of films, with both responsible consumption and gifting as their core messages.
The £1m YOY increase in alcohol advertisers’ spend from 2013 to 2014 (Q4) reveals much about their advertising habits across the year. Of the top ten spenders in Q4 2014, three of them (Carling, Cordonieu and Baileys) ran all their cinema activity in this period, while across the others, more than half (54%) of their annual spend fell into Q4. This shows that brands are closely matching their activity to the habits of the UK population, tapping into their customer’s Christmas spirit in a stimulating environment and aligning themselves with both memorable and emotional films.
An assortment of films that have received glowing reviews on the festival circuit see their nationwide releases over the next few months. Steve Jobs had its world premiere at Telluride Film Festival in September, and the biopic of the Apple visionary has received universal praise from critics alike. Released on 13 November, expect Michael Fassbender to be at the front of the pack for the Best Actor Oscar next year.
The same can be said for Jonny Depp in Black Mass, which tells the life story of Whitey Bulger, one of the most notorious criminals in US history. Hailed at the Venice Film Festival as a mighty comeback for Depp, the film is a gritty true crime drama that has an ensemble cast including Benedict Cumberbatch, Joel Edgerton and Dakota Johnson. With a combined ABC1 profile of 72%, these films are perfect for upmarket alcohol brands such as Grey Goose and Peroni to efficiently reach their target consumers during Q4.
The latest Spielberg-Hanks collaboration, Bridge of Spies, is a Cold War drama sure to set pulses racing, and is released on 27 November, while two of cinema’s most revered visionaries bring their latest films to cinema in the first few weeks of 2016. Quentin Tarantino is back on 8 January with The Hateful Eight, gathering stalwarts from his previous films and newcomers now making waves in Hollywood. Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth and Channing Tatum, bounty hunters try to find shelter during a blizzard but get involved in a plot of deception and betrayal. With obvious parallels to Reservoir Dogs and Django Unchained, this will be one of the prime contenders across all awards next year.
Alejandro González Iñárritu also returns with The Revenant, following on from his Best Director Oscar for Birdman last year. Leonardo di Caprio and man-of-the-moment Tom Hardy spearhead an ensemble cast in a tale of revenge, where a frontiersman goes after those who left him dead after a bear mauling. With the new trailer amassing 3m+ YouTube views in just two days, appetites have clearly been whetted for what will be one of 2016’s most intense dramas.
This diversity in the film slate shows that there are opportunities everywhere for brands to tap into the spirit of cinema this year and beyond – contact your DCM rep for more information about running your Christmas campaigns as well as any premium position film packs next year.