Cinema ad firms – save one – consolidate their programmatic offerings

Notably absent is the largest cinema ad firm, National CineMedia, which has its own programmatic offering in the market. Screenvision’s CEO John Partilla said the alliance offered NCM the chance to join the alliance, communicating via the Cinema Ad Council. NCM did not respond to requests for comment. 

“We decided we’re better off going to the market in a unified, cohesive manner to bring more scale, uniformity and simplicity to the programmatic buying marketplace,” said Partilla. “We shared the broad strokes that we are exploring [with] this alliance. NCM would always be invited to join it should they choose to.”

“Programmatic is a different animal in that there’s not as much interaction — a lot is done through the DSPs and SSPs — and we realized we’re stronger together than separate,” added Michael Sakin, president of Spotlight. “There isn’t duplication. We’re not competitive, we’re additive.” 

The alliance is pitching itself as a valid option in premium video, and is hoping by being available through programmatic platforms, it can attract advertisers who only tend to purchase programmatically. Partilla pointed to financial services as a category that tends to buy that way. 

“This puts us in a future-leaning position to continue to capture both future incremental dollars, which we think will be substantial, as well as over the next 5-6 years, to make sure we defend our current buying and planning relationships,” said Partilla. 

He acknowledged that Screenvision will generate only a slight increase in total ad revenue for 2024, largely the result of the lingering effects of the writers’ strike that crippled production in 2023 and negatively impacted H1 2024 ad revenue. He does expect 2025 to be a better year, and sees it as the first fully normal post-pandemic year for cinema attendance and ad-revenue generation.

Spotlight’s Sakin added that he sees cinema ads as akin to what DRTV was when linear TV still ruled the realm. “In the good old days of TV there was direct response,” said Sakin. “And I think programmatic is a blue-chip opportunity for us that’s like a more enhanced direct response.” 

Perhaps, however, the industry isn’t positioning itself to win, argued one speaker at the Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit in Nashville, who told Digiday he thinks cinema advertising is making a mistake positioning itself as a premium video option, saying it should instead embrace its value as part of the digital out-of-home world. 

“I’d prefer to look at it against other options like billboards or screens in retail outlets than against CTV,” said Anthony Scarola, vp of media and programmatic lead at VaynerMedia.