The UAE’s booming population (a 25 percent increase in Dubai alone between 2005 and 2006, according to the UAE Interact Web site), coupled with an explosion in metroplexes, has led to soaring box office sales in UAE cinemas, illustrating the increasing importance of cinema as a medium for regional advertisers.
Statistics from the Box Office Mojo Web site show that in 2004, the most profitable five weeks of the year in box office sales in the UAE saw the top 20 movies net a total of $3,833,637. In 2007, that number has risen to $6,830,011, an increase of 78 percent.
“Growth in terms of ticket sales has been very impressive indeed,” says Hussein Moghrabi, an executive at MIS Gulf, which handles ad sales for Grand Cinemas in the UAE. Overall box office numbers have risen more than 50 percent from 2005, he claims.
The proliferation of multi-screen cinemas in Dubai has helped. Ibn Battuta Mall, completed in 2005, boasts 21 cinema screens and an Imax theater, and the Mall of the Emirates, which opened in the same year, houses 12 regular screens and a Gold Class section for those wishing to add a bit of pizzazz to a cinema outing – well, larger seats and a blanket, at least.
It’s taken some time to convince regional advertisers of cinema’s potential. Until just a few years ago, the country suffered from being so far behind US release times for the latest Hollywood blockbuster that by the time films finally reached the Emirates, many potential viewers had already seen them on pirated videos or DVDs. Now, though, most films have only a week to 10 days delay between Hollywood releases and their arrival in the UAE.
Also, unlike most developed countries – where cinema was established long before televisions became a fixture in living rooms – the screen evolution in the UAE went in reverse.
“We used to have to fight to become a part of media plans,” says Liam Marshall, general manager of group sales and marketing at Motivate – whose Motivate Val Morgan Cinema Advertising is in charge of dispensing ad space in Cinestar cinemas. “Now cinema is not automatically a second choice. It’s a primary medium.”
And it’s starting to attract primary advertisers. Cinema advertising is proving popular with automobile brands and telecom service providers, as well as hi-tech gadget manufacturers. Motivate’s top advertisers for 2007 include Arabian Automobiles, General Motors, Ford Middle East and Nokia.
MOVIES AND SHEIKHAS. Cinema offers these premium brands premium audiences too. Cinema goers are generally “high-worth individuals with a lot of disposable income,” says Marshall. And they are willing to spend it to be entertained. He cites patrons of the Gold Class cinema halls in Dubai’s Mall of the Emirates and Abu Dhabi’s Marina Mall as a prime example.
There’s the added bonus that these audiences are actually paying for the opportunity to sit through a film preceded by a string of advertisements, meaning they’re more likely to be paying attention to the ads.
It’s not the only advantage cinema has over the region’s most popular advertising medium.
“There is a lot of waste in television,” Marshall says, pointing out that cinema can feature regional ad campaigns targeted at specific geographical locales. For instance, an Abu Dhabi-based business can target consumers in the capital, focusing on a particular niche instead of pursuing a national TV advertising campaign.
With TV ads you don’t know exactly who you’re reaching, he explains, whereas ticket sales provide an unambiguous metric showing the size of your captive audience. Advertisers can also handpick in which films their commercials appear, making it possible to target a specific movie genre. “So, if your product has a young, male bias, you’ll follow Terminator,” says Marshall.
In addition, Motivate’s policy restricts ad timing to just 10 minutes before movies, restricting clutter and achieving greater recall for individual products, says Avinash Udeshi, general manager at Motivate Val Morgan Cinema Advertising. All of which lends a feeling of exclusivity to cinema as a medium. “Cinema is the Rolls-Royce of advertising,” claims Marshall.
HEAR AND WOW. It’s an analogy that holds true for the message as well as the medium, according to Marc Lineveldt, creative director at Dubai-based ad agency Fortune Promoseven. “Run of the mill television ads are unlikely to translate well to the big screen,” he explains. With cinema viewers generally exhibiting a more upbeat mood than their couch potato counterparts, they are likely to be disappointed by a commercial ported without alteration from the small screen.
Lineveldt says TV ads have to be more functional, informative and rational, whereas cinema advertisers have an obligation to be more entertaining by virtue of their venue. And ads in films with higher age ratings can afford to be more edgy or thought-provoking. Such material often works better in a communal setting than when its presented to a solitary individual slumped on a sofa.
“If it’s a funny commercial, or it’s an emotional commercial, you have 250 to 500 other people laughing with you, or feeling the same emotions as you,” Udeshi says. It’s a reaction that will likely create a far stronger bond between brands and consumers.
Lineveldt also points out that better sound quality and a larger screen can make cinema a superior medium for viewing ads. The flip side is that you can always tell when an ad’s primary medium is not cinema, and poor advertising can ruin the movie-going experience. Although maybe not as much as sitting through Catwoman.
“Cinemas in the UAE, unlike those in more established markets, use state-of-the-art equipment that is being upgraded all the time,” says Marshall. In markets where the industry is not as young, venues tend to be dingier and the equipment more dated. Udeshi says this means ads can pack more of a punch in regional cinemas. He cites a recent Sony hi-fi campaign that made use of the high-tech Digital Theater System (DTS) sound system. A single word – “Listen” – was projected on screen while it was whispered from individual speakers situated around the auditorium.
THE MISSING MARKET. But a glaring difficulty facing regional advertisers wishing to make use of the medium is the ban on cinema in Saudi Arabia, where clerics have declared public film viewing contrary to Islamic law. With the Kingdom being home to such a large chunk of wealthy GCC consumers, cinema advertising in the Gulf may seem a lot less attractive for multinational clients.
Marshall points out that this isn’t necessarily the case. “Dubai cinemas attract a large Saudi audience, especially in the summer,” he says, pointing out that for a large number of the 500,000 Saudis who visit Dubai every year (according to a recent article in The New Left Review), a trip to the cinema is an integral part of their visit.
And even though Saudi Arabia remains the most important consumer market in the region, the UAE is rising fast, says Udeshi, reiterating the soaring cinema audience figures in the country.
In terms of less restrictive guidelines for commercials, the Saudi Arabian ban may be a blessing. With respected religious authorities forbidding cinemas, Muslim moviegoers in the region are likely to be more liberal. Movie age ratings also allow for more risqué advertising material for an adult audience.
Still, advertisers are careful not to offend sensibilities in the Emirates, allowing playback of commercials promoting such products as cigarettes or condoms only in evening sessions after 10pm in 18+ movies, says Marshall.
Both Motivate and MIS Gulf are optimistic that even without the Saudi market, they’ll be rolling out the red carpet for advertisers increasingly frequently in the near future, as their one-time indie production continues to evolve into a blockbuster.
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