Cinema Media Advertising | Advantages and Disadvantages
Table of Contents
Cinema Media Advertising
Cinema or film advertising is yet another medium of publicity characterized by sound, motion, colour, vision and timeliness on a large silver screen. This audio-visual medium has a wide range starting from ordinary slide presentation to the film screening.
Screen publicity is liked by people of all ages, sex, profession, political affiliations, income groups because, it has the appeal of life-size presentation. It was the most popular form of advertising till the advent of TV and onslaught of video because of which its popularity is fading in urban areas, while it is still somewhat popular rural areas.
For showing advertisements in a movie theater, the advertiser is responsible for having his film produced and distributed. Normally, production and exhibition of the film are handled by specialized advertising agencies. Once the concept is explained by the advertiser, the advertising agency arranges for film-making. Film makers organize the activities of planning a shooting schedule, searching a location, hiring models, cameramen, editor, studio and other facilities.
Merits of Cinema Media Advertising
The following are some of the advantages / merits of Cinema media advertising.
1. Deep impact: Screen advertising has a deep impact on the viewers because of large screen size and the fine picture presented to the viewers combined with sound, colour motion and vision.
2. It is selective and flexible: The cinema audience consists of all segments of the society differing in living standards, educational level, etc. But, all are interested in the advertisement message as there is something for every one.
3. Mass publicity: A cinema hall offers this unique specialty. Today, a capacity of a theater ranges between 1000 and 3000 persons per show. Neither radio nor television can match on this aspect.
4. Versatility: Film advertising cuts across the barrier of literacy and language and reaches the audience and make them spell-bound.
Demerits of Cinema Media Advertising
The following are some of the disadvantages / merits of Cinema media advertising.
1. It is costlier: Screen advertising is a costly affair. It involves lot of activities such as selection of crew, film shooting, distribution and exhibition.
2. Problem of Indifference: The cinema audience is basically interested in feature film than advertisements. If not all, majority of the audience resent such advertisement messages during the entertainment.
3. It has limited coverage: Though one boosts of screen advertising as a mass media, it has limited coverage. If we take the Indian scene, there are hardly 6,000 towns with 15,000 theatres for more than 1000 million people.
Further, the advertisement films which are shot are based on urban life style, whereas cinema is very popular in rural areas, especially at present.
