Val Morgan showcases quality cinema content and new innovation in 2014 to propel business

Val Morgan has today conducted the first of two 2014 upfront presentations showcasing the exceptional cinema content ahead whilst also announcing new innovations to further propel the business.

Says Damian Keogh, Val Morgan CEO: “With an abundance of media opportunities available today, quality media is harder to find than ever before. In this context cinema is unique, it makes advertising an event, the environment demands attention and when people are engaged they are impacted. The movie line up ahead is exceptional and throughout 2014 we will ensure the audiences we deliver can be easily bought, measured and evaluated, providing our media agency partners with the best possible service and solutions.”

A key strategic initiative for release next year, after a successful recent launch in Australia, is a new cinema audience measurement system, CineTAM. Based on actual movie attendance data from 80,000 loyalty club members, CineTAM will provide a cornerstone for measurement of cinema audiences at a demographic level. In combination with actual attendance data this will create the most robust measurement of any medium in the country.

Says Suzie Lamborn, sales director Val Morgan NZ: “CineTAM will bring a new era of accountability to cinema planning. It will allow cinema to be planned and bought easily together with TV and online video as part of a broader screen strategy.”

The near saturation of digital cinema systems across New Zealand is also great news for cinema advertisers. Val Morgan’s national cinema circuit is now over 90% digital, with advertisers benefiting from vastly reduced production costs and faster lead times.

As New Zealand’s representative for the Cannes Lions Festivals, Val Morgan also announced the launch of Young Lions competitions in both the Media and Film categories in 2014. These competitions will be open to employees of New Zealand advertising agencies, aged 28 or younger, with the winning teams sent to represent New Zealand on the world stage at the 2014 Young Lions competition held in Cannes in June.

Cinema in New Zealand is currently enjoying a boom time, the second installment of the The Hunger Games opened this weekend to 2.2m (the second highest grossing 4 days after the Avengers this year) with a summer packed with blockbusters ahead including the second installment of The Hobbit alongside the highly anticipated Anchorman 2. The New Zealand box office is currently up 7% over the past five months.

2014 will be another outstanding year for cinema with an impressive slate of releases ahead, including Transformers 4, Godzilla, Fast and Furious 7, the third movie in the Hunger Games series The Amazing Spider-man 2, Captain America: Winter Soldier, the conclusion of The Hobbit trilogy and The Wolf of Wall Street among many others.