I checked into advertising at a movie theater. It's Dickison.

For a fee of 1450.00 I can get my "slide" at one 8 screen theater and it will run for 12 weeks. Every movie, every day, every screen, with two slides per preshow. This is mixed in with the trivia questions.

It sound like a neat idea. I just have to decide quickly because the deadline is soon. It's less expensive than other ideas. It would be ran through the summer movie months which would be nice. I just don't know. Advertising is such a gamble.

Do you think that would be effective?

for a little more than that, 1800.00

a friend of mine got her photography studio tv ads with the local cable company...

they were really slick too...and they but them in good slots...like i was watching boston legal one night...there popped her ad.

she said you could alway tell when the thing ran...the phone would ring off the hook

i thought about the movies too...the people who go have disposable income...or they wouldn't be at the movies.

What percentage of the TV or movie audience is shopping for a decorated cake?

For that kind of money, I'd be looking for a more targeted audience.

I would think that especially at this time of year, you are going to be getting a lot of kids/students watching movies. Probably not the people who are going to be ordering your cakes. For less than that I can get into the largest bridal show in my area. I would think you would get more orders from that. Only you know your area though.

If you have the money then go for it! I think that it is a neat idea.

I think it depends on your target market. If you do lots of birthday cakes and that's you thing it would probably be great. If you are looking for wedding business, I don't think you'd be spending your money well.

Around here, all the ads that run before the movies (which I personally hate btw- if I'm paying for a movie and they make me watch ads, then they need to discount my ticket price- anyway)
are from high end places.
The really huge lexus dealer has been running ads at the same muvico since it opened in 2002.

It really depends on your area and the the demographics of the people who go to the movies in your area.

Here I think it would be great for business- but I don't know about your area

Does the movie theater host birthday parties? Mine does. If yours does, then this advertising could be great for your business.

I know my theater runs a slide ad telling about the birthday parties you can book with them, and has the number to call. After that, an ad slide from a bakery pops up. Coincidence? Any parent who sees that (and likes the idea) will automatically have a place and cake for their kid's birthday party. How convenient.

I know the movie theater near me had free kids movies. You might want to ask. If they do, then you can bet there are moms looking for kid Birthday cakes. And if you really good then they will tell other moms. Trust me, I raved about the lady who did my cakes, before I did them myself, and I bet she got at least three new people from me.

The only problem with the move theater would be - how many people have paper and pen ready to jot down the name and number of your company right before a movie with the lights dimmed.

Just my opinion

Debbie

at my theatre when they run the ads- the lights are fully up- very bright light- and the ad cycle shows each ad at least twice.

Could you have flyers made so if someone did see the add the theater could had them a flyer with the info?

sorry didn't read all the posts... but... I have considered this type of advertising too.

The one thing you will need to do is have a "call to action" what should they do after they see the ad? go to your website, call you?

I have considered having a contest... "enter to win a $500.00 wedding cake" that way you can measure the response by how many entries you get and the people will actually do something rather than just see your ad and forget about it.

The downside is of course that you have to give away a $500.00 wedding cake on top of the cost of the advertising.

this way you will know if it was effective in reaching your audience.

My shop is in a retail co-op where there are about 15-20 vendors all located in a large historic building in our downtown, and we advertise both individually and sometimes as a whole.

Last year, two vendors decided to try this very same advertising at our local theater. The price was about the same and the package was also.

They were both very disappointed and could not see any return from this advertising investment. Typically our shop as a whole sees a big boost in sales as soon as any type of new advertising starts, but we could see no change with this one.

My physician also advertised with the same theater and ended his ads as soon as his contract ran out -- he was also very disappointed.

We have all tried various forms of advertising and what has worked is:

Cable advertising (as PP mentioned) -- it has been GREAT so far! It is relatively inexpensive, you can make monthly payments, and they are typically very "negotiable." We ended up paying drastically less than what their printed rates were. Our ad production was included with the package and it is great!

Radio advertising -- on one of our local stations - I didn't know anyone listened to our local station until I decided to take the smallest package they offered just to get the sales lady off my back! Again, they will usually cut you a deal and they are very flexible. Our ads sound so professional. I love them!!

My person experience is that I honestly do not watch the ads before the movie. We are usually getting settle in, getting our food situated, etc. Its a lot of money to risk when you may could look into some other options first. And in my experience the deadlines aren't really deadlines -- if they want your money, they will usually give you time to decide.

or you could offer say like a 10% discount, or a free cookie if they come to your shop and bring the movie ticket stub.

Very good pros and cons everyone.

One thing I thought of today was they can say that 100 people see each show but only 20% of them are there for the pre show. For some reason our town is very big on being just barely on time to things.


I think I'm going to save my money. I still have one big bridal show in Oct set up and a chocolate festival also... both already paid for.

Seriously... bridal show! thats a great place to spend your mktg $$$$

glad you came to a conclusion and it sounds like you know where your target market is.

I did the movie theater ads for two years for my other company. Many times people told me the ads were out of focus or too pixelated. The ad company ended up refunding me many free weeks because there are "problems with the projectors" and no ad runs. (of course that is only when someone notices and tells me about it).

Something else to check out.... the ad company was independant from the movie company, so I was dealing with two different entities.