Survey Shows Super Bowl Ads Experience Dramatic Surge in Brand Awareness When Supported by In-Cinema Runs

As creatives and media decision makers prepare to premiere expensive new commercials for 1Q 2012’s big television events, the Super Bowl(TM), The Grammys(TM) and The Academy Awards(TM), a new research study is demonstrating how their across-the-board impact can be dramatically improved with a flight of cinema advertising. The findings come from a quantitative study from Lieberman Research, commissioned by Screenvision, a leading innovator in cinema advertising and alternative content programming.

The Screenvision/Lieberman Research study looked at two different groups exposed to the same Big Event TV ad, on television and in-cinema. An online survey was conducted in the 24-48 hours after the airing of the commercial during Super Bowl XLV(TM) in February 2011, with a nationally representative group of 1,001 adults, age 18+. A second, in-depth interviewer-administered survey was conducted with 297 respondents at theaters in the Los Angeles and Nashville DMAs which screened these same ads, in the weekend following Super Bowl XLV.

The results? The combination of a Big TV Event ad buy with cinema advertising delivered double-digit increases in ROI deemed metrics among the moviegoers who recalled the ads in both venues:

Brand Affinity, i.e. the overall opinion of the brand, +41%
Brand Awareness, +27%
Word-of-Mouth, i.e., likelihood of sharing positive opinions, +27%
Brand Recommendation, +13%

The study also demonstrated the unique power of showcasing showpiece Big Event TV commercials on theater screens:

The recall of respondents who were exposed to spots only in theaters was 12% higher than those who had only viewed the spots on TV

Cinema-only run out performed Big Event TV-only across the board –
+14% in Ad Likeability
+ 21% in Ad Persuasiveness
+6% in Brand Consideration
+4% in Brand Opinion
77% of respondents thought Super Bowl and other Big Event TV ads were a good fit for cinema

Moviegoers enjoyed the Super Bowl ads more in the cinema environment, by a margin of 17:1

“This study clearly demonstrates the unique power of cinema advertising and the role it plays in driving awareness, affinity, positive word of mouth and purchasing intent,” said Mark Mitchell, Chief Revenue Officer of Screenvision. “It also dramatically reinforces the benefits that cinema delivers to amplify a Super Bowl, Grammys, Academy Awards and other Big Event TV investment.”