Advertisers head to the movies
With more and more of us zapping the ads out of television programs (we do it via our Comcast recorder since our TiVo never worked with our HDTV box), it seems that advertisers are headed to product placement and ads at the movies (with 27,000 of the 37,000 American movie screens running ads) according to this New York Times story (registration required):
Last year, ads in United States movie theaters grew 23 percent to $438 million, according to the Cinema Advertising Council. The two-year-old trade association, scheduled to announce the increase today, is also expected to report that on-screen advertising revenues grew 20 percent last year to $374 million. Off-screen promotions - including revenue from in-lobby promotions - rose 41 percent to $64 million.
...In the first quarter of 2005, 50 percent of United States moviegoers were between the ages of 12 and 34 and a third were 12 to 24, according to Nielsen Cinema. The education levels and spending power of those in the movie theaters are attractive to marketers, too. In 2004, 35 percent of all moviegoers were college graduates or more highly educated, while their median household income was $66,000, according to Nielsen.