Should HTF solicit donations for a VARIETY AD? Poster Enclosed (2 Viewers)

[John Berggren]

If the slides could be afforded & accepted at Carmike, and various other chains, this would be terribly effective on the consumer end.

Would theaters run a slide ad that had anything to do with home video though?

 

[Dana Fillhart]

Man, theatres will run just about ANY (inoffensive) ad -- with how movies are front-loaded in favor of studio profits and not the theatre's, I can guarantee they'd take this idea in a heartbeat.
Most ads I've seen are actually from local businesses like car dealerships, tuxedo/bridal rentals (strangely), mom & pop food shops, etc., but I've seen the usual corporate ads like Coke and cell-phone companies.
I think someone should post the rates for slides for the higher population locales -- I'm betting for the same price as a one-time full-page Variety ad, we could get 50 well-placed high-volume theatres, and hit our goal a hell of a lot more effectively.
Of course, if BOTH options are financially feasible...

 

[Eric Peterson]

I'd be willing to throw down for some stickers.

I also really like the idea of pre-movie ads. I think these could be had for fairly cheap, and if you time the ad properly (say before a major blockbuster) you could target quite a few people even in one theater. The only downside that I see to this, is that many people don't get to the theater until close 'til showtime and then when they do they sit and chat with the person next to them all the way through the previews. I'm not sure how many people actually pay attention to the screen. It would also be nice to target theaters in several major cities, but then the costs start to soar and you end up where we were before.

A Few questions.
1. How much does one of these slides cost typically?
2. What is the duration that they run for?
3. Do they run on every screen at the particular theater? If so we would want to target the biggest multiplex possible.
4. Will the theater be willing to run such an ad?

 

[John_Berger]

Would theaters run a slide ad that had anything to do with home video though?

Why not? It would in a way also promote the notion that theater experience is the best way when compared to a butchered pan-and-scan release.

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

[c]THE FUTURE OF TV IS WIDE
Link Removed
Think about it.[/c]
Modfied to fit the slogan

 

[Charles J P]

Jeff Ulmer, your point has been noted before. I cant wait to see the backlash when the J6Ps who think they are big movie buffs, and so the own as many DVDs as some of the larger collectors here, find out that their hundreds of MARed videos no longer fill the screen, and they are non-anamorphic (ie lower res). Of course it has also been noted that the adoption of widescreen tv sets could bring nothing more than movies pan and scanned to 16X9 :frowning: Replace one problem with another.

 

[Andy_MT]

Buy a slide. You know, one of those pre-movie slides that offer movie trivia, local ads, etc. Buy one in Los Angeles.

these would have to run in a LOT of theatres to reach a large audience (read expensive). even taking into account the cascading effect of person seeing advert telling their friends, their friends telling their friends ...

the key ingredient to this escapade given the limited resources, is i think, publicity. you need to do something crazy to get the media's attention. so that it gets on the news, even the local news. (free publicity). sounds extreme, but how else is any of this going to take off without large quantities of cash ? i can't see it myself.

 

[Jan Strnad]

Jeff,

I love the "modified to fit your screen" illo!

As for backlash from those who buy 16:9 sets, I see this message (and illo) as real public service. "Think ahead. Plan for wide. It's coming."

Will J6P be pissed off over having purchased a lot of pan-and-scan crap? Yes. But not at us. This is why I kinda like the "THE FUTURE OF TV IS WIDE" slogan, and this illo instills the proper amount of paranoia to have an impact.

Jan

P.S. I'll bet the owners of a bunch of DIVX discs are pissed, too, but we warned them.

 

[Jan Strnad]

Eric wrote:

A Few questions.
1. How much does one of these slides cost typically?
2. What is the duration that they run for?
3. Do they run on every screen at the particular theater? If so we would want to target the biggest multiplex possible.
4. Will the theater be willing to run such an ad?

Well, dang...somebody's just gonna have to go to a movie theater...early...and jot down the phone number. I can do it when Signs comes out.

Jan

 

[Brian E]

How about the poor guys that are buying 4:3 HD sets. They're really going to be pissed. I remember telling one how the standard for HD is widescreen (16:9). He politely replied that I was wrong and those strange WS sets were only for movie fanatics because that was waht the kid at CC told him. He was getting it mainly for TV broadcasts.

BTW Jeff, I love your little graphic.

 

[Jan Strnad]

So, "fullscreen" beat out "widescreen" in the Howstuffworks.com poll.

Anybody doubt that we need to become more activist?

Jan

 

[Brian E]

It was 46% to 39% and only out of 2,088 responses. I'm all for advocacy, but lets not make more of the "poll" than it actually was.

 

[Greg Z]

OK, here is some info I found. My local Lowes theater uses a company called Screen Vision for their ads. Screen Vision seems to be this big international theater advertising company. I don't have time here at work to call, but here is the info.
www.screenvision.com
phone # 212-497-0400

 

[JasenP]

Count me in to throw a little cabbage towards vocalizing (or printing) our collective cause. While it may fall on deaf ears, let me direct you towards one of my favorite lyrics:

"I feel better having screamed, don't you?"
-R.E.M. Ignoreland

 

[Brenton]

I agree that people would respond to a bumper sticker more than they would a magazine ad. People READ bumper stickers! They do! Unfortunately, the bumper sticker only goes where you go and can only be seen by the person driving behind you.

But think about this: if every single one of us goes and gets a sticker custom printed for ourselves and every widescreen/movie buff that we know that says "Widescreen is Better" or something simple like that, it could start to get the idea into peoples heads. Then once it gets into the person's head, they say "What is widescreen? Why is it better? What does that mean?" If they care enough to wonder, they might care enough to find the answer.

On the other hand, even if every single one of us did this, we're still be few and far between.

As for a theater slide, here's an interesting idea... what if instead of a slide, we did like a live action commercial. We could zoom in on a regular consumer TV until the top and bottom of the TV screen meets the top and bottom of the theater screen. Then people would scratch their heads and say "Wait a minute... why is the theater screen so darned WIDE?" Then a scene from pan and scan movie comes on (something popular like Star Wars). Then a voiceover says "Missing something? See it in widescreen!" and the sides of the image expand to fill the theater screen. Everyone in the audience now has a chance to grasp the concept of widescreen.

This would be much more expensive, but much, much more effective. Especially if we could get it somewhat widespread.