Aero Film has always garnered work that finds its way to the Big Screen. If you’re a filmmaker, it’s always about sight, sound and motion. When you see anything on the Big Screen, it comes with high expectations. What better way to establish a client’s brand than with an ad projected in larger than life fashion? Shooting and directing spots for the cinema is an appropriate fit for our directors. Klaus Obermeyer, Henrik Hansen and Ken Arlidge are all visual storytellers. Klaus just did a cinematic piece for the National Guard. Henrik recently did a huge branding spot for Mercedes-Benz shown at dealer conventions worldwide. Ken just finished a Suzuki campaign that started on TV and then played in theaters before the story climaxed on the Internet. It’s what Aero Film does best.
There’s a huge upside to cinema advertising. Millions of people go to movies every month. They are also active consumers. They go places, travel and spend money. That’s true in countries around the world. You can’t Tivo or DVR a cinema ad placement. Cinema advertising gives you a captive audience that is receptive to a good story. Your message can’t get interrupted, you have people’s full attention. With this much control, though, comes a responsibility to entertain, inform and emotionally connect with the audience. Demographic-wise, if you want to target just college-age kids, cinema advertising can let you reach the exact demographic you desire.
The past few years, there’s been a confusing array of options offered to agency media buyers. What mix will yield the best results for their clients? Viral release on YouTube? Banner ads on Yahoo? A broadband Internet channel? Cell phone screens? Video games? All of these new outlets are great. We think the future involves an entire palette of options. Marketing strategy continues to grow and become much more sophisticated, and yes, integrated. But what separates cinema advertising from the pack is proven distribution.
As a production company, I think we best serve agencies when we help them separate hype from fact. Agencies now have budgets to try things that didn’t exist five years ago. But let’s get back to reality; the purpose of advertising is to create demand by influencing people to take action. Coke has done some great advertising in theaters for years and no one can contest its success in helping to build awareness for the brand.
Some say that cinema advertising is great, but expensive too. Not if you account for the higher than average recall rates a cinema ad can garner versus other media buys, even a traditional :30 spot. If the ad is produced right, nothing compares to cinema advertising. People underestimate how cinema advertising can heighten the effectiveness of their overall integrated marketing efforts. That’s why Aero Film recently hooked up with Screenvision and formed a team to help agencies keep cinema in mind when working on new creative. In the past year we’ve worked on National Guard, Army, Navy, Suzuki, Marines, Northrop Grumman and General Motors. Each had a media strategy that included cinema advertising. By producing ads for the Big Screen, we’re helping agencies to build their clients’ brands and achieve each marketing objective as quickly as possible.”
Lance O’Connor is partner/executive producer at Aero Film, Santa Monica.
Oscar Nominees Delve Into The Art Of Editing At ACE Session
You couldn’t miss Sean Baker at this past Sunday’s Oscar ceremony where he won for Best Picture, Directing, Original Screenplay and Editing on the strength of Anora. However, earlier that weekend he was in transit from the Cesar Awards in Paris and thus couldn’t attend the American Cinema Editors (ACE) 25th annual panel of Academy Award-nominated film editors held at the Regal LA Live Auditorium on Saturday (3/1) in Los Angeles. While the eventual Oscar winner in the editing category was missed by those who turned out for the ACE “Invisible Art, Visible Artists” session, three of Baker’s fellow nominees were on hand--Dávid Jancsó, HSE for The Brutalist; Nick Emerson for Conclave; and Myron Kerstein, ACE for Wicked. Additionally, Juliette Welfling, who couldn’t appear in person due to the Cesar Awards, was present via an earlier recorded video interview to discuss her work on Emilia Pérez. The interview was conducted by ACE president and editor Sabrina Plisco, ACE who also moderated the live panel discussion. Kerstein said that he was the beneficiary of brilliant and generous collaborators, citing, among others, director Jon M. Chu, cinematographer Alice Brooks, and visual effects supervisor Pablo Helman. The editor added it always helps to have stellar acting performances, noting that hearing Cynthia Erivo, for example, sing live was a revelation. Kerstein recalled meeting Chu some eight years ago on a “blind Skype date” and it was an instant “bromance”--which began on Crazy Rich Asians, and then continued on such projects as the streaming series Home Before Dark and the feature In The Heights. Kerstein observed that Chu is expert in providing collaborators with... Read More