Imax CEO demands 'stronger' marketing leading to biggest campaign to date

It comes following comment made by chief executive Richard L. Gelfond on an earnings call with investors yesterday (26 July) where he said he "always felt [Imax] could be stronger with marketing."

"When I look at the company's performance under my tenure, [one thing] that we could have done better was more creative, more dynamic marketing and I think we nailed it this time," he said of the effort.

"I'm confident that our new brand campaign will change that."

Shunning TV, the activity will run in-cinemas and online across 77 countries in 39 languages from Friday (27 July). Its aim is to showcase why audiences should stump up extra for the full popcorn-crunching, jump-out-of-your-seat Imax experience; to see blockbusters the way filmakers intended.

The campaign comes just four months after Imax appointed TBWA\Chiat\Day LA to its global creative account.

It also arrives exactly one year after the projection firm poached Denny Tu from Sky to fill the newly-created role of executive vice-president of brand and creative to help "draw the curtain back a bit and showcase what makes the Imax brand so special".

'Film to the Fullest' focuses the differentiators unique to Imax: picture quality, wider projectionand immersive audio. As such, the creative comprises side-by-side comparisons of what movies like Ant Man and Mission Impossible Fallout look like on a regular screen, vs how much bigger the framing is on Imax screens.

Three additional short videos focus on the audio, clarity and the overall experience.

Pomeroy added: "Realistically, when you think about how difficult it is to get folks off the couch these days with Amazon, Netflix and an infinite amount of streaming opportunities, the thing that actually drives that differentiation is premium... so that's really the focus of this campaign."

Imax's push comes amid growing competition from these streaming platforms, with Netflix set to spend $13bn on original programming this year and declining cinema sales. According to Box Office Mojo, ticket sales stood at 1.2 billion in the US last year – their lowest since 1992 - while the UK cinema association reported that 170 million Brits visited the cinema in 2017, just slightly up on 2016's 168 million but down on 2015's 172 million.

Under previous agencies like Sid Lee and LA-based Mistress, Imax's marketing was centered around appealing to movie buffs, rather than the experience of going to the cinema.

However, over the past three months, Imax has pulled in sales worth $98.3m thanks to the success of movies like Jurrassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Avengers: Inifinity War.

Backing from other brands

On the call with investors, Gelfond also revealed that cinema partners and clients have even funded their own, additional advertising around tts 'Film to the Fullest' - tying the campaign to specific assets, which the the chief exec said eqauted to the value of $14m in paid advertising for Imax.

Following the success of Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk, which was shot using an Imax camera and within two weekends had grossed $40.1m of its $234.1m ticket sales in Imax screens alone, Pomeroy said she could see the brand working in similar ways with studios to drive its messaging.

"You're going to start to see that with some of the very beautiful custom IP work we're doing in conjunction with, and in blessing from, the studios."

The Antman creative in this campaign, for instance, was developed independently by Imax and TBWA and then submitted to Disney for consideration.

"That's the beginning of something we'll see more going forward," she added, "where Imax can bring world-class creative, interesting partnerships and new angles for the studios to supplement their core global movie campaigns."