"Cinema is back and more alive than ever".

At the "CINEMA - It Matters" event at Blue Cinema Corso in Zurich, Christof Kaufmann, CEO at Weischer.Cinema, emphasized the importance of cinema as an advertising medium. In doing so, Kaufmann spoke positively about the current state of cinema, citing, "Cinema is back and more alive than ever." He explained that the numbers are practically back to the level of 2019 and that this is reason to rejoice.

He stressed the need to continue to promote cinema and to make advertisers aware are that cinema is back with numbers similar to 2019. Kaufmann pointed to successful films like Barbie that have made marketing history, and stressed that cinema is still an important media category that should be integrated into the moving image mix of the advertising industry.

Referring to the importance of cinema in today's world and the role of branding, Kaufmann said, "Especially in times when now, I think, brands and branding are important again, we can simply make a very significant contribution within the communication channel." Research findings were also presented, including research from the University of St. Gallen that examined the impact of cinema, TV and YouTube as an advertising medium. Kaufmann concluded his presentation with a message to disseminate the findings from the research and to adapt marketing measures based on these findings.

CEOs want advertising to have a tangible effect on sales. But the mere correlation of advertising and sales does not take into account the many other factors that influence beer sales, such as weather, distribution and events. To measure the quality of advertising, "flow" has been analyzed - the ability of a medium to put consumers in a receptive state. In the University of St. Gallen study mentioned earlier, different channels were compared and it was found that cinema achieved the best advertising impact due to its higher "flow." In summary, "flow" measures the quality of advertising and influences its effectiveness, but it cannot be considered equivalent. Nevertheless, it enables the comparison of advertising impact in different channels. More about the study in the Werbewoche interview with Sven Reinecke and Sven Kännler from the University of St. Gallen.

Christian Tingler, media researcher at Weischer Germany, spoke about the emotional impact of cinema in advertising, emphasizing its importance in the media mix. He conducted a study that examined the effect of cinema attendance on the audience and the impact on advertising. This presented the "effective CPM" as a measure of advertising price relative to impact. The conclusion was that cinema should be part of every media mix because it enhances emotional impact and appeals to hard-to-reach audiences. Good cinema spots take advantage of the medium's many possibilities, from emotional approaches to quiet creations. The recommendation to the creative industry is to produce high-quality, well-crafted spots, as they work well in cinema as well as on TV.

Matthias Keller, CEO of Patterson Entertainments, gave an exciting talk about cinema and shared three pieces of wisdom. First, "Cinema Strikes Back" - Cinemas are recovering very well after the pandemic, with successful movies like Barbie and Oppenheimer. Second, "One Size Fits All" - cinema as a community experience where emotions are shared. Third, "Streaming vs. Cinema" - Both mediums fulfill different needs, similar to cooking food at home, ordering food, and eating at a restaurant. The thesis is that those who consume moving images do so in different forms, and cinema is comparable to going to a restaurant. More in-depth on this in the video conversation with Matthias Keller.