Cinema advertising · Marketing
A cinema slot is bought by the week, and the film decides who is sitting there.
You pay per screen per week. The hall is full or nearly empty depending on what released that Friday, and the rate does not move with it. Two weeks on the same screen can be two completely different campaigns.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
Cinema advertising buys on-screen time in the reel before a film, sold per screen for a week, as a still slide or a video of ten to thirty seconds. GullySales picks the screens around your catchment and checks which films run in those weeks. The booking goes through the cinema or its agency, and the slide carries a countable route.
So the first question is which films are running in your weeks, and the second is where in the reel your spot sits. An 11 am weekday show of a film in its fourth week plays to a scattering of seats. A Friday evening release fills the same hall.
Position matters as much as the week. People walk in late here, so the slots closest to the film are the ones an audience is seated for. The interval slot catches the crowd on its way to the counter and back.
Who it is for
This is written for you if these sound familiar.
- A clinic, showroom or restaurant whose customers come from the few kilometres around one multiplex
- Property projects selling to families who already live inside that catchment
- Jewellery and fashion retailers who want a large, loud format at wedding and festival time
- Schools and coaching centres advertising in the admission months, in the screens their parents use
- Brands with a video already made for social, which can be re-cut for the screen
Not for
It is not the right fit if.
- A business selling to one trade or a named list of companies, where the hall is full of the wrong people
- One screen for one week, which is a single sighting for anyone who goes to the cinema once a month
- Anyone who needs enquiries counted daily, because the hall reports nothing back
The problem
Does this sound like your business?
What owners tell us on the first call, in their words.
“The slide ran for a month and nobody remembers seeing it”
A ten-second still early in the reel plays to a hall people are still walking into. The slot next to the film costs more because it is the one the audience is seated for.
“The campaign was booked before anyone asked what was releasing”
A screen is priced the same whether a big release is running or a film in its fourth week. Booking blind hands that difference to the cinema.
“The creative was built for a phone and shown four storeys high”
Small type and a crowded layout fall apart on a cinema screen, and a phone number in the corner is unreadable from the back row. One line, one name and a large QR code is what survives.
“The video missed the delivery deadline”
A cinema film has to be converted to the chain's projection format and delivered before the week opens. Miss it and the campaign runs as a static slide you never designed.
What we do
Everything that is included.
Each deliverable, and what it gets you. Nothing here is an extra.
Screen selection by catchment
The specific properties and screens your buyer travels to, rather than a package across a city you do not sell in.
Release calendar check
What is scheduled to run in your weeks, read before the booking, so the same rate is not paid for a near-empty hall.
Slot and position
Where in the reel the spot sits, and whether the interval position is worth the difference for this campaign.
Creative built for the format
A still slide or a re-cut video carrying one message, with type readable from the back row and a code large enough to scan.
Delivery to the chain's spec
A slide goes in as a high-resolution still at the chain's exact pixel size. A film has to be converted to a cinema delivery format, which is a separate charge, and both are submitted ahead of that week's deadline.
Inspection pass and photo proof
The cinema issues a pass to sit in on a show and watch your slot run. Photographs of the screen come back with it, dated by show, which is the only evidence the reel carried you.
Lobby and off-screen media
Standees, counter branding or a foyer kiosk, booked separately and through whoever controls the lobby, which in a mall is the mall rather than the cinema.
A route that can be counted
A QR code or an offer code used only in that reel, so an enquiry can be put down to the screen it came from.
How the result is measured
- Scans of the QR code on the slide
- Calls or messages using the cinema code
- Screens and weeks delivered against the booking
- Walk-ins reported during the campaign weeks
- Cost per enquiry across the screens booked
Recorded as a baseline before work starts, so every later report has an honest comparison.
How it works
How the cinema advertising work runs
The work itself, in order. How an engagement starts, from your brief to a written scope, is set out on our method page.
- 1
Fix the catchment
We start from how far your customer travels to reach you, which for a clinic or a restaurant is short and decides the screen list on its own.
- 2
Read the release weeks
We check what is scheduled in the campaign window and time the buy to the weeks with something worth watching in the hall.
- 3
Build the creative
The slide or the film is made for a screen four storeys high and cut to the duration being bought.
- 4
Coordinate the booking
We place the buy with the cinema or its appointed agency and confirm the screens, the position and the delivery date in writing.
- 5
Count what came back
Scans, code use and calls are read against the weeks and the screens, and the next round drops the screens that gave nothing.
Where this fits
Three pieces of sales work, in this order.
This work sits inside sales process design, at stage 1, prospecting and lead generation. The audit comes before it, and sales management keeps it running.
Step 1
Sales audit
Find where deals are being lost and what to fix first.
Start here if you cannot say where orders are lost.
Step 2 · you are here
Sales process design
One written way to sell, from first enquiry to repeat order.
Start here if every salesperson sells differently.
Step 3
Sales management
A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.
Start here if the team has targets and no routine.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
Is a slide enough, or do we need a video?
Can we choose which shows our ad plays in?
How do we know anyone saw it?
Is this the same as putting a standee in the lobby?
Why is one screen dearer than another in the same multiplex?
What does cinema advertising cost?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
By industry
Cinema advertising, written for your industry.
Related services
Often bought with this, or instead of it.
Read before you buy
- How to track cinema advertisingA dark hall is the most attentive audience you can buy and the hardest to trace. Response arrives after the film, so read the catchment, not the screen.
- How to make a cinema advertisement for a small businessA dark hall, a screen twelve metres wide, sound all around, and an audience that cannot look away and cannot write anything down. Cinema gives you one idea, once, with no click at the end of it.
- Cinema advertising in Bengaluru: the halls, the languages and what you can buyFour kinds of cinema property, two different sellers inside the same building, and a release calendar running in four languages at once. Pick the hall and the film before you think about weeks.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.