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Big Cinemas enters strategic alliances to tap Gujarat and UP
Big Cinemas has tied up with Sambhaav Media and Media Prophet to market local properties in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, respectively
Adlabs Films, a member of Reliance ADAG (Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group), which operates Big Cinemas, has tied up with Sambhaav Media in Gujarat and Media Prophet India in Uttar Pradesh to tap the regional and local advertisers in these markets.
Sambhaav Media will market 11 of Big Cinemas' properties across Gujarat, including Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Gandhidam, Jamnagar, Palanpur, Vapi, Anand, Hanjer, Patan and Deesa. Sambhaav Media is a leading media house in Gujarat, with presence in outdoor, magazines (Abhiyaan) and newspapers (Sambhaav Metro and Loksatta-Jansatta).
Media Prophet India (Barasia Advertising), too, is a prominent advertising agency with over 30 years of experience in the UP market. It will handle all of the eight Big Cinemas properties in that state.
The media companies will market on-screen options (pre-movie projection and during interval). They will also offer various customized off-screen options such as branding for theatre facilities, creative options such as floor stickers, product displays, one-way visions and other engagement options such as kiosks and weekend promotions.
"We are delighted to be a partner with Big Cinemas and are quite confident that our combined strength will offer a wider array of advertising opportunities to reach the end consumer in Gujarat," says Kiran Vadodaria, CMD, Sambhaav Media.
Neeraj Kumar Attri, AGM, west, Sambhaav Outdoors, adds, "All the properties offer fresh and unique branding options to corporate clients, who do not have many BTL options in these towns."
Aditya Barasia, MD, Media Prophet says, "With Big Cinemas' expertise in cinema exhibition and our strong local clientele, it will definitely be a win-win situation for consumers and advertisers."
Tyagi also feels that these alliances are an example of the new age strategy that brings the rich cinema experience to a local market, thus benefiting the cinemagoer and the advertiser.
In 2008, Big Cinemas, along with IMRB, carried out 'The Big Cinemas - IMRB Multiplex Consumer Study' which was bestowed the Best Paper Award in the Innovative Research section, by the Market Research Society of India (MRSI). The company claims that the study is a first-of-its-kind initiative in the world, where RFID technology was used to understand the attitude and behavior, product/media usage and media efficacy of the multiplex goer.
Big Cinemas currently operates 83 properties across 66 cities with 208 screens in India, and 37 properties in 35 cities internationally.
In the US, Big Cinemas operates about 23 properties with 170 screens; it also has 14 properties with 66 screens in Malaysia. A recent tie-up with Pathe theatres of the Netherlands marks its entry into the European market, which has a base of 700,000 Hindi movie fans. With the total of over 440 screens and counting, Big Cinemas wants to reach not only Indians here, but also the estimated 20 million strong Indian diaspora.