Hollywood Studios getting the Big Picture?

It’s not that there haven’t been successes.

Film promoters created a cultural phenomenon with the Internet promotion of The Blair Witch Project, and studio support of Lord of the Rings fan sites was practically a case study in how to communicate to ticket buyers around the world through unpaid but enthusiastic evangelists.

Yet, years later, the percentage of online ad spending by Hollywood movie studios lags spending on all other media — especially television.

“The situation cannot last,” says James Belcher, eMarketer senior analyst and the author the new Hollywood Online report, “because 80% of all movie attendance comes from moviegoers who see one or more movies a month, and this prime target audience is young — and online.”

The movie industry is playing catch-up when it comes to Internet advertising spending.

For all US industries, Internet advertising spending in 2005 was 4.6% of all media ad spending, and eMarketer projects that Internet ad spending will account for 8.9% of all media ad spending in the US overall by 2010.

Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) numbers show that online ad spending by its members was only 3% of their overall media spending — less than half of what the average US industry is projected to spend in 2006.

“Drawing frequent moviegoers to the big screen means spending to reach their computer screens online,” says Mr. Belcher.

People under 30 are far more likely to be frequent moviegoers than are those 30 and older, according to the MPAA. An April 2006 study by the group found that nearly half of all 18-to-20-year-olds saw one or movies per month in 2005, compared to less than a third of those 30 and older.

eMarketer’s projections for Internet use by US teens underline the connection between this frequent moviegoing group and its penchant for the Internet. With 73.7% of 12-to-17-year-olds in the US using the Internet now, and 83.9% projected to do so by 2010, the need for increased online movie ad spending becomes clear.

“eMarketer is not advocating limitless spending on Internet ads to the exclusion of all other types,” says Mr. Belcher. “After all, even 57.2% of US Internet users get their movie information from TV. However, given the number of frequent moviegoers (ie, teens) who are online, and that 46.1% of Internet users get their movie information from Internet Web sites, a proportionate increase in Internet efforts makes sense.”

Courtesy of http://www.emarketer.com