National CineMedia, the largest cinema advertising network in the U.S., announced this week that they are joining forces with Coinstar® to reach movie fans beyond the big screen using adPlanet™, a new flexible digital advertising platform that sits atop Coinstar® kiosks in grocery stores.

This announcement caught Insiders’ eye as the cinema media advertising sector, as you can imagine, has been extremely hard hit during the Covid shutdowns.  National CineMedia has seen their sales, through the nine months ended September 2020, decrease by 75%.  Here is a snapshot of their Income Statement.

Even with the potential ending of the Covid lockdowns on movie theaters, there are no guarantees that the cinema advertising industry will come roaring back to normal.  Particularly with the movie studios looking at the release of new films directly to the home via major streaming services.

National CineMedia may be recognizing the potential peril to their business model, thus the Coinstar® relationship. You may have seen a Coinstar® kiosk as they are have contracts with most major grocers with 4,000 locations in 35 of the top 50 DMA’s.  Maybe, with the coin kiosks, CineMedia will not have a large group all with eyes on the screen waiting for a new movie, but ultimately it is about eyes on a screen.

Will be interesting to track the success of this new partnership.  Insider gives them credit for thinking outside of the box.

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