Viacom, Movio Launch Targeted Movie Studio Trailers

Viacom is partnering with data analytics firm Movio on a new marketing offering that it claims will help movie studios goose ticket sales.

Companies that are hoping to convince TV watchers and streamers to head out to the multiplexes can now better target their ad campaigns, the partners claim. Viacom has started to use Movio’s information on moviegoer’s habits to augment Vantage, its in-house data-driven tool. Since launching in 2015, Vantage has provided consumer targeting that’s analogous to what digital platforms offer advertisers, enabling them to have a deeper understanding of which types of content will perform best for specific client initiatives across Viacom brands such as MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, and Nickelodeon.

Viacom is the only media company to connect Movio’s extensive consumer data to set-top box viewing data, providing film studios with the ability to deliver marketing campaigns with more precision. The service is open to any movie studio, not just Viacom’s Paramount Pictures. In an interview, Bryson Gordon, EVP of advanced advertising at Viacom, said that the data is so refined that it allows studios to ensure that their trailers are being seen by people who bought tickets to a specific cluster of films.

“It’s ensuring that you’re getting your ad in front of the audience that can turn your major motion picture into a blockbuster,” said Gordon.

The companies joined forces after Viacom became aware that very little data exists on the consumer behavior of moviegoers. Studios have long leaned on big national television campaigns out of necessity, believing that reaches the broadest audience possible with their trailers and posters is the only way to attract the group of people most interested in seeing a film on the big screen.

“The mantra of having the right ad at the right time in the right place is very hard to accomplish in the studio category,” said Gordon.

However, as Viacom’s team struggled with that issue they stumbled across Movio, a New Zealand-based company that’s part of Vista Group and maintains a data set of information on more than 100 million moviegoers across different ages and demographic groups in 36 countries. It includes consumer ticketing information on more than 5,000 film titles.

“Studios tend to rely on broad assumptions about who is going to turn up to see competitive titles,” said Craig Jones, Movio’s chief commercial officer. “Because of the data we’ve been collecting over time, we have unrivaled insight into the behavior of U.S. moviegoers.”

Will Palmer, Movio’s CEO and founder, said his company hopes to partner with other media companies and integrate their data into other platforms.

“We’re really challenging ourselves to think about who the audience for a film is and how to engage them at the right time so they turn up and buy a ticket,” said Palmer.