Hey, i had an idea about advertising on movie theater screens as a preview. The only question im having on this is would the people in the movie want to be thinking about business or pleasure while they are there? I would be having it shown at a more adult targeted movie at a later time when my target audience is watching. Whats your thoughts on this?

If the audience you want to market to is sitting in the theater, then by all means give it a try. Do some market testing so you can judge how effective it is (or isn't). If I owned a restaurant next door to the theater, I'd probably give it a try. I don't think I'd advertise Small Business Forum at a theater, though.

I would only consider advertising another "pleasure or entertainment" related product or service to people in a movie theatre as they are going to be in a "pleasure or entertainment" state of mind. I would think anything else would be intrusive and not accepted as well.

Speaking from experience, movie theater advertising is a good way to get your message out and/or build name recognition regardless of your product or service. Why?

1) You have a captive audience, they get bored waiting for the movie and no matter how hard they try, they end up reading that damn screen... ha ha
2) Executives, business owners, adults, etc. also watch movies not just kids...

Some advice:
1) Check the price. It must be relatively inexpensive regardless of product or service because you are unable to target your market. Here in Northern Ohio the prices were cheap when I did it. The key is how many people will view your ad, does it run only on one screen or multiple screens, can you target a specific movie (adult storyline), how long will it run, etc. These vary among theater chains.

2) Keep the ad very simple, quick to the point. The ad will be viewed for 5-10 seconds maybe two or three times before movie.

3) For contact information, focus on business name rather than a phone number, it is easier to remember and the person can look it up later.

4) Check the price.... Oh I said that... ha ha (Get the hint)


My experience:
My business is IT and I started to market a software product called Everest. Everest is a "mini-ERP" with a good e-commerce system integrated with backend apps for the small business. My target market is the Quickbooks/Peachtree user who needs more functionality and/or e-commerce. My ad was along the lines of: "Outgrowing QuickBooks? Try Everest ERP! Call Stratetech..." This ad generated numerous leads and two sales.