MAGnet #01 - 21/05/21
Packed with the latest industry news, welcome to magnet; Media Agency Group’s newest edition to the blog.
Enjoy.
Out and about: Cinema
It has been a difficult time for all of us- made even harder without the escapism that cinema usually provides. However, this week cinemas reopened their doors to the public in the UK. Long awaited films like No Time to Die and Fast and Furious 9 are set to come out later this year, whilst some Oscar movies are finally getting their UK cinema debut.
The cinema industry has been one of the worst hit during the pandemic with many theatres closed for extended periods of time. According to Statista, a provider of market and consumer data, there were only 44 million cinema admissions in 2020, where there had been 176 million in 2019.
And whilst 80% of cinemas may be reopening their doors, revenue for British cinemas fell by 76 per cent last year, from £1.25bn to £297m. There has also been worry that VOD has substituted the need for cinema, with streaming services like Netflix and Disney Plus streaming new films in the past year, however data suggests that people are actually looking forward to get back to the cinema.
A Cinema First poll found cinema going was cited by 59% of respondents as their most missed entertainment activity- after all, it’s an event experience and we’ve probably exhausted all the ways to make staying at home for events fun in the last year.
Vue has reopened all of its 88 UK theatres, whilst Cineworld have reopened most of their sites, and Odeon- the United Kingdom’s largest chain said it would be reopening most of theirs, including the flagship sites at London's Leicester Square, Manchester's Trafford Centre and Birmingham's Broadway Plaza.
Data: Lockdown TV
The stats are in for how much TV we all watched during numerous lockdowns, including earlier in 2021.
Both Think Box and the IPA’S Touchpoints database released statistics regarding TV consumption recently, and we can clearly see that lockdown increased media time, especially ‘watching’ time, which went up 15%. This included videos on any device, as well as TV.
Meanwhile, time spent out of our homes decreased by 68% in 2020. The IPA Touchpoints data concludes that it is in fact TV viewing which drove the rise in the overall viewing figures. Consumers were watching any form of TV for an average 4 hours and 29 minutes every day. This is an increase of 17% from pre-lockdown 2020, when viewing time was around 3 hours and 50 minutes.
Some generational trends were also revealed by the data. The popularity of the app TikTok massively increased for 15-24 year olds, reaching 43% of them. There was an increase for all adults too: the result stood at 11.5% in lockdown 2021, which was a rise from 4.1% in pre- lockdown 2020 and 7.3% in the 2020 lockdowns.
Ads: KFC ‘Love You Too’
Last week, KFC brought its new ad, ‘Love You Too’ to our screens. It’s a minute long, and features good fun, as well as special life events. It somehow perfectly encompasses what a dramatic change going out to get good food can add to a day, or a moment, encompassing the connection people share- all wrapped up in a bundle of Finger Lickin’ Good chicken. It’s by Mother, a London based independent creative agency, and we’re showed scenes of passengers urging their taxi driver to stop off at a KFC, cutting of a KFC birthday cake, and even a marriage proposal in a KFC restaurant.
Also back in the ‘Love You Too’ ad is KFC’S famed slogan, Finger Lickin’ Good. It stopped being used last year as it went against the COVID safety measures- a time when people were being urged to wash their hands for 20 seconds, and use hand sanitiser- but now, as these things have become the norm to ensure safety, its back.
The rest of the ad is an homage to the experiences that KFC and its fans went through in 2020, featuring them running out of chicken, and KFC lovers’ videos and photos.