Major CineAd to expand services to cover all multimedia ads
Major CineAd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Major Cineplex Group providing cinema advertising, announced yesterday plans to expand its business portfolio to cover all major multimedia advertising.
The move is in line with Major CineAd's strategy to promote itself as the first media alternative for business clients who have cut their advertising budget to cope with current economic difficulties and sales declines. Many have avoided TV commercials and seek other cheaper media alternatives.
Major Cineplex Group chief operating officer Panithan Sethabutra said Major CineAd had grown from a small division within Major Cineplex Group.
'Five years ago, we had only 10 staff with Bt150 million in annual revenue. We now have 50 staff, with more than Bt700 million in revenue last year. Eighty per cent of revenue is still generated by our cinema advertising service,' said Panithan.
He added that a few years ago, between 90 and 95 per cent of revenue at Major CineAd came from cinema advertising.
'Our policy is to make Major CineAd cover all innovative media beyond just cinema screens,' he said. 'We want to make ourselves a media solutions integrator that helps business customers to build brands,' said Panithan. Innovative media includes signage, light boxes, wrapping, trivisions, mockups, LCD/plasma screens and VDO walls.
'We hope that the ratio of cinema advertising will be only 50 per cent in the next three years, while the other 50 per cent of our ad revenues will from come other innovative media,' he said.
Panithan said Major CineAd currently has nearly 1,000 LCD/plasma screens in its network. This number is expected to double by the end of next year with additional investment of about Bt100 million.
'We have set up a new production and creative team at our headquarters located at Major Avenue Ratchayothin, which will control all online LCD/plasma screens from its control room,' said Panithan.
Major Cineplex Group operates cinemas in 41 locations, of which 16 are upcountry.
'With our own property network, we are able to offer our business customers advertising and marketing events that cover the nation or some particular location depending on their target customers,' said Panithan.
He added that Major Cineplex Group planned to expand its cinemas to potential locations upcountry such as in Ban Pong, Navanakorn and Thanyaburi by the end of this year or early next.
'We also plan to expand the area of our advertising media, which will not limit itself to only Major Cineplex's theatre network, but other potential locations such as office buildings, shopping malls and restaurants,' Panithan said.
The company plans to increase the number of LCD/plasma terminals installed at McDonald's restaurants from the current 150 screens to more than 200 by the end of the year. It also has 300 LCD/plasma screens installed at the Esplanade complex.