CENTENNIAL, Colo. & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Moviegoers in select theaters nationwide will get taken on a wild ride this holiday season with a new big screen AudienceGameTM featuring the latest in interactive social gaming technology – where the audience shapes the outcome.
NCM Media Networks, a leading integrated media company reaching U.S. consumers in movie theaters, online and through mobile technology, worked together Audience Entertainment Group and a top travel industry brand to create the new 90-second interactive game, which is the first national cinema advertising campaign of its kind in the United States.
The new AudienceGame is being presented throughout December exclusively during NCM’s FirstLook pre-feature program in select movie theaters in major markets including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Knoxville, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington, DC.
In the game, moviegoers will be able to join a classic cartoon character in an interactive, big screen version of a wild water ride from the comfort of their movie theater seats. By moving their arms and acting together as a group, the audience will create a virtual "human joystick" to control the videogame action onscreen – zipping down the slide and retrieving objects along the way. The score will be posted at the end of the game, but no matter what the tally, the audience always wins by being among the first in the U.S. to experience the future of cinema advertising.
“We are always looking for ways to make FirstLook an even more exciting part of the movie theater experience, and being able to launch the first national AudienceGame is great fun because moviegoers can truly interact directly with a brand on the big screen, making it both the star and the entertainment,” said Cliff Marks, NCM’s president of sales and marketing. “Agencies and marketers are viewing AudienceGames as a good way to extend their integrated online and mobile marketing efforts. After all, playing a game with a theater full of people is about as social as media can get!”
This exciting new campaign features Audience Entertainment Group’s first-ever use of the combination of live video and animated overlays in an AudienceGame. To view the game, visit http://audienceentertainment.com/splash.html.
“Our ongoing relationship with NCM is the centerpiece of our company’s strategy to create a distribution channel for its next generation interactive, social media group gaming platform,” said Barry Grieff, CEO of Audience Entertainment Group. “This engaging entertainment company campaign is a new advertising approach, and the first of many branded AudienceGames that we look forward to developing with NCM and its national advertising clients in the future.”
While this is the first national campaign of its kind in the United States, Audience Entertainment Group has been perfecting its new “group motion capture” and “augmented reality” software technology for the past several years at events across the globe, including games sponsored by mobile phone brand Orange at the Festival Of Lights in Lyon and at a charity concert in London's Royal Albert Hall. AudienceGames have been enjoyed in movie and IMAX theaters, arenas/stadiums, rock concert venues and indoor/outdoor public screens in over 40 cities in 9 countries on 4 continents around the world. Video examples can be viewed at http://www.audienceentertainment.com/cases.html.
Audience Entertainment Group games are presented in movie theaters in the U.S. exclusively through NCM Media Networks.
About National CineMedia (NCM)
NCM operates NCM Media Networks, a leading integrated media company reaching U.S. consumers in movie theaters, online and through mobile technology. The NCM Cinema Network and NCM Fathom present cinema advertising and events across the nation’s largest digital in-theater network, comprised of theaters owned by AMC Entertainment Inc., Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CNK), Regal Entertainment Group (NYSE: RGC) and other leading regional theater circuits. NCM’s theater advertising network covers 176 Designated Market Areas® (49 of the top 50) and includes over 18,300 screens (17,300 digital). During 2010, approximately 700 million patrons attended movies shown in theaters in which NCM currently has exclusive, cinema advertising agreements in place. The NCM Fathom Events broadcast network is comprised of nearly 700 locations in 165 Designated Market Areas® (all of the top 50). The NCM Interactive Network offers 360-degree integrated marketing opportunities in combination with cinema, encompassing 42 entertainment-related websites, online widgets and mobile applications. National CineMedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: NCMI) owns a 48.7% interest in and is the managing member of National CineMedia LLC. For more information, visit www.ncm.com.
About Audience Entertainment Group
Audience Entertainment Group is a privately held New York City-based media technology company that has developed a proprietary interactive platform enabling audience participation in on-screen videogames and experiences in theaters, arenas/stadiums, concert halls, and other mass consumer settings. While this is the first national AudienceGames campaign in the United States, Audience Entertainment Group has been perfecting its new “group motion capture” and “augmented reality” software technology for the past several years at events across the globe. After events in over 40 cities in 9 countries on 4 continents involving hundreds of thousands of participants in cooperation with world-class advertisers including MSNBC, Orange, VW and many others, AE now is building a permanent network of venue installations worldwide. The company is co-owned by its founding members and YDreams, a global company based in Lisbon, Portugal driving the new field of motion-based gaming and large crowd augmented reality with patents and key offices in Portugal, Spain, Brazil and the US. Audience Entertainment has demonstration partners in New York, London, Beijing, and Shanghai. YouTube videos of examples of many field-proven AE game examples from around the world can be viewed on the following link: www.audienceentertainment.com/cases,html. For more information please visit www.audienceentertainment.com.