National CineMedia Launches Programmatic Offering in Partnership with Place Exchange

Advertisers can now transact programmatically to reach the NCM audience of over 600 million moviegoers through their Lobby Entertainment Network

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--National CineMedia (NCM), America’s largest movie network uniting brands with young, diverse movie audiences, together with Place Exchange, the leading supply-side platform (SSP) for programmatic out-of-home media, today announced the launch of a new programmatic offering with NCM’s Lobby Entertainment Network. The new partnership now enables advertisers to purchase the largest network of lobby screens in movie theaters across the country programmatically for the first time.

With over 600 million moviegoers reached annually through the NCM network of over 1,600 theaters with over 20,600 screens through the US, this is the largest programmatic move in the cinema advertising space to date. The Place Exchange partnership with NCM enables advertisers to reach these consumers via strategically located in-lobby video placements before and after their movie experience.

“NCM’s expansion into programmatic marketplaces is a key enhancement of our efforts to help advertisers reach the ‘unreachables’ – our highly valuable, young, diverse cinema audience,” according to Mike Rosen, Chief Revenue Officer of NCM. “Allowing our key client and agency partners access to our lobby assets through programmatic channels brings the efficiency of automation, along with the power of data, to unlock even more value from our inventory. Today’s announcement to launch our Lobby Entertainment Network programmatically is the first step in our efforts to ultimately extend this offering to our big screen inventory in 2023.”

As the pandemic recovery continues, moviegoers have been flocking back to the theaters, frequenting in numbers that exceed the highest-rated TV programming. The new programmatic offering adds another avenue for marketers targeting Gen Z and Young Millennial consumers to leverage NCM’s reach and scale with media buys.

Nearly one out of every two adults who visited a movie theater in the fourth quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022 were 18-34-year-olds, and 79% of moviegoers attending an NCM theater are under the age of 39.

These consumers are spending more money on and around the cinema experience, with research showing an elevated level of spending compared to typical spending patterns, on the day of theater visits. A detailed analysis released by Ernst & Young on the broader economic impact of movie theaters analyzed pre-pandemic data and found that total movie-night spending increased to $5 billion through dining and retail activities on the day of theater visits.

“We are incredibly excited to be partnering with NCM to bring access to this highly coveted hard-to-reach audience to our programmatic buying partners,” said Dave Etherington, Chief Commercial Officer of Place Exchange. “This represents a true milestone in giving marketers the power to capture consumer attention during the moviegoing experience, leveraging all of the targeting, automation, flexibility, and measurability of programmatic execution.”

About NCM

National CineMedia (NCM) is America’s Movie Network. As the largest cinema advertising network in the U.S., NCM unites brands with young diverse audiences through the power of movies and popular culture. NCM’s Noovie® pre-show is presented exclusively in 50 leading national and regional theater circuits including AMC Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: AMC), Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CNK) and Regal Entertainment Group (a subsidiary of Cineworld Group PLC. LON: CINE). NCM’s cinema advertising network offers broad reach and unparalleled audience engagement with over 20,600 screens in over 1,600 theaters in 195 Designated Market Areas® (all of the top 50). NCM Digital and Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) goes beyond the big screen, extending in-theater campaigns into online, mobile, and place-based marketing programs to reach entertainment audiences. National CineMedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: NCMI) owns a 47.4% interest in, and is the managing member of, National CineMedia, LLC. For more information, visit www.ncm.com and www.noovie.com.

About Place Exchange

Place Exchange is the leading SSP for programmatic out-of-home media. Integrated with omnichannel DSPs, Place Exchange’s patented technology uniquely offers agencies and advertisers the opportunity to fully unify buying and measurement of OOH media with other digital channels, leveraging the same workflow, creatives, reporting, and attribution as for online and mobile advertising. Place Exchange’s unmatched premium supply ecosystem adheres to its Place Exchange Clear certification program that delivers buyers quality, consistency, transparency, and compliance. For OOH media partners, Place Exchange offers the opportunity to access untapped programmatic ad spend with full transparency and control. AdExchanger named Place Exchange a 2020 and 2021 Programmatic Power Player. For more information about Place Exchange, visit www.placeexchange.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains various forward-looking statements, within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, that reflect management’s current expectations or beliefs regarding, among other things, patron attendance in NCM’s theaters, future plans to expand NCM’s programmatic offering to cinema screens, the value of the Lobby Entertainment Network programmatic offering, and consumer behavior. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of important factors, risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in any forward-looking statements. Please refer to the Company’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including the “Risk Factor” section of the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 30, 2021, for further information about risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Investors are cautioned that reliance on these forward-looking statements involves risks and uncertainties. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result, of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.