National CineMedia (NCM) today announced plans to re-imagine its cinema pre-show and launch new digital channels for movie audiences at its sixth annual upfront event at the AMC Lincoln Square movie theater in New York.

NCM’s CEO, Andy England, started off the presentation with a vision for NCM’s new pre-show, called Noovie, launching to replace FirstLook in the fourth quarter of 2017. “So, What’s Noovie?,” he asked the audience of marketing executives and media buyers. “Noovie is a new premium video platform developed by NCM to connect your brands with movie audiences. At its core, Noovie is NCM’s new pre-show that audiences will experience before the movie. But Noovie stretches beyond the theater — it’s also an integrated digital ecosystem delivering entertaining content, purposeful commerce, and interactive gaming opportunities. Most importantly for NCM and our brand partners, Noovie gives movie audiences a reason to arrive early to discover what’s next.”

NCM’s vision for Noovie includes the big screen and beyond, with several new partnerships and acquisitions:

Noovie Content

• Content is a key part of Noovie, and NCM will be programming a special early content segment that will give audiences a look at “What’s Noovie” in their world. Pilot content unveiled at NCM’s Upfront event included an exclusive interview with Kate Mara on her starring title role as U.S. Marine corporal Megan Leavey; Noovie Soundcheck, an exclusive, cinema-first music series in partnership with Sony Music Entertainment’s Rumble Yard that gives fans a glimpse into those unscripted, unrehearsed moments with the band before the concert crowds arrive, launching with Foo Fighters; and a new locally-focused documentary series in partnership with Indigenous Media, the creators of 60 Second Docs.
• NCM also teased a new physical product that will put augmented reality from studios and brands directly into the hands of moviegoers. The product is being created and produced by Concourse Cinema Ventures with Regal Cinemas as the official launch partner. An official product announcement is set for this summer.

Noovie Commerce

• Noovie will feature commerce plays that will make NCM an even more strategic brand partner, providing purchasing data that will help advertisers better understand and reach the connected moviegoer.

Noovie Gaming

• Noovie will also incorporate movie-related gaming, including:
  • Name That Movie — Audiences love trivia, and NCM is introducing the next generation of movie trivia with fun new ways to play, both in theaters and digitally.
  • Fantasy Movie League — NCM has entered into an agreement to acquire Fantasy Movie League, a box office predictions game co-created by ESPN’s Senior Fantasy Analyst Matthew Berry that combines the fierce competition of fantasy sports with the insanely popular world of entertainment and movies. There are over 210 million people in America who self-identify as movie fans — that’s more than the NFL, NBA, NHL, Major League Baseball, and NASCAR combined — and NCM is betting on the fact that box office is big business.

“When we began to re-imagine the pre-show, we knew that we wanted to build Noovie into an entertainment brand that develops engagement through content that is relevant to today’s movie audiences,” said NCM President, Cliff Marks. “But we also knew we needed to expand Noovie beyond the four walls of the theater by creating new digital properties including a Noovie app and social media channels that will allow us to consistently drive people from the pre-show to mobile and back again — engaging movie audiences wherever they may be. We’re building it all to be a great consumer experience, which will of course make it a great opportunity for brands as well.”

Fantasy Movie League co-creator Matthew Berry, who joined Marks on stage to announce the deal, noted, “I’m really excited about the partnership with NCM and thrilled to be here to talk about Fantasy Movie League. Over 60 million people play fantasy games in the US and Canada and that number has grown 20% in the last five years. Fantasy players are more brand aware, they’re more brand loyal and they’re stickier than non-players, which is great news for advertisers. The Fantasy Movie League playing audience is also much more gender balanced than fantasy sports, and younger — 60% of our players are 35 or less.”

But if you want to win at Fantasy Movie League, you need to study up on your upcoming films, which is why NCM’s own movie maven, Maria Menounos, then took the stage to highlight the best of the 2017-18 film slate. NCM featured sneak peeks and new trailers for big movies including Baby Driver, It, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Bad Mom’s Christmas, Girls Trip and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Special guest David Sieden, VP, Cinema Partnerships with The Walt Disney Studios, also wowed the crowd with exclusive looks at several new Disney films.

“At NCM, we want to be the connector between brands and movie audiences. But who are these movie audiences, and why should brands want to connect with them?” said NCM’s new Executive Vice President & Chief Revenue Officer, Scott Felenstein. “Movie audiences are young — NCM’s average age is 32 — and they’re affluent, incredibly diverse, and extremely social. When you connect with movie audiences, you are literally influencing the influencers! And most moviegoing takes place on weekends, the same days that people are most likely to make a purchasing decision.”

“But people don’t stop being movie audiences outside of the theater, which is why NCM’s Cinema Accelerator reaches them at every point along their movie-going journey,” Felenstein continued. “And with our great new suite of Noovie digital properties like the Noovie app and Fantasy Movie League, we’re not only creating new digital ad inventory, but a robust amount of NCM-exclusive first-party data. All of this great moviegoer data will pour into our DMP and Cinema Audience Targeting Optimizer (CATO) systems, which were the first in the industry, to lead to even better targeting, measurability and ROI for your campaigns.”

NCM President Cliff Marks wrapped up the event, concluding, “NCM is more than just a great cinema company. We’re transforming into a progressive media company with a host of new on-screen, digital and mobile experiences that offer exciting new ways to reach the best audiences out there — your audiences! I know you’ve seen a lot of content this week, but nothing beats a great Hollywood movie. It’s going to be another exciting year at the movies, and at NCM.”

About National CineMedia (NCM)

National CineMedia (NCM) is America’s Movie Network. As the #1 Millennial weekend network in the U.S., NCM is the connector between brands and movie audiences. According to Nielsen, more than 750 million moviegoers annually attend theaters that are currently under contract to present NCM’s pre-show in over 45 leading national and regional theater circuits including AMC Entertainment Inc. (NYSE:AMC), Cinemark Holdings, Inc.(NYSE:CNK) and Regal Entertainment Group (NYSE: RGC). NCM’s cinema advertising network offers broad reach and unparalleled audience engagement with over 20,500 screens in over 1,600 theaters in 187 Designated Market Areas® (all of the top 50). NCM Digital goes beyond the big screen, extending in-theater campaigns into online and mobile marketing programs to reach entertainment audiences. National CineMedia, Inc.(NASDAQ:NCMI) owns a 39.3% interest in, and is the managing member of, National CineMedia, LLC. For more information, visit www.ncm.com.

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National CineMedia
Amy Jane Finnerty, 212-931-8117
amy.finnerty@ncm.com