DCM AND THE MEDIA EXCHANGE!

The second Industry Immersion Session for The Media Exchange saw Neil Pummell (Director of Client Strategy) from Digital Cinema Media giving his take on the opportunities and threats of the current media landscape, approaches of a good client sales team, what makes a good sales person and more.

DCM is the market leader in UK cinema advertising, providing brands and customers with cinema advertising solutions across a national portfolio of cinemas including Cineworld, Vue, Odeon and major independents. DCM has driven significant growth for the Cinema medium over the last three years (resulting in being named sales team of the year at Media Week Awards 2017) this came about due to a combination of factors including selling premium positions (in particular the gold spot) on individual movies to agencies and clients.

A further review of the advertising strategy lead to targeting Clients and Creative Agencies encouraging them to capitalise on the unique cinema environment that engages with a captive audience that has actively chosen to pay attention to their content. In addition, the investment all chains have made in making the overall experience of cinema more luxurious, the fact that the audience is the most excited happy and engaged across all media has helped DCM talk about how they deliver the ‘best seat in media’ for advertisers.

With 3.3m admissions per week Neil described how it’s important to pitch cinema in the correct light and that it can be a great addition to any AV schedule. As such planners/buyers can view Cinema as AV specials enabling their clients to take advantage of the story of cinema whilst comparing weekly reach with impact and quality measures.

So what does a successful Client Sales team look like? When working in categories or client verticals having client contacts can be important but above and beyond this there are key approaches to focus on with each client having different requirements an awareness of which can create competitive advantage. Using agency and planning language when speaking with clients can also help to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Finally we discussed the characteristics of a good sales person which consisted of being a good listener, asking relevant questions in order to understand clients’ needs and not simply to respond, as well as being likeable and forging genuine relationships with clients. Having enthusiasm and a real belief in the product you’re selling can also make all the difference!

In true DCM style Neil finished with a couple of trailers for upcoming releases and it’s looking like a very exciting year ahead, potentially the biggest ever with films such as: Mary Queen Of Scots, The Lego Movie 2, Captain Marvel, Shazam!, Mary Poppins, Frozen, Toy Story 4… the list goes on!

I would like to thank Neil for his time and an insightful talk about the current Cinema and AV landscape. We’re all looking forward to the next Immersion Session! If you would like to come in and chat to the team about your company/ industry please get in touch:

tomd@themediaexchange.com | 0207 636 6777