Fandango will share its demographic data on moviegoers and films as well as provide original ad and feature video content as part of a multiyear partnership with National CineMedia that the two companies unveiled Wednesday.
The online ticket broker’s “We Love Movies” promos will be part of “FirstLook,” the NCM advertising show that plays before the feature begins on more than 20,000 U.S. screens. The first will feature “SNL” cast member Kenan Thompson as super movie fan Miles Mouvay, whom Fandango hopes can become its first “brand personality.”
By adding Fandango’s data to its own, NCM hopes to help marketing partners deliver more timely messages that are also more precisely targeted. The deal comes just in time for advertisers to take advantage of a very strong holiday season in what’s on pace to be a record year at the box office. The finale in Lionsgate’s “The Hunger Games” opens Friday and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” arrives Dec. 18.
“A natural fit” is how both Fandango president Paul Yanover and NCM’s sales and marketing president Cliff Marks described the partnership.
The deal provides another platform for Fandango’s reviews, commentary, celebrity interviews and trailers designed to encourage sales online and via mobile phone apps. Its features will be interspersed with advertising and content from other partners including ABC Networks, A&E Television Networks, CBS Entertainment, Hasbro, Microsoft, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Turner Broadcasting System.
Fandango Movieclips is YouTube’s top channel for movie trailers, and its short-form video series “Reel Kids” will become part of NCM’s pre-movie show early next year. Kids offer their takes on the latest movies on the show hosted by comedian Dan Perrault.
Fandango sells tickets to 27,000 screens nationwide.