DCM Makes Major Move into Branded Content

Digital Cinema Media (DCM) is launching a new media property that is dedicated to branded entertainment, longer narratives and engaging storytelling.

Named ‘DCM Studios Presents’, the three-to-four-minute in-reel spot will allow brand and agency partners to maximise the uniqueness of the most compelling media environment possible by creating bespoke branded content stories for the big screen, with only a limited number of spaces on offer in 2022.

Drawing on new insights from Applied Consumer Neuroscience (ACN), which proves the power the big screen has in delivering heightened consumer engagement through compelling storytelling, DCM has partnered with ACN and long-form content specialists, Brand Directors, to further explore the impact the cinema environment has on audience’s receptiveness to advertising in the knowledge that screen size, context and content are fundamentally relevant.

ACN’s recent findings reveal that seeing content on a cinema screen engages more of an individual’s brain, with the distraction-free environment creating more focus which leads to greater depth of processing and memory encoding. Larger screens also produce stronger emotional responses and improved recall.

The ground-breaking partnership will showcase branded content in cinema like never before. ACN will provide scientific evidence that underpins the power of storytelling together with the importance of viewing context. They will explore consumer behaviour, audience engagement and the heightened neuroscientific impact of cinema.

Brand Directors will work with DCM Studios on strategy, ideation and film production giving advertisers access to some of the UK’s most exciting specialist long-form storytellers and film-makers in its production network.

DCM will fund the research projects for the first two brand campaigns that are launched as part of this initiative.

The ‘DCM Studios Presents’ spot will be bookended by newly created idents and will be positioned before cinema’s silver spot and film trailers.

Jeremy Kolesar, creative director – DCM Studios, Digital Cinema Media, commented: “Film is the undisputed home of powerful content and great storytelling. Since launching DCM Studios in 2018, we have been working closely with brands and agencies to prove the power of contextual advertising. With ‘DCM Studios Presents’ we’re raising the bar and with the help of Brand Directors’ network and expertise and Dr Joe Devlin’s neuroscience department, we’re challenging ourselves to deliver creative campaigns that not only tell powerful stories in the best environment, but maximise the unique mindset of the cinema audience, with powerful results.”

James Hayr & Jules Fuller BRAND DIRECTORS added: “This is a huge step-up in the world of branded content media, allowing us to do justice to the amazing new opportunity this presents for brands. Our network of long-form creative specialists is ready to produce powerful, memorable stories that ensure brands extract the maximum impact and ROI from their partnerships with DCM Studios Presents. Cinema’s B-Movie is back!”

Dr. Joseph Devlin, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL, added: “We’ve all felt the impact of stories shown on the big screen, but it’s been very difficult to measure that impact accurately. Advances in neuroscience have produced new tools that now let us quantify heightened audience engagement as well as the uplift it brings for advertising effectiveness.”

Since reopening in May 2021, the cinema medium has been back in business, with audiences returning in high numbers to see new content on the big screen. Many titles have broken box office and audience figure records, most notably Bond’s No Time To Die and Spider-Man: No Way Home, which have quickly become two of the biggest films ever.

2022 has an extremely strong slate, with titles including Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Thor: Love and Thunder, The Batman, Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar 2 hitting the big screen, with high expectations for another strong year of cinema admissions and box office globally.