WCRS Creates Dazzling Campaign for Sky Cinema Launch

Sky Cinema, the new home for Sky Movies in the UK & Ireland, has launched with a stunning spot from WCRS.  This new service builds on more than a quarter of a century of Sky heritage in home cinema, which started with the first Sky Movies channel in 1989.   

Sky Cinema launches with a visually dazzling TV campaign created by WCRS in collaboration with Sky and directed by award-winning director, Patrick Clair who was responsible for the title sequences of The Night Manager and True Detective.  It features quotes from some of cinema’s best films, from Forrest Gump to E.T., The Martian to Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  The images have been animated by Elastic, the LA studio responsible for the Game of Thrones title sequence.

The campaign will be spearheaded by a 60” commercial which opens with the click and whirl of a cinema projector, its flickering light illuminating the swirling dust of the dark cinema chamber. As emotive music starts to play, the lit dust particles swirl to form the unmistakeable head and shoulders of E.T. who utters the famous line, “E.T. phone home”. The ad then takes in several more iconic characters delivering yet more iconic quotes, the dust shifting and rendering from one film to another, before the ad ends on the legendary voice of Harrison Ford from Star Wars: The Force Awakens saying, “Chewie, we’re home”.

The campaign further spans four 20” ads each of which showcases a different benefit of Sky Cinema and a 40” brand ad, which airs on July 8th. It will also feature in cinema, digital and print channels. 

To further support the exciting launch of Sky Cinema, News UK is launching Popcorn, a brand new film magazine for The Sun. In a partnership brokered by MediaCom.  Sky Cinema will be the lead sponsor for Popcorn which will be published monthly as a pull-out from the paper, starting on Saturday 16th July.  Sky Cinema's sponsorship means front cover branding, display advertising and sponsored editorial within the magazine as well as a takeover of The Sun Online's dedicated film channel. The Sun's readers can enjoy the best film features and videos as well as learning about the latest movies on Sky Cinema every month. 

From launch, Sky Cinema customers will be able to enjoy even more of the biggest and best movies closer to cinema release than any other subscription service.  All available live, on demand or on the go. They will have access to a new movie premiere every day – starting with Spectre - an even bigger library of on demand films, more pop up channels as well as better HD picture and sound quality, taking them one step closer to the cinema experience. All this is available at no extra cost to existing and new subscribers.  

Ian Lewis, Director of Sky Cinema Europe comments: “We’re incredibly excited to launch Sky Cinema with a beautiful, evocative and emotionally powerful ad campaign. It reflects how we are giving customers an even closer to the cinema experience with enhanced picture and sound quality and an even greater choice of the best movies. Sky Cinema will be the biggest dedicated movie subscription service in Europe as Sky’s movie services in Germany, Austria and Italy are also rebranded and relaunched under the new name.”.

Leon Jaume, Executive Creative Director at WCRS comments: “Our campaign has two aims: to reveal the qualities of Sky Cinema and to evoke the mighty emotional punch of great film making. And we made it with Patrick Clair, one speck of dust at a time. Probably took longer than Apocalypse Now.”