MarketShare analysed ad spend and corresponding box office sales for the largest 26 US-produced PG-13 action films over a two-year period (2012-2013). These films were all released for a worldwide audience, and represented $4.8 billion in box office ticket sales in the U.S. alone. In addition to the U.S., the study also focused on the sales impact of marketing in Australia, Brazil, Germany, France and the U.K. Their research found:
- On average, TV represented over 82% of the U.S. advertising spend; digital, 10%.
- TV was the largest driver of box office revenue of all ad channels for the sample, generating 64% of revenue attributable to marketing.
- Relative to other channels, TV was also the slowest to hit the point of diminishing returns.
- Despite TV’s powerful impact, however, advertisers’ TV spend did exceed the point of diminishing returns. The advertisers analyzed would have maximized revenue overall by bringing TV ad budgets closer to 50% of the total ad budget.
- Within the sample at current spend levels, digital was three-times more effective than TV at driving revenue. Taking ad effectiveness and other factors into account, marketers in this category would have seen a strong incremental revenue lift by increasing digital ad spend to as much as 35% of the marketing mix. (Digital advertising includes TV networks’ digital properties, display and video networks, exchanges, social media sites, paid search, and others.)
- Within the sample analyzed, print advertising represented 3% of advertising spend on average. Doubling print spend, to 6% of overall advertising budgets, would incrementally increase ad-driven revenue.
- Revenue generated from online video ads far exceeded spend. For the sample studied, online video comprised 4% of total U.S. ad spend for the category, but generated 16% of marketing-driven revenue.
- For the typical PG-13 action film during the time analyzed, shifting 10% of ad budgets from TV to online video could have increased marketing-driven sales by 16%.
Forbes article and download available here.