Cinemark becomes Ster-Kinekor Sales – in a year of box office gold

 

Cinemark has rebranded as Ster-Kinekor Sales, and with a year of record-breaking box-office underway, cinema advertising is set to deliver dividends.

A long-standing division of Ster-Kinekor, Cinemark has been South Africa’s leading cinema sales house for nearly half a century. Since its establishment in 1971, it has come to represent about 63% of cinema complexes, and driven cinema media in South Africa by educating, shaping and growing advertising investment in this category. The media house has netted plenty of wins, including MOST Awards in 2015, 2017, and 2018.

Now the media sales house is evolving to become Ster-Kinekor Sales. “The rebrand is the next step in a trajectory of sustainable innovation, in keeping with that of the mother-brand, Ster-Kinekor Theatres,” says Ster-Kinekor Chief of Sales, Motheo Matsau.

This comes at a time when cinema advertising is reaching vast audiences. Globally, cinema is still seeing strong growth (PWC’s 2017 – 2021 [i]Entertainment & Media Outlook predicts that cinema attendance will reach 21.6 million by 2021). And 2019 is set to be another record-breaking year for the box office, thanks to a slate including sequels such as Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, Avengers: Endgame and Toy Story 4, with The Lion King, Aladdin, and Hobbs & Shaw similarly expected to attract large audiences.

Ster-Kinekor has also strategically invested in taking the viewer’s experience of seeing a film to new levels – not only through the quality of sound and visuals, but also through innovations such as D-Box, IMAX and Cine Prestige. All of which means that the rebranded sales house is ideally positioned to deliver large, attentive audiences in an environment with few distractions.

“Ster-Kinekor Sales will continue to deliver the high quality and service that Cinemark exemplified,” says Matsau. “That, plus the box-office gold lined up for the coming months, mean that cinema advertising is more appealing than ever. It should be top of mind for brand managers when allocating advertising budget.”