The cinema of the future will revolve around leveraging the new opportunities of going digital. Reshaping the ecosystem, finding and growing new business opportunities, increasing occupancy – all of this will require the input of technology enablers as well as creative thinkers. Nowhere do you find more of them together than at the Cannes Lions International Festival. Barco, through its partnership with SAWA, the Screen Advertising World Association, participates in the 60th edition of the festival, considering it its duty to keep pushing the envelope in digital cinema.
Inspiring Creativity for 60 years
Cannes Lions is the world’s greatest celebration of creative communications in all its forms. Each year in June, the whole creative industry gathers for over seven days to learn from the best and to celebrate the work that is being done to change the communications landscape.
Barco and SAWA seminar on advertising
An important part of the event is dedicated to exploring and demonstrating what advertising can do for the cinema industry. Yesterday, Barco and SAWA held a seminar at the festival, titled ”The magical mysterious and creative media platform – cinema.” Advertising at the movies used to be just about the ads before the movie, which was powerful and inspiring in its own right, but Cinema today is about so much more.
SAWA’s view on advertising in cinema
“In its 60-year history, SAWA has always been at the forefront of how cinema and advertising can reinforce each other,” says Cheryl Wannell, General Manager of SAWA. “The unique environment that a cinema brings, the large screen experience and the best-in-class audio create an ecosystem where brands can flourish like nowhere else. Historically, some of the most classic campaigns have premiered in the cinema. However, advertisers are constantly looking for new and better ways to stand out. Cinemas are competing with a growing range of entertainment alternatives. We believe advertising will play a crucial role here. Staying ahead of the curve requires creative thinking and the best possible technology. That is why SAWA is a long-term partner of Cannes Lions and why we are happy to have Barco on board. This year’s SAWA seminar at Cannes Lions will amaze the audience and together with Barco, we’ll set out the route to the cinema of the future.”
Barco’s view on the cinema of the future
At Barco we believe that the digitization that has happened over the past decade is just a first step. Eventually, the cinema will evolve to become a full entertainment hub. Capitalizing on its unique added values, cinema will start competing in markets that seemed unreachable 10 years ago. This creative, out-of-box thinking is executed nowhere better than at Cannes Lions. Barco is a proud partner of SAWA and Cannes Lions and thrilled to participate in this year’s anniversary edition. The new insights and developments that come out of our cinema seminar will help pave the way to the cinema of the future.