Press: The Drum - Entertainment and AI

Published on The Drum on 26th February 2016.

We’re in the thick of awards season, the BAFTAs just behind us and the Oscars looming. While nominated films always receive plenty of attention, the hundreds of films released each year need to find equally powerful ways to generate interest and engagement from their audiences.

From Hal 9000 in 2001 Space Odyssey to C-3PO in Star Wars, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has always proved popular in the film industry, but it’s not always considered within an advertising context. In fact, it’s a highly effective way for entertainment brands to reach their audiences.

AI improves campaign results and works on an impression level, analysing data to determine the likelihood of a particular advert generating a desired outcome for each ad call. It then predicts which advert is most likely to deliver the strongest result and serves the ad.

Cinema audiences are often diverse, after all there’s no accounting for taste. It’s extremely important to target the right audiences with the right trailer if a campaign is going to be successful, and this is not always achieved with conventional targeting.

For example, an ad call comes through and is identified as being from a woman aged 18-34. With traditional targeting and prevailing gender stereotypes in place, she may be targeted with an ad for a rom-com as she fits a certain demographic. But what if the woman in question cannot stand rom-coms and is actually a fan of blood-curdling horror? She won’t interact with the ad served and the impression is wasted.

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