EXCLUSIVE: Cinema marketing agency PaperAirplane Media has hit another milestone with 1 million digital assets downloaded from their proprietary platform The Hangar.
PaperAirplane via The Hanger which launched in October 2020, connects movie theaters, studios and theatrical media ad agencies, creating and fostering in-theater promotions. Essentially exhibitors don’t have to go distributor-by-distributor in obtaining marketing materials when opening a theatrical release, they download from The Hanger.
The Hangar features assets for over 1,700 first run and reparatory titles, including releases from major studios, indie distributors, event cinema companies and marketplace partners like IMAX, RealD, Dolby, Barco and Cinity.
In its first year, exhibitors downloaded 3,700 digital assets from The Hanger platform. By comparison, 2023 saw over 372,000 assets downloaded from The Hangar, with 2024 on pace to exceed last year’s total by over 25%.
“One million downloads is a huge milestone for The Hangar,” said Mike Polydoros, CEO and Co-Founder. “As I like to say, each download represents as an asset that’s being used by exhibition to market a movie – it’s a social media post, a banner in a newsletter, a mobile push notification. With this milestone, The Hangar has now contributed to one million marketing activations from exhibition.”
“What we’re seeing is a real commitment to exhibition’s digital marketing channels” said Will Preuss, President and Co-Founder. “Exhibitors are looking to promote films in more meaningful ways, which includes developing new tools to target moviegoers. Studios are answering the call, making more assets available on each campaign. It’s not uncommon for a studio to provide well over 500 marketing assets to exhibition on a tentpole title. It wasn’t that way when we launched the platform.”
“We have a unique bird’s eye view of the landscape,” added Polydoros, “allowing us to share these insights with our clients. In return, studios and partners can create more assets that exhibition truly needs, allowing the entire ecosystem to more effectively reach moviegoers. At the end of the day, that’s what we’re all striving for.”
“When PaperAirplane launched, it became a game changer for us in the way digital assets are serviced to our partners in exhibition. PaperAirplane addressed a much needed niche allowing studios a turnkey solution to provide bespoke digital assets to all exhibitors large and small,” said Jeff Goldstein, President Domestic Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures.
The Hangar serves nearly 4,000 unique exhibitors across North America, which includes users from every major national and regional theatre circuit in the U.S. and Canada. In addition, over 1,900 independent theatre owners use The Hangar, a segment of the exhibition landscape who is traditionally challenging to reach.
“PaperAirplane has played a key role within cinema marketing by serving as a comprehensive and efficient resource for studio promotions,” said Wanda Gierhart Fearing, Cinemark Chief Marketing and Content Officer. “The Hangar allows our teams to spend less time on the asset gathering process and more time on what they do best – communicating with our guests and celebrating movies.”
With the success of The Hangar in North America, PaperAirplane is taking The Hangar international. Beginning this spring, PaperAirplane began rolling out The Hangar in Latin America. Over the next 12 months, PaperAirplane will expand The Hangar into Europe and additional territories.
“We believe the demand is there,” said Preuss. “We hear from distributors, exhibitors and marketplace partners from around the world. They all have the same needs that exist here in North America.”
In the spirit of addressing marketplace needs, PaperAirplane is tackling another challenge in the theatrical space – managing group sales. PaperAirplane has developed a web-based group sales management tool called The Tower, which allows studios and exhibitors to effectively manage large group sales inquiries, track box office and harness data to retarget group sales audiences. Since launching last fall to support WB’s group sales efforts on The Color Purple, The Tower has played a meaningful role in converting group interest to box office.
Said Michael O’Leary, President and CEO at National Association of Theatre Owners: “Congratulations to Mike, Will and the entire Paper Airplane team on this amazing milestone. For four years, they have connected the magic of Hollywood with theatres in cities and towns across our great nation. Our industry is at its best when it works together, and PaperAirplane is a big part of that success. The future of movies on the big screen is bright and I am excited to see what they do next!”