(Your Company Here): Universal Shops Naming Rights to Cinemas

There’s already a Kodak Theatre, but how does Kodak Theaters sound?

Feel like taking in a matinee at the Burger King Multiplex? Show times might be better at the Xbox Cinemas down the street.

In what sponsorship experts say is a first, Universal Studios is quietly shopping around the right to put a corporate name on its 18-screen multiplex in the CityWalk entertainment and shopping complex in Universal City.

The boom market in naming rights has been working its way toward the neighborhood level, after starting with major sports and entertainment venues such as Southern California’s Staples Center, Edison International Field, Verizon Wireless Amphitheater and the new Home Depot Center. A shopping center outside Atlanta even carries the name of the Discover credit card.

But movie theaters add a new twist.

“What’s next?” asked Jim Andrews, editorial director of IEG Sponsorship Report, a newsletter tracking sponsorships and naming rights. “This is the next frontier.”

Universal is hoping that what started as a suggestion tossed around during a recent brainstorming session on potential corporate sponsorships will reap as much as $1 million a year from a company eager to attach its name to what is one of the nation’s busiest movie theaters, not to mention the site of numerous star-studded film premieres.

“We thought gosh, why haven’t we done this already?” said Stephanie Sperber, senior vice president in charge of forging corporate alliances for Universal. “There’s an interesting mix of people going to CityWalk every day.”

Universal owns the theaters, now called Universal Studios Cinema. So far, about 30 companies have expressed interest, among them video game makers, insurance firms, packaged goods companies, fast-food chains and even the armed forces. Universal hopes to sell the rights sometime in the next three months.

Universal’s selling point includes a big demographics pitch. About 15,000 people are at the multiplex on a busy Friday or Saturday night, roughly 8,500 on weekdays. What’s more, CityWalk attracts a large Latino population that is increasingly sought by advertisers. As part of the proposed deal, Universal also would rename a plaza in front of the theater and make space available in the multiplex where a company could demonstrate and sell products.

Naming has grown in popularity as companies try to promote their brands to as large an audience as possible in an era when TV viewership is increasingly fragmented and such technologies as TiVo digital recorders allow people to bypass commercials altogether.

“This is a captive audience. It’s not something you can turn off,” Sperber said.

Corporate names are attached to most major sports stadiums, and, by IEG estimates, to as many as 1,000 venues nationwide. Cash-strapped school districts and cities also have been looking to get into the act. In Dallas, officials are studying whether to market naming rights to some city-owned buildings.

IEG’s Andrews said that although the trend continues to grow, the saturation point could be reached soon.

“I don’t think we’ve reached that point yet,” he said. “But you have to be careful, or it will become like wallpaper and not very noticeable.”