About AdFilms

Years ago, AdFilms Ltd. was the Canadian representative for the Cannes International Advertising Film Festival. As a way to promote the award winners, we organized hugely popular screenings of the World’s Best Commercials at repertory theatres throughout Canada and North America. Shows were sold-out, with many of the theatres drawing their biggest crowds of the year. The success of these screenings was revealing.

AdFilms no longer reps the festival, but the experience exposed a long held myth about advertising in general:
People don’t dislike advertising. They dislike unimaginative advertising.

Mission

AdFilms is the branding agency for independent Canadian movie theatres, planning marketing and promotional campaigns on behalf of partner cinemas in order to bring about increased attendance and merchandising opportunity.

Values

ENTERTAIN, ENLIGHTEN, ENGAGE is more than a motto, it is our approach to business. People attend movies to be entertained and enlightened, and anything associated with that experience should offer the same allure. We aim to build long-term relationships with clients and theatres based on fairness, respect and co-operation. Our success is reliant on your success.

History

Fred Stinson pioneered the cinema advertising concept in Canada through the development of a drive-in movie theatre “intermission clock” during the 1950’s. From that inauspicious start, his new company, AdFilms Ltd., became the first to place rolling stock 35mm (full thirty5) film advertising on conventional (indoor) theatre screens.

And now, more than half a century later, his son Keith Stinson runs AdFilms Ltd., still concentrating on the traditional full thirty5, and overseeing the roll-out of the first digital pre-show (d-Pre) geared to a growing network of independent Canadian movie theatres.