In the years leading up to the pandemic, Val Morgan was on a winning streak. “If you look back at kind of 2018 to 2019, we had two incredible years of cinema,” recalls Paul MacGregor, director of strategy and marketing at Val Morgan. “That was driven by the Marvel franchise – Avengers: Endgame was probably the pinnacle of that.”
With audiences flocking to cinemas in record numbers and advertising opportunities thriving, Val Morgan was at its peak. But that momentum came to a screeching halt in early 2020.
Avengers: Endgame.
The COVID-19 crisis: Business brought to a standstill
“We came off the back of that straight into COVID,” MacGregor says. “Cinema was on an absolute high, and then suddenly, the cinemas were shut. It was almost the worst possible situation that could happen for cinema, and then it kept getting worse and worse.”
For an advertising business built around cinema and out-of-home (OOH) media, the pandemic was a double blow. “It’s hard to sell cinema advertising when they’re all shut. We were in two of the worst verticals, cinemas were closed, and everyone was stuck at home because no one was allowed in public,” MacGregor explains.
While Val Morgan had a digital arm at the time, it was not yet at the scale needed to support the business fully. “In terms of revenue generation, it just wasn’t something we could rely on,” he admits. The company was forced to make difficult decisions, including downsizing staff.
Reinvention: A Strategic Shift to Survive
With traditional revenue sources cut off, the company had to rethink its approach. “COVID-19 allowed the three businesses to look at their strategy for growth and work out how they can come out of this dark period,” says MacGregor. “We looked at it with fresh eyes and came up with a strategy to get back to where we were previously.”
Part of that meant returning to Val Morgan’s core strengths. “As a company, we went back to our DNA. We have a very strong culture, and we’re a company that people want to work for,” MacGregor says. “We’ve always been a challenger brand. We’re never the biggest, but we’re not the smallest. We’ve always had to fight.”
One key pivot was in the outdoor advertising space. “Gyms were still closed; workplaces were still closed. People weren’t going through petrol stations either because they weren’t traveling. But retail really kind of kept us going and allowed us to transform our outdoor business,” MacGregor notes.
MacGregor credits a return to Val Morgan’s core strengths for helping the company overcome the impact of COVID-19.
The road to recovery: Finding new strength in retail advertising
As brands and advertisers looked for ways to reach consumers outside their homes, retail advertising emerged as a vital touchpoint. “There were a lot of clients wanting to reach the essential services audience because that was the only point where they could influence purchasing decisions,” MacGregor says. “So suddenly, retail became a really important part of our strategy. We managed to pivot outdoor really well at that point.”
Cinema’s comeback and the rise of a stronger Val Morgan
While retail and digital played a crucial role in the company’s survival, cinema’s revival marked a true turning point. “I think probably mid-2021 when Tenet came out, from a cinema perspective, that was a real kind of turning point. The second one was James Bond – No Time to Die,” MacGregor recalls. “From there, we got a little bit of momentum and built on it. Since late 2021, we’ve been in double-digit growth across all three businesses.”
Today, according to MacGregor, Val Morgan is stronger than ever. “We’ve never had as big an audience as we have now. We’ve never had as many employees as we have now, and our revenue has never been as big as it is now across all three verticals,” MacGregor says. “It’s very much a Phoenix rising from the ashes story.”
A new era for Val Morgan
COVID-19 forced a reckoning for the company, but in the end, it became an opportunity to reset. “It allowed us to have a fierce break. It was a business break by necessity, and so we had to stop doing what we had done previously. We had to regroup, restrategise, and look forward,” says MacGregor.
Now, the company operates at a new level. “We’ve hit a critical mass as a business. All three businesses are really strong, and we’ve reached a size – both in terms of audience and impact on the media market – where businesses can work with us as a group. We’re also seeing clients spend more money with us than they ever have. They want to see what we can do as a group.”
Pictured: Paul MacGregor