An Interview with Will Palmer, Chief Executive Officer, Movio
How can data-driven marketing transform the exhibition business?
Most leading exhibitors have invested in loyalty programs, capturing vast amounts of information that if analyzed effectively can provide fantastic insight into customer preferences. This insight allows the exhibitor to move from a mass newsletter e-mail program to a sophisticated, highly targeted and, most importantly, relevant communication strategy. This step change almost immediately increases customer engagement, which can be easily measured by the dramatic increase in e-mail open rates and lift in box office when measuring admissions against a control group.
Could you give us an example of how Movio Cinema can help exhibitors market to a specific segment of their audience?
We will use high-value customers in this example. High-value customers typically don’t require a discount or offer to attend a film. If the film, actor, or director are of interest, then getting the right information to the right person at the right time is the key.
Example: High-value customers for Jupiter Ascending
– Segment customers who attend the theater more than one time per month and spend on average more than $6 on concession items, and who have watched at least two films starring Channing Tatum.
– Movio Cinema automatically removes a random control group from the target audience for post-campaign analysis.
– Send an e-mail communication with an exclusive trailer, which includes an advanced-ticket purchase option for Jupiter Ascending to the target audience.
– Compare average spend behavior and other KPIs between the targeted and control group to determine the return on investment (ROI) on the campaign;
– Use the results to improve the next campaign!
Movio is also valuable for marketing purposes outside of the theatrical business. How can a nontheatrical marketer take advantage of Movio services?
Movio has launched a new platform called Movio Media, designed for exhibitors to commercialize their data, without losing any control or ownership of the information. Movio Media primary targets are film distributors and studios, providing them in-depth insight into the moviegoing audience and a potential direct-marketing channel in cooperation with our exhibitor partners. Whilst the data and product would be of value to other advertisers and analysts, our focus is firmly theatrical.
What do you think the future holds for big data and the cinema industry?
Our focus is to create a single view of a theatrical customer across all channels, including mobile, web, social, and offline in-theater transactions. Once the theatrical business understands its customer better, the entire value chain could be positively affected:
– Customers will only receive relevant information about content they are likely to engage with.
– Exhibitors will market more efficiently, increasing ROI on each campaign. Exhibition will also schedule content in a more scientific manner.
– Distributors will target the most avid moviegoers with relevant campaigns around the world and refine their marketing spend to precise audiences.
– Studios will determine the audience for a film or which actor, director affects box office long before investing heavily into production.
What sort of insights can Movio clients expect from the product’s suite of services?
There are over 100 filters within Movio Cinema that can be combined in thousands of ways to provide insights into attendance patterns, spend behavior, film preference, campaign effectiveness, etc. A small example of the kind of insights are as follows:
– What type of campaigns generates the most ROI?
– Who are really your most valuable customers?
– Which films should we recommend to each customer?- Does social-media activity (likes, shares, retweets, etc.) actually lead to box office transactions?
Can you share with us a bit about your vision and strategy in making Movio a global offer?
Our vision is to shape the future of movie marketing. Movio’s global aim is to provide the most comprehensive customer-analytics engine and campaign-management software specifically designed for film studios, distributors, and exhibitors to allow them to truly understand the theatrical audience. Movio is now in 11 countries with more than 30 million customer profiles covering 15,970 screens. We believe that with great information comes great decisions, which will empower studios to make better content, distributors to market movies more effectively, and for exhibitors to tailor the cinema experience to the core of the entire industry, the moviegoers.
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