Comparethemarket.com Extends ‘Meerkat Movies’ Rewards Scheme After Saving Cinema Goers Over £27M Since Launch

PRESS RELEASE


comparethemarket.com is pleased to announce that it has extended its ‘Meerkat Movies’ partnership with Cinema First, the cross industry body representing both film distributors and cinema operators, for a further two years, taking the promotion up to at least April 2020.

The deal, which offers 2 for 1 cinema tickets to customers purchasing a qualifying product through comparethemarket.com every Tuesday or Wednesday for a whole year, now accounts for approximately 3% of UK cinema admissions.

Since the promotion launched in April 2015, Meerkat Movies memberships have reached almost 3 million (2.9m) and during that time the promotion has seen over 3.8 million 2-4-1 vouchers redeemed. With an average ticket price in 2015 of £7.21*, that means that comparethemarket.com customers have already saved over £27 million by taking advantage of the partnership.

It has been a summer of huge family features, with releases such as eOne’s The BFG, Universal’s Secret Life of Pets and Disney’s Finding Dory leading to the biggest Meerkat Movies redemptions week since the launch of the offer. In one week in August over 125,000 people redeemed a code, meaning that around a quarter of a million people benefited from visiting the cinema using Meerkat Movies during the school holidays. Other peaks in use of the promotion were also seen late last year, with the release of the latest Bond instalment Spectre, as well as the long-awaited Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

The Meerkat Movies mobile app, accessible on both Apple and Android operating systems, has been downloaded over 1.7 million times since the partnership was launched. With plenty of upcoming blockbusters this autumn such as Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Lego Batman we expect the number of app downloads to soar going into 2017, alongside the number of consumers taking advantage of Meerkat Movies.

Paul Galligan, Managing Director of comparethemarket.com:

“Rewarding customers for their loyalty and helping people get more for their money are key principles that drive our business. We’ve therefore been delighted with the success of Meerkat Movies. Of course, as our business helps people find the best deals across insurance, energy and money products, the money saved on 2-4-1 cinema tickets is only a small part of the picture.”

Chairman of Cinema First, Barry Jenkins said:

“The extension of our ground-breaking partnership with comparethemarket.com is great news for cinema audiences of all ages which will I know be hugely welcomed by everyone in the UK cinema industry. In the 16 months since Meerkat Movies was launched, the promotion has gone from strength to strength, driven by the unprecedented marketing ambition and creativity for which comparethemarket.com are rightly renowned. This new commitment is a welcome show of confidence in a vibrant UK cinema sector. We look forward to taking the promotion to new heights over the coming years.”

News Stories