Behavioural Segmentation Strategy For Cinemas

In the fourth instalment of our Email Marketing Strategy Series, Showtime’s Cinema Marketing Expert Amin Karam shares his tips on applying Behavioural Segmentation in your campaigns.

What is Behavioural Segmentation?

Quite simply, behavioural segmentation is the practice of dividing customers into segments depending on their behaviour patterns, which for marketing purposes allows you to target them with specific campaigns relevant to their needs and wants.

DEMOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION VS BEHAVIOURAL SEGMENTATION

Historically the cinema industry has been one that relied heavily on certain demographics for marketing. Demographic segmentation based on age, gender and location are important factors to consider for all movie marketers, and as data points go these are generally simple pieces of information to collect. However the pandemic induced blow to the industry, coupled with the ongoing threat of the steaming services or ‘couch competitor’, has meant that future growth and the ability to compete will depend on really understanding customers and anticipating their needs based on their behaviours, and not just their demographics.

Below is an example of how demographic segmentation can backfire (you may have seen it doing the rounds on social media lately).  

Based on this concept, we would be targeting Prince Charles and Ozzy Osborne with the same movie marketing messages, when in reality if we were incorporating the behaviours of these two individuals we’d be sending them very different messages, right?

Behavioural segmentation on the other hand means sorting and grouping customers based on the behaviours they exhibit - what type of content do they consume, how do they book their tickets, when do they prefer to visit the cinema, are they price conscious or more motivated by their preferred movie format?

One of the biggest blockers to successfully using behavioural segmentation is having to manually collect and organise behavioural data. 

But efforts are being accelerated to make the industry more digital, data-driven, and measurable, and with the right tools you can access the insights and knowledge you need to get the most out of every marketing € spent. Since the pandemic most markets have reported a surge in web bookers (China now sells 95% of its cinema tickets online), which is good news for those of us embracing behavioural segmentation into our marketing. With increased data from web and app bookers we no longer need to rely on the subset of customers that reside in our loyalty base to be able to determine key insights into behaviours amongst groups of movie-goers, making behavioural segmentation much easier and more effective than ever before.

Want to know more about understanding your customer base? Check out Showtime’s Customer Analytics for how to get started.

APPLYING DEMOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION IN MARKETING CAMPAIGNS

Identifying groups of movie-goers who share common behaviours like what movies they’ve seen, what concessions they’ve purchased, trailers they’ve seen, what their preferred site is and what ticket types they’ve purchased allows you to create relevant and personalised campaigns and keep your customers coming back. When designing your campaigns think about the attributes other than age, gender and location that make up your customer. By creating dynamic campaigns you can make sure you include the messages relevant to those who it applies to.

Below are some examples of how you might segment your audience to reach them with a targeted message that will help you increase your conversion rates.

Showtime Engage allows you to segment groups of movie-goers based on their behaviour and propensity to convert

VISIT BEHAVIOUR

What day of the week do they typically visit?
If you want to drive bookings for an upcoming Tuesday show, think about segmenting based on who is most likely to want to attend

What time of the day do they prefer to come to the cinema?
Got a special matinee screening? Target those who tend to book for afternoon screenings

What type of Group size do they typically visit in?
Running a special Valentine’s day offer for couples? Hit those who tend to book in twos. Maybe you’re running a Ladies Night promo? Consider an offer for female groups of 3 and send it those who typically visit in that group size

What was their last visit date?
Maybe you want to survey everyone who visited on a certain date, or target those who specifically haven’t been back since you re-opened with a special offer?

How often do they visit the cinema?
If you know that certain people who previously came 8 times a year have only been seen once since you re-opened, maybe you should create a campaign to re-engage them?

PURCHASE BEHAVIOUR

Average retail spend
Got a high value offer on merchandise or F&B? Send it to those who typically spend over €30 on their visits

Purchase channel
If you want to increase your online sales, consider offering an incentive to those who usually purchase at a kiosk

Purchase to show proximity
Got a low number of bookings for an upcoming screening that day? Hit those with a propensity to book last minute with an offer to entice them to this show

Pre-booking behaviour
Trying to build momentum for pre-sales of an upcoming release? Consider sending those who typically book on a Wednesday a reminder that tickets go on sale that day

PREFERRED CONTENT

Actors
Know who typically books Brad Pitt movies? Let them know when his next movie is going on sale

Titles Seen/Not Seen
Maybe you want to send an offer for an upcoming title show but don’t want to send it to those who have already booked tickets. Or maybe you want to send a No Time To Die campaign to everyone who came to see Skyfall and Spectre?

Genres
Got an upcoming Horror release you want to push? Target those who come to see Horror movies a high percentage of the time

Directors
Certain customers have a propensity to book Ridley Scott films - drive pre-sales to his next upcoming release by targeting this group

Format Preference
Do you have a new IMAX release you want to push? Send a certain campaign to those who frequently book IMAX screenings

By segmenting campaigns based on both behaviour and demographics combined you will increase your conversions even more. For example, if you are trying to drive presales for the upcoming Spiderman No Way Home matinee, you could try segmenting your audience based on customers who like Avengers movies (Title), Action movies (Genre), who like to come on weekend afternoon (Visit), are between 16 and 29 (Age) and most frequently visit a specific location (Site).

TIP: It’s just as important to determine which customers NOT to target

In a 2019 Loyalty Report by Bond, conducted on 22k Americans and based on 200+ Loyalty Programmes, the industry with the highest satisfaction rate was Cinema.

We can help! If you want to learn more about Behavioural Segmentation for your marketing campaigns get in touch with our Marketing Experts here.