June’s Latent Demand Survey Results Are Here
Following the popularity of our last Latent Demand Survey article published in Celluloid Junkie in April, and the subsequent positive results reported by Showtime customers on the back of using this data as part of their marketing strategy, we wanted to share the latest wave of responses from our follow-up survey carried out in June. Read on for data and tips on how to help focus your marketing for the Summer months ahead.
A Quick Recap
One area we have been focusing on to help our clients take control of their marketing efforts is the topic of Latent Demand.
“I really wanted to see that movie in the cinema but I missed it,” is a sentiment as common among avid movie goers as it is the infrequent visitors, even though for the occasional cinemagoers, the desire to see a film at the cinema is more easily pushed down the to-do list than with those who love to go.
We began conducting customer surveys with some of our exhibition partners (including this one in partnership with Movies@, an Irish cinema chain with 5 sites throughout the country, including a new 13 screen multiplex in Dublin), to help identify what the exhibition community can be doing to get people of all ages back into a habit of moviegoing.
What we found in April’s survey results was that of the over 2,000 participants in the study, 33% of customers who want to see a given film in the cinema failed to convert. With consumer behaviour constantly shifting in this new post-pandemic landscape, we wanted to monitor the change in sentiment as the months go on and create some actionable measures we can take based on the current and upcoming studio slates.
Latest Survey Results - June 2022
June’s survey had over 3000 responses, and the GOOD NEWS is that for the first time in our study we saw a 100% covnverison rate among respondents for a particular movie title.
Sonic 2 was the most successfully converted film into visits, which sends a very reassuring message from the family movie cohort.
Most Missed Films At the Cinema
Reasons Ranked By % For Missing The Films They Wanted To See
Covid Concerns has reassuring fallen 2 places since April’s survey, dropping to 16% of respondents’ reasons for missing their preferred film . Price however is becoming an increasing issue with Too Expensive moving up 1 place since April, with 22% of respondents citing price as preventing them from going to see the film the want at the cinema. This is an increase of 72% since April and is indicative of the rising cost of living.
People forgetting has increased to 13% in June 3 vs 6% in April, which could be down to people going out more, getting busier and therefore potentially more likely to forget to go to see the film they wanted.
Things Got In The Way is still at number one, with 52% people not going because of it. Showtimes Not Convenient is an ongoing issue with 23% of people not able to find a time for a film that suits them. On the plus side, only 3% of all respondents said they would Prefer To Watch At Home vs seeing the movie in a cinema.
The Streaming Effect
Over 90% of respondents said they watched films on a premium subscription channel such as Disney+/Prime/Netflix etc at home. When asked if their cinema going frequency had changed because of the films being shown on these platforms, 53% said streaming had had a negative impact on their frequency, whether it meant they were going alot less (24.5%), somewhat less (23%) or were no longer going at all (5%). This means cinema marketers need to focus their efforts on attracting more new customers to offset the drop in frequency among existing ones.
Returning Audiences
When we ran our first survey with Movies@ in February, 49% of respondents had been to the cinema in the last month. In April, this went up to 53% and by June it had climbed to 63%. This would suggest that more people are coming back to the big screen as the Covid restrictions were eased.
June’s survey also told us that 20% of respondents had last been at the cinema between 1 and 2 months ago, while only 6% were in the 3-6 months bracket. 5% haven’t been in over a year, while 3% had been back between 6 and 12 months ago.
By knowing who your returning and non-returning customers are, you can drive strategic initiatives to reduce churn and increase frequency. With the Showtime Customer Analytics platform you have a full analysis of your entire customer base in realtime in terms of their Recency, Frequency and Monetary values across certain time periods, so you can make sure you target them with the right messaging.
What Can You Do To Increase Conversions At Your Circuit?
Here are some data driven ideas to help convert those % of customers in your base who really want to see their film of choice:
Film Leaving Soon Alerts: More than 57% of respondents said that receiving an email saying a film is soon to leave the cinema would help them not miss the films they want to see.
Set up pre-sales campaigns for upcoming releases. The second highest response with over 31% was that if they had more notice before a film is released they would be more likely to book tickets to a show. When we ran a campaign with Movies@ for Bond’s No Time To Die we saw a 23% increase on pre-sales vs previous Bond Releases, even with a 60% capacity restriction due to Covid laws.
Set up a reminder to choose a date or set up as a specific date so they can see when the film is and can plan accordingly. Nearly 25% of respondents said having the ability to add a film to their calendar from a website would help them not to miss the film.
Set up specific film alerts. Nearly 25% of people said it would encourage them to visit the cinema. Try notifications at different periods from midway through a release to its actual last week. Test sending these messages and notifications on different days of the week to see which are most responsive.
Offer more personalised and relevant communication, making more use of your existing data and applying that through optimised email campaigns. Over 19% of survey respondents said they would like to get email communications relating only to the films they are interested in. If you are a Showtime Analytics customer you’ll know that with our platform’s integration with your POS (whichever one you are using) you can market to specific segments based on their behaviours, purchase history or content preferences. If you have an identifiable customer in your base and they’ve opted in for marketing communications, with the Showtime Engage platform they don’t need to be part of a loyalty or membership scheme for you to include them in your campaigns.
Give people the ability to share desire about a film with friends to help create and organise an event. There are numerous platforms available that do this. Encourage them at the same time to share why they want to see a movie and how much they want to see it. Over 7% of survey respondents said the reason they didn’t go to a film they wanted to see was because they could not organise a group to go with whereas almost 4% said that if they could invite friends from a cinema’s website it would help them not to miss a film (remember these are more likely to be group bookings meaning multiple ticket sales from a single conversion).
Pricing can be a useful tool to convert latent demand into action, particularly with the growing number of people stating that the reason they didn’t go to see the film they wanted to was due to it being too expensive (22%).
Bring back recently released films to the big screen, even one evening a week, close to or to coincide with the streaming release, which makes more of an event of it. With your ticket price margin higher with the lower distribution rate small uplifts in big numbers can make a real difference.
Forecasting Intent To See
Our Movies@ survey also asked what upcoming releases respondents were most looking forward to seeing in theatres. Implementing awareness campaigns with calls to action will help drive both the pre-bookings and the potential latent demand from these titles. The results below are from the first two weeks of June, with no surprises that Top Gun: Maverick is the most eagerly anticipated movie of the summer even after it’s astronomical opening weekend. After Lightyear however we see a sharp decline in demand for the further releases due in the coming months. This is where you could consider revisiting some of the other popular titles people missed earlier in the year.
If you would like help with your cinema marketing strategy did you know Showtime offer Marketing as a Service? Whether you need additional capacity, or require new marketing capabilities, our in-house Engage marketing experts are available to augment your existing marketing, all for a simple monthly service fee.