Guest data in the cinema: untapped potential
Your cinema. Your data. Your success.
Cinema data tells stories – you only have to listen.
Many cinemas generate countless items of guest data in the cinema every day: valuable information about your guests.
Modern POS systems already capture this data automatically.
Cinemas need do nothing except evaluate the information they already have properly, with the right tool.
This is what your data in the cinema tells you:
who goes to the cinema and when,
which genres are especially popular,
how many friends a guest brings along
which snack they enjoy most.
Yet all of this data in the cinema often goes unused, because it is not available centrally, not linked up, or simply cannot be evaluated.
With the help of your guest data in the cinema, you can raise your cinema’s presence in cinema marketing considerably.
Targeted, resonant information lets you reach your guests regularly and precisely, and keeps your cinema present in their minds – particularly in competition with streaming services or other leisure options.
The untapped potential of cinema data
If you know your guests’ favourite genre, you can tell them when that film is showing, offer them a group discount or recommend their favourite snack in a ticket bundle.
Cinema data makes exactly that possible:
it shows which offer suits which guest, entirely individually, without flooding everyone with the same campaign.
Small cinemas in particular benefit enormously from using guest data in the cinema in a targeted way, because every guest counts and resources are often tight.
The good news: it takes neither a large budget nor a complex IT infrastructure to work successfully with data in the cinema.
With only a few steps and the right tool for cinema marketing, small cinemas can make personalised offers, increase visitor loyalty and so raise their revenue noticeably. For smaller venues in particular, data-based marketing is therefore not just an option, but an indispensable lever for standing strong in a competitive environment.
Why data creates closeness
If you understand your guests, you can speak to them better and offer them a more personal experience.
A guest who is told about new favourite films feels seen.
A guest who learns that their favourite snack is on offer feels invited.
This is not about making the email inbox explode,
it is about individual appreciation by digital means.
The cinema experience is more than a film – it is community, emotion and something special. Guest data in the cinema is the way to bring that unique experience to the fore in your cinema marketing and to make it tangible for every guest individually.
Only those who address guests individually are remembered individually.
Other industries have long been using what the cinema already has
The cinema has the closeness – other industries make use of it.
Streaming services understand their users so precisely
that they suggest films before the platform is even opened.
Online shops know which products interest you
before the customer looks for them.
And the cinema?
The cinema has the most emotional contact with its audience and the data to create closeness from it.
Yet far too often this cinema data goes unused,
while other industries have long been benefiting from data-driven marketing.
Why your cinema needs its own marketing
Many cinemas rely on the film distributors.
But their campaigns speak to the broad mass, not to your guests.
Your cinema has direct contact with its visitors and knows who really comes through the door.
With your own guest data in the cinema you reach exactly the people
who actually come to your cinema.
We are continuing to build out the possibilities around guest data in the cinema and cinema marketing, so that you can already benefit today from proven solutions that cover many of the basic functions. We are growing with the market in order to open up even more potential in future.
The challenge for cinemas is to stop relying on distributor marketing alone and to run their own data-based marketing, in order to address their own audience individually and to build presence. That matters all the more because streaming and other leisure activities are strong competition.
Guest data in the cinema: using data properly
Knowing is good – understanding is better.
Many cinemas already capture valuable information, but the decisive step lies between collecting and using it.
Only those who understand their guest data in the cinema and draw insights from it can also use it strategically.
It is not only about having more data,
it is also about drawing the right conclusions from it and using them deliberately for communication and decisions.
When you use your data in the cinema, you not only reach more visitors, you also strengthen the bond with your guests. The result is more frequent cinema visits and more revenue per screening.
Questions that data can answer:
- How often does each guest visit your cinema on average?
- Which target groups prefer which film genres?
- At which times is which genre in strongest demand?
- Who regularly buys which snacks or drinks alongside?
- How does buying behaviour vary by film genre or event?
Which trends in visit and purchase behaviour can be identified over time?
That way marketing activities become not only more personal, but also more successful:
more visitors, more frequent cinema visits and therefore more revenue per screening.
How cinemas can use the data
There are many ways to use it:
- Newsletter campaigns with targeted film and request-film recommendations
- Offers based on visit and snack behaviour
- Automated campaigns, for birthdays or other special occasions
- Individual ticket and snack combinations
- Hyper-personalised recommendations that can increase ticket sales
Cinema marketing becomes successful when decisions are no longer made on gut feeling,
but on the basis of real data. Measurable, traceable and with a noticeable effect in the auditorium.
Data protection comes first
Personalisation yes, but with responsibility.
Naturally, data protection comes first here.
Information close to the transaction – recommendations for similar films or matching offers – is permitted as long as it can be linked to a booking.
So anyone who has watched an action film may also be told about the next action hit.
Your guests keep control at all times and can unsubscribe without any trouble.
The stage belongs to the cinema again
What the cinema has, no platform can offer.
The cinema has everything it needs to stay successful in a data-driven world:
emotion, atmosphere, trust and direct access to its guests.
What is missing is not information, but use.
Anyone who understands their cinema data and applies it deliberately
can address guests personally, make relevant offers
and so shape visitor loyalty actively – over the long term, predictably and measurably.
That is how data becomes closeness, communication becomes relationship and a visit becomes an experience that stays.
Your guests want to go to the cinema – they just do not know it yet.
It is time the cinema told them.
Edin Demirezen
With around 20 years of cinema experience and many years as theatre manager of the Cineplex Alsdorf (the Stürtz family), Edin knows day-to-day cinema life at first hand.
Today he brings his expertise to Compeso as an adviser for cinemas and for our development work, so that cinema teams get the support that really moves them forward day to day.
Cinema has been part of his life for many years, and that enthusiasm shows in the way he supports cinemas.
Sources
