We live in the age of digital transformation – businesses are having to re-think the way they engage with their customers and ensure their journey is as efficient and enjoyable as possible without missing the opportunity of selling more. Movie digital signage is often the customers’ first touchpoint as they enter the cinema, it is a natural place to start when exploring ways of improving a customer’s experience. Cinemas are always on the lookout for innovative ways to increase attendance, improve loyalty, and sell more food and drink. Digital signage not only helps to achieve all this but also saves considerable time by avoiding the need to manually update static posters, marquees, and door signs every time new showtimes are published, or a film changes the screen. How to make the most out of a dynamic digital messaging solution that combines rich visuals with essential data to supercharge your cinema? Keep reading to find out!
What is digital signage in a cinema?
Digital signage refers to technologies that vividly display digital images, marketing messages, videos, concession menus, or directions. Simply speaking, it is a digital installation that displays video or multimedia content for informational or advertising purposes. In cinemas, digital signage is often found in the lobby, above the box office, concession bar, outside each auditorium door, or even outside the cinema with special high luminosity screens. Digital signage can take on many forms such as standard monitors (portrait or landscape), digital kiosks, interactive displays, clusters of screens, and video walls. Each digital signage consists of three key components: content, hardware (screens, mounts, players, etc.), and software (the digital infrastructure that enables the creation, deployment, management, and update of displayed content). The direct and robust integration between your digital signage and your ticketing software is key as it will ensure all the screens across your circuit are updated automatically every time you change your movie schedule, add a new concession item, or launch a new promotion.
Examples of use
Digital signage is a great way to provide your patrons with relevant information, create awareness around upcoming movies, enhance customer service and announce promotions or special deals. Take a look at a few interesting ways digital signage can be used in your cinema:
Promotions – with movie digital signage, you can promote special offers, happy hours, ticket combos, and any other deals that encourage your customers to buy more and that need to be played at specific times of the day. You can boost your special events and offers on tickets (like unlimited tickets, group ticket packages, special events, etc.) to keep your visitors informed easily and economically. A single digital poster can replace an infinite amount of traditional ones – you can cycle through a carousel of full-display images., a great space-saving investment.
The buzz around current and upcoming movies – at peak times when your lobby is full of customers, they will take in the latest trailers, a great way to increase customer satisfaction and ensure they return to your cinema. Digital signage can also dynamically display showtimes, film formats, audio language, ratings, and even indications of how fast a given session is selling. This is an ideal way for you to capitalize on the time customers spend in your cinema waiting for tickets or for the movie to start.
Concession sales/service offerings – digital signage with its eye-catching graphics and mouth-watering imagery are the best way to promote combos and special offers or upsell slow-moving items. Digital signage can offer rotating content across dazzling digital screens that will be hard to miss.
Door signs – smaller screens located at the entrance to each auditorium displaying the film poster of the film that is about to be shown, will ensure your patrons end up in the correct place. Additional useful information such as the film title, format, audio language, and film start and end time can also be shown.
You increase employee efficiency and ensure customer traffic is fluid – digital signage delivers information efficiently to your guests and reduces the need for your staff to provide basic information.
Digital signage – is it worth it?
Digital signage is an investment that pays dividends and accompanies your cinemas’ digital transformation. At the same time, the solution is easy to implement, and, with a few mouse clicks, you can create dynamic content and schedule it to play on specific screens and at set times to maximize your sales. You can manage all of your digital screen estates from a central location. A powerful dashboard enables you to remotely view the status and current content of all your screens across all your locations.
Finally, your ticketing software provider has partnered with leading advertisement companies that can offer you a long-term advertisement revenue share deal as well as install the necessary hardware for your digital signage screens, in exchange for playing publicity through some of your screens.
Interested? Contact us to learn more about the opportunities digital signage can bring to your cinema!
