Cineplex officials are always seeking to enhance the customer experience.
Cineplex CEO Ellis Jacob said during the May 8 first-quarter earnings conference call that the company’s media business experienced strong growth during the three-month period.
“To grow this business,” Jacob said during the conference call, according to Seeking Alpha, the company leveraged technology to “offer interactive customer experiences. These include Cineplex TimePlay, digital poster cases and, particularly, our interactive media zone. The interactive media zone provides clients with interactive brand experiences featuring a lot of stuff, screens that offer gesture motion images, and video capture technologies, as well as social media conductivity and participant data capture.”
Cineplex installed an additional 21 interactive media zones in theater lobbies this year, bringing its total to 45 across Canada.
“We believe these interactive and exponential media properties will provide significant future media revenue growth,” he said.
Jacob said the company’s digital commerce registered an 11% increase in unique visitors and a 15% increase in visits versus the same period last year. The Cineplex mobile app has been downloaded more than 11.6 million times as of March 31, 2015, recording nearly $600 million app sessions and making it Canada’s ninth most popular mobile brand.
“The Cineplex mobile app has an incredible 18% penetration of the Canadian market,” Jacob said.
What’s more, the SCENE loyalty program−a partnership between Scotiabank and Cineplex Entertainment−continues to exceed company expectations. The program added more than 300,000 members to finish the first quarter at 6.6 million members. SCENE announced that later this year members will be able to earn and redeem points at more than 800 CARA restaurant locations across Canada.
Total Cineplex revenue increased 3.5% during the quarter. Box office attendance increased 1.5 %.
“The expansion of our premium experiences remains the strategic priority for Cineplex,” Jacob said. “We plan to open two theaters in the fourth quarter of this year. The first is the new 11-screen theater with three VIP auditoriums at Marine Gateway in Vancouver. The second is part of the expansion of our Yonge Eglinton location in Toronto to include VIP.”
Cineplex also plans to expand its proprietary food service offerings opening new locations for Outtakes, YoYo’s Yogurt Café, and Poptopia.
“Throughout 2015, we will continue to grow both, our core concessions and proprietary offerings by refining out menu, offering targeted marketing and promotional programs and leveraging the flexibility of our digital menu boards,” Jacob explained.
In January, Cineplex announced plans to launch a new social entertainment destination called The Rec Room. The Rec Room features three main offerings, a large attraction area featuring state-of-the-art simulation games, redemption games and recreational games, a performance venue offering live entertainment such as musical acts, bands, comedians, and a theater-sized screen along with an upscale casual dining restaurant.
With the strategic and concept development work largely completed, Jacob said the company plans to build its first location at South Edmonton Common and open it in the first quarter of 2016.