Digital loyalty cards for cinemas

Why this works for cinemas

A cinema's costs are almost entirely fixed once the film is booked, so the seventh visit given away costs little and the six that precede it are worth their full margin. Counting visits also rewards the behaviour the business depends on, which is the habit of going to the cinema at all.

An independent cinema competes with a subscription service that is cheaper, closer and already paid for. The thing it is really selling is the occasion, and the thing it needs is for that occasion to become a habit rather than an annual event.

Visits are the right unit because attendance is what the business turns into money. Ticket prices vary a little by time and concession, but not enough to justify points, and the customer's decision is about whether to come rather than how much to spend when they do.

The concessions counter complicates the picture and is worth keeping out of the mechanic. Popcorn margin is where a cinema earns, but tying the card to concession spend makes the programme about snacks rather than about the habit of turning up.

Should the card count tickets or bookings?

Tickets, because a couple attending together is two admissions and both people are worth enrolling. Counting bookings rewards the person who happens to hold the card and makes their companion invisible to you for as long as they keep coming.

The exception is a family booking, where one adult buys four seats for people who are not separate customers. Capping the stamps earned per transaction, two, typically, keeps the mechanic honest without any need to interrogate anyone at the box office.

What can an independent cinema send that a streaming service cannot?

What is on this week, which is the whole point of an independent programme and the one thing the customer cannot find out passively. A wallet notification about a one-night screening reaches people who have already chosen your cinema at least once.

This is the vertical where the notification carries most of the programme's value. A cinema's stock changes weekly, its screenings are perishable in a way a retail product is not, and a message on Tuesday about Thursday's single showing is the difference between forty seats sold and twelve.

Does a loyalty card compete with a membership scheme?

It complements one, and the two answer different questions. A paid membership is for the people who already identify as regulars; a free loyalty card is for the much larger group who come three times a year and could come eight.

In practice the loyalty card is also the recruitment channel for the membership. A customer who has filled a six-visit card twice has demonstrated the behaviour that makes a membership worth buying, and they are the only audience for it worth asking.

What cinemas usually struggle with

• Streaming subscriptions are cheaper, closer and already paid for
• Screenings are perishable, an unsold seat cannot be sold later
• Audiences are anonymous unless they book online
• Programming changes weekly with no direct way to tell regulars

What we would set up for you

A stamps card with 6 as the goal and a free standard admission on the seventh visit as the reward. Customers enrol by phone number at the counter (they never take out their phone), and the card lands in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet in about three seconds.

You can change the goal or the reward later without reissuing anyone's card, so there is no penalty for starting with this and adjusting once you have real data.