Ah yes... promotions.
No,I have never entered any of the studio promotions. As a 2nd run theatre it is usually too late to enter those contests, and seems rather useless to promote that which has already been promoted by the many megaplexes surrounding me, and the studios though TV, magazines etc. If I was out in the boonies with no other theatres near me it would be a different situation, but reselling the same goods that everyone is already aware of seems a waste of time and effort. Does that mean, don't promote. Of course not! But, as a 2nd run theatre there are different things to promote. We must convince people that there is a good reason to wait and see the pictures at our theatre many weeks after the national release. How do we do this? What we must do is offer something different. Advertising a much lower price is certainly an incentive. However, many people equate lower prices with lower quality. We therefore must convince them that our quality equals and in many cases surpasses theirs. We, and when I say we, I mean all of us that find ourselves in this situation, must look at our physical facilities, our programing, our scheduling, our customer service... all aspects of our operations and determine what it is that we can do that exceeds that which is done at the megaplexes near us. In other words, what can we do that they can't or won't? Every theatre is different, yet most theatres probably have some unique attribute that sets them apart from all others. Each exhibitor must find and exploit those attributes. It could be the architecture, the history, the location, the product or a particular management style. Whatever it is... sell it, sell it, and keep selling it.
Selling it means getting and keeping the press interested in your theatre. I always try to get at least one or two news articles published about my theatre each month. Whether it's newpapers, magazines or TV doesn't matter... the more the better. Just make sure it's positive news. The press falls over each other trying to outdo each other. An example of this. Last November we were included in a USAToday article as "One of 10 Great Places to see a Classic Cinema". Notice it didn't say one of the 10 best, but one of ten great places. Our local small town weekly paper saw this and then did an article about us being featured in USAToday. The big city daily near us saw that and then did a story the next day. The regional RCN cable outlet saw that and came and filmed a news piece as well, and then Fox News in Philadelphia came and did a seven minute piece that aired on the Friday night and Monday morning news programs. By the time they were all finished, without me ever saying a word otherwise, we went from One of 10 great places to see a Classic Cinema to One of Americas finest historic theatres. And yes business has been up ever since.
The news media loves covering theatres, sometimes I think they like theatres more then movies. So find that unique angle and hold the carrot out under their nose, and they will do the rest.
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