Maharashtra multiplexes roll out welcome mats for moviegoers

With Maharashtra set to re-open its movie halls, multiplexes are rolling out the red carpet to draw movie goers.

While movie-led marketing initiatives for big-ticket releases such as Akshay Kumar’s Sooryavanshi and Daniel Craig’s No Time to Die have already begun, multiplexes have partnered with food reservation apps, and plan on adding value to the movie-going experience through luxury screens, drive-in theatres, private screening, alternative-content screenings to entice moviegoers away from OTT back to the movie hall experience.

Inox which has 28 multiplexes with a total of 133 screens in Maharashtra has a lot planned for the audience, Alok Tandon, CEO – INOX Leisure Ltd told BusinessLine, “We are innovating a lot on the marketing side to ensure that customers remain engaged. we know that we can hasten our revival with some path-breaking innovations revolving around the giant screen, like private screenings, alternative content screening, unique brand collaborations, introducing new food and beverages concepts.”

Tandon continued, The new food and beverages concepts include adding home meal replacements into their food courts to capture customers beyond their multiplex audiences into the fold. For their multiplex customers especially, Inox has announced a partnership with the food reservation app, EazyDiner. Tandon explained “With this collaboration, EazyDiner members can avail a flat 15 per cent discount across all Inox food counters and Café Unwind. EazyDiner members can enjoy a flat 25 per cent discount across all Insignia lounges across the country on reserving a table via EazyDiner.”

Customer connect
PVR Cinemas, which has 18 per cent of its nationwide business in Maharashtra, plans on getting its customers back with six super luxury screen cinemas and a drive-in theatre that are waiting to commence their operations after the October 22 opening date. Gautam Dutta, CEO, PVR Ltd told BusinessLine, “During lockdown, we built our marketing strategy around the entire customer journey to connect with our customers at the right time with the right message. We reached out to our 11 million privilege loyal customer base to communicate our readiness to reopen our cinemas through the PVR Care program. We kept our followers, movie enthusiasts and audiences engaged, at the same time ensure and reinforce that cinemas are a safe and secure place to visit post Covid.” Dutta believes that this year they will have more due to the huge backlog of movies awaiting releases, and they are already seeing high levels of enthusiasm on their social media platforms. The Hindu BusinessLine