How UGC Cinemas retain 1.2 million moviegoers year-round with gamified loyalty

UGC is a major cinema chain in France and across Europe. They operate 57 movie theatres with 586 screens. Their portfolio includes the UGC Ciné Cité Les Halles – not only the largest cinema in Europe, with 27 screens, but, according to a report by Comscore, the busiest movie theatre on the planet.

UGC also produces and distributes a wide range of content in collaboration with broadcasters such as Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video.

Challenges

🎯 UGC’s goals are typical of the cinema industry: to build long-term loyalty among a broad range of target audiences. Operating on such a large scale, and communicating with several million customers, their aims can be broken down into distinct objectives:

• Create an extra layer of engagement in their loyalty programme
• Create exclusive experiences for UGC Unlimited card holders
• Increase attendance
• Promote newly released films
• Promote events, partners, and promotional offers

The Drimify solution

They opted for games and experiences built on the Drimify platform, and due to the scale of their requirement, and the necessary frequency of engagement, they also took out a Creation Pack – our turnkey creation service where we handle the design and configuration of games. 🎁🎄

This allows them to launch new games almost every week, and celebrate the end of the year in style with a big Christmas-themed gamification experience.

📱Gamification games and experiences “by Drimify”

Through Drimify’s extensive catalogue of customisable game engines, UGC are able to offer a rich and varied programme of gamified experiences to motivate loyalty among moviegoers. Their gamification strategy utilises a mixture of instant win games, Quizzes, Surveys, and other marketing games, as well as more immersive, longer form experiences built using the Combo™ and the Dynamic Path™.

Loyalty programme members were given opportunities to win cinema tickets, tickets for advanced screenings, festivals, and other partner brand events. Additionally, gamification was used to distribute merchandise – a great magnet for foot traffic – and drive conversions on snacks and beverages 🍿 – an important revenue stream for movie theatres.

Maximise on opportunities to drive foot traffic

The UGC strategy also involved using Drimify games to promote their events and promotions that aren’t necessarily tied to individual film releases.

These include various international days which can be easily reflected in the world of cinema (popcorn day, laughter day for comedies, or youth day for kids’ movies); as well as events under labels created by UGC which provide more opportunities to drive brand awareness.

Every month, UGC Unlimited card holders are invited to take part in “Instant Premium” games, which are themed around the most highly anticipated new releases. Members participate in a Quiz, with huge prizes up for grabs for the highest scorers, such as trips to filming locations, or even tickets to premieres.

The end of the year is celebrated in style with the organisation of their “Great Christmas Game” – built of multiple games and contests using Drimify’s Dynamic Path™ format. It provides a longer, more immersive and personalised gamification experience in the form of a calendar (a lot like an advent calendar, except with games instead of chocolates), engaging participants throughout December.

Results and KPIs

UGC’s key figures for the year 🚀

• 1.2M plays
• 300 000 plays of each edition of their annual “Great Christmas Game”
• 30,000 players on average per experience
• ~70% engagement rate among members of UGC Unlimited with each new “Instant Premium” game

Objectives achieved 😎

• Their loyalty programme and UGC Unlimited are being promoted in a fun and dynamic way
• Films and partner brands promoted all year round
• Thousands of entries every month for recurring gamified campaigns 🥳

The results 📈

• Satisfied and rewarded moviegoers through UGC’s use of Drimify to foster customer loyalty
• The “Great Christmas Game” has become a main attraction in their annual marketing showing the value of year-on-year gamification to condition audiences 🎁

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✨The ideal Drimify package ✨

… to replicate their results! 💪

• The Drimify yearly offer: The impact of gamification on audience loyalty is all the greater when applied long-term. In the film industry, where it’s essential to promote a large number of films and keep customers engaged throughout the year, developing an annual strategy maximises the effectiveness of your gamification campaigns.
• The Strategy Pack: We work with you to define and build a winning strategy around the best opportunities in your calendar, and suggest the most appropriate game engines to maximise the effectiveness of your campaigns.
• The Creation Pack: You tell us the vision, we make it happen through our turnkey creation service. Save time and optimise your resources by handing over creation and configuration duties to us.

Contact us to find out more, and before long, we’ll be writing the next Success Story together. ✨