Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Prepared For:
David Colburn
Prepared By:
Charles Johnston
MCOM 30
CREATIVE BRIEF...................................................................................................................................... 2
CLIENT INTERVIEW DETAILS.............................................................................................................. 3
PREVIOUS AND ONGOING MARKETING AND ADVERTISING EFFORTS................................. 3
TARGET MARKETS .................................................................................................................................. 4
STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES AND THREATS (SWOT) .................................. 6
SITE ARCHITECTURE ............................................................................................................................. 9
SITE NAVIGATION.................................................................................................................................. 12
DETAILED OBJECTIVES IN RELATION TO SITE ARCHITECTURE ......................................... 13
DESIGN ELEMENTS................................................................................................................................ 15
DRIVING TRAFFIC TO THE WEBSITE AND ADDITIONAL MARKETING
COMMUNICATIONS ............................................................................................................................... 17
WEBSITE EVALUATION........................................................................................................................ 19
CLOSING SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................. 19
1
Creative Brief
Terry Laffier has owned the Screening Room for 11 years. I met her before she opened
on the afternoon of Thursday, March 27th. We had a long discussion about the business,
and she informed me, among other things, that her biggest loss in attendance over the
past four years has been among students seeing late shows. Most of this loss, she feels,
can be credited to students illegally viewing and downloading movies from online
sources rather than seeing movies in theatres.
Ironically, the Screening Room has a great package for Kingston’s young, academic,
hipster crowd. It’s a small, downtown facility, and it offers fair admission prices, a snack
bar and a timeworn, unpretentious theatre atmosphere.
An examination of the current Screening Room business model revealed that although the
business is positioned well in a potentially lucrative market niche, the business is
struggling with brand awareness and lacks a frequent and resonant advertising message.
Most notably, what the Screening Room lacks is a useful marketing solution through the
internet – a medium that carries significant weight among desired target markets.
An informative and intuitive website will attract new customers to the cinema, and allow
the business to effectively compete with its larger competitors in the city. An up-to-date
web solution will make the business more accessible to key target markets in Kingston,
while reinforcing the Screening Room brand among these desired consumer segments
and subsequently improving nightly attendance.
• Providing show times, admission prices, currently running titles, as well as teaser
information about films that are coming soon for a consumer segment who
increasingly relies on the internet for all pre-purchase buying information
• Developing and nurturing a Screening Room community by providing a forum
and information hub for film enthusiasts in Kingston and surrounding area and a
user rating and review system for current and upcoming films
• Building on the Screening Room’s brand and reinforcing the business’s niche
market
2
Client Interview Details
Other subjects Terry and I covered during our discussion included:
3
Target Markets
Primary Target Market: Students and young professionals
4
o Many regular customers will wait until mainstream and critically-popular
films finish running at big theatres and come and see them when they run
later at the Screening Room
Most likely these individuals are gauging the quality of the film by
the media attention it receives during it’s first run, and they also
prefer to avoid the crowds and distractions at larger theatres
• Prefer to support independent businesses rather than large chains
5
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats
(SWOT)
Strengths
• Show films that larger cinemas don’t – foreign language, independent, and locally
produced films
• Show some mainstream films after larger cinemas have already featured them
o Reel rental costs are lower
o Regular Screening Room customers have an opportunity to see big budget
films without the “big-theatre” distractions
• Lower-priced tickets
$12.00
$10.00
$8.00
$6.00 Adult
$4.00 Children & Seniors
$2.00 Tuesdays
$0.00
The Cineplex Em pire
Screening Odeon Theatres
Room
1
The Daily. Movie theatres and drive-ins. June 28, 2005. Statistics Canada. March 19, 2008.
<http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/050628/d050628b.htm>.
6
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
7
o In 2006 and 2007 movie theatre attendance appeared to recover somewhat,
but remains uncertain 7
• Online streaming video and illegal downloading is making it increasingly easy for
web-savvy individuals to watch new movies at home, for free
o Over the past four years, student attendance has dropped off significantly
Most students report having seen big-budget films by the time they
run at the Screening Room
7
“Movie makers see healthy outlook despite economy.” ScreenIndia. March 21, 2008. March 23, 2008.
<http://www.screenindia.com/news/Movie-makers-see-healthy-outlook-despite-economy/285818/>
8
Site Architecture
The following are a few basic architectural specifications of a new Screening Room
website:
• Pages should be 940px wide in order to maximize the amount of space available
for design elements
• Pages should be build on a grid of four columns wide by four columns deep
o Site branding, including search bar and breadcrumbs, should be the full
width of the page and occupy the entire top column
o Each page, excluding the homepage, will have a one column-wide sidebar
featuring dynamic content
Common Elements
Every page within the website will feature the following elements:
Home
The home page will feature the following dynamic elements that will link to additional
content elsewhere on the website:
• News
o Recent post titles with thumbnail pictures and truncated copy
• Now playing
o Showtimes
• Coming Soon
o Schedule for release
• Events calendar
9
Other standalone elements of the Homepage include, but are not limited to the following:
• Welcome message
• Admission prices
News
The news page will use a content management system similar to a blogging engine. Each
post will include the following elements:
• Headline
• Pictures
• Body copy
• Posting date and time
• Permalink
• Subject tags
• Related article headlines
• User comments
• Email to a friend
• Bookmarking button (will function with most major social bookmark websites
including Digg, Del.icio.us, Technorati etc.)
The news page will include a sidebar feature the following dynamic elements that will
link to additional content:
Now Playing
The Now Playing page is designed to showcase the product offerings of the Screening
Room. Due to technical limitations of the Screening Room, at this time the website will
not be designed with any Ecommerce support – that is, the ability for website users to
purchase admission online – but the page should be constructed with consideration to
providing this function at some point in the future.
Above the fold, the Now Playing page will feature the following static elements for each
of the current feature presentations:
• Poster graphic
• Showtimes
• Synopsis
• Production information
10
• Release date and official rating
• Embedded trailer
• Official site
This Now Playing page will also feature the following dynamic content for each current
feature presentation:
• User ratings
• User reviews
Below the fold the Now Playing page will feature the following elements about films
coming soon to the Screening Room
• Poster graphic
• Release date and show schedule
• Production information
• Embedded trailer
• User discussion
This page will include a sidebar with the following dynamic elements that link to content
located elsewhere on the website:
Community
The centerpiece of the Community page will be a discussion board that’s supported and
hosted by a third-party content management system and embedded within the page.
Access to the forum will be exclusive to website members. Categories and topics for the
message board might include:
The Community page will also include a sidebar featuring the following dynamic
elements that link to additional content elsewhere on the page
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The Community page will also feature links to related websites that might include:
• Film websites
• Film blogs
• Web magazines
About
The About page will also feature the following dynamic elements:
• Events calendar
• Current sales promotions
Site Navigation
Easy navigation of a new Screening Room website will be facilitated through three
distinct means:
First, the primary navigation menu will be located at the top of the page, either just above
or just below the site’s branding. The primary navigation menu will link to the following
pages:
• Home
• News
• Now Playing
• Discussion
• About
Given the architectural depth of a Screening Room website, breadcrumbs will be used as
a secondary navigation tool for users of the site. A breadcrumb trail might look
something like the following:
Home > Community > General Film Discussion > Top Ten Documentaries Ever Made
12
The last navigation tool used on a new Screening Room website will be a search bar. The
search bar will be located at the top of every page near the branding, and will allow
website users to search the site for specific content.
As mentioned previously, both target market segments of the Screening Room are
increasingly dependant on the web for most, if not all, pre-purchase information. A well
designed, informative website that’s easy to navigate is arguably the most important
factor in the sustainable success of the Screening Room’s business model. In addition to
the structure, design and content, a new website must also feature search engine
optimization (SEO) and meet all current web standards in order to reach the maximum
number of potential customers.
For the most part, this objective will be met in the Homepage and the Now Playing page.
The homepage will provide admission pricing information and some information on
currently featured films for stickiness, and the Now Playing page will provide detailed
information about these films along with user ratings and reviews of them. To avoid
having users navigate away from the Screening Room website, each film featured on the
Now Playing page must feature an effective synopsis and more importantly, at least one
imbedded video trailer for each film.
With regards to SEO, all copy on the homepage must be concise and adherent to current
web standards and the Now Playing page must feature top-line film information including
relevant search terms.
There is little doubt that a viable market niche for the Screening Room exists in Kingston,
the challenge is in reaching that market, engaging them, and ultimately driving them to
the business as paying customers. Essentially, a new website must not only market the
business to the customer, but allow the customer to express their own values with regards
to films and the movie industry.
In order to truly grasp the current popularity of film discussion on the web, consider that
celebrity gossip blog, perezhilton.com, attracts over 2.8 million visitors per month. 8
8
Leeds, Jeff. "Perez Hilton Could Play a New Role." New York Times on the Web February 26, 2008. April
11, 2008
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/26/arts/music/26pere.html?_r=2&ref=arts&oref=slogin&oref=slogin >.
13
Admittedly, a new Screening Room website isn’t likely to draw quite that many visitors,
but it does provide some indication of the potential of film discussion as a marketing tool.
The Community and News pages on a new Screening Room website will cover the
discussion aspects of this objective, and in doing so, these pages will draw more traffic to
the website.
While it’s understood that the majority of the student and young professional target
market participates in online discussion about all sorts of topics, it’s essential that a
Screening Room website also engages the business’s other target market; the semi-retired
elites. Although this target market is web-savvy, they’re much less comfortable
participating in online discussions.
The rating and review system within the Now Playing page will provide a simple, four-
star user rating system with optional review fields for each film being shown at the
Screening Room and will engage these older website users, as well as the students and
young professions, and allow them to express their film values with fewer barriers and
more anonymity.
In addition to engaging visitors to the website, a discussion board and rating and review
system increase the site’s information value and therefore its overall stickiness.
Moreover, these website features will build excitement around films being shown at the
Screening Room and therefore drive more traffic to the business.
3. Building on the Screening Room’s brand and reinforcing the business’s niche
market
In order to maximize return from a viable niche market, a new website must utilize
relevant content and visual elements to speak directly to the core customer. The website
should prominently feature graphic elements pulled directly from film obscurity, and
news and commentary should focus on subjects of particular interest to the previously
described psychographics of the target market.
To satisfy this objective, every page within a new Screening Room website must feature
an effective logo, appropriate typefaces, appropriate colour themes and relevant graphic
elements suitable to the business’s existing brand.
No single element of the page architecture will satisfy this objective. Rather, the entire
website must subtly but cohesively communicate the Screening Room brand promise.
14
Design Elements
Website Logo
Perhaps the most important design element of a Screening Room website is the logo. It
will appear on every page and plays a pivotal role in defining the brand in the mind of the
consumer and website user. Since the Screening Room currently doesn’t use a consistent
logo, it’s imperative that one be designed and purpose built for the website, but also used
in all future communications with the consumer.
Creating the logo should be left to a graphic designer. However, the following are some
examples of logos being used by other websites with similar target markets:
Figure 1: www.filmspotting.com
Figure 2: www.obsessedwithfilm.com
Figure 3: www.film-releases.com
The following Screening Room logos were designed for the purpose of this report:
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Type
As an extension to the logo and other graphic elements featured on the website, the
typefaces used can also communicate the brand promise and set the tone for the user
experience. The following typefaces are based on movie and television themes, and
some might be suitable for use on a Screening Room website:
In order to communicate the timeworn feeling of the Screening Room, the website should
use mostly grayscale colour, with some metal shades. Pictures within news posts should
be displayed in full colour, but otherwise a black on white theme, with minimal use of
colour, should be established to imply polish and good taste. The following are examples
of metal shades that could be considered for use in a limited capacity on a Screening
Room website:
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Driving Traffic to the Website and Additional Marketing
Communications
It’s important to understand that the sustainable success of the Screening Room depends
on a complete marketing mix consisting of brand building, web initiatives, strategic
alliance and direct response advertising. On their own, these elements may fall short of
established objectives, but together they provide a marketing solution that will certainly
result in measurably higher attendance, and provide a detailed database of Screening
Room customers going forward.
As mentioned before, The Screening Room product is perfectly marketable to the student,
young professional and semi-retired elite consumer segments. To date, the business has
underachieved because it has failed to effectively reach these consumers with relative
advertising messages, particularly through the web.
Presently, the Screening Room is perfectly poised to reap huge rewards from a well
designed and regularly updated website that sells its brand and the underlying benefits;
including good location, affordability, access to a community of individuals with shared
interests, and great movies in an unpretentious setting.
Prior to launching a new website, the Screening Room must acquire a suitable URL. A
more appropriate URL such as www.thescreeningroom.com or
www.screeningroomkingston.com will help increase website traffic and assist in search
engine optimization.
For several years, the Screening Room has been compiling customer email addresses in a
database and sending a weekly newsletter to these individuals. In addition to updates
about featured films and related information, the newsletter includes a coupon for two-
for-one admission on Monday nights.
17
Social Web Initiatives
A Facebook group and a Linked-In group will be created for the Screening Room. This
initiative will allow the value expressive target market to align themselves with one of
Kingston’s finest independent businesses, while also providing the Screening Room with
valuable social brand credibility among the target market. More importantly, it will
stimulate viral interest in the Screening Room through a medium that’s increasingly
becoming an entertainment resource for its users.
Still considered an emerging media, cinema screen advertising generates global revenues
exceeding US$1 billion annually. 9
Since the audience chooses to go to the cinema and pays for the experience with their
own cash, cinema advertising is an opt-in medium. The message reaches a relaxed and
captive audience who are in an anticipatory frame of mind.
The launch of a new Screening Room website can advertised prior to all feature
presentations. Again, in order to lure prospective members to the website, a special
promotion can be offered to new members.
Since there is no media cost, the only cost is for production of the spots. With the
availability of production equipment and software, even those costs are much lower than
might be expected. It’s estimated the production cost of one thirty-second cinema
advertising spot will cost approximately $150-$200.
9
Author unknown. “Cinema screen advertising: a still developing billion dollar industry.” Goliath:
Business Knowledge on Demand. April 1, 2004. April 9, 2008.
<http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0199-559336_ITM>
18
Website Evaluation
Once a new Screening Room website has been successfully launched, there are a number
of ways to evaluate its usefulness, monitor its successes, and fine-tune possible failures.
Site Statistics
Site statistics will be utilized to monitor click-through traffic and determine where users
are linking from, and where they’re linking to when they leave the Screening Room
website. In addition, site statistics can provide in-depth information about times of the
day and days of the week when the site is being accessed most (or least). Finally site
statistics will show which specific pages within the site are being accessed most, and
which are being accessed the least.
Coupon Redemption
Any promotion that is offered as an incentive for membership to the website should be
numbered and tracked. By tracking coupon redemption, the business is able to determine
which offers produce the most results, where those offers originated, and which members
have the highest response rate. These are all positive outcomes of any direct response
advertising campaign.
Membership Growth
The most obvious way to measure a new website’s effectiveness is to monitor the number
of new members. Aside from admission sales at the cinema, membership growth with be
the single biggest indicator of a sticky and effective website.
Admission Sales
The sole purpose of any website is to increase sales. A measurable increase in theatre
attendance is the desired outcome of this project.
Closing Summary
This project has given me a new respect for the Screening Room business as a valuable
part of the progressive arts community in Kingston. I believe the Screening Room is
presently underachieving in what is a very viable market and a web initiative, combined
with an appropriate marketing mix may be a catalyst for huge growth.
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