arts and crafts, photo booths, activities and games( like ring tosses, bean bag games, bowling, ext.). Our most outgoing staff members run the booths.
• Since going to the movies is meant to be an experience we try to think of ways to enhance at least one a month. Some of the events we have done include a TMNT Day with over 3k guests. This was a free event with face painting, artists, reptile show, character pictures, dance lessons and of course martial arts demos. We are now doing a Star Wars event every year with the 501st. Another annual event we now have is Marvel vs. DC Day along with the May super hero movie. For this event we have a cosplay group called We Are Cosplay come out and take photos with our guests along with hosting local artists in our lobby.
• For the Peanuts Movie, we had a musical school come out and perform music from the original Peanuts cartoon live in our lobby. We also invited a local drama club that specialized in a classic Peanuts play to perform in our lobby during our promotion party which helped set the atmosphere for our guests and add to their experience.
• In a digital world it’ s always our goal to tie in at least one hands on lobby activity that not only corresponds with the movie being promoted, but also excites interest with our guests. For our Puss in Boots promotion we invited a local Fencing club to perform demonstrations and teach mini lessons; while for our Peabody and Sherman we obtained Trojan Horse piggy banks for kids to build. Lastly we helped kids make Penguin ornaments for our Penguins promotion which were used to decorate our tree. Q The involvement of a charity or worthy cause in a theatre promotion tends to both increase exposure for the promotion and make the public feel good about their participation. We’ ve also had multiple instances of theatre managers donating all their project picture winnings to a charity that was involved in their promotion. Share some of the thinking, benefits and motivation involved in working with and helping these causes.
• Having staff members pick local worthy causes to help through a promotion results in more passion and success. Whether raising money or collecting food or other items, our theatre benefits from both staff and customers feeling good about helping out.
• Props, animals, or displays brought by various groups such as our“ Guardians of the Children” biker group add to the experience as customers are often made to feel good that a worthy cause is being helped.
• We started offering special sensory showings for kids that might not be able to attend regular showing. That created positive word-of-mouth that resulted in more and more kids participating.
• For Kung Fu Panda 3 we worked with the Tiger Rock Studio to raise money for a Children’ s Hospital. The Grand Master held a Break-a-thon and entrants paid $ 1 per board broken. $ 1152.00 was raised in a single night and the check was presented to the hospital on our visit with Tigress! Tiger Rock Students along with Po and Tigress entertained customers on opening night and were available for photos with in-theatre photo op displays.
• Blood drives, animal adoption and anti-bullying promotions are favorites of ours where we can generate good P. R. while also
Parkside Cinebowl & Grille, Cary NC
76 • ShowTime Preview Guide – Spring 2017
Southridge 12, Charleston WV