Are there side effects that will restrict /prohibit certain people from watching?
D-Box has provided us with a list of people that need to be cautious of watching movies this way such as a certain trimester during pregnancy, epilepsy, children under a certain age of a certain weight and height. There’s no real danger but precautions need to be put in place as you’d do with any type of mechanized items. Unlike its rivals/competitors, the D-Box seat can actually be switched on and off if you feel you can’t handle it and you can choose the intensity (there are 3 levels) at which you’d like to experience the movie.
What other marketing tools are you using to create awareness around D-Box?
We’re doing the initial launch events with media and some members of the public including a few Star Wars: The Last Jedi screenings and it’s been well received. D-Box will become a part of our marketing machinery as not every movie will be D-Box-friendly. Here at Mall of Africa we only have 50 seats reserved for D-Box but the long term plan is to have full houses with D-Box seats as it’s here to say.
Do you feel like you should keep it exclusive and limit it to certain cinemas only?
Exclusive doesn’t necessarily mean niche in this aspect as we already have a niche offering in Prestige i.e. no more than 45 seats in the cinema. You can still have something exclusive that appeals to a large audience as we’re trying to do with D-Box. It won’t be in every cinema but will be in cinemas where people would be interested in experiencing movies that way.
How do you establish where (city and cinema) it would be more beneficial to have D-Box?
Our decisions are informed by where the (target) market is. At the end of the day we’re still a business and decisions still need to make business sense. We look at the market, not only the type of people but also the numbers. It has to make sense, economically and once we’ve build this model up where it can sustain itself, we’ll roll it out to other (smaller) cities.
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