We had an incredible week in Barcelona attending CineEurope, catching up with friends old and new, exploring industry trends and developments with insights from the very best in our sector, but also enjoying incredible trailers and films on the big screen. Here are some of our key takeaways from this year’s edition!
Guillaume, our Business Development Manager, had the great pleasure and honour of moderating two insightful sessions this year, with high level speakers sharing a wealth of valuable insights.
The first session, entitled ‘What’s next in cinema technology?’ and organised by the International Cinema Technology Association (ICTA) brought together executives from international chains VUE International and Apollo Kino as well as cinema equipment manufacturers from Barco, GDC Technology and Christie. Following a set the scene from Charlotte Jones at Omdia, presenting global data on cinema technology, we had an engaging conversation around the future of sound and image technology, focusing particularly on the challenges and opportunities represented by premium formats.
We debated about the need for investment in hardware and how cinema operators and vendors could make those numbers work in the current economic and industry context. We also had an interesting discussion about how to efficiently market premium technology, with cinema chains often struggling in this regard.
Perhaps the key learning from that session was that cinemas continue to massively invest in the experience, with fantastic new sites being built such as ICTA award winner The Light, Redhil, a ground-breaking multi-purpose entertainment venue.
While image, sound and comfort remain the key investment focus for operators, speakers agreed that we need to look beyond and deliver on every step of the cinema-going journey, including a digital experience that competes on the same level as other entertainment sectors.
This is something DX was also able to explore in the CineEurope edition of Cinema Technology Magazine. In it, Guillaume explored the topic of open APIs, what they are, and how they can improve daily management operations, resulting in more efficiency and cost savings for everyone involved, from software developers to cinema managers. The magazine is available here.
The second session we moderated, ‘Optimising your digital presence’, was hosted by UNIC and looked into the practical steps that cinema operators could take to improve their digital presence and stand out from the crowd. We learned from the best during that session, with Kino Rotterdam and Lillehammer Kino sharing several case studies on what they are doing to reach their audiences, creating an engaged community of cinema lovers. Zuleyha Azman from Kino Rotterdam told us about the success of ‘slow life’ videos filmed in her cinema, which she was inspired by from looking at her Instragram feed, while Clarissa Berg from Lillehammer shared insights on how she has given control of her cinema’s TikTok account to her young staff, giving them a free platform to express themselves. Our colleagues at usheru explored current digital marketing trends and how independent cinemas could better leverage audience data to improve conversion and engagement rates.
We all agreed that it was vital for cinemas to maintain an up to date presence online and build communities through a range of digital channels to attract and engage the next generation of audiences. We also looked into the value of involving your team, creating content that engages, entertains, and builds conversation with your audience: behind the scenes content, showcasing your staff and cinema, highlighting your USPs, personalisation and gamification. We managed to also touch onto the topic of reinforcing your cinema brand, measuring ROI of social media and marketing campaigns, as well as programmatic retargeting on engaged audiences.
At DX we’re always looking at ways to share the best knowledge and practical insights from across our industry to support cinemas in growing and future-proofing their businesses - as always, CineEurope provided a great platform for us to do so!
Beyond these two sessions, the convention provided us with a lot interesting sessions and high-quality Studio presentations. Paramount and Universal in particular went all out with creative film presentations and exciting announcements, demonstrating once more the value of showmanship in our industry. Further diversity was brought by Studio Canal and Crunchy Roll, further highlighting the diversity of content that is today available for cinema operators to experiment with. There was a great range of topics explored during the many insightful sessions, from leadership skills with insights from McKinsey & Company to the power of partnerships with an inspiring presentation from the McLaren F1 Team. We also discovered innovative cinema concepts, with Oma and The (Any)thing, showcasing that there’s still plenty of room for experimentation with premium formats.
Overall, we’re coming away with a positive outlook on the next few years and a sense of optimism - the 2025 film slate looks stacked and we are all feeling uplifted by the recent box office success of Inside Out 2 - things are looking up!
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