marketing a Single Screen

[Lyle Romer]

I went ahead and had two copies of my qr code printed on 27x40 poster paper this afternoon. The job cost me $100 but I figured it'll be worth it if people can scan that code without having to get out of their cars as they drive by or park.

Put one into the front window, then went outside to test it.

Big disappointment. I can scan the big qr code from about two feet away but anything further back doesn't work because of glare on the window glass. So the big qr code turns out to be less useful than the small one that I printed myself on a sheet of letter-size paper since that one can be scanned from about six feet away.

Who'da thunk it?

Since it's obviously of little value, I took the big poster down again.

I never would have found that out without trying it so I guess it cost me $100 to learn something.

Shucks (and other appropriate remarks).

Maybe paint the QR code on the glass by tracing over the poster you made?

[Randy Stankey]

Try it at night. It might not work well because of glare from the sun.

Also try putting the sign in a different location where the sun comes from a different angle.

Maybe, that way, you'll be able to get *some* use out of your $100.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I used to drive by the building below quite often... Supposedly the largest QR code in the world, although that was back in 2017, so it probably has been surpassed since.

The ironic part of the story is that it was clearly meant to be scannable from the 4-lane main ring road passing by the building. But that road is elevated, so you cannot see the bottom of the QR code, so I never managed to scan it, at least until now... I guess it did cost a bit more than $100, so maybe Frank can be comforted by knowing that those $100 aren't really a record amount of money being spent on a mostly useless QR code.

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[Dan Allen]

Our saving grace with our films has been the octogenarian crowd, and as said above - Otto, 80 for Brady, Elvis, those were the winners - but we still aren't seeing pre-Covid numbers. We're a not-for-profit theatre with a two-night a week (most weeks) cinema series - Saturdays and Tuesdays, and more often than not, the majority of the crowd comes on Tuesday night. We're second run, which has gotten more difficult with the studios' non-stop juggling of their release windows.

We still place an ad and a press release in the paper, but our paper has merged with a further away from home paper and given up on 7 days a week by just dropping a single 'weekend' issue, so a good chunk of it's readership (and our older audience) gave up on it. We also send out a monthly mailer that used to be folded and tabbed, but to save money we've gone to more of a postcard. When we mentioned to some of our regulars giving up on that and just being purely digital, several said they'd never see it because they don't use any social media.

But speaking of social media, we have noticed more interaction when we use a trailer or video than when we just use a still. The Hangar is very handy for social media videos. And I'll also agree that the website has got to work on a phone as easily as a computer. We recently revamped ours for that reason.

Weirdest thing has been that we can no longer predict what will work. Used to be something like Book Club 2 was a slam dunk, but we had a fairly small crowd of 50 or so on Saturday and we cracked 100 on Tuesday. Not awful, but a few years ago, we'd have to hold the start for the line of people to get in for that. We also used to have great numbers for documentaries. Now, hardly anyone comes out, so docs are few and far between for us. We've considered trying out a family film series again, but the reason we stopped in the first place was that folks seemed to think they could drop their kids off here like we were baby-sitting and not bother to pick them up for half an hour after the movie ended. Even with 'children must be accompanied by an adult' on everything that went out.

Sorry I don't have many answers, but I'm grateful for the conversation and to see we're not alone.

[Frank Cox]

I don't do social media (Twitter, facebook, whatever). My main advertising is my website. I also have a telephone number with a recording on it saying what's playing and what's coming next week and an email mailing list that people can sign up for with around 500 people currently signed up.

I used to send out a flyer but stopped in 2011. When I stopped doing the flyer I sent a fridge magnet to every mailing address in this area (about ten thousand magnets) with the website and phone number on it.

I used to put an ad in the local paper as well but stopped in 2002 when the first Spider-man movie came out. The paper screwed up my ad and put "Now Playing: Spider-man" a week before I actually had it. When I saw that I thought I was going to have people coming in all week for Spider-man that I would have to turn away but I got a grand total of nobody at all looking for Spider-man. That told me nobody was reading that ad so I stopped it.

I pretty much live and die by my website, though.

Which reminds me, I have to finish that redesign one of these days. The server logs show me that well over 90% of the visits to my website come from mobile devices (phones, ipads, whatever) and some of the pages don't render well on a narrow screen like that. I've almost finished reworking it for narrow screens but really shouyld get into gear and finish it.

[Darin Steffl]

I think if you're not on Facebook, you're missing out on tons of free marketing. I also strongly suggest every part of your website is mobile friendly. Finish these things as soon as possible.

We get thousands of free impressions on our Facebook page that we wouldn't otherwise get.

[Mike Blakesley]

We are on Facebook and Instagram. We should be on TikTok too, and I keep meaning to "assign" that to one of our teenage workers but I'm a bit worried about what kind of "content" might wind up on there.

I usually put up a post announcing what the next movie is every Wednesday or Thursday, and the number of Likes it gets is a good indicator of how busy we're going to be.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

It's now illegal to use Tic-Toc in Montana.

[Frank Cox]

That law takes effect in January 2024 so there's still a few months when it can be used in Montana.

[Gordon McLeod]

And how will theybe able to enforce a ban on tictok

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

And how will they be able to enforce a ban on tictok

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With a blocker at each ISP, and there are only 33 in Montana, so pretty easy to do... The only one they likely can't infiltrate is Skylink.

[Mike Blakesley]

I'm no lawyer, but I don't think it will be illegal to use TikTok if you already have it on your device. It'll just make it illegal for app stores and such to offer it. And even that is only if the new law survives multiple court challenges, which is unlikely.

In short, the chance of that law ever going into effect is pretty small. Other "red" states know it too, otherwise they would all be passing similar laws.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Tic-Toc is already banned on all US Government devices. Montana is the first State to ban it. I think other States may be waiting to see what happens in Montana.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I don't think that TikTok has any business on official government phones, neither does TikTok have any business on my business phones. The same may be true for many other apps, I don't even allow IM communications other than our own for business communications and I think that's a good thing to impose.

But a "statewide" ban for TikTok does sound pretty iffy. Besides the legal implications, like the impact on "Freedom of speech", those blocks are usually easily circumvented via solutions like VPNs. Also, making TikTok "illegal" will probaby ony make it more interesting for the primary demographic. "you can't have it', while it's only a few clicks away sounds more like free advertising than anythng else.

TikTok is a symptom, not the root of the problem...

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

We are on Facebook and Instagram. We should be on TikTok too, and I keep meaning to "assign" that to one of our teenage workers but I'm a bit worried about what kind of "content" might wind up on there.

I usually put up a post announcing what the next movie is every Wednesday or Thursday, and the number of Likes it gets is a good indicator of how busy we're going to be.

Seriously? I do hope you rethink that idea, and yes you are correct to worry about what kind of content will end up on there.

I have already made clear what I think about TikTok and the damage it is doing to the intelligence and morals of society, please for your sake don't jump on that bandwagon. Facebook is almost as bad, but definitely the lesser of the evils (and it is at least somewhat moderated.)