Cinema chief stepping up sizzle factor

Under Jane Hastings, SkyCity's share of Auckland cinema revenue is up from 55 per cent to 65 per cent. Photo / Dean Purcell

SkyCity Cinemas general manager Jane Hastings has her own take on the old maxim that marketers should sell the sizzle, not the sausage.

She says New Zealand's biggest cinema chain - with 96 screens in 13 cinemas focused on Auckland and the north - has lifted its market share.

In the past nine months its share of the Auckland cinema revenue is up from 55 per cent to 65 per cent and nationally from 34 per cent to 38.5 per cent, SkyCity says.

After years of building its marketing around the actual movies, Hastings say SkyCity now sells the appeal of a sizzling night out.

Hastings took over the sales and marketing director role for parent SkyCity Entertainment two years ago and mid-way last year was appointed to "turn around" the casino company's unloved cinema division.

Hastings' background is in retail and marketing - she worked for eight years in Asia in the crossover between advertising and client marketing.

That has given her a new marketing eye - a belief in the notion that people just want a good night out that is not too costly. Yet longer term there is a foundation still built on the appeal of the content.

The question is how SkyCity's marketing effort promoting a "night out" will work if customers pay money to see two or three movies in a row that they do not like.

Can the sizzle make up for an unsavoury sausage?

The movie business has survived predictions of its imminent downfall and has adjusted to an expanding number of alternatives.

Hollywood is searching constantly for new ideas to attract people to cinema, which remains the key window for film release.

Hastings acknowledges her task to turn around SkyCity Cinemas is a challenge in a tight market.

Cinemas - a business that gives SkyCity very strong cash flow - is more stable than a lot of sectors in the current downturn. But it cannot avoid the fall in spending. There will always be expectations for new technologies and for event marketing of films.

3D movies, which Hastings says will eventually become the only way to view animated movies, will be a factor attracting young customers.

3D offers "theme park experiences" that younger consumers - who have traditionally been the staple of box office revenue - cannot get from new media in their homes.

"It's a cliche but nothing beats the big screen. Technology is always changing," she says.

But cinema has other advantages over the plethora of new media options.

"The major difference is that we offer a social outing and a get-together. You do not invite people over to have a meal, a glass of wine and watch TV or MySky at home."

When Hastings returned from eight years in Asia eight years ago, her first impressions were that growth and attendance had been stagnant.

"It was almost an industry with the approach 'If we play the movies people will come'."

An example?

There was the long-held tendency for city workers to catch a movie before heading home.

"This is something that people used to do, but do not any more. It stopped - I believe due to lack of marketing."

Hastings says this approach was apparent at SkyCity and with its competitors. These include the Hoyts, Reading and Berkeley chains.

It is not wholly clear how much this marketing approach to focus on potential customers rather than purely movies is unique to SkyCity.

But Hastings - with some new-found interest by the SkyCity Entertainment board in its cinema investment - is approaching her task with gusto.

"We developed the R60s club - targeting a group of older people who are available in the daytime when attendances are low, reaching out to them in places like bowling clubs."

As well as targeting niche and localised audiences with cinema programmes aimed toward local audiences, more packaging and deals have been initiated.

"You can never change someone's opinion of a film once they have seen it.

"It comes down to affordability and the cost of going - there was a view that the movies are too expensive - but I have been trying to work around that."

Hastings' experience in marketing in Japan and Singapore has coloured her view on marketing and cinema-going.

"If you go to the movies you would have a choice of two blockbusters and the rest are Asian movies - and the cinemas would be full."

SkyCity's growth claims in Auckland will no doubt be affected by big expansion in the city. This includes February 2007's arrival of the Hoyts complex at Sylvia Park - which ate into other revenues - and last September's opening of SkyCity Cinema multiplexes at Albany and Manukau.

Hastings says expansion and refurbishment are part of the cost for cinemas but now the work has been done SkyCity can focus on bringing in customers.

That is where her marketing plan - allied to a renewed interest by SkyCity in its non-core entertainment business - will come into play.

Hastings - it is apparent - has the support of the SkyCity Entertainment chief executive Nigel Morrison and the board of directors to boost the chain - support that was lacking under previous management and which led to early departure of her predecessor, Australian Matthew Leibmann.

Under former SkyCity Entertainment chief executive Evan Davies, the cinemas division had flourished to the point SkyCity paid way over the odds to buy out the 50 per cent share held by Village Cinemas.

With a Labour Government in power, it was seen as a glamorous business that created a good image for the gambling firm.

Because of the over-valuation the company never provided an adequate rate of return which led to SkyCity attempts to sell it off to Reading Cinemas after writing off $60 million of costs.

Investors - some of whom never warmed to the unique intricacies of the cinema side - were keen for it to be sold and for SkyCity to concentrate its core business of gambling.

The interim chief executive Elmar Toime blamed disappointing Hollywood fare for results that led to the writedown, an argument that was attacked by Hollywood film distributors who blamed lack of investment.

But while Hastings focuses on the appeal of marketing a good night out she will also be aware that, like the cinema industry around the world, SkyCity's fate is built around the movies it gets from Hollywood.

JANE HASTINGS
* General manager, SkyCity Cinemas.
* Education: Bachelor of Commerce, Marketing and Japanese, Auckland University.
* Married with 3 children.