British movie-goers without rewards memberships: Who are they and how do brands speak to them?

Graeme BruceBusiness Data Journalist
December 14, 2021, 8:48 PM GMT+0

As cinemas rebound from a challenging era brought on by pandemic restrictions, rewards schemes will play an important supporting role in getting British consumers to come back to the movies.

Using YouGov Profiles data, let’s look at Brits who regularly go to the movies at least every three months, but do not currently have a loyalty membership to any cinema. This group is mostly men and most likely to be between 25-39.

Attitudes around loyalty schemes: Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, this group is tremendously receptive to loyalty programmes. They are significantly more likely to recommend brands when they are loyalty members (55% agree vs. 33% of the British public in general); they are more loyal to brands when they are members (61% vs. 40%); and feel more emotionally connected to brands when they’s part of a loyalty scheme (50% vs. 29%).

What loyalty programmes do they subscribe to? Like the general public, a large portion of this group are members of loyalty programmes with supermarkets (52%), retail stores (31%) and pharmacies (25%). They are, however, more likely than the general population to be enrolled in loyalty schemes with their mobile network provider (9% vs. 6% of the British public in general) and their bank (6% vs. 4%).

Like the general public, most regular cinema-goers who aren’t part of a points programme say they do enroll in other schemes to benefit from discounts and offers (56%). But a deeper dive into YouGov data shows they’re notably more likely be motivated by free products, services or experiences (30% vs. 24% of the British public in general). They also enjoy the benefit of being the first to know about promotions, discounts or news from a brand (17% vs. 12%), and are twice as likely to feel motivated by a sense of community (4% vs. 2%).

How to speak to this audience: TV, online and radio advertising will most likely draw their attention, but of course this group of movie-goers are more likely than the general public to be compelled by adverts at the cinema (18% vs. 11%).

But beyond that, a look at attitudes around sports, tech, gaming, and travel may also reveal possible partnerships and reward schemes to grow memberships.

YouGov data shows this potential market share are dramatically more likely to say they’re “sports mad” (51% vs. 32% of the British public in general). Looking at their relationship with technology, psychographic data shows this group is more interested in trying the latest tech products, services or apps (63% vs. 44%). This group is also five times as likely as the general public to say esports is one of their top interests (5% vs. 1%). Finally, looking at travel data, we see this group is much more likely to be passionate about travelling (69% vs. 52%).

Finally, YouGov data shows that these cinema patrons don’t carry a cinema loyalty card are notably more likely to enjoy horror films (30% vs. 19% of the general public), animation (35% vs. 25%) and romance (29% vs 21%).

This data offers a small glimpse into how cinema rewards programmes can grow in Great Britain, something which may play a crucial role in re-building custom following pandemic restrictions.

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Methodology: YouGov Profiles is based on continuously collected data and rolling surveys, rather than from a single limited questionnaire. Profiles data is nationally representative and weighted by age, gender, education, region, and race. Learn more about Profiles.