26 Dec The Family Frontier
Greg Johnson, Director of Sales and Marketing
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Nearly everyone who hears about Flix Brewhouse makes the connection that Flix is a great place for date night (and of course we love that). But when you consider that the name of our company has the word “brewhouse” in it, it becomes apparent that it might be a bit harder for us to grab the attention of other demographic groups, especially when four of the top six grossing films at the domestic box office this year were:
#1 – Finding Dory – $486MM
#3 – The Secret Life of Pets – $368MM
#4 – The Jungle Book – $364MM
#6 – Zootopia – $341MM
These four movies alone accounted for $1.55 billion at the domestic box office in 2016. So it is imperative that we consistently capture family business and throughout 2017 it will become a high priority of our marketing and content departments at Flix Brewhouse.
Family at Flix Brewhouse
In 2016 we tested and implemented new strategies in our more family-dense markets and realized rather strong success. Of particular note was our Flix Junior summer program, which featured discounted shows each Wednesday, making it easier for families to join us more frequently and solidifying Flix as the de facto movie-going venue when blockbuster family films are released.
We also never take for granted how far small initiatives that cater to the tastes of our youngest guests go in the minds of their parents. During our Flix Junior program, we created custom themed milkshakes for kids that tied into the movie being shown, which were served in souvenir, color-changing take home cups. They were a huge hit!
For 2017, we’ve enhanced the Flix Junior family program in order to solidify Flix Brewhouse as the “go to” theater where families can spend time together. We’ll be running two $2 admission shows on Saturday mornings that feature a “PJ Party” for kids. Parents will enjoy complimentary coffee and can purchase breakfast cereal from our cereal bar for the kids, helping create a ‘’slumber party at the movies” atmosphere.
But it takes more than just having a great program to attract families. Of our current operating locations, our Des Moines location has the lowest attendance for family programming to date, so this will be our initial battleground for introducing more families to Flix.
The initial push will include a promotion with a discount offer that is stronger than any promotion that we’ve offered during my tenure at Flix: kids eat free with the purchase of an adult meal. While there will be some program restrictions, this level of value should be a huge driver of traffic, particularly among budget conscious audiences that comprise roughly one-third of our guests in the Des Moines market.
Between the strong content programming that we’ve created and solid value offering to our guests, we believe we will grow our family movie-going business significantly in early 2017 as we look to capture that market for the summer movie season. At Flix, it’s family time!
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