Providing the BEST experience for your moviegoers is essential for a successful cinema! Film fanatics want to be wowed + awed by immersive experiences. They want and feel like they’re getting their money’s worth! Your cinema’s touch points: box office, lobby, hallways, restaurant, bar, and even auditoriums, provide an opportunity to engage moviegoers. Experiences can range from stand alone flat card standees to immersive full lobby redesigns.
Did you know that Onni Creative does art + production design? Our team has experience as art directors, set dressers, set decorators, and prop stylists for projects like the Emmy winning I Think You Should Leave, Nascar’s 75th Anniversary, and Lizzo for Vanity Fair. OC’s unique experience in art + production design coupled with our cinema marketing expertise places us in a unique position to offer experiential design concepts to cinemas, studios, and filmmakers! Check out how experiential design benefits your cinema!
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Recently, Team OC partnered with Warner Brothers to provide experiential items to small and midsize independent cinemas. After reviewing responses to our summer blockbuster survey, the number one response for in-cinema marketing needs were standees. Standees provide excitement around a title for moviegoers in your cinema lobby. We worked with WB to provide a fun, cost-effective standee for cinemas that provided a cool photo op for fans.
For another fun experience, OC offered themed couch covers to provide a fun seating area in your cinema lobby. To make this photo op more cost-effective, we encouraged cinemas to hit up local thrift stores, Goodwill, or local yard sales to purchase or rent a sofa or loveseat. Cinemas encouraged moviegoers to post their photos on social media, which generated excitement and interaction for the film, creating buzz and increasing digital reach + engagement among their audience.
Experiential items like these are easy + cost effective and are repurposable, so your cinema can use them again and again! We encouraged cinemas to pair their couch covers with a scary backdrop and mood lighting, which can be used for Halloween again and again. OC strives to find items and decor that are money savers and reusable, creating eco-friendly systems.
CinéShow 2024
Branded photo-ops are experiential designs that can remain in your cinema year round. Team OC designed a branded photo op for CinéShow 2024 to bring a fun, Instagrammable area to the trade show. Building on our NFL design (see below), our team included a carpet to tie in the space to make it feel cohesive. We used the CineShow brand colors and logos, but excluded a year, so this experience can be used year after year! This photo op was an anchor for CinéShow and even became a gathering space!
Your cinema photo op should include your color scheme, logo(s), and social media handle/hashtag. Encourage moviegoers to tag your cinema in their photos on social media to increase brand awareness!
Back to Black
Team OC was looking forward to Back to Black, the harrowing story of Amy Winehouse’s rise to an iconic singer and songwriter, which premiered in May. We created a concept for an immersive Amy Winehouse tribute at a mock cinema. The photos below showcase our ability to fully immerse a cinema in a film concept. Below, you’ll find mockups for a tribute to Amy featuring official photography, costume display, large murals, a fan art wall, and Amy’s Jukebox. Layering in these elements of Amy’s story while remaining respectful and honoring her story were essential to our designs.
A large immersive experience like this creates a must-see event at your cinema. Limited time events like these create local buzz in your area. If your cinema has a large lobby, sequester your experience to one area. Require fans to reserve or purchase tickets. Include photo ops throughout with signage encouraging moviegoers to post to their social accounts and tag your cinemas. Reach out to local blogs and news outlets for coverage on your experience to reach a wider audience.
NFL Draft x Thursday Night Football x Prime Video
Team OC partnered with the NFL Draft and Amazon Prime for 2022 NFL Draft + Thursday Night Football (TFN) in Las Vegas. Team OC worked with the stakeholders to seamlessly mesh branding with the dramatic backdrop of the Las Vegas strip. Using the NFL + TFN logos, the team extruded the shields to create cascading blades. Players + hosts were perfectly positioned for interviews in front of the TNF logo and the Paris Hotel.
Special events are perfect one-time occurrences to create event cinema with must-see circumstances. Moviegoers will have FOMO (fear of missing out) when they see fun limited time experiences. When marketing the event, remind moviegoers that this event will only happen once, so they should buy tickets or visit your cinema on that specific day.
Cinemas have created experiences for years with standees, photo ops, movie posters, and culinary experiences. Leverage your cinema's budget, target specific titles, and transform your lobby to get moviegoers into your cinema today!
Interested in experiential design at your cinema? Want to chat about what concepts fit your budget? Email us at hello@onnicreative.xyz
Want to keep up with our art + production journey? Follow us on Instagram and TikTok for project highlights, BTS moments, hot tips, and fun content straight from the art department!
Also, be sure to check out our Art + Production Design work! ✨
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