The 10th edition of the Europa Cinemas Audience Development and Innovation Lab in Sofia takes marketing and communications as its central focus, working with 33 participants from 18 countries to collaborate, brainstorm and share their experiences across four days of workshops, presentations and networking sessions.
The first day of the Sofia Innovation Lab started in the sun-dappled meeting room of the G8 Cinema Sofia. Mira Staleva, Deputy Director of Sofia International Film Festival and Peter Todorov, Executive Director for the National Film Center in Bulgaria, welcomed the group to the 10th edition of the Innovation Lab in Sofia before lab leaders Züleyha Azman (KINO Rotterdam, Netherlands), Tom de Bont (Cinema Consultant, Netherlands) and Ola Starmach (Kino Pod Baranami, Poland) led the participants in a series of ice-breaker games.
Following the ice-breakers – where participants organised themselves in height order and according to the colour gradation of their clothing without using any verbal communication – the group split up into pairs to define their cinema missions, discuss their aims and intentions and what they hope to get out of the lab in the coming days. Reconvening as a larger group, each participant introduced their partner, using their active listening and group presentation skills.
Though the range of cinemas and countries represented face disparate challenges – some cinemas continue to use printed advertising materials while others have moved to digital only strategies – there were uniting challenges and opportunities that emerged. Boosting engagement with audiences that are aware of their local cinemas but have lost the habit of regular attendance and developing inclusivity remain important challenges to overcome while the increasing importance of word-of-mouth marketing and the changing landscape of social media (FaceBook and X are, in some instances, being replaced by Letterboxd and TikTok) arose as significant opportunities for building awareness and loyalty among local audiences. Government subsidy remains vital in some territories for independent cinema exhibition to survive and young audiences remain a key demographic.
The 10th annual Sofia Audience Development & Innovation Lab sessions will be live streamed on YouTube from 8.30am CET tomorrow (March 20). Further information on Audience Development & Innovation Labs is available on the Europa Cinemas website.