Day 3 of the Sofia Lab addressed data-driven approaches to audience analysis, as well as use of AI tools to help with efficiency and optimising staff capacity and operational strategies. In the afternoon, participants discussed how different approaches to inclusion and accessibility can diversify audiences and engage new communities.
Who is our audience? Data and CRM insights
‘From survey to strategy: a dialogue with your audience’
Caro Raedts presented on how their audience survey informed their marketing and programming strategies. They asked for audience demographics to help inform their audience profiling. They also asked their audience about how they interacted with the cinema’s various modes of communications – from print materials to online marketing and events promotions – each of which further informed how they continued to interact across those platforms, including considering substituting their programme booklet for flyers. They gave the survey out during the pre-show entertainment, dropping one trailer to give the audience two minutes to fill in the surveys. One issue that followed the survey was that they had too much data and had to shelve it until they had the available time to both quantitatively and qualitatively analyse the results. They used AI to help sift through the data and surmise their findings, which included elements they immediately changed including people wanting more repertory and classic film screenings, keeping titles for longer and more films with English subtitles. They inserted Microsoft Clarity on their website which is a website behaviour analytical tool that continues to help them understand how online users interact with their website. Weighting the data was also important for Raedts who talked about how some answers were only given by ‘heavy users’ who visit the cinema more than three times a month, which is just as important as how three one time visitors engage with the materials produced.
‘Data-driven programming for mission & margin: using audience data to balance programming and optimise scheduling’
Magdalena Klich-Kozlowska from DCF in Poland talked about finding their market niche and not fighting for the same audiences as the other arthouse cinema in their city. Their findings are that security and community are the two most important values for their audiences. “Our data tells us that the audience wants to feel at home at DCF,” she said, speaking about how they create a homely atmosphere where audiences can feel both safe and as though they belong.
“There is no such thing as a movie for seniors,” she continued, “they want to experience beauty,” Klich-Kozlowska said, explaining how their programme model takes arthouse cinema, what’s relevant in popular culture and blends programming and events that will appeal to the breadth of cinema tastes among their varied audience groups. “People crave community and immersion,” she said, explaining how special events can set a higher ticket price, giving examples of their Big Lebowski and Halloween events.
‘Analysing the audience: how the Cineville subscription helped us refine our audience strategy’
In 2022 the cinema wasn’t doing too well and Flora Woudstra from Cinema RITCS in Belgium first joined the team as a student and started the cinema’s Instagram. What really turned the cinema around however was when they joined Cineville Belgium. The promotion of their cinema on the Cineville website definitely helped them boost audience attendance. The cinema runs a lot of Belgian cinema and educational screenings that are high in cost but low in attendance. The aim for Woudstra was to find a more sustainable way to bring in audiences, which Cineville definitely helped with, giving them an average attendance age demographic of 25 years, which represents roughly 50% of their audience. Cineville tickets represent on average 47% of their ticket sales and for some screenings are as high as 75% of attendees. Based on how people put where they lived – naming Brussels in either French, Dutch or English, Woudstra could roughly determine that 43% of their audience were Francophone, around 23% were Flemish/Dutch speaking and 33% were unknown but potentially English speaking / ex-pat communities. Cineville audiences are filling the gap RITCS had at high cost educational screenings that weren’t previously very well attended.
‘Data? 8 lessons from Kino Sōprus’
For Gert Põrk from Kino Sōprus in Tallinn spoke about their cinema’s use of metadata to optimise how search engines and AI find and promote their cinema in web searches. He also said that Sōprus pay to use specialised software to ensure their GDPR compliance as well as how Google Tag Manager means they can now set up and track how their marketing of events ends in ticket sales. Finally, their website tracks members through their loyalty number, which assists with better understanding of regular viewer habits and film preferences.
Who is our audience? AI tools in action
‘Smart tools for busy exhibitors – entry to expert use of AI in cinemas’
Javi Pachón, Strategy Consultant, Executive Director & Head Programmer at CineCiutat in Spain spoke about using AI for optimisation. “We are against generative AI, we are for productive AI at CineCiutat,” he said. Most of the participants in the room indicated that they already use AI in their work but only a handful of people use it for creating strategic frameworks. “Most people think of AI as a vending machine: I ask it questions and it gives me answers,” Pachón continued, explaining that it can be actually used a “digital colleague” insofar as it, like an actual human, can provide better answers according to how well it has been briefed. Pachón outlined the “large language model”, meaning that AI is only able to offer predicted contexts through understanding typical patterns. “It is not smart, but it is faster at receiving and retaining information, and summarising at high speed,” he said. It doesn’t, however, always need checking by a real human because, as Pachón puts it: “It doesn’t know when it’s wrong and it’s confident by design.”
Pachón then went on to discuss ‘prompt anatomy’, which includes role, context and objective, the elements that form the baseline for optimising the utility of AI, followed by the importance of defining your specific project constraints, success criteria, and the final format wanted. “AI hasn’t heard about your ticketing systems or specific funders,” Pachón said, “and it will guess the complexity of your project incorrectly.” This is why it is essential to input the relevant detail and parameters of your project work: be specific about the length of the summary you require, the level of detail wanted, the desired information given. Pachón also spoke about and the differences between the most popular AIs, ChatGPT and Claude, concerning both ethical issues and also regarding the way in which they respond: the former was trained to satisfy while the latter was trained to be productive. There is a further equation of weighing up the monthly fee to use the AI, the time spent training and setting up your strategy versus how much optimisation it enables.
‘AI in action: a beta-test case study – R&D pilot project on using AI for audience analysis, programming logic, and workflow automation’
Eugenio Fuschini from Cinema Odeon in Italy spoke about the all-in-one AI-driven platform they use. Inputting box office data and loyalty programme metrics, the AI can draw detail from movie databases and marketing campaign performance to assist with showtime predictions, scheduling forecasts, and other operational and logistical aspects of the cinema business.
‘Integrated data & AI for outreach: using existing audience data and AI tools for optimising outreach to underserved communities’
Pen Yue Yang from LantarenVenster in Rotterdam spoke about their use of integrated data – they use audience age and postcode demographics (but do not receive details on ethnicity or socio-economics) to help them reach underserved communities which still involves “very manual, human work in building trust.” Working collaboratively with other arthouse cinemas in the Netherlands, Yue Yang said they are currently working on producing shared ethical guidelines for how to use AI in arthouse cinemas in the Netherlands. Still a relatively new tool, AI can assist with raw data sets but relationship building is still incredibly important for working with the underserved communities LantarenVenster wish to reach. One finding and key learning for Yue Yang has been that programming diverse films doesn’t in itself mean serving or engaging with diverse audiences, and so there is still work to do.
No audience left behind: inclusion and accessibility
In the afternoon, lab leader Maeve Cooke opened the session on inclusion and accessibility by asking participants about inclusion and accessibility in their venues, ranging from screen content (which includes descriptive subtitles and closed captioning) to venue access (including lift access, lighting and ramps). “It’s a mindset to a certain extent,” Cooke said, “It’s about changing your organisation’s mindset, but also in changing the mindset of your existing audience.” Having everyone understand the range of varied abilities and how venues and experiences can be made more inclusive is a task for all staff and all audiences alike.
Additionally, she spoke about travelling cinemas and the concerns around making accessible materials for a range of digital cinema projection. Often, it is only DCPs that are made fully accessible and non-DCP venues are not always able to offer fully accessible screenings for this reason. “It does take time to build up,” Cooke said, “and to become fully inclusive.”
‘Cinema without barriers’
Maria Trzeciak from Kino Pałacowe in Poland described accessibility in their project as including induction loops (for people using hearing aids); audio description in Polish for all films and in English for select titles; subtitles, wireless headsets and Polish sign language for most films. They post trigger warnings (which you can select to see online, but they are not visible without request in case viewers would prefer not to know) and €1 screenings. They also have a ‘rule book’ for guest speakers to let them know venue specific language and descriptions to use in their introductions.
‘Forum Without Barriers’ is an annual event, now in its third year, that the cinema host for industry professionals to come together to share and discuss best practice around the accessibility of audiovisual culture. Trzeciak said the event was a lot of work in making it accessible in as many ways as possible but that it was also a big success. The major challenges include financing and onboarding all areas of the value chain – collaborating with external stakeholders as well as working with distributors to ensure a lined-up approach is essential.
‘An accessible cinema: trial and error’
Maja Zrim from Kinodvor then presented on their work with Deaf and hard-of-hearing and blind and partially sighted audiences. “Inclusivity and accessibility means opening our spaces to all people, because no one should be excluded,” Zrim said. “It’s very important that you work in dialogue with your target groups,” she continued, emphasising the importance of understanding and engaging with their experiences and feedback on all aspects of your events. Screenings of Slovenian films from the war became very emotional because the films had never been seen by Deaf audiences because they were never subtitled until now. Staff training is also incredibly important in being fully inclusive because understanding the specificities around assistance and sensitivities required is essential if the welcome is to be truly meaningful. She also advocated for not holding separate screenings for underserved communities because, as Kinodvor have learnt: “Being together is beautiful, and accessibility leads to inclusion.”
‘Bringing European movies to cinema deserts’
Andrei Jakab presented on Caravana TIFF, where cinema travels to so-called “cinema deserts” in Romania. Access to cinema in these cities and towns is limited and Caravana TIFF take a mobile screen set-up to offer mostly free screenings (they are supported by local funders and sponsors in various locations). The screenings are not just about showing films, they are large-scale social events, too: people gather in the hours before and after the screenings. Overall, audiences are receptive to blockbuster films but once local engagement and trust for the events was built, Caravana began introducing other types of films, of which European comedies have been most well received. In terms of promoting the films, naming official awards from far-flung, film festivals unknown to these communities fails to resonant, but highlighting the audience awards a film has won has far greater cultural currency. Working to build cinema provision where there previously was none is one way of turning “cinema deserts” into “cinema desserts“.
‘The delayed ticket, an inclusive model for low-income spectators. How can we make this more effective?’
Marlies Stevens from Budascoop in Kortrijk, Belgium presented their “delayed ticket” model which follows the ‘Pay it forward’ philosophy whereby people who can afford to elect to pay extra for those who cannot. The first challenge for Budascoop was that there was an initial lack of donations. Next, and perhaps even more crucially, was that they didn’t have any take up for the delayed tickets. They placed a QR code next to the ticket booth which didn’t work, followed by a physical jar with money in it that also didn’t work, until finally they tweaked their online ticketing system to include an option for donation that explains the function of their model, beginning with: “Can you help bring more culture to people with less?” Creating an in-cinema trailer was helpful but constantly asking people for money can also be off-putting or tiresome for audiences, so whilst they are collecting funds they are not currently running an active campaign.
Day three of the lab drew to a close as participants worked in groups to plan how they might make their cinema offer more accessible according to specific customer profiles.