As an investor (and customer) with AMC, I couldn’t help but notice that they don’t seem to be employing augmented reality technology, in both their lobby and theater spaces, to make the experience more interactive for customers, and ultimately to make AMC more successful in the business (so that my stock goes up). Check out some of these ideas, AMC, if you are listening!
Augmented reality overlays visually interactive elements over your real environment, which you view through your phone’s screen. Think of the mobile phone game Pokémon Go or how many online stores offer a virtual furniture preview.
AMC should really begin enhancing their theaters by analyzing the lobby space, where guests spend the majority of their time waiting either to get into a movie or while in line to get snacks. Arcade games unique to the AMC theater chain or paired with current showings. Virtual AR games supported by individual user devices and the theater’s wi-fi network can substitute for physical (old-school) arcade machines, which can break and/or quickly go out of style.
Games chosen should be done with careful thought and include playtesting with feedback, if possible. For example, an article by Business Wire (https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180220006051/en/National-CineMedia-NCM-Brings-Augmented-Reality-to-Movie-Theaters ) details three examples of AR being developed by company Noovie for use in a movie theater. “Cinevaders” encourages patrons to shoot lasers at aliens invading the theatre. “Emoji Escape” has patrons catching emojis throughout the lobby space. Unfortunately, these two ideas are not really viable due to the safety of patrons looking down at their phones while moving in a lobby possibly filled with other patrons to play the Emoji Escape game; and as for Cinevaders, it’s not a socially sensitive idea to have people shooting anything while inside a theater. Finding these weak points in game design can often be observed through playtesting.
Also described in the article is the game Munchie Mania. This AR game is a great idea for AMC to incorporate, and doesn’t pose safety concerns like the other ideas. The description from the creator of the game, Noovie: “Munchie Mania – Who doesn’t like popcorn at the movies? Players will toss flying kernels to fill up their individual popcorn bucket – and you can play at home!”
Some other ideas for incorporating AR (and interactive technology) into AMC theater spaces:
- Tell stories about your brand or the origin of your products. Maybe you have an interesting story about one of your founders that you can share or about the origins of the movie camera and projection screens.
- Offer post-event access to event content. Try an AR photo booth that can be shared later or the ability to share game stats or replays.
- Offer a tour, a model, or an experience. You could create new experiences seasonally, to match happenings in popular culture or scientific happenings (like space exploration), or to compliment marketing promotions.
- Engage all five of their senses: this idea could go along with marketing or seasonal promotions. AR content, music, seasonal food choices could all have some more thought and variety offered throughout the year.
- Give theater patrons unique opportunities to share on social media including photos, short videos or badges of earned game achievements/rankings. Connecting your AR or other fun technologies with social media adds to patron excitement and also acts as free referral advertising for AMC.
- Partner with a 3D space mapping technology company like GILDA (https://gilda.co) for precise location mapping of the inside of theaters and lobby spaces. This ensures that AR interactions are triggered in the correct locations, encouraging a more accurate and seamless guest experience.
- One last technology idea - that’s not AR - is to incorporate ordering food through an app with qr pickup, similar to the pizza pickup portal used by the Little Caesars pizza chain for hot food items.
Try a few of these ideas or try them all, AMC, and you’re sure to increase customer satisfaction and your overall profits.
