Event Cinemas fail to understand Search

Event Cinemas is now the sole online brand which seems to conflict with their offline marketing

bcc-cinemasAustralia’s largest cinema chains Birch Carroll & Coyle and Greater Union is in the process of being relaunched and redeveloped but have they started their online move too early or without an effective digital strategy.

We understand that the process of rebranding a company is very expensive and time consuming but we don’t believe that AHL successfully planned to get the best benefit from their online campaign with Event Cinemas.

event-cinemas

AHL is promoting Event Cinemas as a new concept in entertainment, that seeks to deliver the ultimate cinema experience. The Birch Carroll & Coyle and Greater Union cinemas are in the process of being redeveloped and relaunched as Event.  The other problem is that many of the Birch Carroll & Coyle and Greater Union cinemas will continue to operating throughout Australia.

It seems atleast online the Event Cinemas is now the sole online brand which seems to conflict with their offline marketing which still heavily promotes Birch Carroll & Coyle and Greater Union, which seeks to compete against Hoyts.

It appears that some improvements have been made in the last few weeks, but there is still a lot of quick wins for Event Cinemas.

How do they handle Event Cinemas visitors?

event-search

To prove that the online campaign has not being successful a branded search for Event Cinemas shows Greater Union in the #1 result.  The issue is that any visitors to GreaterUnion.com.au is redirected to EventCinemas so it is a wasted and unnecessary step for their visitors.

How do they handle Birch Carroll & Coyle visitors?

bcc-search
It appears that in the search results that Birch.com.au has completely disappeared but it is still being heavily advertised offline. This can potentially lead to confusion with consumers as they expect to see Birch.com.au in the results and Greater Union diverts to EventCinemas anyway.
You can see that yourmovies.com.au is taking some of that branded search traffic already.
Technical Analysis of their SEO
They appear to have started the process but have cut corners and failed to understand what they are doing, its benefit and why they are doing it. This is how they treat their visitors through redirection requests.
#1 Server Response: http://www.birch.com.au
HTTP Status Code: 301 Moved Permanently
Location: http://www.greaterunion.com.au/
Redirect Target: http://www.greaterunion.com.au/
#2 Server Response: http://www.greaterunion.com.au/
HTTP Status Code: 302 Object moved
Location: http://www.eventcinemas.com.au/Redirect/Home
Redirect Target: http://www.eventcinemas.com.au/Redirect/Home
#3 Server Response: http://www.eventcinemas.com.au/Redirect/Home
HTTP Status Code: 302 Found
Location: /?ReDirect=True
Redirect Target: /?ReDirect=True
#4 Server Response: /?ReDirect=True
Wrong service type or malformed URL
How do they handle Greater Union visitors?

greater-union-search

Event Cinemas has started showing up in some branded search results for “greater union” but are they following best practice?
The move from the existing Greaterunion.com.au domain to the new Eventcinemas.com.au has not been done effectively and provides an opportunity for their competitors and other websites such as yourmovies.com.au to take their branded “greater union” traffic.
Technical Analysis of their SEO
They appear to have started the process but have cut corners and failed to understand what they are doing, its benefit and why they are doing it. This is how they treat their visitors through redirection requests.
#1 Server Response: http://www.greaterunion.com.au
HTTP Status Code: 302 Object moved
Location: http://www.eventcinemas.com.au/Redirect/Home
Redirect Target: http://www.eventcinemas.com.au/Redirect/Home
#2 Server Response: http://www.eventcinemas.com.au/Redirect/Home
HTTP Status Code: 302 Found
Location: /?ReDirect=True
Redirect Target: /?ReDirect=True
#3 Server Response: /?ReDirect=True
Wrong service type or malformed URL
facebook logo
Event Cinemas Social Media Campaign
They don’t even to take the extra steps for the Event Cinemas Facebook page, as there are a number of options available which have not been utilised. Some of the many Facebook username options that are available:
http://www.facebook.com/eventcinemas
http://www.facebook.com/cinemas
http://www.facebook.com/event.cinemas
So the key factors that are being ignore are refinements to their social media campaign and more effective search optimisation. Event Cinemas seems that they are being complacent online because of their domination of the industry, but their competitors can potentially steal their lead.
Some of the current competitors that can start to take market share away from Event cinemas include:

5 Replies to “Event Cinemas fail to understand Search”

  • I worked their untill recently, While doing some post grad study I needed some cash so a few shifts a week at the local cinema seemed the place to go. Most customers who came up to me were confused over the whole thing. Over the coming weeks in WA you’ll start to see new uniforms, a revised candy bar, and the cinemas will gradually have phased in Digital projectors. The whole promise of Live events and Concerts and sporting matches seen on the big screen is not new. This technolagy is basicly the same as watching Main Even on foxtel, except the screen is bigger. After a while all cinemas will get this. Yet Event seem to forget that uncle Arthour now has a Big screen TV and Projector in the home theater, it can now produce an image that is better than what you get in the cinema, you dont spend your daily wage just to get in the door, and im sure the weekly repayments from JB Hi Fi would be less than the cost of a single Adult ticket.

    However, with all this fancy Woo Ha. All this comes at a price.

    The revised Scoop bar, if it is similar to what ive seen in the United States back in 2001, is sort of like the food you get at the cheapest eatery at the crown casino at 2 am on tuesday morning. It will mean less staff for the candy bar as their will probably be only one or two sale points. You still wont be able to bring in alcohol unless its Gold Class, – How many people over 18 do you see working in a cinema? apart from management.? And a place like AHL wont be arsed paying an extra $2..00 an hour to Adult staff. (AHL Own Event.)

    Jobs will be cut, as the company streamlines its operations..

    Furthermore assuming that this place is successfull, it will only be so untill the competition catches up, Event is charging ticket prices based on what they believe is the most the customer will be prepared to pay, and with the Advent of Downloading movies, which i believe is a possibility from Hollywood. – You pay $20 to watch a movie on your home theater system that is connected to a foxtel type set top box and Wham there you go. I think that is the Future of the cinema industry.

    And has anyone read about the latest developments in Hollogram Projection from Japan? That looks pretty exciting.

    Well thats my 2 cents worth.

    • Shane thanks for the great comment, i had a quick look and the only think that really stood out was a promotion done in NYC byIllusio Technologies/. I assume that with the success of Avatar that 3D will be something that people will pay for that they can’t currently get from Foxtel, or that they will follow the US and offer near-release for $50+ via cable TV.

  • I believe that these are the uniforms that will be issued to the staff in Western Australia, I think that the whole Event cinemas thing is becoming a bit of a joke, and they are going to overshoot the mark. Would you wear this uniform or allow your teenage son or daughter to catch the bus on a friday afternoon at 4pm to do a 4 hour shift at the cinema? A picture of the Candy cane uniform is provided in the link below.

    http://subtropic.com.au/2009/08/15/candy-stripe-cinema-uniforms-not-so-sweet/

    • Shane, thanks for the comment and agree the new uniform might be a sore topic for their staff, but maybe it might be back barbershop quartets?

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