PHIL CLAPP - PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL UNION OF CINEMAS (UNIC) AUSTRALIAN INTERNATIONAL MOVIE CONVENTION WHAT DO YOUTH AUDIENCES REALLY WANT Slide 1 Delighted to be here and thank Terry Jackman, Michael Hawkins and colleagues for their kind invitation. For those who don t know me, my name is Phil Clapp. My day job is to head up the UK Cinema Association, the trade body for UK cinema operators. But I also have the honour of serving as President of the International Union of Cinemas, the grouping of European national association and key operators, now representing some 36 territories. I have been asked to speak to you today about a piece of research undertaken by UNIC and partners over the last year which sought to answer the question what do youth audiences really want? Slide 2 This study was run in partnership with the research company GfK and relied on the invaluable support not just of UNIC and the UK Association, but also importantly colleagues at the Coca Cola Company representatives of which I am delighted to welcome here this afternoon and at the Odeon Cinemas Group. Slide 3 When we get into the area of youth audiences, there are a number of issues of terminology. For these purposes we have taken the youth audience as being that aged between 12-25 years, which will clearly make some of us here feel fairly old. Given the different lifestages and development of personal responsibility not least for spending we have broken this down further into Generation Y or millennials those aged 18-25 and Generation Z those aged 12-14 and 15-17 years, a group that GfK have christened the ibrains for hopefully obvious reasons. Slide 4 We would be the first to admit that there is no lack of research into the film and cinema tastes of this group. And I am sure that this won t be the first
presentation on the subject that you have attended. Indeed this work was initially prompted by a survey of a slightly wider age group undertaken in Germany by GfK. But we would hope that this differs to some extent from what s come before in three respects: - Firstly it is open research. Much of the knowledge which currently exists around these age groups is guarded jealously by those who commissioned the research. By making this work available to all to understand but also to challenge we hope to open up a discussion on this important area; What that means for everyone here today is that we will make all of the slides available on the NACO website so there s hopefully less need for you to scribble furiously or take out your smartphones. And if anyone wants the underlying analysis to look at in more detail then please just drop me an email my address is at the end. - Second our work compares and contrasts the views of young people in three European territories Germany, the UK and Spain. These were not chosen at random but were felt to have certain key characteristics in terms of sector and demography which made them representative of the broader region; Slide 5 - And finally and perhaps most importantly you will see from the slide here that after initial qualitative and quantitative stages (perhaps the moretraditional route) we involved representative groups of young people in faciliated co-creation workshops giving them a chance to shape and influence the cinema experience they would like to see. We do not pretend that all that they came up with is deliverable or indeed practical. But our study has we believe allowed us to dig beneath the surface of many previous studies to get a better feel for what might work in making more young people go to the cinema more frequently. Slide 6 So this afternoon I m going to give you a headline tour of what this piece of work found in terms of young people s attitudes towards cinema and cinema-going. And relevant to that their attitudes towards and expectations of their leisure time.
And finally I m going to share with you what we ve called a framework for youth engagement an attempt to bring some structure in helping you to think about what more you and colleagues might do in this area. I should say now that I have no doubt that there will be some differences between the ways that the Australian youth audience views the world and responds to cinema-going. But pre-empting what I am sure would otherwise be a question, one of the most striking features of our own work was the lack of variance between the viewpoints of young people from Germany, the UK and Spain. For that reason, I would suspect that many of the considerations and issues are common here just as they are in the Northern hemisphere. Slide 7 So onto the challenges, none of which are exactly Earth-shattering revelations. Young people told us that their free time is more pressured than ever at a time when as you will all know - cinema competes in an increasingly-packed leisure environment. And there are aspects of cinema-going the need to plan, even the need to get off of the sofa which mark it out as an activity requiring particular effort. No surprises that that was a particular finding amongst the older teens surveyed. Slide 8 But here are the positives. Cinema and cinema-going retains a special place for many young people. It is social. It is an event. And it offers a chance to escape from the everyday. And for many it is seen as a reward for putting up with all those other pressures. Slide 9 In terms of the drivers of attending cinema and hence those aspects we might look to dial up there is an emphasis on enjoyment, experience and escapism. For many the film is the thing. Most see a trip to the cinema as part of a wider night or day out.
And importantly while some cited the cost of cinema tickets and cinema food and drink as a reason why they did not go more often the study gave us an opportunity to dig beneath that initial (and familiar) response. What we found that a signficant majority of those young people whose initial response was it costs too much were more than willing to enter into a dialogue on what would need to change for cinema to be seen to be worth their money and time. Slide 10 So some positives as well as some challenges there. But what this work also allowed us to do was really get an insight into the general attitudes of young people towards their leisure time in the three territories. Slide 11 This quote from a teenage girl from Germany was by no means uncommon. Young people feel themselves under pressure from their parents, their peers and society and unlike many of us in this room have had to face growing up while coping with the always-on world of social and digital media. For many their leisure time is an opportunity to leave that behind. From our discussions, we identified four key themes when it came to young people s leisure time, each of which I will touch on briefly. Slide 12 Young people see their leisure time as an opportunity for social bonding - sharing experiences and being part of a larger group. We should not underestimate the social and cultural currency that comes from that and being able to say I or we saw or did this first. For cinema, that means ensuring that venues provide social spaces alongside the foyers and auditoriums. As you will see from the quotes on the left, the young people were not short of ideas on how cinemas could better enable young people to hang out together, as well as providing opportunities to extend the cinema experience before and after the film starts.
Slide 13 As mentioned, young people want their leisure time to offer a chance to escape and disconnect from all of the pressures they feel they face. And they want to be able to focus on that without distractions. For cinemas, a reassuringly high number of those young people surveyed saw the big screen experience as offering exactly that escapism. And while a perhaps surprisingly high number said that that should include not allowing audience members to text or browse on their smartphones during a screening, a predictable number wanted that to apply to everyone but them. I told you not everything would be deliverable. Slide 14 One surprisingly common theme amongst the young people we spoke to were concerns around their health and well-being. As the quotes on the left indicate, many were involved in sports for that reason, but also wanted that to be a part of their cinema experience, whether through offering a broader range of healthier food and drink offerings or through link-ups with local health clubs and gyms. Slide 15 The final theme emerging from our work around attitudes to leisure time was a sense that young people wanted it to help broaden their horizons to expand their skills and experience. For cinemas, the sense was that they didn t want their experience to end when they left the cinema, but to continue to be stimulated and informed about what they d just seen. Slide 16 The $64,000 question is of course what this might mean for cinemas. How might the sector respond to such a diverse and extensive range of wants and needs? Slide 17 On the surface the key themes might seem straightforward. After all surely this is something cinemas have been doing for decades?
Slide 18 But inevitably it s more complex than that. To state the blindingly obvious all young people are not alike. It s true of course that two young people of exactly the same age can show markedly different attitudes But our research did flag up a number of general differences in attitude according to age group. The perception that cinema is providing value for money decreases as young people get older not least as they have their own money to spend. And from our research, it seems that - currently at least - levels of satisfaction with what is currently on offer tail off with age. Yet at the same time, the cinema experience is challenged to ensure that it remains relevant to some of the youngest young people those 12-14 year old ibrains I talked about in their hi tech and interactive world. Slide 19 So for that young group, the key things seems to be to retain the wow factor the experience they can only get from the big screen. For the mid-group the 15-17 year olds the emphasis seems to be on socialising. And for the older group, it s all about providing something to overcome that reluctance to organise yourself to leave the home what GfK call the sofa trap. Slide 20 To help us and hopefully you - make sense of what all of this means in practical terms, we used the co-creation workshops with young people to develop and road-test what we ve snappily called a framework for teen engagement. You might also think of it as a menu of things that cinema operators might like to consider in reaching out to this elusive group. Slide 21 In terms of themes, we see this as being about: - Convenience;
- Engagement; - Experience; and - Content. All with the aim of providing value and fun. Slide 22 All of that of course builds on a foundation of getting the basics right. The young people we surveyed and spoke to were as vociferous as any about their reluctance to go back to a cinema which had been dirty, too hot or cold, or where the staff had been unfriendly or unhelpful. No surprises there. Slide 23 But they also wanted convenience. Slide 24 Whatever the age group concerned, these were young people who have grown up in a digital world, and who are often surprised and frustrated when presented with what they see as old-fashioned processes and approaches when they go to the cinema. The notion of paper tickets, paying in cash or not having a choice over where they sit seemed outdated to many. Unsurprisingly many were taken with the idea of using technology to overcome many of what they considered unnecessary hurdles. Slide 25 Ad they wanted engagement. This was a major theme of discussion is my local cinema trying to engage with me in the manner I want it to and as I would expect. Slide 26 Unsurprisingly, the better use of social media was a constant through all the age groups. For many of this group traditional CRM routes such as emails frankly went out with the dinosaurs and they wanted cinemas to talk to them through the social media channels they used.
If you don t know what these are and how to use them, find someone who does. And consider adding to the experience through games and competitions. Slide 27 And once they re in the cinema, provide them with opportunities to socialise the way they want to not as you did. In his keynote on Monday, Andrew Cripps drew attention to a number of features of the ground-breaking CGV Yongsan theatre in Seoul.\ It s intriguing that a number of the features highlighted by Andrew from his visit have striking similarities to the suggestions our young people came up with. Slide 28 And they wanted cinemas to maximise the experience. Slide 29 Event cinema has perhaps shown the way here, but back to that ability to be able to say or better post to social media what they did young people want a trip to the cinema to be a memorable experience. There are some ideas there on the right hand side of the screen. Again a few will be familiar from Andrew Cripps keynote. Slide 30 And finally they wanted more and better content. Slide 31 I m conscious that I ve probably only mentioned film a couple of times in this lengthy presentation. And to some extent the need to show a broad range of films likely to attract young people should be taken as a given. But young people are aware that cinemas are now places that show more than movies, and are hungry for that potential to be brought to bear to meet their needs rather than as they see it focussing primarily on an older adult audience. That means TV content, esports and other forms of new content which might entice them back to the movie theatre.
Slide 32 So that s a whistle stop tour through a lot of data and research and a lot of discussion, all to arrive at the summary slide here. In terms of next steps, we re in discussion with colleagues at the Coca Cola Company and others about the possibility in the coming months of taking a dozen or so cinema sites and using them to pilot a good deal of what s here. And to see for ourselves whether in the real world young people respond to some or any of these changes in terms of greater and more frequent cinemagoing. Rest assured that whatever the outcome, we will make the findings of these pilots openly available in due course. Slide 33 As mentioned at the outset, all of these slides will be made available to you today through the organisers. And should anyone want the underlying data then please do get in touch. Thank you for your time today.