This morning Cineplex Entertainment (“Cineplex”) unveiled a new integrated brand platform that asks Canadians to ‘See The Big Picture.’ Part of the goal is to help Canadian’s wear their busy schedules like badges of honour and that the need for entertainment and enjoyment is important now more than ever before.
Cineplex wants to foster a stronger relationship with its guests and customers, as well as unify all of its businesses and 12,000 employees across Canada.
“The new strategy reflects our business, our offerings and the experience we want our guests to have when they spend time with us,” said Ellis Jacob, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cineplex Entertainment. “When we ask Canadians to ‘See The Big Picture’ we are reminding them of the enjoyment we provide in our theatres from coast-to-coast, we are also asking them to rediscover the meaningful role that entertainment can play in all of our lives.”
As part of the awareness campaign an animated short film entitled Lily and the Snowman was created (see below), the new, fully integrated strategy will be brought to life across Cineplex’s marketing, social and communications channels over the coming weeks and months. In addition to being consumer facing, ‘See The Big Picture’ will be used internally at the corporate and theatre-levels to engage its employee workforce.
The animated short film tells the story of a girl named Lily and a friendly snowman who performs shadow puppet shows for her. As time moves on, the business of life gets in the way of Lily enjoying the entertainment she once loved. By accident, she is struck by a beautiful childhood memory, and finds a whole new, even more important role for her friend later on. Featuring a unique rendition of Genesis’ Follow you, follow me, Lily and the Snowman will be promoted across Cineplex’s social channels as well as shown to guests as part of the December and January Pre Shows.
Additional ways that Cineplex is bringing its new brand strategy to life include:
- Lily and the Snowman is the first in a series of short films that Cineplex has planned to support the platform
- Ongoing positioning of ‘See The Big Picture’ in Cineplex’s print and digital advertising, through social media and communications activations, in-theatre signage, on Cineplex.com as well as through the development of sustained, unique onscreen content. It will replace Cineplex’s previous brand platform, ‘Escape With Us’
- Recognizing that great stories inspire change, ‘See The Big Picture’ will become integrated into Cineplex’s support for Free The Children, its national charity partner. In fact, a four minute version of the song featured in Lily and the Snowman will be available for purchase in January 2016 on Spotify, iTunes and Google Play Music, with proceeds benefitting Free The Children
- Integration and promotion through Cineplex’s channel on Air Canada’s enRoute In-flight Entertainment systems as well as Cineplex’s messaging as part of the SCENE loyalty program
- Creation of a new Cineplex Feature Presentation trailer that will play in theatres across Canada
- A fully integrated digital, social media and public relations campaign will support the brand strategy in December and January. Future plans will rely heavily on calls-to-create and user-generated content from Cineplex’s well-established social communities