Nu Metro Cinemas: Website

[numetro]

Nu Metro Cinemas' current website is almost 2 years old, and a lot has changed in that time. Facebook is now the #2 most-visited site in South Africa, Twitter and YouTube are consistently in the top 10. Local sites like Zoopy and MyVideo are squeezing video out to a bandwidth-starved local audience, and it's a good time to think about what an entertainment and ticket-booking website should be offering.

Instead of relying solely on 'fishbowl' thinking, let's crowdsource and ask the best tech-savvy audience in South Africa what they'd like thrown into the mix. So, since most of you go to the movies with some degree of regularity. Given the mybroadband audience, you probably book online quite a bit, too. Do tell, then, what are your favourite features when you trawl the web? What do you like? What should an entertainment / booking portal be offering?

Some ideas could be added right here, but we wouldn't want to lead the witnesses, would we? :)

[Waaib]

"crowdsource" - Yikes!

I like it when the movies website loads quickly and tells you what movies are showing. 95% of the time I access it from my mobile phone, look for movies and book over the phone. High end super flashing websites are usually not mobile friendly.

I reckon 1 click bookings and discounts would make me use a site more often.

[Nod]

RSS/ATOM feeds are also very nice to have.

[ebendl]

Obviously a modern look and feel is a good idea. I've never really liked SK (I am allowed to mentioned them here, right) approach to develop the whole thing in flash, but it does actually work. Why I should add R1.25 - R2.50 to the booking price to save their staff time and effort, I do not know, though.

I say incorporate links to say RottenTomatoes to easily say whether a movie is a good one or not. Good mobile access is also a must - increasingly I find myself booking from my phone.

A single log-on that saves my details and credit card number (If I choose) is a good idea. Decent quality trailers as well.

[numetro]

@ebendl Indeed, a Rotten Tomatoes rating is a good indicator of what to expect in a movie.
A login is very convenient, a-la Amazon keeping credit card numbers, but does introduce some security concerns.

@Nod There are already some basic RSS feeds around movie times and showbiz news, but these could certainly be expanded upon. Anything specific you'd like to track via RSS?

[Rodent-Boy]

Zoopy is not local anymore. ;)

But back to the subject at hand ...

I normally go to SK (Discovery Vitality), but I agree with ebendl there: Links to Rotten Tomatoes reviews, perhaps even IMDB (though that might prove redundant) and easy, quick loading, simple mobile access.

[caspa]

a better Web based ticket price, i also agree why should we pay the same when there is no one actually serving us?

[diabolus]

@ebendl Indeed, a Rotten Tomatoes rating is a good indicator of what to expect in a movie.
A login is very convenient, a-la Amazon keeping credit card numbers, but does introduce some security concerns.

@Nod There are already some basic RSS feeds around movie times and showbiz news, but these could certainly be expanded upon. Anything specific you'd like to track via RSS?

I recommend maybe a points/credit system where i can "top up" in advance and then be able to purchase tickets with the "one click" option. This is specifically now for the phone and maybe lesser extend full desktop. With SK, my pains usually are:

1. I go to a very specific list of cinemas (only 2 cinemas in fact), i don't want to browse to them every time, let me set it up in my "profile" and when i login show only THOSE cinemas .
--> Once i've done this "personalization", allow me to subscribe to either "new movies at my cinema" or "specials at my cinema" or something in that concept. This can easily be an RSS feed.

2. Booking itself is a lengthy process , especially when it comes to the final 2 steps :
a] Picking a seat [yes i want to do that]
b] Inserting discount card numbers [vitality/club card]
c] Actually getting the payment through

All above is where things fall flat and why i usually just don't bother and just buy it at the self-service boxes at the cinema. Typing out 20-digit numbers on a mobile is not on, in fact typing it out on any device is nuisance when you only SWIPE those cards at the cinema itself.


3. As i mentioned, maybe consider a system where i can load up a few rands in advance allowing me to easily book at a later date. The topup can be done via CC/at the cinema ,

Hell i'd love to pay for my drinks/popcorn in advance too, just swipe a movie card and there i go.


I guess my overall message here is "ability to personalize" . That would imply having a personal account, with ability to "subscribe" to only what i actually use. I don't really care that Avatar "came out" , i care whether it's showing at MY cinema. You can give me a zillion reviews of a movie, helps nothing if it's not showing where i live, most of us most likely will go to imdb.com to read the reviews....

Since you mention Facebook...personalization + ability to share .....people don't go to movies alone, ability to indicate what you want to go see at MY cinema and share this with your friends (whom obviously will use the same cinemas) is something to consider :) How to integrate this or expand my "profile" to a wider audience (my family/friends) with a "movies i saw this week/month"-application is what i'd wonder about :). I'm sure facebook have a generic app like that, just not one linking directly to a cinema :)

Imagine if you could go to say Numetro, click a movie -at my cinema- with a specific time and go "invite friends" [similar to an outlook appointment] . Then once everyone somehow accepted all this, they can either pay themselves or one person pay for all , BUT the system would still see it as a "group" booking so that seats are together....

...anyhow, wildly dreaming right now, clearly work is slow today for me :)

[numetro]

diabolus Those are some great suggestions!

[rodga]

please keep it simple, i just hate how long sk site takes to load

also discounts for web bookings are welcome

[ebendl]

Imagine if you could go to say Numetro, click a movie -at my cinema- with a specific time and go "invite friends" [similar to an outlook appointment] . Then once everyone somehow accepted all this, they can either pay themselves or one person pay for all , BUT the system would still see it as a "group" booking so that seats are together....


That's an awesome idea. Usually, I have to book online for 5 friends and try and collect all of their cash. If they were able to register, buy credits (say online per card or sometime before at the kiosk) and pay for the ticket themselves, this would really be great. The thing is, how do you get them to pay immediately - or do you reserve the seats for a while way they are able to pay?

[davemc]

Can I have a site where I can easily find my neasest cinema, see what's showing, choose the seats by entering seat numbers, and then book it, in less than 2 minutes?
Can I also do that from my iPhone?

If I wanted trailers, I would get the trailer from youtube.
If I wanted information on the movie, then imdb.com is the place I look.

Moar utility, less crap.

[WiT8litZ]

There are no direct numbers to specific cinemas. Instead I just rather Google the cinema name and usually come up with some random other page which has the actual number. I don't want to go through a call center everytime I have a location specific query.

[numetro]

Can I have a site where I can easily find my neasest cinema, see what's showing, choose the seats by entering seat numbers, and then book it, in less than 2 minutes?
Can I also do that from my iPhone?

Those are indeed good ideas for efficiency.


If I wanted trailers, I would get the trailer from youtube.
If I wanted information on the movie, then imdb.com is the place I look.

Well... It's not that convenient to have to visit three websites to complete one task. Why Nu Metro / IMDb -> Search / YouTube -> Search when you could get it all done on one site? Besides, some information on IMDb is often not correct or not relevant to the South African market. Searching on YouTube will often yield a hoax video, posted by someone who enjoys wasting your time, or wants to generate hits on their vid by using a popular term in the title.

It is better to have everything you need in one place, but, point taken - we don't need a guitar on a Swiss Army knife :)


Moar utility, less crap.

[Nod]

@Nod There are already some basic RSS feeds around movie times and showbiz news, but these could certainly be expanded upon. Anything specific you'd like to track via RSS?

Maybe the following (most you already have):
movie information (short description and actors, etc)
times
location specific information
link to external movie information like official website or IMDB info

Maybe also use the Geolocation (http://www.google.co.za/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=3&ved=0CBAQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.geowebguru.com%2Farticles%2F1 72-the-w3c-browser-geolocation-api&ei=vpxdS7yJB5nYmwO4kN2oAg&usg=AFQjCNHzN-9XY-LG9r-G-eXF2A2jdWxzTw&sig2=2vPl4gKvyQastInSmbadEQ) capabilities of browsers, etc to automatically show the closest cinema (with an option to change).

[diabolus]

Another add-on to the social aspect, once everyone went to see a movie at their SPECIFIC cinema, it would be nice if there's a place where they can sort of rate the movie AND the cinema. Almost like a trackback based on your movie tickets. If Makro can determine my buying habits because i have to swipe that card, then surely Numetro can know what movies i watched and where i watched them ? That's what i thought the "real" reason was behind these clubcards, to be a kind of tracking/marketing tool. This can easily slot into something like Facebook/Twitter to automatically create a "movie habits" profile not only for Numetro, but for me (so others can see what i tend to watch and when i watched it, prizes for the first one to watch the next sleeper hit)

Nowadays it's not good enough to know a movie is good, it's important to know the cinema in question is actually showing it in the good cine with the big seats and not the crappy, smaller side-one with the poor sound where they show the less popular movies (worse having to watch a quiet CGi-less movie next to the Avatar cine, believe me you hear those thundering explosions right through the vibrating wall) . This you will only know if people rated the movie relative to the cine :).


That's an awesome idea. Usually, I have to book online for 5 friends and try and collect all of their cash. If they were able to register, buy credits (say online per card or sometime before at the kiosk) and pay for the ticket themselves, this would really be great. The thing is, how do you get them to pay immediately - or do you reserve the seats for a while way they are able to pay?

Yea, that is indeed a dilemma, this goes along with trying to enter 5 people's various clubcard/vitality/edgars card numbers also (often you don't even have it when you try to book for those people).

So i'd say such a system would only hold seats for x-hours after loading the booking OR only allow seat selection once everyone paid (so you basically create a group booking, send out invites, people cancel or pay, the system will know when all is done, and then the "organizer" pick the seats for the group). I'm sure if everyone is aware that their delay might result them sitting in separate places across the cine, they'll speed things up or the organizer can simply cancel their invite to complete the booking without them.

Of course if there's a top-up credit system it'll just grab the money from everyone that "accepts" automatically (and even apply the discount of your -profile stored- vitality/edgars/club card), and maybe this facility would only work with "members" on the system.