In theater marketing, understanding your audience members is crucial for driving ticket sales and ensuring you get a full house at your live theater performances.
In the post-cookie world, mobile footprinting has emerged as a great way to gain key insights about your target audience. Footprinting enables you to track and analyze the preferences and digital behavior of theatergoers through their mobile devices so you can tailor your marketing strategies to their individual needs.
Mobile footprinting platforms are digital tools that can help you access this data by leveraging location technology without infringing on theatergoers’ privacy. In this blog, we’ve rounded up the top five mobile footprinting platforms for your theater marketing plan, plus a few tips on making the most of this technology.
1. Foursquare
Foursquare is a leader in location intelligence technology, offering potent mobile footprinting capabilities for theater marketers. With its advanced stop-detection technology, Foursquare can accurately associate people with places, using data from over 15 billion check-ins across more than 120 million points of interest in over 200 countries. This is fueled by insights from approximately 9 billion monthly visits from over 500 million global devices.
Theater marketers can harness Foursquare’s technology to reach customers based on their real-world behaviors. For example, a theater could use Foursquare’s data to identify potential audience members who frequent entertainment venues or cultural events and tailor marketing campaigns to them.
By analyzing patterns in visitation to similar arts and cultural events, theaters can create personalized marketing strategies and measure the effectiveness of their campaigns in real-time.
This might include offering targeted promotions or discounts to users who have previously shown interest in similar theater genres or events, thereby enhancing ticket sales and audience engagement.
2. Adsquare
Adsquare’s mobile footprinting capabilities make it a handy tool for theater marketers — in particular, its footfall measurement data, which can provide insights into campaign effectiveness and inform future strategies.
In theater marketing, Adsquare’s data can help you understand how different marketing campaigns affect theater attendance. For instance, if you run a campaign promoting a new play, the footfall measurement feature could track the increase in theater visits during the campaign and provide data about the effectiveness of different advertising channels, messages, placements, and creatives.
You can also use this information to adjust campaigns, for instance, by focusing more on the most effective channels or tweaking messages to better resonate with the target audience.
3. InMarket
InMarket is a pioneer in location-based advertising that offers unparalleled granularity in data quality thanks to its state-of-the-art SDK. Integrated into hundreds of popular mobile apps, it provides billions of high-quality location data points and covers over 50 million monthly active users in the U.S. alone.
Theater marketers can leverage InMarket’s advanced technology to target users based on location, behavior, and motivations, thereby driving offline visits and purchases across multiple channels. This could include reaching consumers in moments that matter, such as when they are making purchase decisions, using InMarket’s InPath, InStore, and InHand strategies.
For example, a theater could use InMarket’s data to identify and reach out to potential patrons who frequently visit cultural hotspots or similar entertainment venues. By measuring the impact of advertising on foot traffic and purchase lift, you can better understand your audience and refine your marketing efforts for increased ticket sales and enhanced audience engagement.
4. PlaceIQ
PlaceIQ is another leader in location-based intelligence with a suite of mobile footprinting tools that theaters can leverage to identify and address their target market.
PlaceIQ helps marketers reach consumers based on their visitation and spending behaviors, including targeting consumer segments based on routines, habits, and lifestyles, such as frequent theatergoers or arts enthusiasts.
The PlaceIQ dashboard, LandMark, allows you to delve into foot traffic data collected from 165 million opted-in consumers, zero in on specific markets and locations, and assess how many people are engaging with similar entertainment venues or competitors.
For example, a theater could use PlaceIQ’s data to track foot traffic around competing theaters or cultural events to understand the preferences of their potential audience. This insight can guide theaters in crafting targeted marketing campaigns, such as offering special promotions to draw in those who frequently visit other cultural venues.
5. Cuebiq
Cuebiq has a robust suite of data and tools for effective mobile footprinting that analyze human mobility and visitation patterns, unlocking consumer insights that can help you increase ticket sales.
Cuebiq enables you to understand the effectiveness of your marketing strategies and target the most effective audiences based on their offline behaviors, brand loyalty, purchase intent, and more.
For example, you could analyze visitation patterns to theaters in your area to determine the most effective locations for digital out-of-home ads and create highly targeted campaigns to display on them.
You can also use insights into consumer behavior and brand loyalty to tailor messaging and offers to specific audience segments, such as frequent theater-goers or those showing interest in specific genres of plays or musicals.
How to Choose the Best Mobile Footprinting Platform for Your Theater
When choosing a mobile footprinting platform, there are a few key factors you’ll need to consider. Some of these will be a higher priority to you than others, and each platform has its strengths.
To choose the most suitable mobile footprinting platform for your marketing efforts, consider the following five criteria, evaluating how each aligns with your specific needs and objectives.
1. Accuracy
The accuracy of a mobile footprinting platform is crucial, as accurate data enables a deeper understanding of audience behavior and trends in real-time, enabling well-informed decisions.
2. Data Quality
High-quality data is essential for developing targeted and effective marketing strategies.
3. Ease of Use
The user-friendliness of a platform is also important, particularly for those who are new to mobile footprinting. A platform with an intuitive interface can simplify the process of reaching consumers and enhance the overall user experience.
4. Cost
Budget considerations are always important. If you have a limited budget, look for a cost-effective solution that offers the features you need.
5. Privacy Compliance
Ensuring your chosen platform adheres to privacy laws and regulations is critical for responsibly managing audience data.
7 Tips for Maximizing the Benefits of Mobile Footprinting in Theater Marketing
Mobile footprinting can be a game-changer for theater marketing, offering deep insights into audience behaviors and preferences. Here are seven tips to get the most out of this technology:
1. Choose a Reputable Mobile Footprinting Provider
Selecting a trusted and reliable provider ensures access to high-quality data and support. Reputable platforms like Foursquare or PlaceIQ can offer robust and accurate data, essential for effective decision-making.
2. Prioritize Transparency and Consent
Be transparent with theatergoers about your use of mobile footprinting data by obtaining consent to adhere to privacy norms. This transparency ensures ethical data usage and helps maintain a positive relationship with your patrons.
3. Clean and Validate Your Data
Ensure your data is free of errors and omissions. Regular cleaning and validation of data are critical to maintaining its accuracy and usefulness in creating a theater marketing strategy.
4. Choose a Scalable Platform
Opt for a platform that can grow with your needs. Scalability is vital to accommodate expanding data sets and evolving marketing strategies.
5. Budget Accordingly
Factor in the costs of the platform and the expenses related to collecting, cleaning, and analyzing the data. A well-planned budget prevents unforeseen costs and ensures a sustainable approach to mobile footprinting.
6. Stay Informed on Privacy Laws
Regularly update your knowledge on the latest privacy laws and regulations. This ensures compliance and protects both your theater and your audience.
7. Get Expert Help
Consider hiring an expert partner who can maximize the potential of mobile footprinting platforms and tailor strategies to your specific needs, like the Grapeseed Media team.
We have extensive experience in helping theaters leverage mobile footprinting technology — for example, we helped Berkeley Rep reach pre-pandemic ticket sale levels in 2021 through a well-implemented mobile footprinting strategy.
If you’re looking to harness the power of mobile footprinting for your theater, get in touch with us.
We’ll help you craft and execute a tailored strategy that aligns with your goals and audience insights, ensuring your marketing efforts are not just a flash in the pan, but the opening act to a long-running hit.
