'Interstellar' - Buying Movie-Goers with Ticket into Space

Credit: Fandango, LLC.

For "Interstellar," Fandango, LLC, an online movie ticket service, came up with a creative way to promote its ticket service by connecting it to the innovative space tourism program of XCOR Aerospace. On the 5th of November, "Interstellar," a highly anticipated science-fiction adventure that was directed by renowned director Christopher Nolan, was exclusively released into selected movie theaters in North America. Full release into North American movie theaters was on the 7th.

To maximize Fandango's ticket-sales, thus revenue, from "Interstellar," a cooperative marketing effort between Fandango, Paramount, and Motherboard (a science and technology web-magazine of Vice Media) initiated a contest that promises to give away one ticket for a space-trip on board XCOR Aerospace's Lynx Mark II. Participation in the sweepstakes to win the space flight requires the purchase of a ticket to the movie through Fandango, which is the official sponsor of the sweepstakes. The winner, after several rounds of medical testing, will then be launched 100 kilometers (or about 62 miles) into space to experience weightlessness in zero-gravity and unforgettable views of earth - how appropriate. The date for the $100,000-flight in XCOR's rocket plane (that is "currently being assembled") will be determined by XCOR in the year of 2017.

I admire the creativity of Fandango's marketing minds who came up with a marketing plot that is simply ingenious and tremendously appropriate. What would be a better way to get people into seeing this movie than giving them the chance to win an actual trip into space?! This well-promoted incentive is difficult to top by Fandango's main competitor MovieTickets.com - giving Fandango the competitive edge. The promotion is surely increasing overall awareness of the company as well as it reinforces loyalty of Fandango's current customers. My perception of Fandango has been greatly influenced in a much positive way.

However, as I read comments on social media about the promotion and the contest itself, I found mixed messages. Most wrote they would definitely try their luck, buy the movie ticket, and hope to become a space tourist - some would not have bought the movie ticket if it wasn't for the chance to win. Meanwhile, others commented on the "bad timing" of the contest due to Virgin Galactic's recent disastrous crash, as I have mentioned in my prior blog post. This "bad timing" might affect the effectiveness of the marketing effort quite negatively, but I still think that it will capture peoples' attention as well as drive them to make the purchase through Fandango rather than through MovieTicket.com or directly in movie theaters around the United States. I might not be the most frequent of movie-goers, but this contest might just have woken my interest to go out to Fandango's Website and buy my ticket.

by Peter Steenhuis

Sources:
https://www.fandango.com/sweepstakes/interstellar

http://www.space.com/27616-interstellar-movie-xcor-spaceflight-contest.html

http://www.fandango.com/sweepstakesrules/interstellar

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816692/