Orange Wednesdays

[coffers1]

Could some one please explain the benefits to both Orange and Odeon in there O Wednesday promotion?  You txt Film to 241 and you get a free odeon cinema ticket......

They have terminals at the Cinema so this isnt a short term thing.  What do you think they use the data they collect for?

[Greenbhoy]

are the texts to Orange on the 241 number free? or do they cost the average price of a cinema ticket?

[coffers1]

To call or text 241 is free. To receive a text ticket you'll be charged the standard rate of 10p per text.

[Ralph]

In sending your text to them for your free ticket, are you agreeing to allow your number to be sent copious quantities of marketing texts and/or calls? The fear of this, or more accurately the want to avoid this sort of thing is why I never go for this sort of thing. Perhaps a tad overcautious but you almost never get something for nothing.

[coffers1]

Ts and Cs....No number sharing mentioned....Ive used it and had no further correspondance from Orange or Third Parties

 

The promotion applies to all public paid advertised screenings, excluding premieres and other private screenings, on Wednesdays.
Text tickets are redeemable only on Wednesdays during the offer period during advertised opening hours of the participating cinemas.
The offer is not available when booking in advance by whatever means.
Text tickets must be presented at the cinema box office when buying the cinema ticket. The lowest price cinema ticket will be issued free.
The text ticket will be validated by the box office staff.
Once validated, the text ticket can't be used again.
There is a maximum of one text ticket per person per transaction. You can only use a text ticket once.
You can't use this promotion in conjunction with any other offer.
We cannot offer a cash alternative.
We will only accept original text tickets, and not copies.
The cinemas' standard terms and conditions of purchase, sale and entry apply.
The free cinema ticket issued is complimentary, with zero cash value.
The offer is valid until the expiry date stated on the text ticket.
There is only one free admission per customer per paid cinema ticket.
Seat availability is on a first come, first served basis. Admission is not guaranteed. Text ticket holders and their guests have no priority over other customers.
Admissions are subject to film classifications.
Text tickets are non-transferable.
The offer applies to standard seats only.
The free cinema ticket will be issued to the same film and session as the paid cinema ticket.
Text tickets are subject to availability. Text tickets are issued on a priority basis to active customers who spend over �5 per month with Orange. Orange may revise the terms of this promotion from time to time.

[rinkytink]

 

The benefit for Orange is that they get advertising and publicity.

The benefit to the cinema is that they get you in their cinema !! Wednesdays is probably their quietest night of the week. They have to pay for and show the films anyway so why not give away free tickets (or tickets subsidized by Orange) and have a full cinema.

Lots of people who get free tickets will still buy pop corn and hot dogs etc so the cinema will still make money. These days it costs so much to buy the rights to show films that the majority of a cinema's profit comes from non ticket sales anyway.

[Guinevere]

A trick to see if your details are being passed on is to slightly change the spelling of your name or address on whatever you signed up to.  I used to have a contract with Vodafone where I used an alternative spelling for my name.  It was quite surprising the amount of junk that came through my letterbox with that spelling!  I am no longer with Vodafone.

[Lillabet]

As someone who was already with Orange, and likes going to the cinema, I've used the Orange Wednesday promotion since it began. Due to an error my name is spelt slightly incorrectly with orange and I can confirm that I have not had any junk mail / spam etc on the basis of using this promotion.

The cinema - which was once very quiet midweek is a great deal busier on a Wednesday than it used to be. As an earlier respondent said the cinemas make most of their money on food sales etc anyhow and I would expect these are up.

Also you have a lot of adverts - presumably paid for by Orange encouraging people to go to the cinemas and even promoting specific films. So more revenue and lots of advertising for the cinema.

Orange get mentioned to everyone in the cinema at the start of each and every film - great advertising for them. Where I live a typical cinema ticket costs �7 so I save �3:50 (less the 10p for the text) each time I use it to go see a film I would have paid to see anyhow. Film fans may be more likely to switch to Orange phones as this is a nice incentive. For my part as I use the promotion about 3 times a month if I were to want to shop around I would factor in that I would be losing the promotion. This makes it harder for any other network to make me a better offer and makes me more likely to stick with Orange. So new customers and greater brand loyalty for orange. At a guess they probably also get discounted rates from the cinemas for their advertising...

Seems a little too good to be true - and leaves you thinking 'where's the catch?' but for me it has been an excellent thing and I hope it continues to run for some time to come.

[Lillabet]

As a PS to my earlier answer. You also asked what the data they collect is used for. As I said above it doesn't seem to be passed on to third parties. However I do get a text either saying that they hope I enjoyed the film or saying sorry that I missed the film. - I guess which text you get depends on whether or not your number is recorded as having been used by the cinema. This seems to be what the data collected is used for.

Each of these texts goes on to suggest that I visit the orange film website via my phone to find out more about films etc. I delete these and do not use my phone to visit the site. These follow up texts (and it is only one text per week) might encourage more people to go online via their phones and increase Orange's revenue that way too.

[Greenbhoy]

So the ticket isn't free then if the charge you 10p for the txt? That's a bit of a con.

[Lillabet]

Greenbhoy, whilst I agree that the advertising does say '2 for the price of 1' rather than '2 for the price of 1 plus 10p for a text'  -which I'm sure you'll agree would be less catchy...If you just send for the text when you want to go to the cinema anyhow it saves you money.

In my earlier post I said I pay �3.50 instead of �7. It would have been more accurate to say that in total I pay �3.60. Still saves me money and I don't feel conned. If it persuades you to go to the cinema when you wouldn't have otherwise then it is a successful advertising campaign. The Ts and Cs set out the text cost pretty clearly so I think it is stretching it a bit to call it a con.

[Octavius]

I'm still waiting for Vodafone Monday, or Tuesday, or Thursday.......

I imagine from reading the above that this is just a sponsorship advertising deal thingymawotsit.  It is good for people who have Orange or are getting it, but I wouldn't get an Orange phone just because of the cinema deal. 

[brian5]

Have you been to a cinema recently, �5 for a ticket, not too bad, but then you start buying drinks, sweets and other food, a hot dog cost you about �3, when anywhere else sells them for about �1, bags of starburts, �2 as apposed to �0.90, Drinks �3 a litre of Coke, when you can get a 3 litre bottle in ASDA for under �1, so even with a free ticket, you will still spend, on average, �10 in the cinema. Plus the advertising for both Orange and Odeon.

Trust me, neither Orange OR Odeon are giving you anything for nothing.

[Meekstaaa]

right rinky tink is on it there the cinema doesnt make much profit from ticket sales that covers bills wages etc.... now even if it was quiet on a wednesday we still get enought people through the doors friday nites saturday nites and saturday days to cover costs aswell so these free tickets we give out get more people in and most of these people buy stuff of the retail areas = profit for cinema odeon dont take any names from it they only get the codes and all they do is calculate how many codes that have been used. isnt really a con its a win win win situation for everyone. cinema = more profit, customer = free ticket and orange = publicity. i kno this cos i am a manager at an odeon

[marudu]

hi ,

     its free to call 241 number .but i never get responce from there.

  at last i got a ticket but its the lest price tickets  wich i never used to bye and i cant able to watch the movie properley and i went aweay

[nataliej]

ActiveMedia Technology provide the terminal used in the Orange Wednesday promotion. A quick look at their website (http://www.activemediatech.com/clients_cs_ow.p hp) reveals the purpose behind the campaign:


Objective

* Deploy an industry wide promotion that drives traffic to cinemas and builds Orange�s relationship with the cinemas
* Offer something unique and rewarding to Orange�s customer base:
o 2-4-1 deal on any cinema ticket, at any cinema nationwide on a Wednesday
o Three year promotion
* Collect a database of regular visitors to the Cinema venue


Results

* The campaign has been industry shaping � Now Wednesdays have the highest weekday traffic at the cinemas
* The campaign has built a strong brand recognition for Orange Wednesdays
* Orange Wednesdays is now marketed through broadcast, print, text, direct mail and in cinema ads
* A large and rich database of movie goers and their habits has been built
* The promotion has been extended to more and more cinemas every month