Page 29 - Sphere No.27 (Sep 2010)

27
Sphere
interactive games – reaches its 4.5 million
customer base.
Viewers can call, video call, text and
even use webcams to get into La3’s live
shows, explained 3 Italia’s Lara Grigatti.
“There, they can answer quiz questions
and win prizes. Over one year, La3 will
award 11,000 prizes valued at a total of
EUR1.1 million.”
Aimed at a youthful audience, the
games are hosted by 15 lively and ener-
getic “3Jays”. They introduce a total of 14
hours per day of live shows. “One of the
most popular is TeleGiocoShow, a quiz to
test viewers’ language, logical and math-
ematic skills,” said Ms Grigatti.
Such is the popularity of La3 that some 3Jays have already
become celebrities in Italy – not surprising as Screen Digest, a
media-focused research company, estimated that mobile televi-
sion will generate nearly USD6.5 billion in 2011 in Asia, North
America and Western Europe combined, with subscription
business models dominating the market.
These portable, interactive “televisions” are also helping
revive the fortunes of their big screen counterpart, the cinema.
Threatened by piracy and illegal Internet downloads, movie
theatres had a brief lull in the early turn of the 21st century. But
now their popularity is again on the rise, and 3 Italia is aiding
that trend.
Under the programme, “Grande Cinema 3”, 3 Italia’s custom-
ers can get gift cards free at 3Stores enabling them to go to the
cinema for free. Stefano Piastrelli, 3 Italia Brand, Communica-
tion and Advertising Sales Director, explained the thinking
behind the promo. “The target is to build customer loyalty and
get new customers. They can watch a wide range of movies and
access a large number of cinemas across the country using our
cards,” he said. Customers can choose to see movies from all the
top distributors. More than 300 cinemas have already joined
the initiative, and at least another hundred are looking to join.
Cinemas in Italy’s main cities have been targeted first, but ac-
cording to Mr Piastrelli, “the target is to give our customers the
possibility to reach theatres in less than 30 minutes by car.”
Customers receive information about movies and theaters
via SMS and trailer clips in all the 3Stores or by connecting
to the websitewww.grandecinema3.it . Italian actress Claudia
Gerini is fronting commercials for the
multimedia campaign, which includes TV
advertising, a massive press campaign and
radio and web campaigns.
Customers are hailing Grande Cinema
3 as not only benefitting them, but also
as giving the country’s movie industry a
boost. A journalist in the Giornale dello
Spettacolo enthusiastically expressed
the hope that people would use the free
passes to go and see the best in Italy’s
high-brow movies. He said, “thinking about competitors’
initiatives, where only testimonial counts and nothing more, 3
Italia scores a goal!”
Cinema owners and movie distributors are happy too. QMI’s
President Giovanni Cova said in a recent interview, “Grande
Cinema 3 has no precedents in terms of investments and num-
ber of customers involved, who will be able to go to the cinema
free with 3 Italia’s cards. This is probably the most important
operation ever realised in the cinema sector.”
Both La3’s quiz shows and Grande Cinema 3 are proving
popular and Mr Piastrelli puts this down partly to 3 Italia’s long
association with multimedia. “Since 3 Italia’s launch, cinema
and TV have always
been linked to the
company’s culture.
Our customer base
is aged from 25 to 45
on average and highly
educated, a profile
that matches the de-
mographic of cinema’s
most frequent users.”
He concluded,
“If this project is
as successful as we
hope, we are going to
launch new initia-
tives in other fields of
show business.”
Thinking about
competitors’
initiatives, where
only testimonial
counts and nothing
more, 3 Italia
scores a goal!
The La3 and Grande Cinema 3 campaigns
have captured the imagination of the
Italian public.