For the release of the new Kung Fu Panda 4 film on Friday 29th March 2024 we decided to collaborate with Showcase Cinemas and Universal Studios to increase awareness of Martial Arts in the local community and promote the launch of the new Kung Fu Panda film.
We created the opportunity for our members to host 3 taster sessions at their local Showcase Cinema for viewers of the film to participate in a 30-minute session before each film showing on launch day. We had 10 exclusive locations that had the capacity to host these sessions at their cinema including the highest grossing Showcase Cinema in the UK, with the largest foot traffic through its doors daily. We had 7 of our members take part in this opportunity in Cardiff, Reading, Avonmeads, Bluewater, Derby, Leicester, and Peterborough.
We planned for several high engagement promotions aimed to increased interest in these taster sessions and the schools of those hosting them including Facebook advertising, Social Media posts and a postcard to hand out on the day. We received an exclusive offer from Showcase Cinemas that offered discounted tickets to all our schools’ students and was featured on their website and in their monthly mailer which went out to thousands of Showcase Cinemas. We created landing pages to further promote the offer on our ‘Get Into Martial Arts’ hub and built an email mailer for our members to send to their students as an additional retention tool for their school.
The day was a huge success with our members achieving a number of student leads, and sign ups. Each school also had free online promotions for their club, as well as a local newspaper featuring the event at the Reading location.
We saw an increase in website traffic on our ‘Get Into Martial Arts’ hub and generated great social media results with over 21k impression, 100s of clicks and over 50 shares with additional coverage from Showcase Facebook Page. Our designed student mailer got sent to over 3k students and we had over 50 QR scans on the Showcase Postcard Offer.
Nicola, owner of KBT Academy hosted at the Bluewater Showcase Cinema near London said
“The session was great, and the cinema had cleared a really good space for us to host our taster sessions in. We had 4 main instructors and about 12 helpers on the day, along with our Kung Fu Panda mascot, which the kids loved and was a great draw with everyone wanting photos which allowed our instructors a chance to talk to the parents too.”
“We gave out about 1,000 leaflets along with over 100 NEST supplied postcards and in total we gained 25 good leads and had 2 signups on the day. The kids demonstrating had a great time and we got some good PR for our business. It was more than we expected altogether and would definitely do it again.”
David, owner of Matrix Martial Arts hosted at the Leicester Showcase Cinema said
“It was a great day and we even had some of our own guys come down to demonstrate a few moves, hold some shields and guide the taster sessions along. We had a brilliant day!”
Lee Nash, owner of Adrenaline Martial Arts hosted at the Peterborough Showcase Cinema said
“We had lots of enthusiastic youngsters showing off their moves with our team and our mascots Dojo Dennis and Nasher the Karate K9 have enjoyed a trip out from the Dojo too! We had a good space and set up, with our school’s banner and the Kung Fu Panda backdrop with retractable banners creating a ‘Dojo’ area with our flags at the front. Our mascots were saying ‘Hi’ and having photos with lots of the kids, and we got 12 taster session leads which was a positive.”
Here at NEST, we are always looking for opportunities for our members to take advantage of to help build on their school’s awareness and increase their student numbers and we will continue to develop, research, and provide options to our members to help their business to grow!
By BA (22.04.24)
