MoviePass Wants Cinephiles to ‘Dream Bigger’
“We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep,” Shakespeare wrote in The Tempest. The line was appropriated in the 1941 film, The Maltese Falcon, whose titular object was much coveted amongst a group of underworld types, including fictional detective Sam Spade, played by Humphrey Bogart. Any association with motion pictures carries the whiff of dreams and fantasy, so MoviePass, a digital loyalty platform which has come back from the online grave, launched an ad campaign with the tagline, “Dream Bigger.”
The line was in turn inspired by Apple’s long-ago “Think Different” campaign, according to Stacy Spikes, MoviePass Co-Founder and CEO.
“In our research, we realized that cinema is the ultimate art form that empowers and advances human potential,” Spikes explained. “People go to the movies to be inspired, and ‘Dream Bigger’ is a call to action for us to become the people we were born to be.”
Running online across social media, outdoor, OOH, and connected TV, the “Dream Bigger” loyalty campaign is focused primarily in New York, which Spikes called, “our backyard and our largest market.” MoviePass developed the campaign in conjunction with brand strategy agency P3RL.
Targeted within the New York audience are movie buffs. The campaign launched in late December and features famous unidentified directors, whose faces should be as recognizable as their work to any cineaste.
The spot opens with (what else?) dramatic music and a black-and-white still portrait of a bearded Orson Welles, followed by John Waters, Spike Lee, Stanley Kubrick, Pedro Almodovar, Ryan Coogler, Sophia Coppola, Ava Duvernay, and Greta Gerwig. A voiceover declares, “This is the true joy in life. Being used for a purpose. Life is no brief candle. It is a splendid torch, and I want to make it burn.”
Directors are to MoviePass what athletes are to Nike, Spikes said. “We wanted to feature these heroes of cinema who often go unrecognized.” Kubrick, Lee, Welles, and the others– unrecognized? We beg to differ.
Nevertheless, Spikes said, “One of the things we realized is that MoviePass is for movie people. Movie people see the world differently than moviegoers. We want to reach people who see cinema as a lifestyle – an activity that is vital to them – not just as entertainment. MoviePass members are very passionate about the cinematic art form.”
Ironically, that passion helped crash the company, which launched in 2011 and shut down by 2019. Its offer to attend an “unlimited” number of movies in theaters for $9.95 a month was so popular among cinephiles, it became unsustainable. Just days ago, the former CEO of MoviePass’s parent company, pled guilty to securities fraud after being charged with misleading investors about the meaning of “unlimited.”
The good news is that MoviePass is back with a more reasonable proposition: This new MoviePass loyalty model has $10, $20 and $30 plans that allow filmgoers to purchase a monthly number of credits that can go toward each movie they want to see. The number of credits varies based on the day of the week and length of time the movie has been in theaters.
MoviePass subscribers are loyal to cinema and tend to watch movies in theaters at least once a month. “They most often see movies in the first week of release,” Spikes said and are inspired as much by movie locations as the stories. “Tend to travel more than the average population. They tend to be more adventurous and entrepreneurial and take risks in life more than others.”
Unlike other loyalty programs that only work at specific theater chains, MoviePass members can go to movies at any theater that Mastercard is accepted, including all major theater chains and independent art houses. Dream Bigger!
