Please, play with your phone … until the movie starts
TimePlay brings interactive games to local Cineplex screens
Edmonton moviegoers will soon have a new way to kill time before the show starts — a smartphone app that lets the men gage with advertising on the big screen.
Within the next few months, Cineplex Entertainment will bring TimePlay to its Edmonton theatres, Cineplex and TimePlay announced Tuesday.
The free app, already downloaded more than 1.5 million times in Toronto and Vancouver, transforms any smartphone into a controller for an advertising-driven game that plays on the theatre screen before the start of the feature attraction.
Movie fans compete for prizes and receive special offers from Cineplex and advertisers ranging from pizza restaurants to carmakers.
“We turn downtime into uptime,” said Aaron Silverberg, TimePlay’s vicepresident of marketing.
“When TimePlay comes on, you see a glow across the theatre from people’s phones. People focus, they’re cheering with their partner and their friends, and they’re competing against each other.
“And then once they’re done, you can go on our Twitter feed and see how everyone posts their position — ‘I finished seventh, I won a free pizza.’
“At the end of the day, what we deliver is a mass social experience.”
TimePlay says users are likely to take advantage of the special offers sent to their phones. One offer from Mazda generated nearly 9,000 test drives.
Likewise, nearly half of people offered a free medium pizza from Pizza Pizza claimed their prizes.
TimePlay and Cineplex began testing interactive games at some Toronto theatres in 2011. In late 2012, the experiment grew to 231 screens in Toronto and Vancouver.
The latest expansion includes Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, London, Waterloo, Oakville, Montreal, Halifax, Moncton, Saint John, St. John’s and Charlottetown.
The expansion, which will put TimePlay in a total 725 theatres across Canada, will begin in summer and be complete by October.
“We expect it to be a big hit with Edmonton movie goers,” said Mike Langdon, director of communications with Cineplex Entertainment.
Silverberg said other potential markets for the technology include bars, cruise ships, stadiums and airports. “Wherever there is a screen and someone with a smartphone, we’re pretty much good to go.”
He said TimePlay has not sparked complaints about people using their smartphones after the movie starts because smartphone users generally understand the etiquette.
“We’ll send a message at the end, to people’s devices, to turn off their phone,” Silverberg said.
“People are getting in the habit of ‘OK, it’s over, I’m shutting it down.’”