Our new report, Hispanics Go to the Movies: Starring Mobile and Social, conducted via MocoSpace, a mobile game platform, with strategy guidance from Lopez Negrete Communications, Inc., offers statistics and insights about Hispanics’ movie-going attendance and purchase decisions. The study recruited 2,308 US Hispanics.

The findings highlight prime opportunities for engaging Hispanic movie-going consumers via mobile marketing efforts.

Top mobile marketing and mCommerce opportunities for reaching Hispanic moviegoers:

#1 – Holiday and Opening weekend promos and deal alerts: Offer promos, campaigns and deal alerts around holidays and weekends to encourage more Hispanics to choose your movie or theater. 73% reported going to a movie theater over a holiday and 58% on movie opening weekends. Timely mobile tactics are simple and easy ways to attract more Hispanics to a show time at your theater. 38% indicated an interest in more mobile promos and discount alerts.

#2 – Make it a more local/social/rewarding movie experience: Movie going by nature is a local experience. It’s not surprising that up to 75% use their mobile to find a movie listing and that 39% of Hispanics go directly to a local theater’s website to find a listing.  A little more surprising however, is that 16% are physically going to a theater to see what movies are playing. Given the high rates of opening weekend or holiday attendance, there are opportunities to have more location-specific experiences and social events focused in top Hispanic DMAs, to drive buzz and sales for theaters or movie producers. There are many easy and cost-effective social tactics to reward and incentivize customers e.g. a badge for the person who gets the most friends to attend, free popcorn if customers purchase tickets as a group of four or more movie goers.

#3- Facilitate mobile movie ticket sales: A surprising 92% of Hispanics are buying their tickets in-person. 54% felt that buying tickets via mobile was too difficult. 22% felt a better mobile ticketing app was needed. Further exploration about the types of app and usability features that will encourage customers to buy tickets on their mobile is needed.

The Infographic below provides key findings of the study:

Hispanics are interested in using social media and mobile phones for movie discovery and ticket purchasing. Is the movie industry ready to employ tactics for better engagement?

Click here for the full press release