Mobile coupons go to the cinema with Sprint, Screenvision and bCODE

UPDATED

Patrons of five hundred cinemas in the US are going to be seeing a new mobile coupon service before the end of the year. The SMS-based service is powered by bCODE, promoted by in-cinema advertisers Screenvision and carried by Sprint network.

What is the bCODE service?

On the consumer side, all you need to be able to do is send an SMS. Screenvision will be promoting all of the details of the service in the cinemas themselves - which requires interested consumers to send the word “Sprint” to a shortcode (22633, in this case). They will then receive an SMS in return, containing a bCODE.

The next step requires a machine that will be installed in the cinema. The consumer enters their bCODE into a touch screen device called a MediaPlane - which will then present a selection of different promotions and money-off vouchers. To begin with these will mostly be for items at the concession stand, but in time the service can expand to include different deals. Once the consumer has selected the promotion they want, the MediaPlane prints a paper coupon which is redeemable in the cinema.

From the release:

Michael Mak, Chief Executive Officer, bCODE: “bCODE is a scanning technology that works far better than competing technologies. We`ve solved the carrier hurdle and the device hurdle and now, through our partnership with Screenvision, we are able to provide this exclusive deal to Sprint customers. This cinema partnership featuring bCODE technology has created the world`s largest mobile coupon redemption network. Our bCODE technology will be utilized by Screenvision and Sprint in 500 theaters today and we plan to expand the network to 900 theaters in early 2010.”

Michael Chico, Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Screenvision: “bCODE`s technology has helped bring marketers new and innovative ways for moviegoers to connect with brands in a unique way. The moviegoing experience starts and ends in the lobby, and this new bCODE technology will truly provide marketers with another way to seamlessly integrate their brands into the moviegoing experience and help forge stronger connection to their brands. The bCODE partnership is another example of Screenvision`s role as one of the most active innovation leaders in cinema advertising.”

What we think?

I’ve long been a supporter of mobile as the best channel for coupons… but this service seems overly complicated to me. There’s an unnecessary middle man here, in the shape of the MediaPlane. Rather than using your bCODE SMS as the method to get a paper coupon, why not use it as the coupon itself? On the plus side, the touch screen device does offer some flexibility for this service - it allows a large selection of coupons to be displayed in an easy way, and those coupons can be changed quickly and regularly. But I’m not sure that makes up for the expense of installing and maintaining several hundred touch screen printers. Since Screenvision will be advertising on-location anyway, it wouldn’t be too hard to list the available discounts on printed material in the cinema. Then again, maybe it’ll work. It gives you the chance to play with a large touch screen, which most people enjoy!

Update:

Robert Danish, VP Sales at bCODE, made contact to point out that a few misapprehensions of mine about the bCODE service. It’s actually a good bit less complicated for the user than I thought it was: “First, the consumer doesn’t enter anything on the touchscreen. He simply scans the bcode on the scanner light, and receives multiple offers that he can pick from on touchscreen display. Second, the printed voucher with 1D barcode is used so that cinemas could quickly deploy this technology without first entering into heavy integration with their POS (point of sale) system. Integration with POS is absolutely supported by bCODE, which would eliminate the need for the paper voucher. Third, this deployment is across 29 different cinema chains with different POS and IT networks. We solved this problem with the printed voucher and using Sprint 3G/WiFi router connectivity.”