Maya Cinemas has been a Vista customer for more than 5 years, and a pillar in their local communities since the opening of their first cinema in 2005. Founded with a mission to build and operate megaplex movie theatres in previously underserved, family oriented Latinx communities, Maya Cinemas are always on the lookout for new ways to bring their guests value and even more reasons to love their cinema.

Maya Cinemas’ latest opportunity to bring greater value, engagement, and rewards to their guests was by embracing Vista Subscriptions, with the creation of their new subscription programme, Maya!Mas.

The Growth of Subscriptions

Subscriptions as a concept have grown constantly since their initial inception throughout the cinema industry and have exploded in recent years. They have become not only a staple of the industry, but a key factor in the success of many exhibitors. Providing subscription programmes is part of a modern quality cinema experience.

But a subscription offer alone isn’t enough. Subscriptions need to be built smart. They form part of a consistent and enticing customer experience, giving moviegoers incentives and rewards that heighten engagement and inspire commitment to your cinema. (There’s a reason Subscriptions are Loyalty programmes; that's exactly what they aim to foster.) But Subscriptions are vastly more effective when they are both constructed with your specific audience and cinema goals in mind, and integrated with marketing, operations, and your wider objectives.

The Keys to Subscription Success

This is precisely why Vista has built our Subscriptions module to offer the best way to build your subscription programmes to be intelligent, purposeful, and to serve both your key audience and your bottom line.

Maya Cinemas focuses on particular markets. Rather than entering a competitive space and seeking to leverage market share from established players, they focus on markets underserved by existing theatres, growing box office in those markets. In Subscriptions, Maya Cinemas saw the opportunity to provide their guests with a value-driven programme that focuses on their core values of family and community.

“We currently live in a world of subscriptions, and we decided that we could provide a value to our guests that was better than the alternatives.”

With Maya!Mas, Maya Cinemas have created a new value proposition suited for their guests; their subscription gives moviegoers flexibility of how many tickets per month they wish to sign up for, and enhances the offering with additional benefits including Canal Maya tickets — Maya Cinemas’ alternative programming initiative — and concession discounts.

As a cinema that features both first-run Hollywood titles and additional tailored programming for their local communities, linking the two through Maya!Mas rewards widens the appeal of their offering and provides fans of each with the opportunity to branch out easily.

And their creation has seen fantastic success. Within three months they hit their break-even goal, which quickly assured them that they had a viable programme. After the initial 3 months beginning in July 2022, Maya continued to double their programme participation by December, with strong redemptions sitting at 1-2% of their total ticket sales every week.

Making complex integration a smooth operation

Of course, implementation of any major guest-facing initiative involves a lot of moving parts. Naturally, that comes with technical obstacles. “Vista was a great partner,” says CEO Francisco Schlotterbeck, “providing a PM and core technical team that was skilled and responsive.

“The measure of a good partnership isn’t how you’re supported when things are going well, but how you’re supported through challenges.”

“While we contended with technical issues along the way, the measure of a good partnership isn’t how you’re supported when things are going well, but how you’re supported through challenges. Vista showed they can be an excellent partner with this deployment.”

Subscriptions are the future

Subscriptions are a core part of exhibition today, but it is important to ensure the programme you run is a successful extension of your business. With the lessons learned from early adoption attempts like Moviepass into newer models, Vista Subscriptions is built on our industry expertise to help you drive increased visitation and garner loyalty in your moviegoers.

Maya Cinemas have seen great success with their adoption of Subscriptions, and Maya!Mas is just the beginning.

Interested in finding out how Subscriptions could work for your cinema? Reach out to your Vista Account Manager to learn more, or contact us directly today!

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