Case studies

With the increase in growth in home entertainment such as DVD, computer games and digital television, competition for people’s leisure time and spending is becoming more of an exact science for retail marketers. Despite being one of the UK’s largest cinema operators, Odeon Cinemas needs to continuously monitor customer and competitor trends in order to maintain this positioning. To enable Odeon to plan effective marketing strategies that will keep it ahead of its competitors, Ordnance Survey licensed partner, GeoBusiness Solutions has developed a desktop geographic information system (GIS) to support this activity.

Code-Point^®, a business product in Ordnance Survey’s digital data portfolio, is a geographic directory of around 1.6 million post codes in Great Britain and underpins the GIS developed for Odeon. At its core, Code-Point not only displays the location of each postcode unit but also provides additional intelligence such as the likely use of buildings and the number of delivery points and domestic addresses in each unit.

Recognising the role of geographic intelligence in its business plan, Odeon uses Code-Point data for two key applications: site location and impact analysis, and customer tracking and campaign planning.

In planning campaigns Odeon geographically locates all open, closed or proposed cinema sites across the country and, from its own call centre and box office data, maps out customer sales information at postcode level. On top of this data Odeon can then plot the geographical distribution of admissions by cinema or film within a specific time period enabling instant interrogation of data to provide a clearer picture for future marketing initiatives.

Geographic intelligence also assists Odeon in its location-based decisions using GeoBusiness Solutions’ model to assess the possible impact of increased competition, the potential of new sites or the effect of closure or refurbishment.

Odeon’s GIS also allows information to be aggregated, analysed and viewed in different ways enabling lifestyle or demographic data to be easily overlaid. This is useful when estimating demand for a new multiplex. Code-Point also plays a vital part in displaying catchment area characteristics – particularly distance decay, i.e. how the number of customer visits declines as distance from the outlet increases.

Commenting on role of geographic intelligence in business planning, Richard Storton, brand manager for Odeon Cinemas, said: "Geographic intelligence enables us to analyse the location of our customer base to a level of detail and accuracy that is fundamental to our business decisions. By profiling customers using demographics, lifestyle factors, proximity to potential new stores etc, we can put into visual and analytical context all the elements required to support the decision making process. The flexibility of Ordnance Survey’s data enables us to interrogate this information instantly to test various scenarios, so that we can evaluate potential revenue more efficiently and effectively, and more accurately set and fulfil performance targets."

Code-Point is just one of Ordnance Survey’s business products used by GeoBusiness Solutions to create tailored marketing applications. With a level of coverage that is reasonably detailed for the marketing purpose, GeoBusiness’ director Steve Halsall believes that Code-Point plays a vital part in their development of effective marketing tools.