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Project Research Summary CONTENTS Executive Summary Approved Proposal Thesis Contract Research Summary Visual Briefs “Whatever it is your seeking won’t come in the Design Management form you’re expecting.” Haruki Murakami EXECUTIVE Ontario is Canada’s largest film festival destination With over 70 film festivals, several of which are world renowned, SUMMARY there is potentially a film festival to attend every week of the year in Ontario. Find Your Film Fest can find a festival that’s right for every person wanting to come and explore Ontario. Film festivals are a great return on investment As a tourism draw to Ontario, film festivals do very well. For example, big-name non-profit film festivals like TIFF, make back 5 times their operating costs each and every film festival year, bringing in millions to Ontario’s capital city simultaneously. While “searching is an smaller festivals return less than TIFF, they contribute just as much by bringing together the people who live in the host cities. act of discovery, and If you Film festivals have a perception problem have to know the name of the Based on research we conducted, the perception, of film fests thing you’re searching for, especially by our target audience, is that they are confusing, complex and costly. We get that many of the big festivals sprawl are you really discovering over the city, and we understand that to those without regular use of a car, the smaller festivals outside of city centers can something new?” be hard to get to. Allison Cake While we can’t change the cost of a ticket, or give people cars to make the northernly journey easier. We can make the smaller, less costly festivals more accessible on-line. We can also provide an easier way to pay for film festival tickets rather than standing in long and dubious lines for hours. Learning about smaller film festivals on-line is hard After our study about perceptions of film festivals, when we tried to search for new film festivals online ourselves, we too were confused. We learned pretty quickly that there wasn’t a place online where we could learn about new and smaller film festivals, instead we were at the mercy of the words we put into the search box. This is a problem for us, as the internet has always been a place of discovery. Our purpose We are all about you Our purpose is to promote Ontario as a diverse and culturally rich We are film festival nerds and we want everyone to join in on our place for film festival goers to visit. Find Your Film Fest supports excitement. We primarily target international and domestic visitors and entices prospective visitors to come to Ontario at any time of travelling to Ontario. As a pilot project, we have narrowed our focus the year, exploring places they wouldn’t normally think to visit. designing for our visitors between the ages of 22 and 37, with plans to include all generations further down the road. Why do we focus on millennials? Please go to the Research summary for more info about The difference is in our thinking the research we did on our millennial target market. We use analytics, a value driven audience matrix and user supported forms to tailor the information on our site so that We want to make a connection you’re finding the festivals and films we think you’ll really like. We also make it easier for you to purchase tickets to festivals, Our biggest value is you. Making information about film festivals making block-long ticket lines a thing of the past. specific to you is our biggest priority. We honour accessibility and inclusivity at a very close second. A close third is respecting the craft and exhibition of good film making and good design. If you’re passionate, serious about discovery and want to see films not found on a streaming service, it is our joy to help you Find Your Film Fest this year. Approved Proposal | Project: Research + Summary Allison Cake The Thesis Topic Checklist has been used in the crafting of this proposal. The topic presented here meets the criteria serving as APPROVED a strong foundation for a design thesis project. To learn more about the problem and potential PROPOSAL solutions, more research is needed regarding: 1. How each festival promotes itself currently: in print,media, My client is Cineplex Entertainment whose is in the online, and to whom. motion picture, video promotion, distribution and exhibition industries. They also sponsor several Canadian film festivals. 2. Trends related to festivals, travel destinations and Cineplex Entertainment’s problem in recent years has also been entertainment media companies that young adults one of lower attendance in their 165 theatres across Canada, currently love and enjoy. resulting in lower box office ticket sales. The Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC), operating as Destination Canada (DC) is a 3. How do young adults like to be communicated with? crown corporation, operating in both the tourism industry and marketing industry. DC has several roles but their main concerns The main research question(s) addressed during the are in promoting Canada to key countries to attract international research phase of the project will be: visitors into Canada. 4. Why aren’t young adults going out to watch movies at The problem I being focused on with respect to DC, is in theatres as a generational group? helping them to attract more millennial travellers to Canada. The creation of a guide to include all Canadian film festivals will 5. Why isn’t there a film guide to Canada’s film festivals be in a partnership between Cineplex and Destination Canada. available to Canadians right now? This guide will serve two important functions: to draw millennial tourists to Canada, and to increase attendance numbers to Canada’s film festivals, of which many are both sponsored by and housed in Cineplex theatres Canada-wide,which will assist in increasing both movie ticket revenue for Cineplex Entertainment “Accept that and visitors to Canada. everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.” Cult of Done Manifesto Problem The Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation (OTMPC) needs to showcase Ontario as a four-season must-see travel hub both at home and internationally to people aged 20 to 35 years of age. As millennials represent the most ethnically diverse age demographic in Canada, who also take the longest trips, OTMPC needs to find new ways to promote Ontario as a culturally diverse place to visit as their competition is outperforming them roughly 3 to 5 times over. Instead, OTMPC needs to find a way to promote Ontario as the abundant and diverse place with lot’s to do and see all year round. THESIS This can be achieved by promoting Ontario’s abundant and already popular film festivals that happen almost every week. CONTRACT Goal OTMPC communicated effectively to millennial-aged visitors highlighting how sophisticated, beautiful, and a truly diverse Ontario is to visit. Business Need OTMPC’s need is to position Ontario as a global preferred destination all year round. To do this it needs to appeal on an emotional level to value-conscious travellers who are taking fewer, shorter trips with less spending, but who are willing to pay for unique and authentic experiences. Research Insights Communicating through social media and advertising to millennials in a corporatized and generic method hurts a corporation’s bottom line. This is because millennials distrust big government, the media, and big business the least out of all ten Canadian institutions listed. Instead, to communicate effectively corporations need to communicate in an informal and personalized way. Thesis Contract | Project: Research + Summary Allison Cake The mainstream film market in Canada has been seeing a gen- with Alberta and Quebec being secondary domestic competitors. Fur- eral decline in box office attendance for well over a year, citing thermore, Brand USA’s website features articles about film festivals, cost as the main reason why Canadians aren’t seeing movies in both big and small happening throughout the U.S. on their website. theaters. Yet, last year 20 million Canadians country-wide saw They also leverage their Hollywood movie industry in much of their films in theatres in 2017. So, the underlying reasons why box promotional advertising, and even fund films recognizing that their office revenue is down is not purely because of cost, but rather it film and the entertainment industry is very attractive to tourists. is because moviegoers need for more variety than what is currently being offered through mainstream channels. Design Solution and Application Target Audience Creation of a web-based information system that is targeted to “Show up. each of the six value groups within the millennial age demographic. Demographics Communicating in an informal and human-centred way to both Be kind. domestic and international visitors to Ontario attracting them to Both research conducted about movie the many film festivals offered year-round. audiences and about tourists suggests that learn. the group with the most disposable income Video and digital design deliverables will be complemented by print and that value both contemporary culture repeat.” offerings. The desired result of this thesis is to better communicate to and travel is the millennial age bracket. and thus attract millennial-aged tourists to Ontario. Millennials as of 2017 are people aged 22 to Frida Kahlo 37, and this thesis will concentrate on this age range. Design Deliverables Psychographics Primary According to research conducted by The Environics Institute A mobile-first website for Ontario’s film festivals where information in their, ‘Canada Millennial Social Values Study’, millennials is categorized based on different user’s needs.