University of Illinois Shares Their Simple Steps for a Successful Movie Series
Read and watch how the University of Illinois grew their booming movie program into an every Friday activity, with two additional showings each Saturday.
According to Jenna Wicks, program advisor for the Illini Union Board at the University of Illinois, their movie program was slow to build at first but now has grown to feature a movie event every Friday and two movie showings on Saturday. "Our movie program was kind of slowly building. We started doing it one Friday a month, and then it became an every Friday night thing. And now, it has grown to [a movie event] every Friday and two showings on Saturday. Our students do all the picking of the films and the scheduling, so they'll go through and say 'here's a list of what's available.' They'll pick out what they think will work best that weekend," she explained when talking about the massive success of their movie program.
Since much of the movie program's success comes from their excellent marketing, Kellen Dempsey, director of Illinites for the Illini Union Board, has their promotional plan set before classes even begin. "Our marketing is really just consistent and accessible," she noted. "We have the posters already set before the semester starts. When students get to campus, [they already see] the poster in the Illini Union that shows every movie for the weekends of that semester."
Social media and tabling for the movie events are two other important marketing tactics the program relies on, as is the panda suit the Illini Union Board purchased. "We do have a panda suit people dress up in on the Quad. People love to see a panda randomly running around... handing out flyers. We also [set up] a marketing table at popular spots on campus. We'll just play music, give out candy and hand out the flyers so people know what's happening with the Illini Union."
"Working with Swank has been great because we've planned out sixteen weeks of events. I don't have to worry. It's one of those events that students can manage themselves." Jenna Wicks, Program Advisor for the Illini Union Board at the University of Illinois
When it comes to the technical details of the movie showings, Jonathan Bonaguro, multimedia lead technician for the Illini Union Board, loves the ease of Swank's Cinelink player. "The main thing I like about Cinelink is that we don't [need] DVDs or laptops to run it. It runs completely independently... it just makes our life so much easier because we don't need to worry about having a computer or DVDs," he explained when talking about running the movie events.
Dallas Marks, director of films and weekend entertainment for the Illini Union Board, credits the reliability of Swank's service as a major stress reliever before a show. "It's been a great experience working with Swank. I love how reliable [they are] because I know that I'm not going to have a problem at 7:00 pm on a Friday when it's time to show the movie."
And just what do the students think of this on-campus entertainment perk? Those that run the program have heard the popcorn, the movie choices and the fact that students get to see them before they are available on most streaming services are the three main reasons why their program is so popular.
To conclude the conversation about their movie series, Jenna said, "Working with Swank has been great because we've planned out sixteen weeks of events. I don't have to worry. It's one of those events that students can manage themselves. I think our films program brings these students together and really gives them some great opportunities.
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