September 18, 2016-Fandango Partners with Facebook: An Effort to Keep Moviegoing RelevantSMU SMC

Fandango partners with Facebook in efforts to increase movie ticket sales. How? Users now have the ability to easily purchase movie tickets on Facebook without ever having to leave the application.

With the convenience and growing popularity of in-home entertainment, going to the movie theater to see a movie is starting to lose its appeal. Video streaming services such as Netflix and Youtube are extreme competitors for the movie theater industry. Now, Fandango partners with Facebook in hopes to improve this issue. Users now have the ability to buy tickets directly on the Facebook application in order to motivate younger generations to get off of the sofa and head to the movie theater.

According to The Times, only 513 million people went to the movies this summer, which is 3.5% less people than the previous year. With social media being such a crucial marketing tactic in today’s day in age, Fandango’s President Paul Yanover explains his reasoning in The Times for why Fandango partners with Facebook. He states that this partnership is Fandango’s way of coming to the customer, instead of relying on the customer to come to it.

Fandango now offers movie tickets on Facebook, and they can be purchased on Facebook movie fan pages. The Times reported that Fandango is currently offering tickets to the following films: “The Magnificent Seven,” starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt; “Storks,” a Warner Bros. animated movie; and the comedy concert movie “Kevin Hart: What Now?”.

How is it done? It’s simple. All you have to do is click the large blue button at the top of the movie’s fan page that says “Buy Tickets”. If you tap on this on your mobile device, Fandango allows you to look up nearby showtimes and theaters and go through the entire checkout process without ever having to leave the Facebook application. Around 70 percent of Fandango tickets are sold on mobile devices, so I really think that this partnership will be a success.

Fandango partners with Facebook with the incentive to make it easier to purchase movie tickets, specifically for younger audiences. Fandango found an efficient way to reach this younger crowd by partnering with a popular application like Facebook. Good job, Fandango.

Fandango’s partnership with Facebook is just one of the ways this ticket selling company is increasing movie ticket sales. With Apple’s new iOS 10 operating system, users now have the ability to access the Fandango application while remaining on the iPhone messaging application. Fandango also plans to coordinate with SnapChat, another major social media platform that is popular with younger generations in society today.