An entertainment marketplace which has films are at its center and from which all the experiences the viewer associates before and after watching them emanate, combining the physical with the digital.
This is the proposal of Chili, the Italian TVOD platform which started in 2012 as a system of hiring and selling films and has today become a composite eco-system that can count 5 majors in its capital (Warner, Sony Pictures, Paramount, Viacom and Twentieth Century Fox which hold 20%), in addition to important private Italian investors, and which has also ‘conquered’ another 4 European countries (Poland, Germany, Austria and UK).
“We represent 65% of the European market with regard to the distribution of value content”, the CEO Giorgio Tacchia tells Cinema & Video International, when we met at the margins of the meeting entitled “L’alleanza fra fisico e digitale per la gestione del nuovo paradigma di mercato- The alliance between physical and digital for managing the new market paradigm” inside VISIONI INCONTRA/Visioni dal Mondo-Immagini dalla realtà, held in Milan last September.
Chili monitors every stage of the ‘viewer’s journey’, from the trailer to the viewing of the film, either streamed or in the movie theater, to the merchandising:
“According to our research 40% of our registered users are interested in merchandising, and 20% in cinema in movie theaters.”
Merchandising that targets enthusiasts, with collectors’ products like “a picture with a lock of the original Chewbecca’s hair, signed by Lukas Film, which sold for £ 500 UK pounds”
Chili also promotes cinema in theaters using editorial instruments, a geolocation system and vouchers or direct ticket sales.
“We occupy 80% of Italian theaters with the vouchers and around 50% with the direct approach”. Understandably it isn’t easy to get past the diffidence of the exhibitors, “even if they are now beginning to believe what we say”, which is that if the cinema experience manages to be exclusive and high quality, “it is obvious that it is better and more engrossing than home viewing. And I am sincerely convinced about promoting it because anyone who buys a ticket potentially becomes our client. Like with music: when the concerts are full more has been sold”.
Another aspect of the relationship with exhibitors is to carry out marketing initiatives with them, sharing personal data, “as we do with the Giometti circuit of movie theaters, for example, or with whoever is prepared to innovate”.
And with an eye on production, “although always and exclusively”, emphasizes Tacchia, “in the role of minority financial co-producers”, which is what happened with the recent partnership with Magnitudo Film: “for six art films which will be released in cinemas in 2019 for which we will manage the windows afterwards. It is not our core business, but it is a tactical opportunity that we have begun to measure, and that we might repeat, if there are similarly interesting projects”.
