BookMyShow has been stirring things up in UAE and around the GCC. Making it easier and fun to go out again. Everyone needs entertainment more than before and BookMyShow says things are already improving.
We sat down with Lawrence Harradine, Lead – Business, Middle East, from BookMyShow, to talk about the state of entertainment, COVID’s impact and the future of fun.
Note, as you read this interview, any parts in italics are questions of discussions that happened in the middle of a question.
What are the future goals of the brand, BookMyShow?
BookMyShow is a brand synonymous with entertainment with cinema. We have been established in India for close to 20 years now and present in so many cities in so many markets. For us, obviously, we want to continue to build up the brand awareness of BookMyShow in UAE.
We are such a huge brand in India, and that’s something we want to try and replicate in other parts of the world. It’s going to take time, and obviously, nothing happens overnight. But, that’s something I really want to try and replicate here.
Who do you see as your competitors other than the likes of PlatinumList and Ticketmaster? And what about Dubai calendar?
Dubai Calendar is an interesting one. It’s not really so much a competitor, because it’s part of DTCM. So is the governmental website, and we very much work in tandem with them. All our events, that we ticket for, are also on Dubai Calendar, they help market, push and promote them.
In terms of the competitive landscape, yeah, it certainly is, as you mentioned, the likes of PlatinumList, Ticketmaster. There’s a few other ones, like 800Tickets, Q-Tickets, meraTicket, and more. So it’s definitely a competitive landscape. But at the same time, it’s a huge market. Whether that be Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and more. There’s so many sectors that we’re ticketing for, whether it be live entertainment, cinema, or even attractions. Once you’ve got all those industries together we’re talking about an industry that’s within the billions of dollars multiple times over. So there’s certainly room for multiple players and there’s room for all of us to grow.
Is BookMyShow’s focus expanding beyond just entertainment events?
Yes, definitely. We’ve been here now for about two years and three months. We came into the space really focusing on live entertainment to start off with. It was an understanding that there are quite a few ticketing players within the country and region itself.
We came in with two hats on; one was a ticketing hat, the other one was a promoter hat.
That’s where we actually put on many, many shows as well. For the first 12 months, we organized about seven or eight shows, just at the Coca Cola arena alone.
So our focus was into live entertainment. But as time has evolved, we’ve also evolved with it. We’ve seen other opportunities in cinema, as well as attractions. And I think these are both spaces that aren’t as affected by COVID, which does give us more opportunities to sell tickets, no matter what’s happening here.
Live entertainment certainly got affected much, much more, even though we are seeing it coming back, which is fantastic. We still do have the opportunities to sell, even when there are many, many restrictions in place within us through cinema and attractions.
What do you think of the frequency of live events?
Starting with 2021, but especially 2022 onwards, do you see that we’re coming back to what the levels were like pre COVID, i.e. 2018 and 2019.
Unfortunately, I don’t own a crystal ball, so it’s extremely difficult to say.
What I can say is that the last 6 to 8 weeks have been extremely encouraging. We’re in the best place we’ve been since the start of the pandemic in multiple ways.
- Frequency of events.
- Capacity allowed in the events.
- The rules and restrictions allowed within these venues.
For the most part, now, we’re allowed up to 80% occupancy, which is huge.
You have certain venues, like the Coca Cola arena that allowed up to seven to eight thousand people now. This wasn’t the case two, three months ago.
Now, whether it’s Coca Cola arena, or smaller venues, like the QE II, The Theater, Mall of The Emirates, etc. are all consistently putting shows on. So, we’re in the best place that we’ve been, for a long time.
How is the outlook for the rest of 2020, especially in regards to COVID and its effects?
Huge kudos to the Dubai government, and the UAE government as a whole. The way they’ve been able to control this pandemic, I’m proud to say that they’ve probably handled it better than anyone else globally. And because of that, vaccine drive having been handled so well. Along with accessibility to testing having been done so well. It’s seeing us bounce back.
This is also evident with the traffic every day on the roads. Getting to work is now taking me 15-20 minutes longer, and who would have known I’d be so happy to see that happen. Where I want to see traffic, and I want to see more cars on the road, and I want to be stuck in lines. So, I think it’s encouraging and I hope that we do just continue to go the right way.
Obviously, there’s always that small fear that it could go back again, because with COVID, you never know, and it has happened in multiple countries. So you know, fingers crossed, it doesn’t.
I’m hopeful that 2022 we’ll start to see levels where we were pre-pandemic.
Do you see a direct correlation with the number of vaccinations to attendance? Or is that just not going to change because of regulations?
I don’t think there’s a direct correlation, at least not specifically to vaccination. I think it’s more, as cases dropped, people continue to be more confident to be out amongst people. I think it’s more a direct correlation between cases and attendees rather than vaccines.
But then again, you can make the argument that there’s a direct correlation with vaccines and cases dropping, right. So in a way it goes hand in hand.
Speak about my personal experiences, and that of my groups of friends. Most of them are more confident now, than they were even six months ago, to be out amongst people. I think that as the last two months have evolved, and will continue to evolve, we’ll see people be more and more confident to be out. Heading towards leading completely normal lives again.
Switching gears a little bit.
During COVID, we’ve seen that streaming platforms are having the highest membership numbers, and subscription rates rise dramatically.
How does the meteoric rise of streaming platforms during COVID affect cinemas or the movie experience as a whole?
Obviously, streaming numbers are going through the roof. And they will continue to go through the roof. But I don’t think you can ever replicate the cinema experience.
There’s two parts of that; One part is what you get from sound and visual experience. That’s something you can never replicate at home. I don’t care how good your system is at home. At the end of the day, what you’ve got on IMAX, it’s only on IMAX, right?
So that’s one side of experience, which can never be replicated.
Another side, which really can’t be underestimated, is the experiences that you may have with family or friends.
Cinema, at the end of the day, is an outing. This is something that I used to always do. As a family, we used to go to the cinema every Friday. We start off and choose a movie, go to the cinema together, and then we go to the restaurant after. So, it was very much our family day out. I don’t think you can ever replicate that through a streaming service.
The cinema is an experience, it’s something you do with friends, it’s something you do with family, and it’s something that’s existed for a long, long time.
These are memories that you’re keeping. If one day I have a family, I will very much go and do the same thing, all go to the cinema together, have food and go to the restaurant after.
Getting out of the house and having those experiences is something that can never be replicated and will always be missed when it’s not done.
Is BookMyShow planning to add some kind of subscription model?
Or some other form of innovation and into events, movies, music, comedy and other kinds of outings.
Yeah, it’s definitely something we’re analyzing. We’re not doing it as of now, we just want to see where the market is going to be. We know, we have to be patient for the next 12 months, and just to get a full understanding of where the world will be and where we’re going to be as a country.
We can’t be too eager. More than anything, COVID taught us to be patient. I think this has lasted a lot longer than we all would have expected or hoped. We still need to be cautious to not underestimate COVID. Even thought we’re in a much better place than we were 12 months ago, it could still be here also in 12 months. So certain plans we’ve put on hold for now. Just to understand where we’re going to be, not only as a company, but also as a country and globally. So it’s still many, many question marks in place.
What you’re saying is:
Because of the pandemic, BookMyShow is being a bit more conservative than it would normally be?
Yes, for sure. That also has to remain the case for us until we have clarity on it.
Again, the biggest issue with COVID has been the lack of planning, you can’t plan for potentially what’s happening in a month, let alone what’s happening in six months, what’s happening for the year.
For us, we’ve always been an organization that has been huge on planning. But that’s been a part which is unfortunate, very difficult to make because of such uncertainty. Everything from, what will the rules and restrictions be in a week’s time, to what corridors reopened in terms of travel?
These are just small things that we wouldn’t even have to consider pre COVID. But now, all of a sudden, these are further question marks that we need to answer every time we ticket an event, or anytime we organize an event or anything we’re ticketing for, eg. cinema, attraction, etc. So, again, there’s 10 more question marks than existed before. For that reason, you have to be cautious.
What do you think of the movie pass model?
Is it something that BookMyShow would ever consider? Have they actually considered it in the past?
This very much ties into the last question. For us, more than anything, we definitely want to look at it from a loyalty perspective.
Giving back to our biggest customers, ones that are consistently using our platform. We want to create a program for them, that shows we do value them and that we want to give back. That’s extremely important.
It’s something that’s been replicated across many industries. This is definitely something that will be in the pipeline, and we will do it at some point, it’s just more of a question of when it’s going to happen.
You’re talking about more from the point of view of loyalty.
What I’m talking about is more in the terms of a subscription; where you can go and see X number of movies a month. Especially since some there’s some people who are avid movie watchers, and they want to watch a movie every week, or maybe two times a week.
Maybe you don’t have the kind of content available right now. But when the movies start releasing again, and with the same frequency, is that something that you would consider?
Yes, for sure. Again, as you mentioned, the content is key. Once we start to see that content coming back, I think that’s when we can really start to consider that. Because, the difficult thing for us has really been content. We’re starting to see Western content, Hollywood, come through. Bollywood is still behind. We’re hoping to see some bigger Bollywood movies coming through maybe November, December, which obviously plays an important role for us as well. At least now, we’re starting to see green shoots, which makes us more hopeful of things to come.
Going back a little bit towards loyalty again, I do see one straight up advantage of maybe loyalty, with BookMyShow where it applies to all sorts of events, not just cinemas.
What makes BookMyShow better as a platform overall?
Maybe ticketing, maybe loyalty, when compared to the offerings from Vox, Roxy, Novo by themselves?
We never like to compare. We just like to focus on what we’re doing and what value we can bring. The big thing that we do is convenience.
First of all, from an inventory perspective. The amount of inventory that we have. Whether it be attractions, cinema, live entertainment. Within cinema itself, you can select a movie, and then once you select a movie, you can then select from numerous locations across the country.
Having that convenience, and really that one stop shop, I think is something that we’re proud to say that we can give to customers.
Whether it be that you’re going to cinema, or you want to go your your favorite artists at the Coca Cola arena, or whether you want to go to Burj Khalifa View At The Top. We have all those offerings we can give to our ticket buyers.
I’m glad you said the words one stop shop, because in order to become a one stop shop, when it comes to entertainment, or events or whatever it may be, that would have to inherently include free events or open to the public events
Would BookMyShow consider putting free events onto the platform?
We’ve had some already. And yeah, we will continue to moving forward.
We do have registration for certain events. Obviously, majority of events are ticketed events anyway. Because obviously, those are generally the models that event organizers work by. But yeah, definitely, we’ve had in the past, and we will continue to have free registration events as well moving forward.
What about space of personal recreation or sports?
Like group sports, that you will do with your friends, and you can book out courts, etc?
We actually have another platform, which is called Townscript. And it sits more in the sports and workshop arena.
Currently, the space that we’re (townscript) fitting into more, in UAE, has been from a workshop perspective. We have numerous workshops that are on our platform, numerous educational workshops as well. We have one or two sporting events.
By sporting events, I don’t mean as in ones that you attend, I mean, the ones that you participate in. This is very much a space we are looking to continue to grow.
Townscript is only a platform that we’ve started using here in UAE more recently, it’s a platform we have in multiple other countries. We ticket for some of the biggest events like marathons and even to some of the smaller scale events where it’s like simply booking court. So that’s very much a space we want to continue to grow, push and that we’re continuing to evolve in.
You’re currently present in UAE?
Yeah, exactly. It’s much smaller scale at the moment here.
In the UAE, we have maybe about 10 to 15 workshops on it, and one or two sporting events. It’s a new product for us here. It’s product that has existed for a while in other markets.
It’s a big space here, whether it be sports, workshops, education. So it’s a space we definitely want to be more active in for sure.
What about integration with concession stands at events and at venues?
In terms of buying, like popcorn, or food or drinks, or whatever it may be at the event.
Obviously, this is a regular thing in cinemas, but many events have at least some form of concession stands, especially comedy shows, musical events.
This is actually quite difficult for us because most venues do control their own F&B.
Whether it be a bigger venue or a smaller venue, for example, Coca Cola arena, completely controls F&B there. The same goes for many, many of the smaller venues. So it does make it very difficult for us to be involved.
There are certain events where, for example, it’s a venue which is a lot more open to you doing your own F&B and being involved. Then obviously we do have our own cashless system, called AtomX, which we’ve done some huge events globally, some huge sporting events and huge food festivals. And it’s also a product we’re looking to eventually bring over here. For certain events where they’re, for example, bringing in 15 vendors, they want to have full reporting on these vendors and for understanding obviously, all of the money that’s being brought in.
With this cashless system, it gives real time reporting on every concession stand. So it creates a centralized system, which then allows the event organiser to have clarity.
At the end of the day, or at the end of the week, or at the end of the event to understand exactly the details. Lots of times these concession stand models are on a commission basis. So having reporting for events, just makes it all easier.
If you look at it from a customer or consumer point of view, especially if you take the example of Vox cinemas, you can book your ticket, and then book your food, and then it gets delivered to you at your seat. And that’s a really beautiful user experience and an end to end integration. I don’t know if that’s something that BookMyShow have looked at because you’re so well partnered with Roxy, Novo and Cinepolis.
Maybe this is something that could be given as a convenience to the customers
We’re definitely looking at F&B further as we slowly get the understanding of the customer.
It’s knowing what type of F&B they like and allowing them to book beforehand. So they have a F&B upon arrival. These are all things that we’re looking at as well, to fully understand the ticket buyer, and then to essentially help choose. To give them an idea to pre book or as you said to book and have it delivered to their seat.
Do you think BookMyShow is more disruptive, innovative, or just another option?
I think we’re all three of them to be honest.
It’s difficult not to be disruptive when you’re joining a new market. If you’re not disruptive in some way, then you don’t really stand a chance. So for that reason we are disruptive.
We certainly are another option. There’s no question about that, but at the same time we still respect the other options as well. We’re also partners with many of these other options so these partners are extremely important to us and will remain to be important to us moving forward.
Of course we like to think of ourselves as innovators. We’re consistently trying to understand our customer and figure out what their needs are. On that basis is how we want to innovate because at the end of the day, as I’ve been saying for many many years, customer is king.
So we need to make sure that we’re giving the customer what they want and a big part of that is for innovation.
