Escapes
A brand and nationwide campaign designed, built and delivered by elevenfiftyfive to grow new audiences for cinema.
WHY
Escapes is the result of our successful response to the BFI National Lottery Open Cinemas tender.
A new activity was required to boost attendance of new audiences at independent cinemas and grow engagement with independent film.
The multi year project would see cinema screenings every month in independent cinemas across the UK. The same film would screen in all participating cinemas on the same day and date to create a regular national moment.
Audiences that were identified as having current low engagement with cinema will be prioritised and invited to attend through targeted marketing and promotion, and the screenings would be available free on a first come first served basis. It is intended that the screenings would be fully accessible to the widest possible audience.
our response
Our first step was to find a point of relatability and shared interest between the national mood and cinema’s core offer.
After landing on escapism, we developed multiple visual identities in collaboration with Nomad Design Studio, testing them with hundreds of respondents across our key demographics. The chosen concept received a 97% positive response, with 84% expressing interest in finding out more.
Next, we onboarded hundreds of cinemas—each with unique technical requirements—and built an engaging nationwide campaign.
Our brand delivered both engagement and relatability. New audiences were reached through hyper-local targeting, social media, grassroots outreach, partnerships, and publicity.
Film curation followed clear editorial principles, showcasing the breadth of independent, international, and British cinema—with a strong focus on underrepresented stories and audiences.
All screenings and elements of the Escapes user journey are designed for maximum inclusivity and accessibility, at scale.
This is not only the largest screening programme ever but the most accessible too.
All Escapes tickets are redeemed via best in class ticketing solution with data collected and analysed for wider industry benefit.
To make all this possible we became one of the first to partner with Cinematik.
Cinematik is the new scheduling, marketing, and ticketing platform revolutionising theatrical distribution. For the first time, it enabled a fully branded environment for Escapes, allowing us to scale using industry-first technology. Key benefits included a single booking URL across multiple cinemas, advanced automated ad delivery and tracking, and intuitive dashboards that make complex data easy to understand.
RESULTS SO FAR :
66+ million media impressions generated
26+ million total social reach
108,000+ tickets booked between February 2024 and March 2025
32,000+ new customer emails captured for cinema partners
“We receive around 60 new sign ups to our mailing list after each Escapes screening. Our weekly newsletter is our biggest marketing tool, so to be able to get access to this data is really useful to us. ”
“The Escapes platform has been fantastic in bringing in audiences from a range of backgrounds to our Cinema who haven’t been since No Time To Die, or haven’t been since before the pandemic times. We can say Escapes has established a new audience with us.”
ARE YOU A BRAND, RIGHTS HOLDER, OR FUNDER?
Escapes is proof of what happens when strategy meets execution at scale. If you’re looking to engage new audiences, activate your IP, or deliver cultural value in partnership—get in touch.