Flicks

Background

Founded in New Zealand in 2006, Flicks is a leading cinema and streaming information website with users across New Zealand, Australia, and the UK. A Vista Group company, it reaches over 1.5 million consumers every month. The site highlights what movies and series are trending, and provides recommendations on what to watch through rich editorial content. Flicks supports and invests in local film and pop-culture writers and provides a premium digital advertising channel for movie studios and distributors.

Objectives

With the success of its website across different regions, Flicks found that a growing number of users were accessing it on mobile devices. The company identified an opportunity to create a purpose-built platform which could showcase its unique library of cinema listings, streaming guides, and editorial opinion. The platform would complement its website and enhance the experience for mobile users.

Flicks wanted its website to be the inspiration for the new mobile-first experience, especially in terms of its best-of-breed functionality and modern, fast and snappy UI. At the same time, the new application had to be designed to work in a native, mobile environment.

Flicks approached Accedo in 2021 to discuss the development of a bespoke iOS and Android application. The company was particularly searching for a vendor that had proven experience in cataloguing and displaying a wide variety of content in a single platform.

Solution

Accedo worked to develop an engaging, entertaining, and informative platform for Flicks, utilizing its specialist product strategy and UX design skills to incorporate key components from the client’s website. This ensured users of the platform could consume the features of Flicks through a familiar, yet enhanced, interface.

Accedo's extensive experience in designing bespoke application interfaces, paired with a deep understanding of consumer trends and requirements, meant its teams could confidently create a service that would satisfy user needs. This was also backed by a strong quality assurance team, allowing the experience to be delivered to the highest standard.

The bespoke Flicks mobile application provides users with an engaging, entertaining, and informative platform, which is available as and when they want it. It consolidates data from more than 500 cinemas and 30 streaming platforms across three countries, and organises it into easy-to-find listings.

The features of the platform include the ability to watch trailers for the latest cinema and streaming releases, build personalized watchlists, get notified of new releases, locate nearest cinemas and show timings, and click to book tickets directly. The platform features Rotten Tomatoes percentages, and recommendations and reviews from top entertainment writers, helping users to discover what to watch next.

Users can discover what’s new on streaming services such as Netflix, Apple TV+, Disney+, Google Play, and Prime Video while also exploring content from local providers in Australia (including Binge, Stan, Foxtel, iView, SBS On Demand, Paramount+), in New Zealand (including Neon, DocPlay, TVNZ) and in the UK (including BBC iPlayer, Four, ITV).

Results

Following development and with continual collaboration across teams, Flicks’ iOS and Android applications launched in April 2022, and is available from the App Store and Google Play.

The Flicks mobile application replicates the high-quality UX design of the website, but displays it in a mobile-friendly manner. Users can now access a wide variety of content through a single, feature rich platform. The application enriches the user experience through a modern, fast and intuitive UI. 

Since its launch, the mobile application has experienced an impressive month on month growth rate of 70%. In comparison with the website service, user engagement and retention is much improved. The average number of page views by mobile application users is up by 500% compared to website performance, and the time that users are spending interacting with the product has increased by 300% over the website average. Users are also returning to the mobile application 20 times more frequently than website users.