Facebook is extending Hollywood studios’ ad buys on the social platform with the official launch of two new features movie reminders and showtimes. Users can hit the “Interested” button when they come across a movie ad in their News Feed, and they’ll receive a notification when the movie is in theaters, similar to how event pages work. On the movie detail page, users will be able to look up showtimes and buy ticket.
The new features are available in the U.S. and the U.K., as a standard part of ad campaigns that studios buy for News Feed. Facebook isn’t charging extra for the reminder and showtime features, with ad rates determined based on the targeting parameters marketers set, according to Jen Howard, group director, entertainment, technology and telco for Facebook.
Facebook commissioned a study by Accenture in January, which found that about 58 percent of people discover movies online, with 39 percent of those people specifically using mobile devices to find new releases. Jen Howard, Facebook’s group director of entertainment and technology, told Variety that the company is also considering bringing the reminder feature to series on TV or streaming services.
