Engagement & Retention project | BookMyShow
Section 4: Product Hooks and Campaigns to drive Engagement
Product Hook
BMS Entertainment Pulse
A personalised, always-on entertainment feed that gives users a reason to open BookMyShow even when they have nothing to book.
Goal
Increase monthly active open rate from a booking-only trigger to a weekly habit. Move median session frequency from 1Ă—/month to 3Ă—/month without requiring a purchase.
Success Metrics
Primary:
- Monthly Active Users (MAU)
- Repeat Visits/User
Secondary:
- Watchlist Creation Rate
- Notification CTR
- Repeat Booking Rate
North Star:
- % Users Returning Within 30 Days
Problem Statement
Between two transactions, BookMyShow has no reason to exist for 78% of its users. The app is opened only when a user has already decided to go out - meaning BMS never influences the decision to go out. It loses the most valuable moment: when someone is bored on a Tuesday and wondering what to do this weekend.
Current Alternative
Users currently get entertainment discovery from:
Instagram / Reels | Trailers, artist posts, friend check-ins |
|---|---|
WhatsApp groups | "Anyone up for something this weekend?" |
Word of mouth | Colleague / friend recommendations |
Google Search | "movies releasing this week" |
Solution
Introduce BMS Pulse — a personalised entertainment feed on the app home screen, powered by the user's interest graph (booking history + wishlists + tracked artists + location + friends' activity). It surfaces: trailers of upcoming films matching taste, "X friends are going to this" social proof cards, artist tour alerts, "Only 12 seats left" urgency nudges, and a weekly curated "Your weekend, sorted" digest. The feed is non-transactional by design — it builds the habit of opening BMS, and lets booking emerge naturally from discovery.
User Flow
Metrics to Track
Engagement
WAU/MAU ratio
Sessions per user/month
Feed scroll depth
Pulse card CTR
Wishlist add rate
Conversion
Pulse → booking rate
Share → new user opens
Interest graph completeness
Notification CTR
Time-to-book from feed
Retention Health
D30/D60/D90 retention
Notification opt-out rate
Feed personalisation score
Casual → core upgrade rate
Churn rate vs control
Ramp-Up Milestones
Internal - BMS team + 500 opted-in power users. Validate feed relevance score, fix cold-start problem for new users.
Closed beta - 50,000 users in Mumbai + Bengaluru. A/B test feed vs no-feed home screen. Target: feed group opens app 2Ă— more in week 2.
Soft launch - 500K users across top 5 cities. Enable "Weekend sorted" push digest. Monitor opt-out rate closely.
Full rollout - all users. Launch social layer (friends' activity). Begin Pulse → campaign tie-ins with campaigns below.
Optimization - Optimise interest graph quality. Launch Tier 2 city variant (regional content-first). Hit WAU/MAU ≥ 40% target.
Engagement Campaigns
Campaign 1 : Weekend Sorted: The Friday habit-builder
Product Hook | Details |
|---|---|
Segment | Core & Casual User |
Goal | Drive weekly app opens on Thu–Fri. Shift BMS from reactive to proactive in the user's weekend planning loop. |
Pitch | "3 things worth doing in Mumbai this weekend — curated for you." Personalised push. Trailer + seat availability + offer stacked. |
Offer | No hard discount. Value is curation. For casual users — add "Book by Friday midnight, BOGO applies" to nudge urgency. |
Frequency | Every Thursday 6 PM push |
Success Metric | Open rate |
Campaign 2 : The Group Planner: Turn one booking into a group booking - and a referral engine
Product Hook | Details |
|---|---|
Segment | Core & Power Users |
Goal | Increase group booking size from average 2 seats to 4+ seats per booking, and drive new user acquisition through share loops. |
Pitch | "Going with friends? Share this link - they can pick their own seats in the same booking." One-tap WhatsApp share from the seat selection screen. Shared link shows live seat map with the organiser's seats pre-highlighted. |
Offer | â‚ą50 off per friend who books using the link (max 4 friends). Organiser earns 200 BMS Insider points when 2+ friends join. |
Success Metric | Avg seats/booking |
Timing | Seat selection screen trigger + post-booking share prompt |
Campaign 3 : Insider Tier Unlock: Nudge core users within reach of the next loyalty tier
Product Hook | Details |
|---|---|
Segment | Core Users |
Goal | Increase booking frequency among enrolled Insider members who are 1–2 bookings away from unlocking the next tier, using progress visibility as the motivator. |
Pitch | "You're 1 booking away from Gold. Gold members get early access to concert presales, free upgrades, and priority support." In-app banner + email with a personalised progress bar. |
Offer | Bonus 100 points on next booking this week. No discount - the tier unlock is the reward. Show exactly what Gold benefits look like. |
Timing | Triggered when user is within 2 bookings of tier upgrade |
Success Metric | Tier upgrade rate |
Campaign 4 : Post-Experience Loop: Turn every booking into the next booking
Product Hook | Details |
|---|---|
Segment | Casual & Core Users |
Goal | Close the post-experience gap. Every user who just watched a film or attended an event is at peak entertainment intent - this campaign captures that moment. |
Pitch | "Hope you loved [Film/Event]! Here's what's coming up next that you might enjoy." Push sent 2 hours after showtime ends. Includes 2 personalised recommendations + a rate & review prompt. |
Offer | No offer on the push itself. If user browses but doesn't book within 48 hours - follow-up push with â‚ą50 off the next booking. |
Timing | 2 hours post-showtime, once per event attended |
Success Metric | Review submission rate |
Campaign 4 : First Alert, First Book: Convert casual users who've never tracked an artist
Item | Details |
|---|---|
Segment | Casual Users |
Goal | Get the casual user to track their first artist or sports team - creating the first investment in the BMS interest graph. |
Pitch | "Never miss [Artist] again. One tap to get notified when they come to [City]." Triggered post-booking - shown on the confirmation screen when the booked content has a trackable artist. |
Offer | No discount needed. First-mover access: "Track now → get presale access before public sale opens." |
Success Metric | Artist track rate |
Timing | Triggered on booking confirmation screen |
Section 5 : Retention And Churn
Retention Curve
The numbers below are calibrated from industry benchmarks: BookMyShow's publicly reported DAU/MAU patterns, Paytm/Zomato cohort disclosures, and OTT/ticketing norms from Amplitude and Mixpanel industry reports. The steepest drop happens in the first 7 days, this is the "habit not yet formed" cliff.
- Day 1 Retention - 38% (Industry Avg. - 25 - 40%)
- Day 7 Retention - 22% (Industry Avg. - 15-25%)
- Day 30 Retention - 14% (Industry Avg. - 8-15%)
- Curve Flatlines at Day 60 - 8-9% Steady State
Three zones tell the story. The cliff (D0–D7) is where ~60–72% of new users vanish, no habit formed, no reason to return. The decay zone (D7–D30) is where casual users mostly disappear and core users thin out. The flatline after Day 60 represents the genuinely retained base - about 8–9% overall, dominated by Power users.
Churn Reasons: Voluntary vs Involuntary
No.1 churn driver: no upcoming intent - BMS is transactional by nature. Users leave not from dissatisfaction, but because there's nothing planned. The product has no pull between transactions.
Voluntary Churn
No intent / nothing to book - No upcoming movie/event that excites them. Pure transactional gap. Hits casual users hardest.
Checkout friction & hidden fees - Convenience fee revealed at last step. Cart abandonment converts to churn for first-timers.
Switched to competing app - Paytm Movies, Justdial, or direct multiplex app (PVR, INOX) offering better seat selection or prices.
Poor discovery / irrelevant content - Homepage doesn't surface content matching user's past genre or city. Feels generic.
Bad post-booking experience - Cancelled show with no proactive notification, slow refund, poor support resolution.
No value between bookings - App has nothing to offer when user isn't actively booking. No feed, no content loop, no community.
Involuntary Churn
Payment failure / UPI timeout - High-frequency issue in India. Seats held but payment fails; user drops off in frustration, often permanently.
App uninstall (storage pressure) - Mid-tier Android devices. BMS gets removed in periodic storage cleanups if it's not in daily rotation.
Life stage change - New job, city relocation, baby, reduced discretionary spend. Natural attrition in 25–35 segment.
Notification fatigue - Irrelevant push notifications (wrong city, wrong genre) → blanket permission revoke. Silent churn follows.
Seasonal Null (dry content calendar) - Post-Diwali / summer slump. No big Bollywood or Hollywood releases for 4–6 weeks forces dormancy.
The most important insight here: the #1 churn driver for BMS is structural, not a product failure. Users don't leave angry - they leave because the product has no reason to be opened between bookings. That makes retention fundamentally a content/discovery problem, not just a UX problem.
Negative Signals Tracker
These are the leading indicators of churn - the things you'd monitor in a dashboard to catch users before they leave.
Signal | What it looks like on BMS | Type | Severity | Lag to churn | Affects ICP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Zero opens in 14+ days | App not opened since last booking. No browse, no discovery. | Behavioural | High | ~21 days | Casual & Core |
Cart abandonment at payment | Seat selected, session dropped at UPI / card screen. Repeat abandons = 3+ times in a month. | Transactional | High | ~7 days | Casual & Core |
Refund requested | Show cancellation or user-initiated refund. If not resolved in 5–7 days, churn probability spikes 3×. | Support | High | ~10 days | All |
Push notifications disabled | User revokes notification permission. No channel to re-engage. Silent precursor to full churn. | Behavioural | Medium | ~30 days | Casual |
Support ticket opened, unresolved | CSAT below 3 on a support interaction. Especially: wrong booking, seat mismatch, failed entry at venue. | Support | Medium | ~14 days | Power & Core |
Falling session-to-booking ratio | User browses 5+ sessions but doesn't book. Likely comparing on competitor apps or losing confidence. | Behavioural | Medium | ~21 days | Core & Power |
BMS Stream — no content started | Signed up for Stream but never played a title. At-risk casual who never found the habit loop. | Product | Medium | ~14 days | Casual |
Downgrade in booking frequency | Power user drops from 6× to 1× per month. Early warning — often precedes full dormancy by 60 days. | Behavioural | Medium | ~60 days | Power |
City / location mismatch | User recently relocated but app still shows old city. Irrelevant content = zero engagement. | Product | Low | ~30 days | All |
No loyalty points redeemed in 60d | Engagement | Low | ~45 days | Power | |
Email / WhatsApp unsubscribe | Opted out of marketing comms. Reduces resurrection options. Low urgency but closes the re-engagement window. | Attitudinal | Low | ~60 days | Core & Casual |
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