Emap Advertising and Emap Consumer Media have announced a strategic mobile and online partnership with Filmnight Digital, the interactive content arm of DVD rental and retail company, Filmnight Group. The deal will see Emaps film title, Empire, launch the Empire Filmnight Club which will take the brand onto mobile for the first time. Subscribers to the Empire Filmnight Club will be able to download movie clips, ringtones and games via their mobiles, and will also be able to submit personal mini movie reviews, and access local cinema film times. The Empire Filmnight Club will also offer a movie retail service, which will include a loyalty scheme and a free rental element.
The Empire Filmnight Club will be promoted across all other Empire and Filmnight Digital channels, in print; online via the Empire Online website and the Filmnight website; on-mobile via Filmnight Digitals short code MFILM (63456); and in-store via Filmnight.coms network of high street DVD rental outlets. Consumers will be able to access the Empire Filmnight Club via the respective movie channels on Vodafone, T-mobile, and O2s i-Mode. In addition to launching the Empire brand on mobile, the deal will also extend online, with Filmnight Digital powering the newly-launched Empire Film Store DVD and video-on-demand retail service.
As part of their ongoing partnership, Empire and Filmnight Digital will also execute joint marketing activity, including preferential Empire magazine subscription rates to club members and Filmnight.com customers. In addition, selected Filmnight.com stores will exclusively stock Empire magazine.
After more than 16 years as the UKs leading movie magazine, and a full decade of Empire Online, we are always looking for ways to expand the Empire brand and to provide new and genuinely useful services for the most passionate film fans in the country says Empire Editor-in-Chief Colin Kennedy. This timely partnership with Filmnight Digital allows us to tick both boxes – moving swiftly and comprehensively into the all-important mobile market and adding an overdue movie retail element to our hugely popular website. We are confident that Empires integrity and passion, allied to Filmnight Digitals market-leading expertise, will make for an unbeatable proposition for film fans both online and on mobile 
