Scene, the joint loyalty program of Scotiabank and Cineplex, is letting fans choose how they want to celebrate the program’s two-million-member milestone with an SMS-based social media campaign.

Launching this week, the contest invites Scene members – and those who sign up – to vote on which movie they’d like to see brought back into theatres for a special January screening.

Through the program’s email newsletter and a print buy in Metro newspapers (handled internally), voters are encouraged to vote online at Scene.ca or to text in their votes to the short code SCENE. The winning film will be announced in early 2010 and the movie will be screened in about 60 Cineplex theatres nationwide.

The goal behind the program was primarily to offer existing members a benefit above and beyond the program’s normal rewards, but also to engage potential movie fans who’d like to weigh in on bringing their favourite movie back, Shawn Bloom, general manager, Scene, told MiC.

The company chose the daily commuter paper for their promotional strategy because they wanted people to take advantage of the text message-based voting – a first for the company – and Metro seemed like a natural place to reach people on the go, Bloom said. The company is also planning an online buy with Yahoo Canada in the weeks to come.

The program’s two million member promotion kicks off just as its Director’s Chair 2 contest closed at midnight last night. The contest invited members to create a commercial for Scene that would air pre-show at Cineplex theatres, in addition to cash and points prizing. At the end of the day yesterday, it had garnered 360 entries, a significant increase over the year previous.