Maven of the Month: An Interview with Gianni Santin

Gianni Santin, Executive Director of Loyalty Marketing at Cineplex, approaches personalization like a great film: emotionally grounded, technically precise, and designed to be shared. In this Q&A, he breaks down how CineClub Wrapped became a moment members celebrated together, how real-time data drives incremental visits, and shares a personal career twist that makes his connection to the Cineplex guest journey especially meaningful.

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Favorite project you’ve worked on recently?

CineClub Wrapped 2025 has been my favorite by far. It was the 2nd iteration of our annual wrapped and it brought together loyalty storytelling, real-time data, and emotional design in a way our members hadn’t experienced before. With over 47 personalized data points, every member received something that truly reflected their year at the movies. It wasn’t just a campaign—members shared it, compared it, and celebrated it. That level of connection is exactly why I love what we do.

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What’s one thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile?

I started my career working at a Cineplex theater as a teenager many moons ago, tearing tickets and making popcorn. So now, leading our loyalty and personalized communications strategy feels like a full-circle moment. I’ve literally seen the guest journey from every angle.

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What are the main goals your team aims to achieve with your email program?

Our guiding principle is simple: drive incremental visits through relevance.

To do that, we focus on four pillars:

• Hyper-personalized experiences driven by real-time data
• Reducing friction between curiosity (“I might see this movie”) and action (“I’m buying a ticket”)
• Strengthening loyalty value by surfacing Scene+ rewards, CineClub perks, and experiential upsells
• Moving beyond mass communication toward an ecosystem of intelligent triggers across email, push, and in-app

What advice would you give to marketers who want to utilize real-time, data-driven personalization but are unsure where to start?

Start small, but start smart. Choose one use case where personalization will have an immediate and measurable impact. For us, it was showtimes and dynamic recommendations. Then build from there.

You don’t need perfect data maturity on day one; you just need a problem worth solving and a willingness to test, learn, and iterate. Pair your marketing team with analytics and product partners early, because personalization is a team sport. And above all, remember that the goal isn’t complexity—it’s clarity. The best personalization feels effortless to the customer.

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What is your greatest marketing superpower?

My greatest marketing superpower is my ability to blend creativity, data, and technology into storytelling that actually moves people. Before I ever led loyalty or marketing teams, I was a front-end coder with my own company—Graphic-IV. My slogan back then was “Giving life to graphics on the web,” and in many ways, that philosophy still guides me today.

Back then, I was literally taking visuals and creating interactive experiences. Now, I’m doing the same thing at scale but with data, behavioral signals, and personalization. I take complex inputs and bring them to life in a way that feels human, useful, and emotionally resonant for the guest.

That technical foundation helps me understand what’s possible, push past limitations, and collaborate deeply with analytics, product, and other marketing partners. And the creative side ensures everything we build feels intuitive and cinematic—not just algorithmic.

Want to hear more marketer stories? Explore our roundup of Maven Q&As below.