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LBX Collective
The LBX Show #40 - ROLLER Pulse Report, Merchandising Insights, and more!
Sponsored by Intercard!
On this week's LBX Show, Kalyn New, VP of Product and Customer Marketing at ROLLER, joins us to discuss their inaugural 2025 Pulse Report that surveyed 2,000 attraction guests across the US, UK, and Australia to uncover what guests truly want from venues.
• 90% of guests want self-service options at venues, aligning with operators' needs to automate and reduce labor costs
• 23% of guests identified faster online checkout as their most desired innovation, outranking VR and other high-tech options
• 79% of guests consider sustainability when making purchase decisions, significantly higher than expected
• Great past experiences are the leading reason guests return to venues (79%)
• Convenient online booking that functions as a 24/7 sales channel is crucial, especially for busy families planning outside business hours
• Providing quality options for both online self-service and personal assistance creates the best guest experience
Kevin Williams delivers an extensive Open and Shut segment covering new venue openings including Hollywood Entertainment Center in the Netherlands, Game Palacio in Mumbai, and massive entertainment complexes in Texas, while Justin Michaels shares merchandising insights from top redemption centers across the country, and Chuck DeMonte rounds out the show with Promo Pro Tips.
All right, well, welcome everybody to the LBX show for August 10th 2025. We have a packed show lined up for you today. So we're going to kick things off with a really brief news. You should know. I'm just going to cover a few quick things from IAPA and then we're going to have a guest gab with Kaylin New. She is the VP of product and customer marketing at Roller and she's going to tell us a little bit about their Roller Pulse report that was just released a few weeks ago. We talked just briefly about it on the LBX show two weeks ago.
Speaker 2:Next, we're going to roll into an extended open and shut with Kevin Williams. We're going to try to catch up on the last two weeks of openings, trends and closings, and then we're going to join Justin Michaels for another Game On segment to talk about merchandising, for another Game On segment to talk about merchandising. And then, last, we're going to close out with Chuck DeMonte, as we typically do, as he talks about reinventing your FEC on our promo pro tips. So that is the agenda for today. First up, we've got.
Speaker 1:News you Should Know.
Speaker 2:All right. So, on News you Should Know, here we've got the IAPA Foundation FEC Scholarship 2025. The deadline is this Friday, august 15th. So if you are still trying to figure out, if you want to apply for the IAPA Foundation FEC Scholarship for 2025, you only have a couple of days to do it. It isn't that arduous, although I will say you do want to make sure that you at least have some time. You give some time to somebody who's going to write you a referral letter or the testimonial, basically, and so you want to make sure that they have some time to do that. So I definitely get your asks in, if you haven't already. But this deadline is coming up and it is for $2,500 worth of travel funds funds as well as then entry into IAPA's expo in Orlando in November and all the education as well and some FEC lunches, and basically it's the full kit and caboodle. But then you also get some travel on top of that up to twenty five hundred dollars. So I would definitely recommend applying for that and making sure you get that in before August 15th.
Speaker 2:So, also speaking about August 15th, I am on the IAAPA committee for the North American manufacturers and suppliers for IAAPA, and they've got the Brass Ring Awards deadline as well coming up. This is for the best new product and this recognizes all the best new products or services in the amusement and attractions industry, so really it covers all the best new products or services in the amusement and attractions industry. So really it covers all the different constituencies that IAAPA covers. But there are several categories to choose from and that includes everything from rides, technologies, games, supplies, services as well as some other things, and so if you're debuting a new product or service at IAAPA Expo, you want to potentially be eligible for the Best New Concept Award or just even one of the Best New Product Awards. There's some stipulations depending on whether you're doing a Best New Concept or Best New Product, but I would encourage you to go onto IAPA's website and check that out. There's no cost to apply and you win. Then you get free promotion and you get an award, and it's a pretty cool thing. My old company in the past is a former brass ring right there, former brass ring award winner and I will say it is a pretty cool, pretty prestigious.
Speaker 2:So you can go on the iapaorg website, log in and then you can apply. It only takes a well, it only takes a few minutes to actually put in the application. But there's stuff you got to do. You got to do videos and photos and everything else. So don't think that you can just hop in on Friday morning and try to bang this thing out. You want to. If you want to have a chance, really need to put some time and effort into it. But you got a week, you got five days to get it in because the deadline is August 15th, and so highly encourage you to do that. And if you don't have a new product eligible for Best New Product Awards, you can still apply for a Br Best Exhibit Award, which I was a runner up one year, or I should say I was my team and Fetrev at the time, formerly Hound we were runner up for that as well. So, anyway, highly encourage you guys to do that. It is worthwhile and that is it.
Speaker 2:So that is our News you Should Know. Coming up here in just a minute, we're going to have the guest gab with Kaylin New from Roller and I'm excited to talk about this Pulse Report. All right, well, kalen, welcome to the LBX show, and we're here to talk about the Roller Pulse Report for 2025. And this is the first one you've done so far and, as far as I understand, you're planning to do one every year. But maybe you can tell us a little bit about what the Pulse Report is and why you decided to do this for the first time this year.
Speaker 4:Yeah, sure, thanks for having me, brandon. So last year, if you remember, we released the Roller Benchmark Report, which was our first real attempt at giving venue operators some clear, data-backed insights into how they're performing compared to others in the industry. That was all based on the Roller platform data, so it focused on things like booking rates and lead times to book revenue benchmarks. The feedback we got was really positive with this report from the industry, so felt like operators really appreciated having that kind of visibility. But I guess when we looked at it we knew that that was only one side of the story. So this year we wanted to take it a step further and balance that operator intelligence with something just as important, which is guest intelligence. So that's kind of what the 2025 Pulse Report is all about.
Speaker 4:So we partnered with a third-party research firm to survey 2,000 guests across the US, the UK and Australia. These were people who visit attractions regularly and have kids under the age of 18, so really tried to hone in on that demographic and the goal here was really to understand what guests really think, so what they expect, what influenced their decisions and what might be letting them down. Of course, many operators you know collect feedback already through surveys or, you know, one-on-one conversations they have in their venue, but those insights can sometimes be limited or feel a bit filtered, like you're not getting kind of the real feedback. So this report offers kind of a broader, more honest view and hopefully gives operators another tool to help guide their decisions. So you know, this isn't really obviously telling operators what to do. We just hope it gives them another layer of intelligence to draw from and a chance to see the guest experience from the other side and then, you know, hopefully make choices that genuinely align with what their visitors are valuing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and these weren't necessarily venues that were customers of Roller already. These were just guests. That happened to be across a wide array of both I'm assuming different types of location-based entertainment venues as well, as you know they could. They could have any point of sale, they could be any type of attraction in any one of those regions that you mentioned.
Speaker 4:Yes, exactly. So we did have a list of screening questions that were just again to make sure that we were capturing the right demographic. So we wanted folks that had kids under the age of 18, we wanted them to. They frequent attractions at least between weekly and every few months. So you know they're kind of frequent visitors of these types of attractions and, like you said, it was around the US, the UK and Australia, not necessarily tied to a roller venue, just any venue guest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and some of the questions you asked were really based around a couple of key areas. So you know, looking at the in reviewing through the Pulse report, some of those areas are just some general habits, spending preferences, common pain points, bookings, services, amenities available, as well as then sustainability and trends. And so when you think about like extracting what some of the really key insights were from this report, you know from your perspective what are. Maybe you know one, two, three of those insights that you think were really interesting and maybe a little bit surprising.
Speaker 4:Yeah, good question. And the report? I mean, we only have limited time. The report is very chunky, there's so much in there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's 64 pages, right yeah?
Speaker 4:exactly yeah.
Speaker 2:We're valuable yeah.
Speaker 4:Thank you, yeah, thank you.
Speaker 4:So we're really trying to then kind of pull out bite-sized pieces of it, you know, into their own blog posts or into their own social posts to make it really digestible because, yeah, 64 pages all at once could maybe feel like a lot.
Speaker 4:But yeah, as you said, I think two of the stats that really stuck out to me. The first one is around self-service. So the survey came back that 90% of guests want self-service options, which I found to be really interesting. I think it really aligns with some of the problems that operators are facing right now too in terms of the cost of labor increasing, and they're looking to see where can they automate some things and save some costs. So it's really nice when that aligns to actually what the guest is wanting to see as well. Those self-service options obviously being able to book online, maybe order food and beverage from their table, maybe being able to adjust their booking themselves, like being able to log in and change their booking or change their party, you know, adding additional guests or adding additional pizzas, or, you know, whatever that may be. So I found that one really interesting and again kind of aligned to that pain that operators are seeing right now as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I think that one was surprising for me as well, because one I mean I think they want. I think the key word there is they want that as an option. I was recently in in in like Northern or Southern part of Canada, southern part of Ontario, just North of Buffalo, right, and that whole Niagara region, and I went up to a coffee shop there and there was literally the coffee shop like had had like the old point of sale system there, but then they just had a kiosk like right there and there are people making coffee. Like my only option was to go through and order through the kiosk. And so I think, having that as an option, like okay, there's some people who are just want to come in, they want to tap out their order, they're fine waiting.
Speaker 2:Then there was somebody else who's like okay, well, if I order a nice tea, is it on sweet? Is it sweet? Is it lemonade? Because, like freaking canadians, they don't do on sweet iced tea like we do they do. They do the sweet tea, you know, with like lemonade added to it and whatever else, and so I could have ordered an iced tea. Got it wrong because I didn't know, I didn't have anybody to ask. So I think having those options from a guest experience standpoint is important in venue. But then having all obviously more self-serve options where I don't have to pick up the phone and call I can manage my online bookings seamlessly very well, for example, or I can fill out my waiver online before I come in those things are all super important as well to enhance the guest experience and reduces that friction when they come in.
Speaker 4:A hundred percent. Yeah, I agree with you. Options are the key and, you know, I think, like automating some of those things, like you mentioned, all of the signing of the waivers, booking online, just then it frees up operators to spend time doing those things that they would prefer to do, spending that face time and creating those genuine connections with their guests and not sitting there, you know, having to file through manual waiver paperwork or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I know. One of the other things you know that is can be frustrating, especially about an online booking experience, is that it actually can be really cumbersome, and so you had a stat as well on that front.
Speaker 4:Yes, yeah, so the other one maybe selfishly, coming from a booking platform myself, but we asked questions around kind of what are guests wanting more of? We gave them a list of sort of high-tech options to choose from, like VR or wait time tracking or smart wristbands. But the top choice for technology and innovations 23% of guests identified they just wanted a faster online checkout as the leading innovation that they wanted to see. So the good news here is that adopting a fast, reliable, powerful online booking tool is easy, can be easy. The right tool can scale with your business. If you're looking for tech that suits your needs, roller and other options are obviously here for you. But I think it's really interesting. It just kind of talks to getting the basics right for guests and kind of making sure that you know we're removing as much of that friction as possible. You know right in the onset.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know, I think what's important you mentioned this earlier as well is the ability to make modifications afterwards.
Speaker 2:So you know, it can be very, you know, maybe make it really easy to create the booking initially, but then if I have to call in or you know, and wait and try to make a change to the booking because one kid dropped off, or all of a sudden my son or my daughter invited like three more people, even though I told them not to, and they did Inevitable, yeah, right, yeah, it's inevitable. Now we've got to add that in and it can be really difficult because I have to get more food. Now I'm not only adding extra people, I probably have to get more food and it creates really good upsell opportunities as well. And having a streamlined way where it's like hey, did you, did you think about this? Or don't forget this, or do you want to add this in? All things that like, if I called in, the person who answers on the phone may or may not be like, you know, may just be like okay, yeah, all right, three more people, okay got it.
Speaker 4:You interrupted their day.
Speaker 2:They've got a big queue in front of them, yeah exactly, and now you can guide them through and potentially drive upsells and drive more revenue by just creating a system in which it streamlines their process and again, for the guest it's convenient, but also a revenue opportunity for the venue.
Speaker 4:Yes, exactly, I love that, and I think we talk a lot about online booking being a 24-7 sales channel. I don't know about you. I've got young kids and my nine to five is I'm either working or I'm doing school pickup or I'm dropping off at soccer or whatever it is. So the time that I get to plan my son's birthday party or think about what are we going to do on the weekend is inevitably once the venue is closed. So you know, not only being able to book online you know 24, seven when it suits your guests but also being able to adjust those bookings, as you said, is pretty crucial.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So all that is true, but you know, because I know we're talking specifically about the Pulse report, but I think it's also important to just remind ourselves, as venue operators, et cetera, that still providing a really quality guest experience when somebody does pick up the phone and call in, because while guests do want an easy solution online, they also want the option as we talk about options to pick up the phone and call in and want to provide a really solid guest experience, not make them feel like it's an inconvenience when they're picking up the phone and calling in, you know and saying, well, why didn't you just do this online? We have the option, you know option to do this online. You should have done that.
Speaker 4:Yes, I mean and actually another one of the insights that came out of the Pulse report that talks to that is around the experience and how that's really the leading incentive for a guest to return to a venue. So 79% of guests identified great past experiences as one of the main reasons they returned to a venue, which I think is no surprise, but still really talks to the importance of the guest experience, as you said.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. In my former company we were a marketing automation platform that drove guests into venues and attractions and one of the things we always said is look, we can get somebody in the first time, we can't necessarily guarantee we're going to get them in the second time. We'll get them in the second time as a really high quality guest experience that they're willing to do, to tell others about and also come back in and rehab another experience. Hopefully that's going to be as good or better than the last time they were there.
Speaker 4:Exactly, yep Well said.
Speaker 2:So where I came across your Pulse report and actually I've come across it a number of different angles, but where the first one where I read about it was in the Blue Loop article and I referenced the Blue Loop article a couple of weeks ago when I first talked about the Pulse Report on the LBEC show and it was one of the areas that they wanted to focus on is because they have a whole sustainability initiative through their Green Loop program was sustainability. So what were some of the things that guests were talking about as it related to sustainability?
Speaker 4:Yeah, this is an interesting one. It definitely wasn't top of mind for me when we were first writing the survey questions, but after speaking to Blue Loop to kind of understand what data they felt was maybe missing from the industry that they didn't have visibility into, we decided to add some sustainability questions in, knowing that that's sort of a hot topic across the board, but in the attractions industry as well, and actually 79% of guests consider sustainability when making a purchase, which surprised me a little bit. I didn't think it was going to be that high, and this was anything from sort of eco-friendly practices to how they're supporting local communities, but guests are definitely paying attention and now sort of factoring this into how they're making their booking decisions, so I think one thing I think to call out here, though, is making sure that you know efforts are clearly communicated and that they're authentic and feel genuine and not just, like you know, greenwashing, which you know making sure that they're striking the right tone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, in fact, actually the sound off that we just ran this last week with Kevin Williams. We talk about properly messaging, properly setting the right expectations. There's been a lot in the news and in the press recently about venues talking about one-of-a-kind, first-of-a-kind types of experiences, and we really talk about and emphasize this idea of making sure that when you promote something, when you talk about something, make sure you're actually delivering on that from a true guest experience. So don't talk about like I like the term greenwashing, don't greenwash your experience. If you truly are doing something innovative from a sustainability standpoint, certainly lean into that with your marketing, but otherwise maybe just do it because it's good for the planet and then and then let guests experience that when they come in as well.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah. I think if anything this kind of just maybe helps to confirm, you know, to spend those resources or that time on some of these initiatives, that obviously it is the right thing to do. But if guests are also noticing like that's an additional kind of you know tick there, yeah, yeah, absolutely All right.
Speaker 2:Well, kaylin, this has been absolutely amazing. Thank you so much for coming in and talking to us about the first annual Roller.
Speaker 1:Pulse Report. Yes, the inaugural.
Speaker 2:The inaugural yes. And so if they wanted, if somebody, any of our listeners wanted to get access to this Pulse Report, how are they going to come across it? Where are they going to be able to find it?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean, as you said, we've kind of got it everywhere at the moment, so hopefully folks are seeing it in their social news feed and things like that. But we do have it just right on the homepage of the Roller website. There's a banner across the top to download the report. It's free to download and it's just at rollersoftware.
Speaker 2:All right. So that is for everybody listening. If you want to get access to this report, you can go to rollersoftware and be able to just download that report, and it is. I mean I know it sounds daunting at 64 pages but it's absolutely worth the read and it's a great resource that Roller is putting out there for the industry. So really glad you guys have taken the lead on this front and look forward to reading the next one. Caitlin, thank you so much for hopping on and talking with us today.
Speaker 4:Thanks, brandon, happy to be here.
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Speaker 5:Hey, a big hello to everyone. Welcome to the latest open and shut.
Speaker 2:Oh a new hotel for you, brandon a new hotel, you know, and I thought, I thought this hotel I'd go with the purple on the face instead of purple behind me on the wall. So you know, we thought that you know what can I do? Let's just try to just make the lighting as bad as possible.
Speaker 5:Avoid the direct sunlight alternative. May I offer that as an option? Anyway, a lot to go through. We have missed a week, so we're condensing the two into one and I will try and zip through as quickly as normally possible, and obviously, if I go too fast, the pause button is available. So, jumping straight into the openings. There we go.
Speaker 5:A nice selection of venues, and the first ones that we'll talk about are friends in the Netherlands, here with the Hollywood Entertainment Center, I'm interested to see a 45, sorry, 40, sorry. Let's start again with the. I'm interested to see a 4,500 square meter there we go, got it out facility being dropped into the Netherlands. This is quite a big deployment. It has got a bit of everything, so it is a pure mule Part of a three-facility operation. So it's telling us that it is at the cut now of rolling out more of these. But I'm just wondering, at this type of size of facility, who they're going to be looking at next. Are they going to keep with the Netherlands, or are they going to look further afield, maybe to France or Germany?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and this is really impressive. I mean, just looking at some of the pictures their location in Rotterdam is just a bar is phenomenal. So if you get a chance we're not going to pull these pictures up here, but if you get a chance to take a look at the pictures, it's a really impressive, beautiful looking facility and I think what always gets me about these types of things is the lack, it's like the really poor branding. So it's an amazing facility. It's a, it's a mixed use, leisure entertainment. You know kevin calls it mules, um a facility. So it seems like a decent mix of attractions as well.
Speaker 2:Um, it may be too big, maybe overbuilt, we don't really. You know, depending on on you know what's going on there, but then to have you know what's going on there but then to have, you know again, a logo that's just looks like they did it in clip art or you know some, you know, in paint, I mean it's really pretty poor. I was just struggles, I struggled to understand, because there's really no infusion of that branding into the facility. The facility looks like a really nice entertainment venue, like a gravity max, maybe a little bit to some extent, as you'd find in the UK, but there's no infusion of Hollywood or that kind of concept into the space, so it does seem like a little bit of a mismatch.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I can see just the bottom of a paper clip with Clippy saying I see you're trying to create a logo. Yeah, yeah, branding. Branding needs a little bit of a redress after putting so much investment in. I think they do need to think about that. But anyway, horses for courses, as they say.
Speaker 5:Our friends at eva uh with their esports virtual reality. They have a new uh opening in romania, this time again quite a large entertainment facility. I don't have the exact sizes, but I think it's about 6 000 square feet uh facility, uh, and so 8 000 square feet facility with uh, the uh, the, the smaller arena fitting into that amusement f and b. But again, it is interesting to see our friends there are either pushing heavily their esports virtual reality credentials. Moving on, we have another virtual reality offering. This one's an unusual one. The truth traveler would be treated as a visitor entertainment attraction or visitor experience. It is based on Bible, biblical history. It uses virtual reality as well as some 4D experiences to get the message across that the individuals in Tennessee are trying to push and this is the second of their Bible-based religious entertainment facilities. Not too many of those are a classification. I know of the Ark Experience in Orlando, and I think that there's another facility somewhere else that comes to mind, in Israel. But again, tennessee is going to play home to this particular style of operation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just to, I know there's the Ark Encounter, that is, the big giant, massive, apparently, according to the Bible, the actual dimensions of the Ark that was built in Williamstown, Kentucky. So I know that as well. Right, so that is the and, and you know, I think they spent something like $450 million to build this facility.
Speaker 5:So I am going to now have to include a classification in my database for religitainment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah yeah, religitainment, and this, yeah, yeah, religitainment. This is an interesting one, so we'll see how it does.
Speaker 5:Yes, the one in Orlando still continues after I know a number of our industry scoffed. It even includes dinosaurs. It's been a while since I've walked around it Again, our regular component to our presentations, it seems. We have to have the gender moment and Geico has opened in Inata the relatively standard Japanese amusement installation, a standalone building populated heavily with gachipo and crane, and some amusement and then we go to uh kumfaji, so q q r g or fu r g, so there's kuwaito, fu r g and tanaka. So I apologize for all your japanese uh speakers out there for butchering that anyway. And we have a brand new facility there. I'm interested that when I get the press releases from gender for their geico openings, they include the number of machines in their facilities, something I think other manufacturers and operators should do when they're opening a new facility, because it gives you a kind of a an idea of the split, and here, uh, they're going for about over 120 train machines, so that kind of tells you how important that business is to them. They have about eight of the music, rhythm game machines which gives you a spin towards, uh, you know, the pipe of audience they're pulling in and 14 children units. Those are the rider machines and the simple play machines. So, genda, now I wouldn't be surprised that 800 number isn't pushing closer to 900 units within their home territory.
Speaker 5:Moving on, and we have a development in Mumbai in India. Funny enough, I was just compiling our next open and shut and there's a couple that have just opened in that territory as well. So this is a budding location-based entertainment market. This is the latest version of their interpretation of what I would call a kind of social entertainment bar bowling approach, and the company behind this particular rollout is talking that they want to have 50 of this kind of facility dotted around the Indian sector, of this kind of facility dotted around the Indian sector. So that's 26,000 square foot facility with amusement bar and bowling. I'm not sure it's a crowded market out there, but I know that with the increase in disposable income in that market that maybe that sector could quite easily eat up a couple more high-level social bowl attainment venues.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and this is, I would say, the polar opposite when it comes to branding match and logo match. They both are beautiful facilities. We were talking about Hollywood Entertainment Center and Game Palacio, but the Game Palacio logo and branding carries not just from the entrance to the logo and everything else all the way into the facility and they're very well matched Beautiful facility, very different, very high end, but also very aligned with the brand. And this is important when you're developing, especially if you intend to grow to 50 venues or even three venues, it's important to have that brand aligned with your visual brand, aligned with the actual feeling and experience.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I'm getting social entertainment vibes that could work in any market. It's a high quality operation. Again, we need to see how they fare. They even include some VR along with their amusement, so they're covering all their bases. Our friends at Zero Latency have entered the Paraguayan market. They opened up their first facility in that sector, so that's bringing them up to 110 facilities now part of their franchise operation. We'll be talking a little bit about the franchising of VR entertainment venues in the coming sound-off. But again, they have their momentum, they're rolling it out and I know that they have an announcement about a new game that is coming soon.
Speaker 5:Competitors to our friends at Topgolf Chasing Aces Louisiana. It's not a trend but I will point this out as we move on that this particular area seems to be attracting a lot of entertainment venues. But this particular shooting range facility also includes some secondary entertainment. They've just put a home run dugout into the the mix of this facility. They, you know they have their mini golf, uh, attached to their driving range. We even with some amusement with their fmb and we're seeing them throw about 19 million into the development of this concept and I think that 19 million isn't just being put into the facility, but is also the beginning of a chain rollout for this kind of operation. New jersey.
Speaker 5:I'm not going to touch upon these because, uh, you know I want to stick to the main ones that we want to talk about. But you, if you stop the video and look at some of the places I'm touching upon, we're seeing more venues opening up in the same area, so the catchments are increasing. Uh, sin attainment here. So the uh, mycon, uh facility. What I'm getting out of this is that they've now started to add uh. What I'm getting out of this is that they've now started to add entertainment components to their facilities and they've fares with the captive audience that they're going to be grabbing.
Speaker 2:This is interesting, so did they. It looks like it's just free roam in the lobby, or no? No, it is, it's a little.
Speaker 5:That's a little room set aside from the main lobby. So the first photograph is a picture directly towards the uh, from the lobby towards the room where they're doing it or the space where they're doing it, and then that picture is showing the space okay, so this isn't.
Speaker 2:this is not um, because most verse immersive installations are enclosed from a glass case, that kind of thing. This is more just a separate room area that is off the lobby, got it? Yeah, I was going to say if this is just free roam through the lobby, that's going to be really interesting and cause some problems I can imagine.
Speaker 5:Yeah, you need to corral them somewhat and you know they're heading back to their roots when they used to operate their own facilities. This is very similar to that. Our friends at K1 Speed Texas gets another facility. I keep on suffering deja vu. I have to keep on going back and double-checking that. I haven't mentioned these sites before, but you know this is a standalone. They are up to about 107 facilities now. So you know what some people would be traw is to call andretti's light. But you know I'm not going to make that joke. I feel that they have a strong carting component as well as a strong amusement component, though their f and b is not as focused as some of the other operations.
Speaker 5:Let me jump into part two. Uh, and here we go, in texas again. Uh, 40 000 square foot entertainment facility in houston. There's a lot of facilities there and this is another one that's throwing its hat into the ring. You know, uh, again, uh, ars entertainment people thinking that it's augmented reality, but no, it's AR's. They have three facilities, or well, they have two facilities already open. This will be their third operation. So again, they're throwing their hat in the ring and it's clear that they're looking at upping their game.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've been to AR's facility in San Antonio. In fact it was actually one of the facilities we visited as part of one of the FEC summits back when we visited San Antonio two, three years ago I can't remember exactly the one. The location there has, you know, mini golf, it's got a hollow gate arena, it's got some some really weirdly placed amusement machines, but it basically has to do with, like, the layout of the facility and they also have soft play. So I don't know if this location has the same full collection of things, but there's a big soft play component with roller skating, with amusement, again hollow, so the hollow gate and then laser tag and the excuse me, not VR, but laser tag and golf in the San Antonio facility. So it looks like they've shifted their mix a little bit in this new location.
Speaker 5:I didn't see software pushed as much in this one though I did. You know their roller skate component is one of their primary entertainment elements Jumping on and we have a kind of a kludge of new retro arcade bars opening or new venues to existing chains. Draftcade had about three facilities. They've just thrown the doors open on their Virginia facility 8,000 square square, multiple classic arcade machines with some party rooms but also with a dedicated bar and screens for watching the sports, which seems to be a formula now that is being rolled out by a number of companies.
Speaker 5:I wanted to include Clip and Climb here. Not much amusement I don't think they have any amusement or anything like this but it's very aimed at the entertainment, the active entertainment approach, and I just wanted to include these guys because of the grounding that they are a 350 facility operation and it kind of puts it into perspective how the active entertainment market has legs beyond its pure amusement feed, but again one to keep an eye on and also one that is heavily franchised. I've seen a number of malls include components that are Clip and Clive adjacent.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know I think this is. I think many people might forget that Clip and Clive does get through franchising but run and operate their own, obviously corporate venues but also franchise standalone Clip and Clive venues, even though also we see Clip and Clive as a component of a lot of active entertainment venues as well. So not only do they have their standalone brands but their locations but they also have and a lot of those again, as you mentioned, kevin, tend to be in shopping malls and other things, not even so much in the individual things but like in the main lobbies areas where they, you know they can actually have the two story, the two stories there, but most of them are. But they also have a ton of this, their, their equipment inside of other active entertainment venues.
Speaker 5:I couldn't remember the O2. Was that a clip and climb.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:Moving on score entertainment. Uh, a real big monster for Houston Texas. 140,000 square foot of entertainment coming your way soon. They haven't thrown the doors open yet. The numbers being quoted in some of the coverage is talking about $2 million being spent on just the development fund for the space. That's not the fit out of the operation fund, it's got everything. So this is the pure spaghetti mule. It's got carting. It's got the fit out of the operation fun. It's got everything.
Speaker 5:So this is the pure spaghetti mule. It's got karting, it's got bowling, it's got laser tags, got mini golf, it's got vr attractions. It's got some soft play, I think. Uh, according to their website, and they've got f and b. At this moment there isn't a lot of direct photos of the facility in operation because they're just about to throw their doors open on the site. But this is a serious investment and a serious, uh, main lead entertainment flagship facility and it kind of shows you that we are at peak texas entertainment at this point in time when someone feels that they can open a 140,000 square foot entertainment site within such a crowded market.
Speaker 2:So I always struggle with not so much the main mix of attractions here, but looking on their website now, which may have just been developed, since even you pulled this like. They may have just gone live. Well, this is location to Humble Texas, so maybe the Humble location is not the same one as the one in Houston, I don't know. But anyway this they have a. They have trampolines mixed with things like carting and bowling and laser tag and more of your standard traditional quote-unquote family entertainment or FEC mix of attractions, only because it tends to draw a different subset of customers Kids that are coming to jump, families that are coming to jump, especially during the day or early afternoon, are different than the families that are coming or the adults that are coming to your sports sims or your VR dark rides. And so you know again, I know you're trying to fill 140,000 square feet that's probably the space you had available at the Deerbrook Mall but sometimes throwing in things like that are just going to create additional headaches when it comes to staffing and liability and everything else.
Speaker 5:It's the scattergun approach have space will try and fill, which is not really the best approach. If you have such a large space, rather than trying to fill that space, close some of it off and then come back to it at a later time with new gates and new refreshment. But I know how you know eager some new operators are to jump into this. Um, the retro arcade bar continues with a number of other openings. Back to the 90s again. Classic arcade machines, a bar rinse, repeat, put some pinball in. We go to Spain and we have a next-level bar in Barcelona 350,000 square meters, so not that large 350 square meters, just to be clear, not 350,000.
Speaker 5:Oh God, yeah, I've got the thousands on the mind. 350 square meters. Oh God, yeah, I've got the thousands on the mind. Yeah, 350 square meters, yeah, and 40 machines in there labor of love. But I get the feeling that, you know, this is part of three facilities that are already sorry. Two facilities are open. This will be the third facility, so it kind of is the bar with arcade is a working model. We then have the arcade, the retro arcade, as the venue. One ticket play, all kind of approach. This is in Madrid, not a million miles away from where our home is. And then we go to Australia and we have the Bay Arcade with their selection of retro machines.
Speaker 5:It is a formula that is being rinsed and repeated a number of times by startup operators, as well as some venues that have managed to get two or three or four sites open. Of the similar mix, I'm not sure how much of this is purely based on the bars are popular, but bar arcades are popular or based on the this is something I've always wanted to do. I've got the money. Let's roll one out as a proven formula.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so many of these just feel like that ladder to me, where they just this is something that they're just it's a passion play they, they have some machines, maybe they've been collecting them and they you know they had the 50 like, well, why don't I finally open up a facility? And then they do, and then it struggles to find a business model. Some of them, um, are, do, end up successful just because the, the natural, uh, the natural excitement that the, that the owner has and they bring in a base of people that they're excited about and they put in their blood, sweat and tears. But it does seem to. Generally, we see these things close their doors within six months to two years.
Speaker 5:It's one to keep an eye on of these new openings, and I was lucky enough to have a conversation with a developer of a chain of these, which I'll go into more detail when we do the next sound off Sparks. Very large operation, 4,800 square meters, it's got 50 sports represented, it's got about 42 different bay areas that you can go to and each one either has uh sim racing or it has archery or it has an interactive floor system, so it's active entertainment. There is some vr there. They have the birdly uh virtual flying system, they have some augmented. They even have a relationship with Meleap with their Hado augmented reality esports experience. But again, this is the second facility. This Belgium Ghent facility is, you know, jumping into a target-rich environment and is pushing the exergaming, pushing the active entertainment model, a lot more than just pushing it as a normal entertainment facility.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know, one of the things I like about what they've done here first of all, they're very open about calling themselves a sportainment facility, so that is something that they have chosen and they've actually made very visible on their website, so it's something they're embracing and it's something I think they're trying to get into the market. But what I also like about the way they've laid out the facility is that they have we talked about this multi-gate concept, and so a lot of their different sports activities, or their different activities here in general, are in different rooms, and so you move around, and what that means is it allows them to say all right, let's say, one of their activities is not driving the amount of traffic or interest. They can now repurpose that room and put something different in there without having to disrupt the entire facility, and so I do like what they've done on that front.
Speaker 5:It's a very flexible model. We're going to be talking in the entertainment arena about the active entertainment market and how it's really gaining momentum beyond the trampoline and climbing wall sector, but again want to keep an eye on here with a strong branding approach. Dave and Buster's Washington is an interesting locality for them. I don't think they have that many in the Washington area. I'd have to double check 23,000 square feet facility. We got some transparency to the operation. They've put about 2.9 million into the development acquisition of the property and the initial build and fit out. So we're getting a rough idea of the type of numbers that our friends Dave and Buster's drop when they're putting a facility together. This one does have the traditional well, not traditional, but their interpretation of the social base, though again, in the marketing they're not pushing them as social base, they're just talking about them as social entertainment areas for the facility.
Speaker 2:So just to confirm, there are only. This is the fourth location in Washington and really the only other three are in the complete opposite western side of Washington, around the Seattle area, so around the Puget Sound Seattle area. So there actually are very few. Dave Buster's this would be the fourth, and in Spokane, which is obviously far east for those of you who know the Washington state, right along the border of Idaho and Washington.
Speaker 5:So the market needed it or their calculations proved that they could get away with it. We will look forward to seeing how it does Now towards the shots and the sales and the acquisitions. I think I'm going to have to add an A to that Our friends at Popstrokes has taken over the Pitch. The Pitch was a brand new facility that had developed itself in Austin, texas, and Popstrokes come along and they've taken it over. The Pitch was offering a very similar approach, as it were, to what Popstrokes is promoting with their outdoor mini golf bar environment, though I get the feeling that the pitch also has a little bit more indoor entertainment components. So maybe this is something that our friends at Pop Strokes are looking to incorporate in their rollout of new facilities.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is an interesting play, interesting play, and the only reason I'll add this comment is that sometimes we see these as a brand that's been established with a particular attraction mix acquiring something else. That doesn't seem to be an exact, perfect fit, but what they're doing is potentially saying hey look, I think there might be an interest in, or a need to, diversify, and we've talked about that with PopStroke as well. You need to diversify beyond their outdoor mini golf solution, and now this gives them pickleball courts. It gives them some hand volleyball courts. While I'm not necessarily a fan of that mix and I don't think that's long-term sustainable, it is probably PopStroke looking for alternatives beyond just their mini golf.
Speaker 5:They've heard the word. They know that they're going to have to broaden their entertainment mix and so acquiring a company that already an operation, that already has an experience of doing that, is not such a stupid approach. And it helps accelerate their rollout plans that they've raised their money over Michigan's Adventure Regional Park out plans that you know they've raised their money over. Uh, michigan's adventure, you know regional park can trace its roots back to uh, the 1950s. Uh, just a surprise announcement during the season that they won't be opening up. Uh, further from this point, you know, as compiling this data, I wasn't able to get any more information other than people were shocked. Pass holders were shocked that the announcement was being made and had no inkling that the Michigan Ventures facility was in trouble. So this is one that we'll try and keep a closer eye on to find out exactly what the reasons are for this.
Speaker 5:I wouldn't be surprised if acquisition is in the wings regarding this locality. Then bounce a salutary tale of having to understand all of your P's and Q's when you're developing a new facility. The site is brand new, throws its doors open and then, surprise, surprise, the local council turns up and starts asking questions about have they got all of their paperwork in order, some of these attractions that they're operating. You know where are the certifications? Have they got the permits? Have they had the inspectors around? Surprise, surprise the uh, the new, uh, owners of this site, a little bit green behind the gills and hadn't hadn't done all of that, so they've gone for a temporary close while they bring everything up to code, as they say. We will wait and see how quickly they can turn that around and when they will move from temporary close to reopening.
Speaker 2:This is just an example. Now, who knows? They may have been working with a consultant in the industry, but who knows? But it's a good example of where working with somebody who is already familiar with the industry is important. Who knows what types of permitting are needed? Or even just working with the associations that exist? So they clearly could have worked with the Association of Travelling Parks.
Speaker 2:Now, that doesn't mean that IATP would necessarily have known what's needed specifically in the city of Milwaukee or the state of Wisconsin for permitting, but they could have certainly helped navigate that and avoid this problem. The reason why this is important is they had the momentum building, they had social media building, they had marketing efforts, they had spent money probably to drive their opening, and then all all that grinds to a halt and in some regards, when you kill that momentum, it's really hard to reach that flywheel again, especially when now parents are going to wonder oh, are they permitted correctly? Was there something wrong with the facility? They're starting to ask them to see them down. It's so important to get this stuff right and be able to open when you know you can open and have everything aligned and ready to go before you do so.
Speaker 5:Like trying to kickstart a super tanker. It's very difficult. Interesting again, we have the dog bowl facility. Has been going for a while in the Manchester area, then surprise closing, only for it to be revealed that the space has been acquired and it's going to be reopening as the Wainwood Lanes bowling site. So that's a rebranding, bringing up of the themality of the facility. So I think we're seeing a power play here by a local operator to try and create a mini empire by acquiring the low-hanging fruit in their area. And then an example that we go on about the Labour of Love facilities that then suddenly fall by the wayside, suddenly fall by the wayside. This venue opened at the beginning of 2024.
Speaker 5:Tilt Pinball Perfect Tilt Pinball, you know, was an iteration of multiple retro pinball tables and amusement in a facility with a bar component. And if you don't have the business, you don't have the business. And it was announced that they will be ending their business in August. This is the kind of the things that we were referring to earlier about if you don't have the right mix, if you haven't done the business plan correctly, just building it and hoping that they will turn up only works in the movies.
Speaker 5:Again, another facility with a long history that has decided to close up shop, the Star Castle venue in Georgia. I was familiar that there were more than one Star Castle facility, but I may be misremembering, but anyway, this one site had definitely opened in 1984, has been running ever since, and then, due to various issues which again were not made very clear though I personally think that it's a tyre facility and the operator wants to move on to bigger and better things and that property I'm sure has very strong value, uh, now, in the current market conditions. Anyway, they're closing the door in august, uh, and we will wait to see what happens next this is an example of a business that just didn't evolve.
Speaker 2:I mean, you can see it in, you know, the logo. This was a classic, uh, you know, probably 1980s, 1990s facility was just, you know, buzzing'm sure, right. It had a roller rink, it had laser tag and it had arcades. I mean, that was the 80s and 90s all day long, but it's not the 2000s and 2010s and it certainly is not the 2020s, and this really needed to evolve and it just didn't, unfortunately, and they've got a lot of competition in that area.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and Savannah has evolved as a town as well. I think Savannah is a beautiful town and it is very much about the nightlife, about the adults, about the 20-somethings, et cetera. And they do have families, of course. But what young adults are doing and even what older teens are doing now are different than what they did in the 80s and the 90s, when this would have been in its heyday.
Speaker 5:If you want a master class on how not to run a website, I recommend you go off and have a look at their website.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's true too.
Speaker 5:I did not even go down that path to round off, not just the facilities and the operators are feeling the pinch, but the support and the developers are feeling the pinch. And in the virtual reality side we have Mace Virtual Labs, which was a distributor and they ran a small operation themselves eSports and VR. They have gone to the wall and all of their equipment is going up for auction and it's just fascinating to go through the auction site seeing the boxes upon boxes of vr equipment that they have. They have their vertrix omni uh omnidirectional treadmill. They have the enterprise versions as well as the consumer versions of these systems.
Speaker 5:This is the other side of the the coin regarding the openings and closings that we report on. When the wholesalers of the equipment go to the wall, then that has an impact directly as well as indirectly, with operations that have depended on these people to supply their spare parts for their operations machines. Anyway, rounding this one up, please make sure that you're subscribed. I've been told again by someone that they stopped receiving their Sting Report email and they don't know why. Either way, make sure that you're receiving it in your inbox. Also, listen to us through all of your usual tools and please give us any support and information about facilities near you. That may be a changing opening or closing.
Speaker 1:Anyway, thank you again for all of your time. Plus, they're offering a complimentary local market analysis to show you exactly how they can help you grow Curious, visit Radiusco and ask about your free market analysis. That's R-A-Y-D-I-U-S dot C-O brandon, how are you?
Speaker 3:hey how's it going, justin? Good? Good to see you again. Hey everybody, another segment here of game on. I'm justin michaels with inner card and, as always, brandon, I appreciate the time. Thanks for having me on today.
Speaker 3:We're gonna talk a little bit about merchandising 101 and the importance of it all. Right, perfect, dig it, okay. So, um, you know, in today's game mix, all the arcades that I visit, it's really 80-20. And by 80-20, I mean 80% redemption right Versus 20 cranes and video sometimes 70-30. But the reason behind that is redemption games earned. We've talked a little bit about this. If you've listened to the segment before in the 80s and 90s. It was the opposite in the heyday of video.
Speaker 3:But my kids have multiple devices headsets, xboxes, computers, all those things. So when they visit the arcade they want to play Redemption games and earn prizes. Also, I'm told by my customers frequently, arcade's usually number one, number two attraction and the most profitable per square foot. Usually number one, number two attraction and the most profitable per square foot. So you know the purpose of redemption really is to incentivize gameplay. Someone told me this a long time ago. But the games are a lot like cash registers and the prize mix and the redemption center is what truly motivates people to want to play and, more importantly, save and come back right and invite guests and fans or friends and family and and and that sort of thing. So it's often overlooked, especially if you're somebody new that's getting into it. You're planning all these other things like big attractions and game room and you don't really think about redemption or merchandising a product mix until the very last thing and it's really the driver. So it's important, very important.
Speaker 2:What's interesting about that is when I when I think about when I've gone with my kids and they're older now, but when they were younger, they, they just would like go right, they'd get the game card, they just go right to the games. They wouldn't even think about what's there. But when they get, when they actually get there with their cards, like they'll, they'll come up and like maybe not even all the way, when they're all the way done, they would look and they'd see okay, what's here, how much do I have? They'd like realize that, oh, if I just had like 20 more credits I could get this. Or if I had 50 more credits I could get this. And then they go back out, right.
Speaker 2:So it's like I don't, I don't know that many kids or or, uh, you know, people go guests would like go and look at the, go to look at the wall or go into the store and see what it is first and then go. But it definitely was an incentive for them once they got there to go play some more, because they wanted to get that extra little bump, to get that better thing, especially as they were older, as they got older, when they weren't as worried about just getting a bunch of candy and stuff, like some of the smaller stuff, when they actually were like trying to get something bigger.
Speaker 3:So yeah, I would definitely agree that it does incentivize gameplay and revenue as a result. Yeah, and then they're hitting dad up for 10 more, 20 more dollars. That's kind of the point of it. With the game card too. They're saving it and it's there, it's probably in your wallet, but it's branded, and they're saying, dad, let's go back. We have points on that card, excuse me. So that's really kind of the point of it all. I think we'll talk a little bit about it as're kind of forced to look at it and that's that whole psychology piece behind it.
Speaker 3:The other thing, too, with merchandising and I talk to a lot of FECs and ask them what their biggest struggles. It's typically attrition is number one, turnover with their employees, staff finding good help. But number two is usually inventory. It's um, it's a pain to and it takes a lot of time and labor to count this stuff. Inventory it, reorder it. So if you merchandise it properly, have the proper skew count, that can help drive operational efficiencies too, which is important. There's some other tools that I see in the industry, like planogram software. Some companies offer, like auto reorder programs that help you save time when it comes to those types of you know activities with your get or with your employees and just reordering everything, stockinging it, counting it, um. And it's also the last stop. I mean, typically when I'm in an fuc with my kids, we're gonna redeem points. So it's the last chance for you to interact with the guests and that last impression you're gonna leave with the guests. You might as well make it a great one. That's going to help generate that repeat business as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. And the auto reorder is good as long as it's only going to be as good as your actual inventory management is. So, like you know if you're, if you're not, you know if you're out, but some but an employee didn't actually say that you're out of a particular thing then the auto reorder is not going to kick in, is not going to reorder even though you're out, because the inventory wasn't actually managed properly. So I think you've got to make sure that your staff is doing what they need to to manage the inventory properly and then have the systems that then streamline the actual ordering after the fact.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. There's a lot of operational discipline that has to happen. Your employees, your employees have to scan the right things. You have to be doing regular physical inventories. If you do all the right things then the technology can work for you, but to your point, if you're not, it can cause problems quickly for sure. So we'll just jump in.
Speaker 3:I do a lot of travel, like you do, brandon, and especially with new openings, like with our customers, and get to see a lot of great family entertainment centers, and I've been snapping a lot of pictures. So I thought I'd just share a couple Main event. Of course I took this recently. I was in Dallas, really impressed by this. It's bright and colorful. It's inviting Front and center for the guests, like we talked about In the old days. It was Dave and Buster's that kind of pioneered the store retail concept and the store was way in the back in the corner, and now you'll see they've moved it front and center and that comes back to that psychology that we talked about in driving sales. It's themed out nicely so you can come in here, make quick decisions, double facings, there's symmetry, good lines, just looks really good. The bends are full and in order and everything's labeled properly. So, again, that's gonna help guests make decisions quickly. They're able to help themselves and that's gonna allow you to move guests through quicker during peak time. So that's, that's your throughput, um, your turns, and that's going to lead to more revenue too. If you have a backlog, then you're not able to put as many guests through the arcade and it's you're not going to lead to more revenue too. If you have a backlog, then you're not able to put as many guests through the arcade and it's you're not going to earn as much. So there's a lot of psychology that goes into this to help the guest flow. But I just thought this looked really, really good. I like the mirrors across the top. There's really no place to hide.
Speaker 3:When I was selling uh, redemption designs and redemption merchandise, that was usually the concern of the customer, like, well, if we do a store, the guests are going to steal from us. But the thing that I found out is it's the employees that'll steal from you, not not the guest. Yeah, but this allows whoever's working the point of sale to really keep an eye on the guest. There's cameras in there as well, but we have loss prevention reports. Most of the theft doesn't come from stealing merchandise, it comes from Vulcan and coding cards, card consolidations by employees. Excuse me, so we have reporting that I give to all our new customers to help them monitor that sort of thing. But I thought, main event, they're a big chain. I mean they're doing a really nice job. This looks great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is a great looking redemption store. I mean even down to the lighting, the nice chandeliers that they put in there. It's just really inviting. Obviously they've really worked hard and thought carefully about the layout and where everything is placed. And one of the things I just thought about the stores not everybody can put a store in because can just wander through and and take their time and they're not as pressured about standing up at a counter with other people waiting in line and you've got an employee who's there waiting. I mean, I just the store is really much better guest experience If you can afford to have one, you know, given your square footage, great facility.
Speaker 3:Great, 100% there. This is Harkins. So this is in your neck of the woods. Harkins is a theater chain in the Southwest excuse me and they just launched their first standalone FEC concept.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know what's. I'm so glad you're covering this, because I was actually just going to mention them before we started looking at pictures as a really good example of a nice, well-implemented redemption store right at the entrance as well right to the left, because I just did a little overview, I went and visited them a couple of weeks ago, or actually just last week, and so just two weeks ago. On the show I looked at some pictures, but I didn't actually didn't show the redemption store. So I'm glad we're doing this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's not fully lit because they weren't open at the time, but I had to snap a picture because I thought it really looked great it's. There's still a vacuum in there. Yeah, it's got a sleek, real sleek, modern design and when you go in to Backlot, I mean they didn't cut any corners, it's. Go in to to backlot, I mean they didn't cut any corners. It's. It's really beautiful fec. Um, it's front and center. It's themed. Um, I thought they had a really nice mix of licensed merchandise in there. Um, it's also got the retail feel high end. There's a high-end display there. They've got some nice high-end electronics and good symmetry across the board. But I was very impressed with Harkins and Backlot.
Speaker 3:And I onboarded them there at Intercard. They're a great operator. They really did their homework.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they really did. I was really impressed by this being their first manifestation of an FEC, having been just a movie theater chain. They really did their homework, they did it well, it is a great-looking facility and the Redemption Store was really good, having been in just a movie theater chain. They really did their homework, they did it well, it is a great-looking facility and the Redemption store was really good, so I'm glad you called it out here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we did some integrations with them too, with their app, so really the whole guest experience as you come into the facility. I mean it's great, and that ties in with Redemption as well. So really impressed with Harkins. This is a spare time.
Speaker 3:I don't know if you're familiar with Bowl New England spare time, excuse me, large bowling chain. They have, I think, 15 stores, but I really love the LED lighting. It almost has the feel of like an Apple store, very clean. It also has an efficient skew count. So we talked a little bit about that in terms of counting. It reorders, throughput. I think sometimes it can be too many skews and that can cause the guests to. It's just that it's the Cheesecake Factory menu. We've talked about that before. Just too many choices. This is perfect. You can come in, make a choice and get in and out quickly. So spare time does a really nice job and I love the lighting. The games, as you know, redemption games especially, have just gotten really big 70 square, 70, 75 square feet and they come in different footprints some of them, but um, they're all well lit. Led lights are all incorporated into the games these days, so the redemption counter competes with it. It just it looks great yeah, yeah, this is nice.
Speaker 2:Um, what kind of was it? I'm assuming it's carpet, but that flooring is really interesting. It's like almost multi-dimensional, like there's almost multi-dimensions to it.
Speaker 3:Yeah that's carpet in there for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so just the way the light's hitting it then and and the way it looks like it's a stitched almost, it's a really interesting. Um, but yeah, this is a great feel too. Very different than the other two. This one is a little bit more airy, almost like a like. If you're like, like you said, an apple store, I almost say like a lego store, if you're going to a store, it feels very retail, but not in a in like a trashy way.
Speaker 3:I mean, it's like really nice yeah, it's impressive how far it's come. I mean, in the 80s and 90s, go to a local skating rink or Chuck E Cheese. I mean this is just light years beyond. So I'm impressed with where it's gone. B&b Red Oak B&B Theaters is a Midwestern chain Theater chain and they've started to implement game rooms um, and they do a really, really nice job. I like the acrylic fixtures here. I like how the bends are built in. It's just just really beautiful. The led lighting's great. This has an open feel. So the store sits at the front of the arcade but there are no walls blocking it off. It's just an open space that you walk into.
Speaker 2:Interesting, it's very inviting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I was wondering too. It's hard to sometimes look at a store like this, especially given the fact that it's not an actual enclosed space without context of what the rest of the aesthetic is in the venue. I was just kind of curious if because I really like the LEDs strips that are the vertical strips that are going between the shelving, but we're just curious if that matched some of the, if some of those LED strips were like in other parts of, or those coloring was other parts of the facility, or is that just here in the redemption area?
Speaker 3:It's unique to the redemption area area, but if you have the opportunity, especially red oak, I think this was like a 40 million dollar project. They cut zero corners, their bar, the bowling, all of it is lit like a las vegas casino, I mean a resort. It's beautiful. So they do incorporate a lot of other led elements into the bar and in bowling and it's just. It's a beautiful, beautiful place, uh, just south of of dallas, so if you're ever down there, definitely be worth stopping in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah they also have outdoor activities like bocce ball. I think they have volleyball, so it's not just a movie theater, I mean, it's full-scale bowling entertainment center. Beautiful facility.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome. Well, thanks for sharing some of those and, again, glad that we got a chance to take a look at the Backlot Redemption. Of course I covered that.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, again, thanks for having me, brandon, I appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely all right. We'll see you in the next game on. You're ready, take care, all right. Well, that was, that was great. Last. We're going to round out with a really pretty quick concise, but I think important and relevant.
Speaker 1:Promo Pro Tips with Chuck DeMonte. Hello and welcome to Promo Pro Tips with Chuck DeMonte. That is me, and today I want to talk about how do you reinvent your FBC. So this is for the FBC that might be a little bit older. You've been around for five plus years, the neighbor knows about you and maybe some of the things in some of your locations get a little old and tired, right, what are some ways and on a budget, that you can reinvent yourself and get more people to come back in, or repeat customers to come back in and even new customers to come back in? Okay, so today I want to go over five ways. Now, there's a million ways you could do this and you know I encourage you to get creative as possible. Okay, but here's a few ways. So, first and foremost, obviously the one of the easiest ways is new attractions. Okay, now, obviously some attractions could be expensive, but there are a lot of new attractions that can be very inexpensive and you could add a few of them to give it a whole new look and new feel and just something new for your customers to do. Those could be like augmented reality, sandbox or mirror play. Those could be like interactive game walls, arcades. There's a ton of things that you could do. Do some research, find some low, low cost opportunities for attractions that you can put in there. Uh, it's always a great way to say, hey, come check out our you know, a great marketing opportunity to get in front of people, come check out our new X, y, z, right Attraction. So again, first and foremost, if you can get new attractions there, if you have the space, you know, redo another attraction, umit it for something else. That's what I would recommend, first and foremost.
Speaker 1:Next could be a new birthday party experience. So how do you give your birthday party experience an upgrade? I don't know, get creative here. Maybe it's the oversized birthday. It's like every birthday kid gets a huge birthday party hat and they get a huge birthday card and it's like an Instagrammable moment too. It could be really good for marketing. So, I don't know, get creative, get out of the ordinary, think outside of the box. How do we have this birthday party experience that's like just nothing like that being done in your local area, right, something really cool and, again, instagram-worthy. Always think about it through that lens, like, if you saw this scrolling through Instagram, would you go oh, this is cool. So how do you have that theme? Or add a theme to your birthday parties? Maybe do it for a limited time, right, to try and get more birthday booking, so something like that could be cool.
Speaker 1:Number three Now, this works for locations that have the room and also, maybe, if you have like a bar element or maybe like an older crowd that comes there, it's adding a live entertainment element, right, so this could be really cool and, you know what, even for younger places. Maybe you have, like a kids, you know, a music act, kids musical act come in there, right, uh. But for the older place to have live bands, live acts, it's a great way to get some additional revenue from your location where you're not using. I seen a lot of uh acts throwing places, expand outside of ax throwing, but then also add live entertainment and create a stage and it's been really, really, um, lucrative for them and a really good opportunity. So, uh, adding live entertainment. Number three that's a great way to, you know, sort of use the space for another reason, okay, uh.
Speaker 1:Number four uh, add a parent's lounge, right, uh. So people like to bring their kids in somewhere so they could sort of maybe try and get some, some time to, you know, to think on their own. Uh, maybe do some work during the day, right? Um, so, have a parent's lounge, make the Wi-Fi really easily connected there, make it a nice, comfortable area, a place to sit, a place to use your computer. All of that could be a great reason for parents to want to come there, because they know they'll be able to get some quiet time, get some work done and they'll be able to bring their kid there and they can get some energy out there as well.
Speaker 1:Okay, and then, last but not least, give the team an upgrade. Okay, retrain your team. Make sure they know how the customers should be treated. Make sure they know the attractions. Make sure they know the pricing. Make sure they know everything so that when people come in there, they have an elevated experience. Okay, make sure the dress code is enhanced. Make sure that the team is just on the next level. Okay, and that's the biggest biggest. You know miss. A lot of times we see operators. Their team is just not up to par.
Speaker 1:Okay, so those are five areas. Again, there's a bunch of other areas. So let's just recap we got new attractions right. Get a new attraction there. It's going to get people back through the door. Do a new birthday party experience. Do bring in live entertainment, if you can, and a parents lounge, and give the team upgrade. That's five things.
Speaker 1:Okay, now let's say you've done one of those things. How can you get the word out? Okay, I would suggest A. You get a videographer, slash photographer in there to you know, get content for these new things you did. You could also, and I would say, either do both or one, get an influencer in there. Get an influencer and, I would say, a few influencers in there to capture these new things right. The way they create that content, people are going to, you know, influence that a certain way. The way they create a reel, create a, you know, a video for you. People will know sort of its other third party creating that video. It'll be them in the video, so you get your social validation. You could also turn that into an ad. Okay, once you have ad sets right, video photos for the new, whatever attraction, new birthday party experience you're going to want to use paid social to get that out. There could be meta, facebook and Instagram. That could be TikTok okay, but put ads behind it.
Speaker 1:Retarget the people who visit your website. Upload your contacts to retarget the people who you already have email and SMS for. So they see it and they want to come back to your location. Okay, you also want to email and SMS blast all these things? Okay, super important. And then, lastly, do PR, if you can. Now, pr could be a little more expensive, but if you could afford it, do PR. Do a big press release on the new upgrades, the new attractions you have. So, again, if you're an old location, you always want to try and reinvent yourself, right? These are some great ways to do it and I guarantee to get some people through the door again.
Speaker 2:Intercard is the only cashless system designed, developed and manufactured all under one roof. They introduced cashless technology to the amusement industry and have been leading the way for over 30 years. Cashless systems from Intercard increase customer spending, guest satisfaction and boost revenues by up to 30%. Intercard is so proud to be serving the amusement industry and if you aren't already part of their global family of customers, they hope you will become one soon. All right, well, that is a wrap for this week's LBX show and just a couple of quick announcements here. Remember SoundOff number 86 is coming up with Kevin Williams on Tuesday, august 12th, so just in a couple of days. And yeah, that's a wrap. This is Brandon Wiley signing off. Stay tuned and keep kicking ass.
