The LBX Show #49 - Fall Promotion Strategy, Dinos for Sale, Universal Kids, & more!

Sponsored by Intercard!
Sponsored by Alan-1!

On this week's episode, Clint Novak joins for a Guest Gab to discuss how to turn a “slow” season into a growth window with early Black Friday planning, smarter inventory, and signature events that bring families back. Along the way, we track market shifts, new attractions, and arcade releases, and honor the legacy of Paul Williams.

• IAAPA Expo plans, LBX Collective speakeasy returns in booth 4402
• Give Kids The World charity golf, 5K and 1K, team fundraising
• Field Station: Dinosaurs liquidation opportunities on Facebook Marketplace
• Swings And Things retirement sale
• Universal Kids Resort lands confirmed and website strategy
• Black Friday tactics that build urgency and protect margin
• Tiered discounts, BOGOs, and activation timing into next year
• Signature events that become traditions and when to pivot
• Openings and trends: Holey Moley, Triotech, Sandbox, Timezone, and more
• Asia design cues, color strategy, and audience targeting
• Cinema VR viability based on session length and onboarding
• Closures and franchise moves, what they signal
• Arcade Corner: memorial for Paul Williams, IAAPA teasers and new games
• Promo Pro Tips: combine digital with local events for compounding reach

Subscribe and visit LBX Collective for more!

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome & Episode Roadmap
• 1:25 IAPA Expo Plans & LBX Speakeasy
• 2:51 Give Kids The World Charity Drives
• 4:48 Field Station Dinosaurs Liquidation
• 6:30 Swings And Things Retirement Sale
• 8:00 Universal Kids Resort Lands Revealed
• 12:22 Guest Gab: Fall Promotions With Clint Novak
• 22:30 Black Friday Deal Structures That Convert
• 28:30 Avoiding Inventory Pitfalls In Holiday Rush
• 34:30 Signature Events That Build Tradition
• 39:00 Open & Shut With Kevin Williams
• 46:00 New Openings: Holy Moly, Triotech, Sandbox
• 52:30 Asia Market Trends & Color-Forward Design
• 58:30 Cinema VR Add‑Ons: Promise Or Pitfall
• 1:03:00 Mega Sites, Closures, And Franchise Shifts
• 1:08:00 Arcade Corner: Remembering Paul Williams
• 1:11:30 IAPA Teasers: Sega, Raw Thrills, Licenses
• 1:16:30 New Games: Soda Slam, Pinball, EXA Fighters

Transcript

SPEAKER_04: 0:01

Tuning you in now to the LBX show with your host, Brandon Wilder. What do you buy the LBX collective and your community to connect, engage, and inspire?

SPEAKER_07: 0:22

All right, well, welcome everybody to the LBX show for October 19th, 2025. Uh, we've got a solid show lined up for you today. We're gonna dive right into some news you should know right at the beginning. And then we've got another guest gab. We had one last week with John Keyes from Center Edge, and we're gonna do one this week with one of our regulars, Clint Clint Novak. He's here to talk about his latest article in the replay magazine about running fall promotions. And then we're gonna roll into open and shut with Kevin Williams. We're gonna review the latest openings and closing trends from this last week. And then we're gonna hear from Adam Pratt with Arcade Corner. He'll give his memorial for Paul Williams, who has recently passed away and is a CEO of Sega Amusements International and Kaizen Entertainment. And then moves into uh then he'll move into IAPA news releases. Um, and then we're gonna close out with promo pro tips with Chuck Tamanti as she shares tips on how to combine digital with a local presence. So that is our show for today. With that, let's start with some news you should know. All right, well, the big thing that's happening, you know, in a few weeks is IAPA Expo. And so we've got to talk about some IAPA Expo news. There's gonna be probably a flurry of news coming out over the next few weeks as we get ready. But this one is uh is is internal. So this one is about LBX Collective. We've got our booth there, it is booth number 4402. And uh realize I didn't put that on this next slide, but you know, we're booth 4402. But we are going to bring the LBX Collective speakeasy back. So, what this is, this is a speakeasy literally on the trade show floor, hidden inside of our booth. And we're gonna do it every day at 4:30, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. And we might throw in a special one on Friday towards the end of the day. But as everybody knows, um Friday is actually a uh shorter day, so it actually ends at four. So we may not do the speakeasy on Friday, but you know, stay tuned. We might put that news out. But otherwise, 4:30, I will be inside of our speakeasy, inside of our booth, serving up unlimited Negronis, Unlimited Old Fashions, and back again this year, our very own, very popular Galaxy cocktail. So this is after the LBX Galaxy, our online community. And so very excited about uh that. And so, you know, come join us, come have fun inside of our speakeasy. And you can see a couple of pictures right here on the screen. All right, the next thing coming up with IAPA, and this is something that I'm involved in every single year, is the Give Kids the World charity campaigns. And so what we've got going on here is uh the first one is a golf tournament. I'm not involved with that one because you don't want me playing in a golf tournament, at least not on your foursome. So anyway, uh we've got, but there is a golf tournament that happens on Sundays, and it takes place at Rosen Shingle Creek. And so that'll be November 16th. And so you can sign up by scanning the QR code that is on the screen or by you know visiting um give.gtw.org. Um so give.gktw.org, and you can learn more about the uh golf tournament there. And then you know, you can also go ahead and uh donate. Uh you can join the LBX collective team or just donate to either one of these things as well, because there is a 5K run and a 1K walk that takes place every Thursday morning. And this one is awesome because it actually takes place at Give Kids the World Village. And um, you know, basically, I don't know if you know much about Kids the World, but they provide cost-free vacations to children battling critical illnesses, and they partner with the Make a Wish Foundation and other foundations out there that basically bring in kids that have critical illnesses and gives them an amazing time. And it's always great to be running through the Give Kids the World Village and uh seeing all the families come out and cheering you on, and it's a good time. We do have a uh again, if you scan this QR code, we do have a um uh a campaign going for the LBX collective. So you could either join our team, be one of the LBXers running, um, and then you know, or you can actually, you know, just give and that's fine as well. So that's another way to participate. So all of the funds through these charities go right to give kids the world, and it's a it's a big way that they raise money, and it's usually um in the six figures every single year. And so highly encourage you to either sponsor, donate, or participate any one of those things. So that is the news for uh Yappa right now. I'm sure we'll have some more coming up in the next few weeks. All right, so this one is about Field Station. This is uh Field Station dinosaurs. This is a theme park in Leonia, New Jersey, and it has listed all of its animatronic dinosaurs for sale ahead of its closure. So this place is closing down, it's been open for a long time, but uh they are selling all their animatronic dinosaurs, and these guys are cute little critters. Uh, you can see here there's about 30 animatronic dinosaurs uh that will be for sale, and they are permanently closing on November 9th, and so that'll be their last day. And they are for sale up on their Facebook marketplace. So if you just Google field station dinosaurs, Facebook, or whatever, you can purchase these dinosaurs. They range from$700 for a Velociraptor to$2,800 for a full-size uh Spinosaurus. This one here is a$2,200 triceratops. And I'm telling you, if I had space for this triceratops, I would get this motherfucking thing. And it looks so cool and is awesome. And so for yours, it could be yours for a low-low price of like$2,000. They're selling a pterodactyl for$850 and more velociraptors, like a whole set of them, uh three for$2,000, and uh a Parasaurofus, uh, Parasaurophus uh for$2,400. So anyway, uh they didn't have pictures of all of them. I just had the pictures of a few, but you know what? If you're looking for a dinosaur or you're trying to create a dinosaur theme for your mini golf or for your laser tag or something else, like you might want to take advantage of these dinosaurs. Like when you get a chance to get discount animatronic dinosaurs, especially before Iappa, when you're gonna be able to see lots of animatronic dinosaurs, this gives you kind of a leg up. So there you go. That is the dinosaurs that are being sold by field station dinosaurs in New Jersey. You can find that stuff on Facebook Marketplace. All right. Well, this is another one too. So this is uh, you know, going up for sale. This is a place called Swings and Things. And so it is uh for sale. This is an Ohio amusement park in the Olmstead Township. It's been open for more than four decades, so a long time. And you know what? The longtime owners of Tim and Joanna, uh Joanne, excuse me, Sorge, are announcing plans to retire, basically. So, but they are going to continue to operate the business until a new owner can be found. So this isn't a distress sale, this is just retirement sale. And they're looking for somebody who's gonna come over and take care of it and take it on. This thing looks beautiful. It looks like it's been a big part of the local Northeastern Ohio community for a long time. And uh, you know, they've loved every minute they say of this, uh, and they just want looking for the next generation to continue the tradition. And they didn't put a price out there for the listing, uh, at least not on the press release. So they are listing it through an investment banking firm. So I'm sure that you could do, uh, you know, I'm sure you just contact them. But you know, basically they have mini golf, go-kart tracks you can see here, bumper boats, a batting cage, and outdoor laser tag, paintball, and then a large indoor game room and homemade ice cream. So, you know, really a nostalgic classic FEC that seems to serve the community really well and it could be yours. So go ahead and reach out to them if you want to add it to your portfolio or you're first just looking to get into something that uh can give you something interesting to do. All right. So that is the swings and things up for sale. And the last thing I want to talk about here, uh, because this is big news, this stuff is just announced this week, is the universal uh experiences, destinations experiences. They finally confirmed the lands. It's been rumored, but they finally confirmed the lands for their upcoming universal kids resort in Frisco, Texas. So we've talked about this on the show multiple different times that they've given little tidbits of news, but this is a resort listed exclusively for kids. And so this is the universal kids resort, and they're gonna have multiple themed lands now. So it'll be seven different themed lands. It sounds like it's going to be somewhat structured in a very portal-esque type of way that the uh epic universe was structured. And so, you know, here are some of the different lands. I'll make this a little bit bigger so you can see this here. Um, basically, it's gonna be Dreamworks Shrek Swamp, DreamWorks Puss and Boots, Del Mar, the uh Minions versus Minions, a Bellow Bay Club, the Jurassic World Adventure Camp, Dreamworks Trollfest, and then Nickelodeon's SpongeBob, SquarePants, Bikini Bottom. I'm sure lots of kids are going to love seeing that. And then I love Curiosity, which is actually where everybody first comes in. So the executive president and chief creative officer for Universal Creative, Brian Robinson, said, quote, We envisioned this park through the unbridled creative creativity of kids where infinite imagination, curiosity, and free-spirited play were core to our design philosophies. And they say it produced a park that's pure joy and an absolute celebration of what it is to be a kid. So they've also revealed some of the interactive play areas and experiences that they will contain. Obviously, they're not going to talk about all of them because they want to remain some a surprise. But as I mentioned, they're going to enter the park through the Isle of Curiosity, which is described as a whimsical gateway, and be home to Gabby from DreamWorks Gabby's dollhouse for a special meet and greet and dance party. And then there's a Shrek Swamp. I'm just going to scroll through some pictures, not necessarily in the order of what I'm discussing, what I'm talking about here, but you can just see some concept images. Obviously, this is not open yet, so there's no concept images. Um, but you have Shrek Swamp, and uh there'll be a bunch of different things there. Puss and Boots Del Mar, where guests can meet characters, and then they'll actually have uh Meow carnival games. They'll have minions in the minions uh Bell O Bay Club, there'll be a special meet and greet for minions as well. So lots of meet and greets. Obviously, kids love to meet the characters from these shows uh and from these movies and this IP. Trollfest can have two different interactive play areas, Poppy's Playland and Trolls Critter Crawl. And then they'll also have obviously uh experiences from Spongebob, SquarePants, Bikini Bottom, and uh, so that include Muscle Beach and Pineapple Paradise. And so they also want to have an area where kids can dream up imaginary worlds. So there'll be some places where they can use sidewalk chalk or spray themselves silly with water blasters, and there'll be team members there who can help them and support them. And then they're also going to offer multiple sensory gardens for children. And as may have known as well, they will have a resort hotel which will have a colorful 300-room property specifically for kids and designed around kids. Obviously, lots of merch and FB and entertainment as well and this whole place. So that is the uh some early signs into what they're doing with this universal playland. And I thought it would also be good to just see if they've got a website because I talk about this all the time, right? If you're going to be launching and opening your place, you should have your website up and running as you've broken ground, as you're beginning to put press out because people are going to want to know more and want to have a place to land where they can continue to get additional information. And sure enough, they do. So we will uh pull this up here real quickly. And sure enough, here is their website. And uh, you know what? Look, it's really basic at this point still. So you can explore the lands, you can see the different lands. And again, they don't have a whole lot more than the content imagery that we've already seen. This is the Puss and Boots land. We just saw this image with the swings, which is like one of my favorite rides. I absolutely adore uh these types of high-flying swings. And so I'm glad to see they're gonna be putting something like that in. But again, real basic content imagery, but more importantly, it is at least showing me and giving me a chance to get excited about what's happening here. And I can put in my email address and collect more information about uh and get more information as they release it by signing up for those emails. So this is absolutely they've done a great job kicking things off here. This is obviously their first location specifically targeted to kids, and very excited to see this thing when it opens next year. All right, that wraps up our news you should know. Coming up next, we will dive right into open and shut with Kevin Williams. Oh, I'm sorry. We're not gonna do that. We're gonna go guest gab with Clint Novak. Let's do guest gab first. That sounds better. All right, here we go. Whether it's perfectly foreign things to Dr. Pepper's photo plan, official things or defending the city to list the command reach. Alan One is something that every venue in our case for select your guests. Visit AlanDash1.com to learn more. That's Alan Dash One.com. All right, well, welcome Clint back to the show. Normally it's normally road trip with Clint Novak. We're gonna do a guest gab today, so that's kind of fun.

SPEAKER_00: 13:26

I'm excited to gab it up.

unknown: 13:28

All right.

SPEAKER_07: 13:29

Perfect. Yeah, well, so I was reading the replay magazine from uh the October issue, and I came across one of your articles, and I really liked what you were talking about. You know, basically about not fearing the fall. So it's like kind of good title there, but basically about promotions going on in the fall. So I figured we'd just dive right into it and uh and chat about that. Perfect. All right, cool. Uh, so in the article, one of the things you uh you know emphasize is launching promotions way ahead of Black Friday, uh, you know, even as early as October, which we're right in the middle of right now. Um and it's all about building momentum. And so, you know, how would you recommend operators really begin to uh plan out their marketing and what pitfalls do you find when they wait too long to launch the promotions?

SPEAKER_00: 14:14

Well, I mean, really the first thing right now they should be doing is figuring out what kind of deals that they want to offer for Black Friday. Um, you know, if if that's your with when I was with Funland, Black Friday was a massive day for us, but nobody showed up to the park. Like we were doing$30,000 sales just online. Um, and that's what we're really driving. So online, the Black Friday sales could only be purchased online. We'd actually run it from uh Friday to Monday, Cyber Monday, um, and you just come up with the best deals possible, and uh, and then you start kind of pushing and teasing those. Um, you know, one thing that you'll find over years of doing it, you'll start building a reputation of doing those amazing deals. You know, everybody has amazing deals on Black Friday. So if you are then put it pushing, let's say, membership season passes, whatever that may look like for your facility, or buy one, get one, like you know, buy a hundred, get a hundred uh play cards or attractions or whatever the passes are, um, you start pushing those, and people your your uh regular clientele will feed off of that. They'll they'll be like, oh, uh every year I have to make sure that I buy Funland's, you know, uh great membership deal or you know, whatever it is that they're purchasing for their stocking stuffers. So uh yeah, first find the deal, what you want to do, and then you need to start planning out how is that going to look like when you're teasing and marketing? Are you gonna do Facebook ads? Are you gonna do social media ads, TikTok? Uh, can you start making TikTok videos? Uh, drop promo codes in there, whatever you can do to uh start funneling those people in to your uh Black Friday sale.

SPEAKER_07: 15:56

Yeah, yeah. And it sounds like you know, what you're trying to do is hype up the fact that you've got the sale coming. So you're not maybe doing the pre-sales, you're still gonna have it be a Black Friday sale, but you're doing the Facebook posts, the TikTok posts, and everything else weeks in advance so people know and are ready for that deal so that they don't miss it when it hits their inbox that weekend or or whenever you end up sending it out that Thursday or Friday, they don't miss it because they know they've seen all of your pre-marketing ahead of time.

SPEAKER_00: 16:25

Yeah, definitely. You want to get it online, you want to make sure that uh, you know, your black the Black Friday wordage is there so the search engines find it. Um and you know, really you know, the first week of November, you should really be uh live with the deals, but not live in the ability to sell them, but live in the sense that these are the deals that we have. This is the time that we're gonna do it. And uh, and and be ready. Uh hopefully uh you'll you'll uh you know have a server crash on uh Black Friday because you're selling so many wristbands or whatever it is that you're gonna sell.

SPEAKER_07: 16:58

So yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. Uh you know, in the article, you mentioned that the offers need to be too good to ignore for these Black Friday deals as well. What are some of the promos or bonus uh structures or or you know promo structures that have consistently uh delivered the best ROI, you know, maybe for Funland or or others, uh, other operators we've seen.

SPEAKER_00: 17:19

Yeah, I mean, uh, like I said, uh the buy one, get one. Well, that's the problem. Every FEC is going to be different in what they offer. So we were very heavy on wristbands and memberships. Um, we had 18 rides and attractions, and we would try to push people in the direction of wristbands. So if you walked in the park, you could do everything a la carte, but that would be silly because a wristband was$56.99. You could do everything for$56.99. Um, so our we would do buy one, get one free wristbands. Uh, we had a membership uh which we did a tiered membership um um savings. Uh so we would do 100 at 50% off. And then every time we would sell 100 of the wristbands or whatever number it is, 500, whatever, we would bring it up 10 more. So instead of saving 50, you're saving 40% and then 30%. Now, the one thing that uh was not fun about that is we had to sit there and watch the sales uh, you know, as they were happening um and as they were flowing in. You could also do that in a different way. You could say 50% off the wristbands on Friday, 40% off the wristbands on Saturday, 30% off the wristbands on Sunday, you know, kind of building up to something and the deal just kind of gets you know weaker and weaker, but people will still be buying because there's that sense of urgency. When is the wristband uh going to go up in price? So amusement parks do this too. Um, you know, when they're selling their season passes in the fall, uh they'll start with a really good deal for about a week and they oh, but the price goes up October 10th, you know, and they keep pushing that, and then it goes up like$10. And they're like, okay, the next price hike is gonna go up uh uh October 31st, so make sure you buy it now. So just kind of that, oh, I've got to go buy it, uh, you know, uh before the before the deal goes away.

SPEAKER_07: 19:07

Yeah, yeah, you know, and I think a lot of times when I was running Hound, obviously there's a promotions platform, right? And so we dealt with a lot of different promotion structures, but a lot of things that our operators would sometimes push against during the holiday season was that they don't want to cannibalize future sales by doing deeper discounts during the holiday season. But then you know, at the same time, you also know that you've got this breakage issue, right? So you've got 20%, sometimes as high as up to, as you mentioned in the article, 30 to 35% of these types of coupons and promotions go unredeemed. And so, you know, yeah, you are maybe selling a discount, but a lot of them are actually never getting redeemed. What are your thoughts on balancing the short-term urgency? You know, you're talking about like 50% off or BOGOs on that Friday, Black Friday, um, with the longer-term brand value of like not having the deep discounts.

SPEAKER_00: 19:57

Yeah, I mean, like you said, the people, you know, tend to sometimes forget that they made the purchase. Uh, you can also make it so that it's only available uh, you know, the year after. So uh this Black Friday, you could say you could buy uh buy one, get one free risk band, but those wristbands can't be activated until 2026, you know, pushing those into your your next year. Um, but I mean, the the amount of sales that we would get on that one day was just astronomical. Like it was something that uh, you know, we'd have to bank on every year because they were so high, you know. Uh, we would do uh um, you know, like I said,$30,000 is what we would do on a busy Saturday at the park. So if we were doing that on a Friday during the holiday season when people were not going to visit the park, that was a great way to make it through that weekend.

SPEAKER_07: 20:48

Yeah. Yeah. And we would do, we would have, you know, uh encourage our customers to actually do a Black Friday promotion, do it over the weekend, but then do another promotion for Cyber Monday. So actually have these back-to-back, and we would sometimes have our customers, some of our customers, selling hundreds of thousands of dollars. Like, you know, there was a go-kart facility that in Dallas, uh, the Dallas Fort Worth area, that would literally sell$150,000 in and passes, uh, like just in one in like two days. I mean, it's insane what can actually happen, but they did all the right things, right? Leading up to it, like you've talked about. Um, so you know, one of the things that we also struggle with is in um having depleted prize inventory during uh the holiday rush, right? So now we're you know we're kind of past the Black Friday, we're going into the holiday rush. What are some of the operational uh safeguards or inventory strategies that you would recommend to avoid not having enough during the holiday rush when kids are off from school and everybody's coming in, but also without overcommitting too much capital?

SPEAKER_00: 21:54

Yeah, so you really have to pay attention to the calendar and the days off of school, spring break, winter break, uh summer, um, a good redemption area and a good prize area when it comes to merchandise for games, uh, you're gonna have a par level. So uh basically, you know, doing your inventory on a once-a-week or once-a-month basis, you don't want your prizes to fall below the par level. So you always want to, you know, bring yourself back up above that par level. Um, but that par level also has to be a floating number because if you your par level is really low, because it's, you know, uh, you know, the first two weeks of January when everybody's back in school and nobody's coming to the facility, um that par level has to look very different the week of spring break or the week before spring break. So uh what something you could do is just color code your calendar. You know, uh have your calendar put the days off of school that uh you're gonna be affected by on the calendar and then make them like blue, green, and red. You know, red is your highest par level. You need to have the most stock in there. Uh, you know, uh green is that mid-tier, and blue is gonna be, you know, very light. You don't need a lot of product in. And uh just make sure that you know you're you're looking two weeks into that forecast and purchasing or raising that par level to make sure that you have enough stuff on hand. Uh, one thing that we did at Funline, we were doing weekly orders. So when you're doing orders, we would every Monday we would do an order. The order would arrive on Thursday, um, and then we put that order away, have it ready to go at the redemption counter for Friday. Um, we would have two weeks worth of uh product on hand at all times uh with that, you know, floating calendar. Uh, because we wanted to make sure that if something were to happen, you know, a shipping error, um, anything that would happen with the, you know, maybe our redemption person was sick that Monday, the order didn't get in. And if it doesn't get in on time on Monday, then you're looking at a uh weekend delivery or a Monday delivery. So um we always wanted to make sure we had a a uh buffer so we would have that two weeks worth uh that two week uh two weeks worth of supply on hand to make sure that we would get through uh those those uh those you know any type of error that might happen.

SPEAKER_07: 24:08

Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, especially when we're dealing with the uncertainty of tariffs and how that might impact your your potential suppliers bringing things in in time too. Do you have enough of a buffer to solve for one of those issues? Um, but then I was also thinking, too, um, you have you're not gonna have necessarily more birthday parties during this period of time, right? Because it should be fairly steady because people are born throughout the year, but you will have corporate parties. And depending on, again, the type of park you have, uh, corporate parties are also gonna have, they're gonna consume redemption, they're gonna consume things sitting in cranes and other inventory as well. And so you do need to be aware of what your parties are going to consume in addition to just the overall increased traffic from kids being off of school.

SPEAKER_00: 24:50

Yeah, and I would say inventory is also very important for an operator as well, because the smaller you are, the more uh of that operating budget you need in the bank and not sitting on a shelf. And you have to think about it like if you have$20,000 worth of product, that's$20,000 that you can't use in other parts of your business because it's sitting there waiting to be used at redemption. So if you're ordering once a month, uh twice a year, you know, those kind of big orders, you know, you could if you're doing if you're a decent sized facility and you're only doing two orders a year, you're sitting on a hundred thousand dollars worth of merchandise uh that is just waiting you up. That could be an attraction. Like you could build another attraction on the amount of um uh on the amount of uh product that you have sitting on the shelf.

SPEAKER_07: 25:37

So yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, you know, as you think a little bit further ahead, uh, you know, we're thinking over the next few years, as we think about holiday planning, signature event planning as well, uh, what are some of the trends or things or consumer behaviors that you're beginning to see that you think that will shift how FECs and LBE operators will approach those types of holiday events and signature events?

SPEAKER_00: 26:05

You know, it's it's tricky because it's like everybody finds their own little niche. You know, fun for all in um in north of uh Pittsburgh, uh they started uh about five, six years ago, they started doing a uh an event on their mini golf course called uh uh like a holiday mini golf. You know, uh that's not the name of it. I don't remember the name of it, but it's something like holiday mini golf, uh, where they took their mini golf course. Uh, you know, they're a mainly outdoor facility in Pittsburgh. So it's like, okay, in December, you're not getting any place. Nobody's playing mini golf in December there. Um, so they transform theirs into like a winter wonderland. They put lights everywhere. They start in July putting up lights uh for or excuse me, uh they start in uh Memorial Day weekend, uh Labor Day weekend. I'm gonna get it right. I'm gonna get it right. Labor Day weekend, they start putting up lights, and uh, and they just they have uh two 18-hole courses that are just filled with lights. And uh, you know, Chris would say that they made some uh mistakes when they first started this. Uh, they went with an outside company to do it the first year, and that outside company costs as much as it would have to just buy all of the stuff themselves and do it. Um, and so then the second year they made that move to do it themselves, but then they had to eat that cost. Um, and then every year it just keeps getting better and better. It's becoming a tradition for people to go to uh that uh that mini golf. Uh Funland, one thing we did was we did spooky golf. So during the month of October, uh, we would decorate the uh mini golf course with really cool uh lights. Um, it was spooky, not scary. So it's like kids could still participate. Uh fun, you know, Halloween music like thriller and spooky skeletons. And uh we made it just a lot of fun to do at night. During the day it was cool, but at night it just really looked uh amazing with all the lights and effects that we would do. Um we would also do a Halloween trick-or-treating through there. Uh, the the Friday or whatever day that was kind of on a slow side. Uh, Friday night was, I think, usually when we did it uh before Halloween. Uh, and so the basically we'd say the first 200 um kids uh can go through and we'll have candy at all 18 holes. Uh our staff would dress up, hand out the candy. Uh, macaroni kids would come in and do an arts and crafts. So it was like a two or three dollar uh kit that you would buy from your redemption provider, and they would do that, like decorate their Halloween bag, and then they would go trick-or-treating through that. We'd have a DJ playing like the Cupid Shuffle and all that in the uh in the uh uh uh arts and crafts area. So we made it an event. And on a Friday night, we wouldn't typically have a lot of people who would come to the facility, but on those nights, we would fill the parking lot because everybody was coming for the free candy and it was free. You know, we wouldn't charge people for the event, but we'd give out a$5 play card on hole 18, and then that$5 play card turned into a lot more because they would go play a few games or ride a ride, and then uh it would eat it up and they'd want to do more. So um, you know, it's it's finding those nuggets, it's finding those things that are successful and then building off of them, making them into a tradition, making them something that people expect every year that's gonna work into your favor. One thing you also have to realize is when to cut something loose. Like if you uh keep pushing yourself into thinking that the event that you're hosting is going to someday be successful, and every year you're just losing money on it, you need to either revamp it, rethink it, or just go a different direction. You know, not every idea is going to be a winner for your facility. And so you just need to learn when to, you know, have that hindsight and say, you know what? Well, we're we've tried it, it didn't work, let's go a different direction and uh talk to other operators because other operators are gonna have some amazing ideas on what they do that are successful and not successful. Um, we tried doing princess, you know, themed uh uh Events at our facility, and we have the breakfast, the princess themed breakfast. It was never popular for us, but Adventure Park USA does themed uh princess birthdays or not birthdays, uh uh breakfasts, and they're extremely popular, and they have a really good um uh base that they send out all their information to and then they come back every time. And so, you know, sometimes we just had to say, you know what, we're not executing it right, we can't get it right, we have to move on to the next idea and see what we can do.

SPEAKER_07: 30:28

So yeah, yeah, I think also understanding what your nearby competitors are doing for their types of signature events, if they have any, and making sure you're differentiated, right? So you want to make sure that you know you can be maybe a little bit similar, but you what you're doing. You can have spooky golf, and the other can have spooky golf, but you got to make sure your spooky golf is unique and different than somebody else's. But um, you do want to build that type of regular tradition nostalgia type event that is going to get families to come back year after year, bring their kids because it's just a thing they do, and it gets them in that one extra visit a year or two extra visits a year because you've got something really unique. And so, but you have to start planning a signature event now.

SPEAKER_00: 31:14

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_07: 31:16

Awesome. All right, well, Clint, it's been amazing to have you on this round of guest gav, and we will see you on another one soon.

SPEAKER_00: 31:24

I look forward to it.

SPEAKER_07: 31:34

Intercard is the only cash system designed, developed, and manufactured all under one route. They introduced cash flow technology to use the industry has been leading the way for over 30 years. Cash system to Innercard increased customer spending, debt satisfaction, and increased revenues by up to 30%. Intercard is still profitable. If you are already part of the global family of customers, they hope you will become one too. All right. Well, that was awesome having Clint on the show again and looking forward to him hopefully coming back to tune some road trips and some other guest cabs in the future. But coming up next, we now have Kevin Williams with some open and chat.

SPEAKER_01: 32:26

Hey, a big hello to the latest open and chat. I hope we find you all well. As well as you, Brandon. Oh, ready to go. Let's do it. Let's jump straight in. There's a bit of a cloud in one. We've returned to the large number of venue openings. Some of them are familiar names adding to their uh established operation. Anyway, follow the usual pause if I zip past one that you'd like to see. Our friends uh at Fun Labs in Australia have started their international move, and they've already had a holy mole opened up in San Francisco, and now uh in Orange County, they're opening up a holy moly with a hijinks hotel. Um the the idea of their uh hotel concept as a kind of uh escape room or challenge room experience. I haven't had the the pleasure of doing their uh holy moly um mini golf environment is really the cocktails mini golf concept. It's just that they do go for a much higher level of femaleity.

SPEAKER_07: 33:34

I've been a big fan of what these guys have been doing down in Australia for a long time, been really excited to see them finally come into the US market. And the Hyginx Hotel, I've also had my eye on. I mean, Holy Moly's been around for a little bit longer than they added the Hygienes Hotel. And it just looks the theming looks well done. I'm hoping the gameplay is as well. I'm going to be in Long Beach for uh Brigada. Um Long Beach the first week of December, and my goal is to stay out there an extra day and get there and maybe even go with some of my crewmates to uh to check this thing out.

SPEAKER_01: 34:04

That'll be that'll be interesting to see. I've I've heard um interesting comments. Uh, we've reported before that uh uh the hygiene hotels in Australia have been uh expanding. Um so let's see uh how they apply themselves for the North American market. Moving on, and we're seeing an established facility um with Crates, but they've now added to their uh entertainment offering, and they've done a deal with our friends at Triotech, and they've parachuted into their amusement area uh a brand new setup, a four-player version of the Super Blaster uh system, which I call the shooting gallery 4D effects kind of uh game experience. They uh the facility already has an XD theater, so they're continuing their love affair with uh Triotech. And this is of course part of uh the five-star parks operation. So um, you know, it's it's the continuation of investment needed to keep entertainment fresh.

SPEAKER_07: 35:08

Yeah, I think it's important, obviously, when you have, especially when you have 120,000 square feet, you have some room to play, some time to move things around and add extra things, but it really comes down to how do they market it. And um, you know, obviously it came across, uh it came across your purview, but are they really getting it out to the community, making sure the community knows there's now a new, not just a new game, but a new attraction really that they can come in and experience.

SPEAKER_01: 35:32

It's always difficult to find out how the players are receiving this type of information. I know that uh uh the guys at Craig Cruises uh were encouraged by their owners to put a press release out about this investment. So let's hope that they've uh hit up their social media promoting this deal. Moving on, and Vinook. Uh this is a weird one for me. Uh I I don't, you know, they they use the phrase immersive live action uh experience. It's a multitude of ball throwing and touch screen kinds of experiences. I'm not seeing any amusement machines per se being plummeted into this environment. I think this is just really an immersive active entertainment experience that's uh throwing its hat into the ring as a new concert.

SPEAKER_07: 36:24

This was a weird one, yeah, for me as well. I really couldn't figure out what this was about. Um you know, it's uh you go on their website and you know it shows people like taking balls and throwing it amount screens and doing different things. And okay, so um, I just don't know. Now I've I've actually lived in Pleasanton for several years. This is why this one came up across my you know my desk earlier, because uh, you know, I have Pleasanton as a search, one of my search terms. And so, you know, there's kids and there's it's a it's a family town, so you can go down there, and I could see this being like more of a little community center, uh place, uh play place, you know, just things that keep the kids busy. That's how it comes across. It feels yeah, I don't really see it being something that's going to even draw more regionally beyond Pleasanton itself, frankly.

SPEAKER_01: 37:08

Which is a danger in itself. That uh, you know, if you're going to build a facility like this, don't limit your options. But anyway, we wish them luck and we'll try and keep an eye on them and maybe one day get a chance to visit. Sandbox uh continue. Well, the franchisee of Sandbox in Germany continues their continual rollout of uh new facilities. They call this their 66th facility. My database says it's the 67th. So uh either they've lost a site or my database is wrong. And uh I'd rather bet on my database being right. Uh I put enough energy into it. Uh again, Sandbox has uh been pushing hard. Uh, they've got a new investment round uh on the horizon. They've also been uh in the news uh regarding some financial issues back uh in Hong Kong, where they originate from, which they've been going through. But uh it's clear that uh they are in the final stages of their mass rollout before their next financial positioning or the proposed flotation, whichever it is. Just keep building them. Just keep building them. Time zone just keeps building them. So uh we have a new Indonesian facility. Um, it's gone into a Tokyo hub-themed area um uh within this uh shopping mall. It is the standard format, a little compact compared to uh traditional time zones, and then we have India again expanding with uh uh their latest uh I think this is their 70th facility in India. Uh again, proven formula, shopping mall, uh bumper cars, uh laser tag, a bit of everything, lots of amusement. But we don't talk about it enough. There are other um, so we say, components to the uh time zone brand. They have their bowling uh dedicated sites, they have the normal time zone amusement or mules, I would call it sites, and they also have their play and learn sites, which are uh you know kiddie activities, uh very standard fair party rooms, but it is also proven very successful. And they have about 87 of these uh dotted around uh India. Uh, I think, you know, from the information I have, it's not just India that these are dotted around, but I think it's India, Vietnam, and Indonesia that have this. Uh all part of the TEEG uh operation uh from Australia, which uh includes African Embed and LAI Gaines uh uh and uh time zone. So the family grows, as it were.

SPEAKER_07: 39:56

Yeah, and you know, when it says the driving track too, I was curious actually, because this is obviously targeted at like that five and under, maybe maxing at seven year old in the center. So I was like, what, yeah, it's much smaller, right? Like the five and under. And so I was like, okay, what kind of driving track? It's actually just the play school, uh, little little pedal, you know, feet pedals, you know, their feet run on the ground and then driver on the track. So it's it isn't like a full-on uh you know driving track. I didn't think it'd be a racetrack, but I didn't know if it was gonna be motorized. Um, but it isn't. It's it's foot pedaled, uh, or foot, not even foot, there's no pedals. Child power. It's flint, it's flintstones.

SPEAKER_01: 40:34

Yes. And uh, you know, it I think the most technical thing there is the registration process. It you know, they are aiming for a very early learning environment, and it is uh proven to be a strong cornerstone to their operation. Jumping into Japan, uh and our gender moments, uh, the latest Gaigo has uh thrown open its doors again in a shopping mall. We're seeing a kind of pattern here in Chiba. Uh Taito, also in a shopping mall, has uh thrown their doors open with uh brand new site. You'll notice that their new sites, both Gender as well as Taito, as well as uh the new Capcom styles, very bright now, very much focused on the Japanese interpretation of the next wave uh of uh crane claw machines uh and a strong placement of amusement, but also skewing for a much younger audience than the traditional uh Japanese amusement. But this is these are the shapes for the new market that they are targeting.

SPEAKER_07: 41:40

Yeah, I mean, I obviously the colorization is what gets me, especially the wide variety in colors for both of them, right? I mean, so obviously they have different brand styles, so different color guides for each of their locations, but it's the variation in color and and the grading the gradations as well. And that's actually what um stood out to me in. I'm gonna share my screen here real quick because it was stood out to me at the play and learn location. So, you know, obviously uh it's hard to tell because it's a little bit dimmed, but it's more pastels, so it's not quite the same bright colors. But if you look at the variation in color, there's just constant gradations. It's not like a single, you know, they didn't do one color on one wall, one color on another wall, literally multiple colors on each wall. So I think it's something to think about and start looking at the color schemes, especially for some of the younger ages, where there is definitely much more care taken and choice taken in the colors that are being used now to not just decorate the walls, but also the attractions themselves.

SPEAKER_01: 42:36

If you ever came to uh one of my uh presentations, either at foundations uh when I used to do it, or uh more recently, now with Creative Words, we go into the kind of the interests of what the audience is looking for and who you're targeting. But be mindful that if you're going to create a very high colour, high viz um women, children of a young age entertainment environment, that you will be also creating kryptonite against maybe the older audience, and it's much harder to pivot one of these facilities to be trans-time uh facing, you know, the ability to uh capture the children in the morning and the uh the uh young adults in the evening is difficult when your colour layout is like that. And it's also very difficult for the start, but that's a topic for another day. Yeah, yeah. Um, again in Japan, and I've touched upon uh XR Center Games space before. They are a group of uh VR arena-based uh developers that have run a number of sites. They've just penned an agreement uh with MoveX uh in Japan, which is uh quite a large about 23, 24 cinemas that is now pivoting towards having some kind of cinetainment. So they've you know handed over a part of their lobby so they can set up their arena-based VR experience. We've seen this attempted before, uh, and it would be interesting to see how this does in the uh Japanese market.

SPEAKER_07: 44:14

Do you know what the gameplay uh length of time is for this particular game? Do we know? Is it a 20-minute, is it a 45-minute experience?

SPEAKER_01: 44:22

It's a 15-minute-minute game experience.

SPEAKER_07: 44:26

Okay, yeah. I mean, if it's a 15-minute, I could see this being an add-on. Hey, we went to a movie together with some friends, let's go play this, or um, you know, but I still struggle with these types of longer, uh, you know, longer, like actual session-based experiences tied to a movie theater. Um, and you know, it you you are to be able to draft off the people coming to movies is um is really your goal, right? To try to increase the per cap when they're there. Um, people are probably very rarely coming just for the VR and then happen to go into a movie. I don't think things happen that way, right? Because people are scheduling their time. So it has to be something that's quick and impulsive that they're going to be able to go and do, that they didn't necessarily come planning to do.

SPEAKER_01: 45:07

If your market is capable of handling registration, you know, the our friends at uh Sandbox VR don't depend on the majority of their clientele from walk-in. They are looking at people finding the facility, registering to come, playing the game experiences and sharing their experiences. Here, I think that there is a different culture that they're hoping that they can capture people to think about either we go and see a film or we try the VR experience. Either way, we'll need to see how this one survives compared to many of the others. I can list a long list of uh companies that opened Cinertainment VR arenas. You know, we just talked about what uh VUC is uh only a couple uh matter of weeks ago who've launched their AR-based uh uh XR experience into a cinema enclosure. And again, we look closely to see how those are gonna survive.

SPEAKER_07: 46:04

Yeah, I would say the one last thing I'll say to that point is it's not even just a VR experience itself, it's the gameplay, the length of gameplay, and what the type of onboarding is and how much time you're gonna spend doing it. You know, uh Santico's in Texas, for example, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and even down in the San Antonio area, they added immersive game box uh facility facilities, so several immersive game boxes. Well, that's still also a 45 minute multi-game experience that you're gonna go and do. And it is struggled to it is struggled to gain traction in those, uh, you know, and actually get gameplay in there because for the very similar same reasons that we're talking about here with this VR, it's that added length that people aren't coming to a two and a half hour movie and then planning to spend an extra 45 minutes there plus the extra cost.

SPEAKER_01: 46:48

Funny, you mentioned immersive game box. I know that maybe next week we'll be having some news regarding uh that operation uh where we see the rubber meet the road regarding revenue numbers. But again, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Flip out. Uh, this is a vast facility for a UK location. Leeds gets a hundred thousand square foot uh facility, which uh the uh media I was reading was calling one of the world's largest trampoline attraction facilities. It's got laser tag, it's got amusement, it's got F and B. Uh I assume this is a warehouse space that has uh been turned into this vast entertainment space. You know, we we know that uh Flip Out know their business. They've got about 80 facilities dotted around the place. It's just uh I was surprised by the size of this. And you know, I I think I'd better jump on the train and go to Leeds just to get an idea of how something this size, American scale, will fit into uh a UK environment.

SPEAKER_07: 47:55

Yeah, it'll be tough to say. I've been to Leeds uh a handful of times, and uh, you know, it's it is a uh more industrial um you know uh city in the UK. And so, you know, maybe um they can have the because they have the space, uh, you know, the cost is maybe a little bit lower for real estate to be able to justify build out this big. But as you said, flip out, these guys have been, they were one of the first um trampoline park venues to start rolling out in the UK about 15 years ago. And so they're obviously very uh very familiar with running these types of facilities.

SPEAKER_01: 48:30

I think Flip Out, I'm trying to remember which other countries Flip Out has uh operations in. Uh I'm not mixing them up with one of the other chains, but yeah, they know they're beans anyway. Now going to the shots, and as I uh forewarned uh a couple of uh sound offs ago, we are now seeing an increase in the uh rotation retention, uh as it were, of facilities. Um bit of a sad one here. The Marineland in uh Canada near Niagara Falls, they fell into closure, and now they've rushed to the local government to give them money to save the animals. Uh I was reading a press release, well not a press release, but a press statement only a day ago that four moved on to say that they looked like that most of uh the uh animals have been found at home. But you know, I I feel it's a part of me has always felt uncomfortable using animals as an attraction. Uh, because when things go wrong, not only the staff are left high and dry, but uh uh I'm led to believe that there may be a happy ending for these animals.

SPEAKER_07: 49:37

Yeah, I sure hope so. I I'm I've uh a soft spot in my heart for beluga, and so if they're you know it's sad to hear that you haven't euthanize any animals, let alone um you know these uh brilliant smart animals.

SPEAKER_01: 49:50

I think it was used as a little bit of a uh blackmail that if uh the government wouldn't cough up, then uh put a gun to the head. But yeah. God's creatures, uh top cats, uh couldn't find out a lot of information, you know, a facility that's been going from uh since 1999 uh in Springfield. It has a very small arcade, you know, it is it is a taster arcade, as it were, it'll be a mini arcade, but the restaurant and the arcade uh are closing. Um they also have an indoor karting capability uh and some other attractions. Uh I was led to believe that there's laser tag in there and uh some other stuff. So it's no small shakes. Maybe their arcade game floor from the pictures is uh subpar, but uh either way, uh for whatever reason they're closing the doors uh after uh such a long time in operation.

SPEAKER_07: 50:48

Ah man, yeah, that's always tough. Something something happened, you know, maybe a uh a death in the family or a sickness or you know, anything. We know, we know, right? Um some of the news that you know happened this week. Um, you know, those things can come very suddenly without preparation.

SPEAKER_01: 51:03

Yeah, and you know, uh, you don't want to spend more time uh at the office, you want to spend more time with your family. So these things come along and uh time moves on. I assume this will be acquired, uh so be prepared to see this name appear again in a coming report. Interesting to uh end with is uh Mr. Getty's Pizza. Now, a very successful 60 facility chain, but the majority of these facilities have been run by franchisees. Uh and uh this week marked the final uh facility that was owned by the company, then being now taken over by franchisees. And it was their flagship facility uh that is now so the the site that kind of broke the mold and uh they've been supporting from a corporate level has now been handed over uh or had been acquired by uh an operator. So this marks that all of their 60 uh facilities are now owned by uh third-party franchise operations. It is interesting when a company such as this migrates from being a owning their own operation, handing over part of their operation, and then transferring fully to uh really being landlords near enough of uh of the brand while others run the facility.

SPEAKER_07: 52:34

This is a very strange move for any franchise, frankly, is to you know, you if anything, you hold on to at least one, if not three corporate locations um at the at the minimum because you need room for experimentation. You know, you have no control over your franchisees and what they do. So you can um you know you can obviously do all your franchise work, but yeah, how do you experiment with your marketing, with your branding, with your offerings without having your own corporate location? So very strange and is very curious as well. Um, you know, about you know, a lot of times if if franchises are running well, you often see the franchise the franchise ours building more corporate locations because they know the cash flow is good. So it is interesting that they're actually divesting themselves of their own corporate locations.

SPEAKER_01: 53:22

That's the important word they use, divesting. I I see this as a fragmentation of a brand. You know, they have now no control over how the baby is dressed up uh unless they have put in extreme uh instructions within their franchise agreement, which I don't think they have. Or we could be witnessing a play. We could be seeing a company coming in, maybe they own three or four franchise facilities, and they're thinking about utilizing their money to buy more and more and more. And what we will see is the uh the brand now changing hands, as it were, a uh a stealth acquisition, as it were. But again, I don't want to jump to too many conclusions here because I'd like dust to settle. You know, the one thing that we didn't know about the transaction was how much was paid for this and all of that. You know, the uh the devil is in the detail, and you know, the Mr. Gratis uh pizzeria, you know, it's uh it's known, it's uh it's not earth-shattering, but 60 facilities is definitely nothing to uh to sniff at. So for some corporations, this may be an opportunity for acquisition. Anyway, that's the rundown uh of uh the main development. As you can see, uh there is still a lot of life in this old dog. Uh you know, we're getting back to the numbers that we were dealing with in January and February uh regarding new openings. And I'm already halfway through stacking up for next week. That shows you how fast things are moving. Anyway, to keep up to date on that information, there's the Stinger report, of course, and on the competitive socializing side, we have the entertainment social arena, we have uh the library or the archive, uh, as well as our videos. And of obviously, if you have any information or any corrections, uh there's our email details and I'll link to. Anyway, have I covered everything, Brandon? Well, I think so. Another another week down. Another week down. Have a good one.

SPEAKER_05: 55:34

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SPEAKER_07: 56:06

All right. Well, that was a great open and shut with Kevin Williams. And next up, we've got Adam Pratt with Arcade Corner. So, Adam, take it away.

SPEAKER_06: 56:20

Hey everyone, it's Adam with Arcade Heroes for the Arcade Corner here at LBX Collective. I hope you're having a great October so far. Kind of hard to believe that we're almost done with it. But um, the thing with October, especially for those of us in the press who cover the industry, it's weird because it usually starts off kind of slow, and then when with IAPA a month away, it suddenly just gets a ton of news that uh hits the wires. And so I'm going to be rushing through a lot of this to fit my time because I've got way more than I've had in uh previous weeks. Um, but um going to start off with something that's uh a bit more solemn first. And as you can see on the screen, if you hadn't heard already, um Paul Williams, who was the CEO of Sega Amusements International and Kaisen Entertainment for um a very long time. I know he was with the company for something, I think it was around 40 years. Maybe I'm wrong on that, maybe it was like 30. Um, and I know he wasn't CEO for the entire time, but regardless, um, there was the news uh how he stepped down from the CEO position very recently, and then the shocking news came. Um, first heard it from Kevin Williams, where he at first uh was it was a rumor. Uh unfortunately it turned out to be true, but Paul um passed away uh from an illness that recently became pretty aggressive. Um, I talked with uh someone at Sega who said he was with his wife when he passed and that uh he was able to pass peacefully there with family. But um sincere condolences to him, his family, his friends. Um, I knew Paul just through trade shows, really, and talking on email a few times. So I couldn't say that we were on like a friendly basis. I never had like dinner with him or anything, but uh every time I met with him, he he was always reserved and uh um he was always very nice and uh very accommodating, and uh so um I know for many of you what we'll all miss him and his presence. And uh so yes, rest in peace, Paul. Um, with that, um with Sega, and they do, of course, do have a new CEO, a new C-suite team, really. And um, they do have quite a bit of stuff coming to IAPA. Now, some of those things I've been asked not to reveal in advance, and so we we'll see if we can preview anything. One of them is a little bit of a surprise because it's a game that's a few years old that's been on the market, but they're coming out with a brand new model for it. Um, that's not the game that's on the screen here. Um, but this so this would be a brand new game that they picked up from GTI Asia China Expo Speed Rider 4DX. And so, aside from this being a motorcycle racing game, what one new mechanic that this has on it that I've never seen before with an arcade game is that the bikes themselves have this kind of sliding shifter mechanism. And so for you to drift, you have to literally shift the bike so it still does the swivel thing and it's on a motion base, but on top of that, you can shift the back end of it, and then it will drift in the game. And it looks like it has really good graphics, um, very well designed, and so that will be there. But again, there will be a few other things that I am aware of. It's just at least at this moment in time, Sega's wanting to keep those under wraps. But um, yeah, there there will be a few new things, it will have a strong booth there. Um, but I'm sure um the It'll yeah. I I'm sure I hope they have something like maybe uh memorial to Paul there at the at the booth. That would be a nice touch if they're able to do that. Um for other news, we have Jordan Classen is the new Big Buck World champion. So the Big Buck World Championships happened uh not this past week, but the week before that on the weekend. Uh, but uh for us to be able for me to be able to record that uh the champion hadn't been crowned until that Saturday night. And so so just didn't know when I was able to record. But he won$25,000, and I think over$100,000 worth of cash and other prizes were given away by Play Mechanics and Raw Thrills uh to these champions, uh to the various participants in there. But of course, he got the the biggest of the bunch, and he's the champion, at least until next year, when they do it again, which I if I'm recalling correctly, they announced it. I I think they said it was Memphis. I can't remember uh where the next year's is going to be held. But they didn't reveal anything new, new like this year's actually the 25th anniversary of Big Buck Hunter, and so I was kind of wondering if they would do something like a brand new iteration of Big Buck, but they're kind of just doing the same thing as Golden Tea, where they just release updates kind of annually. They don't call it like Big Buck Hunter 2026 or anything, uh, but they do have uh they did reveal a new content update, which will be at IAPA. Um, but other than that, they didn't uh show anything else in regards to that game itself. And Roth Reals as well will also be at IAPA with at least one new racing game. Um, but uh still need to chat with them on that as to uh when they're ready to reveal it. So it's been seen on test out there. If you've read Arcade Heroes, where I post a lot of this news, uh then it chances are you've seen it uh because of the location test coverage that I've done. Um and also possibly the non-VR version of Godzilla Kaiji Wars. Uh in new releases, we also have uh Dr. Pepper Soda Slam by Alan One and DSM Arcade. And so they actually were teasing this way back in um at Amusement Expo 2025. They had a thing of Dr. Pepper uh there, but they had just the original non-licensed soda slam, and of course, that non-licensed version of Soda Slam did come out in the summertime. But uh, of course, for a lot of consumers, they like to see brands and licensing and such, and so they have that now. Uh, and it they've changed the joysticks, so the tap handles actually have an image of a Dr. Pepper can of which flavor it is. So there's regular uh diet, uh Zero and Cherry that are all in there that you're dispensing, and so you you play that now, and it comes in two flavors, uh-huh. Uh where the the only difference between them are the giant cans. Now, those are not full 3D cans, like was seen with the original Soda Slam. So those original Soda Slam ones were like giant fiberglass cans. So now they're at more like big marquee things, they have LED lighting built into them, and so they light up and flash and catch a little bit more attention or draw a little bit more attention to them that way. Or if you don't have that extra space, you can just get the deluxe model. But I wouldn't note that this game does not fit through a 32 or even a 36-inch door. You definitely need double doors to get this into your venue if this is something that you're looking at. And the Allen One is looking at even another license for soda because not everywhere around the planet cares or even sells Dr. Pepper, um, particularly like Southeast Asia and places like that. So there is another one that's coming, hasn't been announced yet, but it's from my understanding, it will be at IAPA at Alan One's booth, which is 3417. And they they're not in the Arcadian Games Pavilion, they're in the Rides and Equipment Pavilion. They're not super far away from where the Games and Arcade Pavilion is. Um, just a little bit past a few rows past Bob's Space Racers, uh, from what I've seen of the map. Um, but uh, if you're interested in seeing that and some other things, they have a prize merchandiser called Cosmic Spin. Uh, they'll have a new butts on things, crane machine there as well, and um also a new version of Missile Command. And so um that uh will all be at their booth there. And of course, they're an LBX collective sponsor here. Uh then uh for pinball. Now, this one I don't know if uh I won't spend too much time here, but Winchester Mystery House, which um you can go to the History Channel or YouTube to learn all about that one of a house that had over 500 rooms at one point and it's considered to be a haunted house and all that. Now it has its own pinball machine. Now, this is by a company that so far they've kind of just avoided any industry trade shows. They are what you would call a boutique pinball manufacturer where they do a very limited run. For this particular game, they announced 525 units. I don't know why that exact number, maybe that's the maximum number of rooms that the house once had, and so they just picked that arbitrarily. But um, they did say, I did say on Facebook that they sold over 60% of their initial of that 525, uh, like think within 24 hours of announcing it. So who knows? Maybe they'll uh relent from that. But it's uh again, it's an old it's boutique pinball that's kind of the fancy way of saying an indie or a smaller manufacturer. This isn't uh barrel of barrels of fun's first game, though. They've done things like uh Labyrinth based on the 1986 David Bowie movie, as well as Dune based on the more recent Dune films. And and so, you know, with these few games out, uh they're showing that they have some momentum there. But they're at Pinball Expo, which took place this past weekend in Chicago. Um, but again, I have no idea if they ever plan on showing up to something like IAPO or Amusement Expo or Bowl Expo or anything like that, because their focus, uh most of those sales probably came from home consumers, which are still the biggest buying block of uh consumers of pinball machines across the board. And that's of course why a lot of pinball is just not focused on our industry um in recent times. I said I wouldn't spend a lot of time and then I did. Um, and now also at Pinball Expo is something that will be um showing up out there. This won't be at IAPA, uh, from at least from what I spoke with Ron, unless something changes. Ron at Orbit Games, and so it's this might take a little bit too much time to explain. But orbit games is the new company, is a new company, and they are also over American pinball. And so, like, I guess you could say they're like an umbrella, but there's an umbrella that's over orbit games and American and some other companies that owns orbit games, and then orbit games well owns and operates um uh American pinball, a little bit confusing. But either way, they've taken a game that existed back in the 30s and the 40s, an Alley Bowler variation that did its own thing slightly separate from Ski Ball and called Whirlow Ball, and they're bringing it back because I guess there's no copyright on it anymore, no patent the company hasn't existed almost existed in almost a hundred years, and so what you do is you do roll the balls up, but they go up the ramp over the top, and wherever the target is, they'll actually like go over the hump and then fall back inside. And they have some mini games built into it too. Uh, on the where it has that 150 in the colors, that's actually a 32-inch screen. Uh, but the where the big numbers are, those have LED RGB LED lighting behind them, and so that allows them to do some mini games, which are mainly intended for breweries, bar arcades, stuff like that, and it also has wider lanes, and these are priced the same as Skee Ball is currently, um, which I believe is somewhere in the seven to eight, maybe nine thousand dollar range, depending on the model. Um, and those will be shipping out pretty soon. And again, they're at uh Pinball Expo. In case you were there, then you probably saw this and played it. And then another new game release. This one was I knew about this months ago, but I was surprised that it just kind of dropped all of a sudden. And that was Hunter Cross Hunter Nen Impact. Then this is through the company known as X Arcadia, where they sell kits, uh, they sell something a lot like the Neo Geo. If you haven't come across it, just look up Xa EXA hyphen arcadia, and uh you can look into that. But uh, their system has cartridges, and so operators like myself, I actually own three XA cabinets. Uh, you can take these cartridges and swap games out, but they're not the giant like VHS size or larger than VHS size uh cartridges like Neo Geo had, they're about this big, maybe like a candy bar size. And uh, but anyways, Hunter Across Hunter is an anime, a popular anime, and this is their first major license with an anime, and so this is a one-on-one fighting game, kind of like Street Fighter, and uh they've taken what exists on consoles and they've polished it up, improved it. They've taken all the exclusive content from the different console versions, such as costumes, and put it all into this edition. And so this is kind of like the director's cut of the game, and um, there's already a location out in Japan that has one of these. And uh so if you go through whatever source you use to get Exa games, or if you're interested in that, look up Exta Arcadia Distributors or Xa.ac as their website. Uh, then you can get your hands on that and a brand new one-on-one fighting game that has a name that people recognize. All right, and we're pretty much out of time, but uh for our last bit, uh Blue Motion Games, they were at IApple last year as a part of I can't remember their name, but they were um at a some motion simulator booth, and then they were at Amusement Expo this year with their own booth and their new games Desert Chase and Cannonball Jam in giant four-player uh uh configurations. They've just announced that they are shipping out two-player configurations of these same games, but they also have some new game coming that they didn't announce what it is yet, they just said it uses a major Hollywood IP, and so take your guess as to which one that might be. I would assume something that hasn't been licensed by like Raw Thrills or Sega already, and they'll be unveiling that soon. But they didn't say IAPA because um only Desert Chase, the two-player version, will be at the Player One Amusement Group booth, which is uh booth number 840, and uh that they won't have their own booth there, but they will they be at Amusement Expo, and so I assume that uh by then we'll know what that Hollywood IP is. But I'm a little bit over time here, as I said, uh had a lot to go through, and probably in the coming weeks it's gonna be a lot of this kind of rushed stuff, but uh that's what's uh out there. The arcade news. Hope you enjoyed that. We'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_05: 1:11:22

Hello, and welcome to Promo Pro Tips with Chuck DiMonti. That is me, and today I want to discuss something that every local FEC should be doing, and that is combining digital with a local presence, right? So, what does that mean? And I discussed it on another segment, but I want to take a deeper dive into it, say how you could accomplish this, right? And so uh FECs that we have seen combine this really have the best impact in terms of visitors, revenue, right? They really, really, really do well. Obviously, you have to have a really well um run operation, right? People need to have good experience, but how do you how do you extren that community bond to get more people into the location, right? So basically attending community events, right? And so what does that what does that mean? Uh festivals, carnivals, parades, farmers markets, right? Whatever that you know is happening around locally to you, we want you to have a presence there. And I promise you, when you combine that with digital, the effects are are amplified tremendously, right? And so first and foremost, you need to find the right event, right? Uh so how do you do that? So, you know, you could, you know, there's Google, right? There, there's local community uh calendars that you can look at of events coming up. And so you it's gonna take a little time to find some events, but you don't need to do a hundred of them, right? You need to do three, four a year, let's call it one per quarter, okay? So you could find four events local to you that are worth attending. And so how do you vet these events? Um, you want to make sure it's a family focused event, right? You want to look for ones that are in a, I would say, 10 to 20 mile radius at the very, very most, you know, depending on uh sort of how far people travel, you know, around you. They travel 30 minutes or something like this, 45 minutes, you know, the more rural you are, obviously the further sort of out people travel. Uh you want to look for things that have attendance of probably a thousand plus and that are family-focused events. Okay. So if you can find those events, you also want to, you know, go to their website, find out the contact person, the the, you know, the email, the phone, or whatever, call them, see what it looks like to be a vendor and have a presence there. Okay. And get a few, you know, get a few of them so you can understand what it costs, you know, and then analyze each and compare uh which ones you think are worth attending. But that's how you find the events, okay? But now that you found them, what are the next steps and what should you do to really make the most out of these events, right? From your presence there to even after the event. So let's talk about your presence there first. So you really want to make it make yourself stand out while you're there, okay? And then while you're there, you also want to uh take advantage of getting in front of as many people as possible and sort of capture their information and you know, use that to further market to people. You want to try and get them in the top of your customer journey funnel, right? And so, one, what does it look like when you're there, right? So let's just, you know, you're an FEC, get creative, make it fun. What does that look like, right? Don't just have a table, right? But let's do giveaways. Let's maybe, you know, maybe create a little mini obstacle course for kids to do, or an art and craft station to color something with your brand, or um, you know, uh photo opportunities, right? Like really get creative. What could that look like, right? You have some sort of uh contest that kids could do, uh, you know, a race, uh a reflex thing or something, right? A jump a jumping uh, you know, contest, right? I don't know, get creative uh to make your booth stand out, okay? So again, don't just dial it in there. That's the biggest piece. You want people to be walking over so you can have those conversations that they'll connect your brand and remember your brand and also uh come over to your your table or whatever and enter and sort of give you their information, okay? So you could further market to them, right? So that's the biggest thing. You want to do a giveaway, you want to get their information. Not only do you want to see people just see literally with their eyes your brand and hopefully remember you and say, Oh, that place looks cool, or we should check it out, or remember when we went there and keep top of mind, right? You want to hopefully capture their information so you could continue to market to them, right? So, how do you do that? A lot of times you're gonna want to do that with a giveaway, right? Give away tickets. And in order to sort of redeem that ticket, they have to, you know, sign the waiver, opt in, sign up on the email, right? Think of mechanisms like that, okay? Now, I'm not gonna do too deep of a dive in terms of you know the mechanics behind that, right? Um, because they can range from the simple to the complex, but again, capture their information. Okay. Once you have their information, what are you doing with it? You're uploading it to things like Meta, your email, your SMS. You're you're now putting them in your marketing funnel, right? Especially if they sign a giveaway and basically by entering that giveaway, they're opt into marketing. Okay. Uh you want to make sure you're staying in front of them again to stay top of mind to hopefully get them from that event to you know getting into uh into your location. Okay. Uh, and so if you do that consistently, right, imagine you're doing the three, four times a year and you're getting a couple hundred people or you know, whatever that looks like every time you go to these things, you're building that up year after year and month after month, right? And now they're they're sort of word of mouth and come into your location. So it just is a snowball effect that builds on top of each other. Okay. Now, once you're done with the event, you want to obviously email the people, thank them for coming out, make social media posts, right? You want to sort of extend the the uh you know the the impact there and sort of you know use that as uh to strengthen people that maybe even see you through the event, they go, Oh, that was cool that you know this FEC was at this local event, right? They're gonna see you like being part of you wanna you know represent that you do love being part of the community, you are part of the community, you want to represent, you know, represent the community, you want to help the community, right? So it's really, really important uh to be at these things for all of those reasons, right? Um, and then again, I I can't stress enough when you combine this with that digital concept, right? Of when you have their emails and you and you're and you're retargeting them, and you're you know, you're just creating your your local community uh awareness, strengthening it tremendously. So I promise you, continue to do that, get creative at how you attend these events, and it will produce results.

SPEAKER_07: 1:17:08

All right. Well, thanks, Chuck. Thanks, Adam, for those two great segments. And uh, you know what? A couple of things here to just note. Uh, we've got sound off number 95 with Kevin Williams coming up on this next Tuesday in October 21st. So just in two days. And then uh, you know what? That's a wrap for this week's LBX show. This is Brandon Wiley signing off. Stay tuned and keep kicking ass.