The LBX Show #57 - Year-End Trends, Disneyland in Fortnite, IP issues, & more!

Sponsored by Intercard!
Sponsored by Alan-1!

On this week's show, we close the year by discussing trending topics such as inclusive operations, capital access concerns, AI that trains rather than just entertains, and how transmedia keeps brands front-of-mind. Then Chuck DeMonte maps a simple, focused plan to grow in 2026 on a tight budget in the Promo Pro Tips segment.

• IAAPA FEC Summit details, education theme, and value
• What members might gain from the IAAPA and Expression Capital partnership
• Free disability awareness course and why it matters
• Matt Heller's free IAAPA speaker submission coaching opportunity
• AI-personalized golf training vs gambling rant
• Disneyland’s Game Rush Fortnite island as transmedia done right
• Hoteltainment pressure on nearby FECs
• Launch Entertainment’s pivot and attempt at future-proofing
• Japan’s evolving crane and arcade formats
• Tenpin’s refurb strategy and brand challenges
• A big North Carolina eatertainment build
• Mobile VR transitioning to permanent ops
• Kingpin’s zoned branding for lanes, golf, arcade
• IP pitfalls with Nickelodeon closure
• Three-step 2026 marketing plan: analyze, plan, execute

Sound Off #103 drops Dec 23 and our annual predictions LBX Show returns Jan 4!

Subscribe and visit LBX Collective for more!

Chapters

• 0:00 Holiday Welcome & Run Of Show
• 0:56 IAPA FEC Summit Preview
• 2:59 New IAPA–Expression Capital Partnership
• 5:59 Disability Awareness Course With Morgan’s Inclusion Institute
• 8:09 Free Coaching For IAPA Speaker Submissions
• 10:45 AI-Powered Skill Games In Golf Simulators
• 14:44 Disneyland’s Fortnite Island Launch
• 19:36 Sponsor Message: Intercard
• 20:10 Openings & Closings: Hotel-Tainment Trend
• 22:36 Launch Entertainment’s FEC Pivot
• 25:36 Japan Market: New Concepts And SEO Naming
• 29:00 Genda GiGO And Crane Arcade Shifts
• 31:28 Tenpin UK Upgrades And Brand Questions
• 33:28 New Eatertainment Build In North Carolina
• 36:12 Immersive Edutainment And Museum Convergence
• 38:40 Mobile VR Goes Permanent In Canada
• 41:05 Kingpin Canada: Zoning And Branding
• 44:05 Mellowes Expands; Regional Parks In Flux
• 47:04 IP Pitfalls: Nickelodeon Adventure Closures
• 50:12 Promo Pro Tips: Plan For 2026 On A Budget
• 56:16 Sponsor Message: Raydius

Transcript

SPEAKER_04: 0:02

Turning you in now to the LBX show with your host, Brandon Wiley. What do you buy the LVX collective? Your community to connect, engage, and inspire.

SPEAKER_01: 0:23

All right, well, welcome everybody to the LBX show for December 21st, 2025. Merry Christmas, everyone. I'm your host, Brendan Wiley, and uh we have a great final end-of-year show for you lined up today. We're going to dive into some news you should know quite a bit there, and then we'll roll right into a fairly robust open and shut with Kevin Williams just to review the openings and closing trends from last week. And then we will close out with promo pro tips as Chuck Tamonty discusses how to set yourself up in 2026 with budget-friendly marketing techniques. All right. With that all being said, let's dive into some news you should know. All right. So it wouldn't be a news you should know leading up to the IAPA FEC Summit next year if we didn't talk about the IAPA FEC Summit. So this is coming up February 1st through the 3rd in Glendale, Arizona. It is$500 for members, and I think it's like$700 for non-members. Just become a member. There's other good benefits and reasons to become a member, and then you save a couple hundred bucks on the uh, you know, on your ticket. So just if you're not a member already of IAPA, join IAPPA. Uh, I get nothing from that. Just you should you should be a part of it. It's a great organization that supports the global attractions industry. And uh anyway, so at this IAPA FEC Summit, there's going to be a bunch of different sessions and panels and obviously lots of networking happening as well. Uh, but you're also going to have Libby Gill, who's a keynote speaker. She's a leadership expert and author, and she's worked for Universal and Sony and Turner Broadcasting over many years, just building high performance teams and cultures. And so highly recommend you coming to uh coming to that. The whole education theme of this IAPA FEC Summit is play the long game, build a lasting legacy. So, you know, I think this is about, you know, obviously building a legacy, as it says. So anyway, they're also gonna be visiting some locations. There'll be at least three locations. Right now, all I have confirmed is fat cats at the Con Lake Entertainment. And so, anyway, you want to get going. And then there is a wacky golf event. So normally there's a charity golf event that starts. So they decided to do a uh wacky golf instead, um, which is better for me because I enjoy wacky golf much more than I enjoy regular golf. Well, that's not true. I like being, I like being out there in regular golf. Um, it just is uh I'm not that great. So it is uh it is great. So it's a hundred dollars uh separate ticket to do the wacky golf, but all those funds go to the IAPA FEC Foundation scholarship, which helps to support people who want to get more involved in this industry and learn about the industry and just get uh get into the industry. So anyway, that is that. Um, and so sticking with IAPA news, this was an interesting uh an announcement that came through uh just this week. IAPA and then Expression Capital Partners have unveiled a new global partnership. It says what the association says marks a significant investment in long-term success, financial health, and innovation capacity of IAPA members around the world. Okay, so uh I'm just gonna read a few things here. So the International Trade Association uh said, you know, IAPA basically said that Expression Capital Partners will be its exclusive private equity and mergers and acquisitions advisory partner, uh, but also a platinum sponsor of all IAPA Expos. So basically, they gave IAPA a shitload of money, and um, and so they decided to make them their exclusive partner. Um, Expression Capital Partners, by the way, I did some research on them. They were just started in 2024. They have a lot of pedigree, they have a lot of background, like the people that are involved in it have done other things, but the the group itself has only been around for about a year and a half. Look, I'm involved in a startup, year and a half doesn't mean anything. Um, but it is uh definitely uh they're definitely making moves in this industry to try to get there. I mean, to go from starting in 2024 to being a platinum sponsor, uh global platinum sponsor across all expos is a pretty significant leap. And um, you know, the whole goal, I think, is that they're gonna bring what they say expanded financial expertise, investment resources, and strategic guidance to attraction owners, developers, and operators across all global regions. Um, and so they you know, basically is it like, look, whether you're looking to invest or raise capital or just try to bring a new concept to life or just navigate a, you know, an MA, uh, they want to be a resource for this growth across the industry. And, you know, apparently, like I'm still trying to like figure out, okay, what does this all mean? Like, okay, they're just a sponsor, but like, what does it mean to be the exclusive partner for MAs and private equity? Like, that's what I'm just trying to still figure out here. But they, you know, they say, look, the members will gain direct access to investment expertise, support with again MA and raising capital, and then opportunities to explore strategic investments and advisory services. So it's like, okay, but is there a discount? Am I getting something? Like, am I getting free advice and guidance? Like, I still don't really fully know. And so there's some more I'm gonna have to dig into, and I will bring more back here as I learn more about this because I feel like this is a really great resource to IAPA members, assuming we actually know what that resource really is. It's one thing to just have a sponsor and a new exclusive partner, right? It's like, you know, saying that you're the exclusive dental partner of the Arizona Diamondbacks or something. Okay, cool. So what? I mean, like, am I gonna get a discount going to uh you know, I'm going to get my teeth cleaned because I went to a Diamondbacks game? Like, I don't know. It's like, what am I actually getting from this partnership other than IAPA just getting a bunch of money for a sponsorship? And so that's what I really want to understand here. And uh, you know, we'll figure it out. But either way, having these guys hopefully focused on this industry will be a good positive net benefit. It'll just be great to understand what the membership of IAPA gets from that partnership. All right, and then one last thing here that I think is really worth noting uh related to IAPA news, and yeah, there just happened to be a bunch of it here this week, is uh the there's this was announced actually a couple of weeks ago, and I finally got around to bringing it here is the IAPA Education Department um recently partnered with Morgan's Inclusion Institute, and they created a disability awareness course. And so this is supposed to you know basically provide support accessible and you know, impact uh, you know, these learning experiences around disability. So the course is gonna provide an overview of disabilities and will explore what disability really means, uh, the different types and how everyone can be more inclusive. And so it's gonna take away, you know, for if you if you do this class, uh, what will be essential knowledge around definitions and language and best practices for creating welcoming experiences in the attractions industry. Um so specifically, you'll it'll define what disability is used is by using simple, accurate language, identify at least three ways a disability can affect the person, recognize the difference between a physical and cognitive disability, as well as then explaining the difference between visible and invisible disabilities, and then just like describe how environments can generally create barriers for people with disabilities. And so, you know, I think this is uh I think this is great. I think what Morgan uh Inclusion Institute is doing, you know, based it's like this like based off of Morgan's Wonderland and all the great work they're doing down in the San Antonio area uh of Texas. And so, you know, this is like the first course and partnership between the two of them. It's 20 minutes. Uh, haven't done the course yet. I have it scheduled to do during the holiday break, uh, but it's 20 minutes. It comes with like also 0.5 CEUs, continuing education credits if you're an ICAE or ICAP uh through IAPA, if you're certified there. And it's free for members and non-members. So if you're not a member of IAPA, cool. Uh, then go ahead and still take the course. I think in general, it's good to be aware of how this language is used and the impacts that your experiences and attractions potentially have on those with disabilities. And so I really uh applaud Morgan's Institute Inclusion Institute for coming and partnering with IAPA to create this at least introductory course. I'm hoping that they'll continue to create more and more courses down the line. All right, so that's it for IAPA news. There's a lot. And okay, all right, moving on to the next thing. Matt Heller, um, you know, a friend of mine and uh, you know, and co-host of the Attraction Pros podcast and founder of Performance Optimus Consulting, uh, has done something really cool. And I thought like it was pretty awesome. So I thought I'd just like throw it out here and you know, first of all, just applaud him for what he he decided to do, but also to uh hopefully, you know, if there's any of you listening here that could benefit from the um you know the thing that he's doing here, which I'll explain in just a minute, then I thought it'd be good to mention it here. Um so he has offered to help people prepare for a speaking submission at IAPA Expo for free. So if you've never spoken at IAPA Expo before and you've considered it and you've wanted to, and you're like just ah, I don't know how to do it. I don't know about how I feel about speaking, I don't know how to create a submission that might get chosen and selected to be speak, you know, to speak and that kind of stuff. Like, look, Matt has spoken probably at every IAPA Expo for like the last two couple of decades, um, you know, in multiple sessions and held panels and moderated panels. And so, you know, we've been on stuff together, like, you know, it's uh and his part and his co his other co-host Josh Liebman has also done that. And so um, anyway, he's got lots of experience on how to create really great submissions and also obviously you have to deliver on those submissions too, but you know, create really great submissions that get selected for IAP Expo to speak. And so he has just offered to say, hey, look, you know, if you want a 30-minute session or whatever, reach out to me and and I can uh and I'll give you uh you know, I'll give you some help. And so, you know, in order to get connected with him, you can go to Attraction Pro's podcast website or performance optimist consulting.com, I think. So uh anyway, but you can, and if you don't, if ultimately you still can't figure out how to get a hold of him, just email me. I'm Brandon at lbxcollective.com and I'll connect you uh with Matt. So uh one thing he did also call out, like is a is a really cool thing, is he showcased in his email um Maria from Fiesta Family uh for Fiesta Village Family Fun Park on stage at Iapa. And he basically, like when he was speaking, he said, Hey, you know, he was looking out in the crowd, he's like, Hey, does anyone here have uh any you know background or you know that has has like any advice or whatever? And so, like, you know, a couple people raised hand, he selected Maria and said, Maria, come up, come up on stage and talk about that. And so she did a great job for like five minutes, 10 minutes talking about her you know experience running the uh Yesta Village uh family fun park on stage at IAPA, and she wasn't planning on it, and she did a great job. And all that means is like you don't have to have great, amazing public speaking experience. You have to just be engaging and passionate about what you're speaking about and knowledgeable of what you're speaking about. And people will appreciate you being up there because they want to glean information from operators and people who know what they are doing and what you know have had that experience. So uh congrats to Maria, great job. Thank you so much, Matt Heller, for everything you do for the industry and for offering that to everybody. Uh all right, so a couple of other things here. Full swing. Uh, if you're not familiar with full swing, they are a uh golf simulator uh platform and uh where'd we go here? Yeah, they're a golf simulator platform, and they're also the official licensed golf simulator of the PJ Tour. Again, as we just talked about, probably just gave the PJ Tour a lot of money. Doesn't really mean that PJ Tour is somehow doing any sort of endorsement or whatever of their product, but uh they are the official licensed golf simulator for the PJ Tour, and they've recently launched a new skill-based gaming platform called Skill Strike, and it offers a chance to win cash payouts for golf simulator play. Okay, so at least, you know, you know, another another one where we're like infusing fucking gambling into everything to some extent, right? But these are at least gambling against yourself. So you're like, hey, I think I can improve and I can do better, and so I'm gonna put money against myself. So rather than competing against other golfers, uh, this new feature that they just rolled out uh can be used obviously in their home because you can get a full swing suite for your home, or also there's commercial simulator locations, and they're literally everywhere. You can just Google full swing simulators, and it like this is why I'm talking about here. Golf simulation and golf simulators are like everywhere. Um, you know, Five Iron doesn't use them, and others, like some of the bigger brands doesn't use full swing, they use different uh uh like trapman and other stuff, um, but this is uh full swing is a big one. Anyway, so they can bismens can pay an entry fee, and then they take a swing, and then they potentially win money by outperforming their expected shot uh that they have ability the ability to do. And so you know, players are effectively competing against themselves and their uh their algorithm, it's like algorithm derived expected shot outcome. So basically, levels of playing field between scratch players and less experienced golfers, and it's run by this this whole um strike, the skill strike platform is run by AI technology from even play. And it essentially analyzes real-time tracking data from the full swing simulators and uses machine learning to calibrate each challenge to an individual skill level. So target sizes, uh, here we'll move this here. So um target sizes are and distances automatically adjust on every attempt with tiered payouts depending on how close a given shot lands to the hole. Uh, players can win up to eight times their entry fee, and entry fees range from$3 to$20, and there are separate prizes available for holes in one. Uh, so you know, like basically you cannot game the system as you know, if you think, oh, well, I can miss it, I could like duff a shot, and then I'm gonna take another shot and I'm gonna totally make it better. Um, but so you can't game this into the AI technology, uh, looks at key swing indicators and can actually detect if swing mechanics are different from shot to shot and then adjust the targets for subsequent shots in an accelerated fashion. So um, you know, anyway, I thought it was pretty cool. Like, okay, putting the money aside, the AI assisted uh you know, adjustments to really push me and drive me to have better shots, which I need, as we talked about earlier, um, I think is really unique and innovative and uh and is a great um element to add to their swing suite. So, again, whether or not you want to wager, which you don't have to do, uh this is a great way to really drive you to get better because it's gonna analyze your swing and it's gonna be like, okay, I think you can do better. And it's gonna like push you just a little bit and you're gonna like try to get there and try to get there. It's gonna give you feedback and ways to improve your swing. And so, anyway, pretty cool system. Um, obviously, you can uh you know they're they're working out the next phases for you to be able to like compete with friends and stuff, like in your in their suite. So, like obviously it'll gamify your swing suite experience. Uh, but anyway, that is the uh the new release from Full Swing, their skill strike platform powered by even play AI. All right, last thing we're gonna talk about here on News You Should Know is a pretty cool thing. I mean, so we talked about this a while ago when they first announced it on the LBX show. We well, they didn't announce it on the LBX show, we talked about it in the LBX show uh when they announced it. That Disneyland uh is is partnered with Fortnite and they now have an official island in Fortnite. So they had they had long promoted this, I mean, probably a year and a half ago, I want to say, um, and obviously it's been under development. And so they finally released this to the public. It is called the Disneyland Game Rush Island. And so uh most of you know, basically, so like they kind of took the most iconic attractions of Disneyland Resort, so Disneyland, not Disney World, uh have been they kind of reimagined them in an exciting way. And so, you know, the the Fortnite Island uh was you know basically it has a bunch of mini games, so like has an experience, like a walk around experience, it kind of makes you feel like you're in Disneyland, uh, but then also has a bunch of different mini games. So here's like you know, you walk in and you know your portal or whatever, you drop into here. Um, and you know, so they're basically greeted with like a little mini replica of the Disneyland resorts, uh, but specifically their 70th celebration, and then the whole structure that's there, uh, you know, it's inspired by the Sleeping Beauty Castle, the little structures in the middle. And then while the uh players are exploring all around, they can go and check. Uh, you know, they can see like the Pixar Powell around and the credit coaster in the background. You can't ride the incredit coaster or those kind of things, but you can kind of see them in the background, and uh so it's kind of cool. Uh, but you can uh the Fortnite fans can compete up to um with 11 other uh gamers to play seven different mini games which appear in randomized order. So the first one they have is a uh Space Mountain rocket race, kind of go down and like jump, you know, and collect coins, and you're kind of jumping through so like you know, little mini gates, you know, but again, like supposed to simulate uh Space Mountain, and then they have the Star Wars uh Stormtrooper Showdown, which you know, obviously like kind of a uh hunt uh down the stormtroopers pretty straightforward. They have the Haunted Mansion Scavenger Hunt, so you're just collecting different items throughout the Haunted Mansion. Uh they have the Web Slingers Spider Bot Blasters, so this is from California Adventure, not the Disneyland park itself. Uh, but they have the Web Slinger Spider-Bot Blasters, so you know, you're obviously shooting another shooting game, the Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Uh Sneak Out. So instead of Mission Breakout, which is obviously the Guardians of the Galaxy uh ride in California Adventure, choose to be Tower of Terror. Uh, it's a great, you know, great ride. I feel like it's a little bit short, but still a great ride. Um, anyway, they have now the mission sneak out uh version of Guardians of the Galaxy, Indiana Jones, Tomb Runner, and so you know, I think that's fairly self-explanatory, and then Matterhorn, Slip and Climb. And so, you know, you're climbing around the Matterhorn and doing a bunch of different stuff. So uh one of the cool things too is they have the ability to unlack a unlock a magic key with a uh key to Disneyland, and each mini-game has one virtual uh key to Disneyland, which can be attained, but you have to like play through each game more than once to ensure you can grab one. Uh so like you know, it's not uh totally apparent where they are, and so you have to find them, but then you can use the keys at the lock station kiosk in order to randomly unlock one of seven gold cosmetic items that are exclusive to the island. All right, if you're not familiar with the magic key, uh, right now for the 70th anniversary at Disneyland, you do you can buy an actual key at one of their gift shops. I mean, it's a brilliant merchandising play, like fucking brilliant. So you buy this key and you walk around and you find different kiosks throughout the throughout the Disneyland park. And uh, you know, I've I've been there many times this uh over the course of the this year. And uh, you know, you I haven't done the key because I'm not gonna buy the freaking key, I'll just watch other kids do it. So they buy the key, they stick it in, they turn it, and the box does some cool little stuff, and they get like a little exciting, you know, thing, and they move on to the next kiosk. Well, here you can actually get cosmetic items that you can then put on and wear. They have little hats and different scarves and things that you know you can just soup up your your uh your character avatar. Um, and then after completing all the mini games, the hub explodes into colorful nighttime celebration led by Mickey Mouse with fireworks, holograms, and players showing off their best new accessories and dance moves. And so you can see an example here of like the nighttime experience and kind of like the fireworks and stuff going off. So that is Disneyland's uh newest Fortnite Island called Disneyland Game Rush. And uh, you know, look, it's brilliant uh because it's gonna get people excited. We talk about on uh Sound Off with Kevin Williams so often about transmedia organizations being transmedia, so you have physical locations and experiences, and then you know, movies and videos and video games, and and this is just one more way to infuse a Disney brand in front of millions of players through the Fortnite platform. So uh great job. It looks like they've done a phenomenal job. The graphics look great. Of course, you wouldn't expect anything less from Disney, uh, but they've really done a great job. And that, my friends, is the end of News You Should Know. 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.

SPEAKER_00: 20:10

Hey, a big hello to everyone. Uh how are we ho doing? Brandon.

SPEAKER_01: 20:18

Uh ho warming up. So yeah, warming up here. Although it is supposed to be unseasonably be unseasonably warm in Phoenix this weekend, uh, like all the way up into the 80s and you know Fahrenheit. So it's uh pretty crazy. Uh it's it's actually not enjoyable.

SPEAKER_00: 20:35

It's seasonably wet here uh in London. So um anyway, let's hope that the weather is better elsewhere. So let's jump in. And uh this time of the year we can uh expect the uh uh hopefully a little bit of an easeback. I I I I'll argue that um not as much as I would have really expected, but uh at least we're uh we're we're not uh in the high 20s anymore. But as always, pause if I zip past anything too quickly. But we jump straight into hotel taintment, uh, as we've been uh seeing from some of the hotel venues now are throwing in a competitive socializing or social entertainment component to them. And uh the Dutch market is no different. Uh and the Theatre Hotel has uh added bowling as well as some amusement and F and B. I don't know if that's a bar to their mix.

SPEAKER_01: 21:38

This we are beginning to see this uh quite a bit. Um, so it's not surprising that you know, obviously there was some you know a boutique hotel, but uh we're really beginning to see a lot of entertainment being added to hotels um and and various bits of entertainment as well. So um, you know, this is uh, you know, this is not a great trend necessarily for you know your standalone FEC bowling center, etc. You know, good for the hotels, but not great for those that may be near hotels where you know originally they maybe would have left the hotel to go to an entertainment center down the street, now they're going downstairs or down to the basement or wherever they've put the lanes.

SPEAKER_00: 22:15

That that's an excellent point. Uh the competition has changed. How many uh uh FECs had added boutique hotels to possible competitors down the road? And it won't be long before it's not just boutique hotels that are thinking of uh adding this kind of entertainment component. Moving on, and our friends at launch entertainment have uh expanded yet again. Uh we're going to be up to five chains. This 36,000 square facility is we know what they would now call a family entertainment facility. It has the bowling, it has the axe throwing, it has the mini golf, uh, but it also has some VR attractions and simulators and uh what what would be called the Active Entertainment. So it's a bit of everything. It's a very big installation uh for uh this Massachusetts location. Uh and uh I think it's well we we know from their uh marketing material, this is one of at least five new venues that they have uh opening in the uh next couple of months going into 2026.

SPEAKER_01: 23:28

I do know that launch intends to expand pretty aggressively over the coming few years. Uh they have some major expansion plans lined up. Um, and it's an interesting one, right? I mean, they were they were originally uh of like a Gen 1 trampoline park. I mean, that was they started with just trampolines and then they evolved into more of an uh adventure park model. Uh then they kind of had to slow, then they slowed down for a little while, and now they're relaunching, pun intended, um, as a broader family entertainment destination. Uh I would argue, though, that they probably maybe didn't push the boundaries far enough. So they they evolved from a Gen 1 trampoline park and now they're really building what I would consider to be a Gen 1, maybe Gen 2 family entertainment center. So they're, you know, I'm not sure that they've really gone as far as they maybe should have with their attraction mix, um, you know, for this reimagining of their brand.

SPEAKER_00: 24:19

Yeah, it's it's a difficult one here, you know. So you're seeing launch family entertainment, but of course, there is, as Brandon has alluded to, launch trampolines and you know, the the 30-odd facilities in in that particular chain. And I don't think there's enough separation. So I don't think that they've really thought about future-proofing their family entertainment center, and I don't think that they've thought enough about what they're going to be doing with their trampoline centers as they move towards active, because if you're going to start throwing in active entertainment into your FEC chain, then you're going to be eating your own lunch. And uh soon there will be a brown mess of trying to define what is uh a launch FEC against the launch active entertainment. And then at some point in time, a bright spark will suggest why don't we have a launch social entertainment component? Brand identity, market positioning, and future-proofing is going to be in their history if they want to be able to compete in this market. Moving on, and Japan uh appears to uh be redefining itself constantly in this uh changing market. Uh, we have uh a new entrance sync. Uh they they're a mixture of two types of approach. There is the what I would say the traditional crane arcade kind of facility in one section, and then they have an amusement social entertainment uh with some F and B in another component. I am not sure if this is a tow in the water by a new entrant into the market or a one-off uh uh application, but it is an interesting stylistic uh uh new Tokyo edition.

SPEAKER_01: 26:02

Yeah, this is a good example though of really bad naming. So while Sync itself isn't a bad brand, where when I talk about it being you know, bad naming is in search and in SEO. So I had to type it exactly with the periods in there, s dot, y dot, you know, to get it actually show up. And it didn't even show up in the search results, it showed up in the business block on the right hand side. That was only after I typed it exactly correct with the city, the name of the city and Tokyo after it to get to the. So this is just something, again, as we think about naming, um, you the think about like Google, Google the potential name you're gonna do in your city and outside of your city uh in order to make sure that it actually shows up. Now, to be fair, if I were in Japan, if I were in Tokyo and I searched sync, it's possible that it would show up a little bit higher in the search results. Um, but it is still something to keep in mind uh when you're uh thinking about your naming.

SPEAKER_00: 26:59

I use a specific search tool for Japan uh generally because I notice that the uh Western search engines don't uh can't find the information that I'm looking for or make stupid mistakes. So again, I I may put this down to lost in translation. Uh the issues that I have also is the the branding and the positioning and uh and really the algorithm sorting is different for us here in the West compared to uh the Asian systems. But again, branding is important as we know. Uh and hey, uh you know, you have to deal with uh the uh the Japanese text here if you uh want to know. But uh Doors uh is a large chain, they've got about 34 facilities out there, mainly of the traditional mix of uh crane facility, very traditional mix. Um, I I think left over from the Pachinko kind of style of venue. They have now upgraded themselves and they now have an Adores uh Plus facility, which is one of the first is opening uh here, and it is a new style crane aimed at a younger audience, uh, and also aimed at a retail drop-in component. So uh, you know, I I would if I was them, I'd be waiting for a knock on the door from Genda.

SPEAKER_01: 28:23

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00: 28:25

And speaking of Gender, uh the latest Gaigo uh has opened up uh Nakayama. Nothing too uh over the top here. Uh this is a 5,000 square meter facility, so a relatively large site. Um, a lot of cranes, a lot of metal machines, the coin drop systems, uh, a lot of music machines, about 50 odd uh music machines in there, uh, and an uh about 50 odd other kinds of assortments of entertainment. So this is a GIGO that is relatively large, uh, covers all kinds of age groups with its hit, and is dropping into a market that hasn't got that many new wave uh uh entertainment facilities. So kind of the penetration of the new style of entertainment facility into the Japanese market, we will see a continual gradual picking away at the older style of venue for replacement to this type of style. Uh and then talking about redevelopment and reinvesting uh uh 1.5 million uh pound uh reinvestment into one of the many uh 10 pin facilities. You'll remember we talked about 10 pin entertainment last sound off, uh you know, expanding their brand and uh acquiring new operations, taking on the fair game uh operation. Well, they have also been updating the key uh what I would call flagship facilities in their network of their 59 uh sites. Uh we've been seeing a gradual investment. Their competitors have been doing exactly the same, uh taking the old tired sports bowling facility and making it much more applicable to the um third space market that is uh generation Y and X.

SPEAKER_01: 30:28

This is uh another one of those. It's good to see that they're evolving their attraction mix, uh, but they're going to have to at some point, or maybe not. I guess maybe they could just say they don't care, but they are gonna have to address the name.

SPEAKER_00: 30:43

Um yeah. Sadly uh I don't think that they're of a mind to change the name. I think it's confusing, especially as there are a number of amusement facility 10-pin brands uh in North America, which also makes searching 10-pin entertainment even more enjoyable. Uh I also feel that they will need to distinguish their updated facilities from their current or uh older facilities to avoid disappointment, as we touched upon previously. But again, maybe they don't care as much until they have sorted out which sites they're keeping and which sites they're going to let go before they go for a root and branch rebranding. Uh a new build uh and a new facility concept, uh high tide and good vibes. Uh yeah, I'm sure the marketing team were smoking something very interesting when they came up with this one. Uh North Carolina, a 40,000 square facility, very large for a brand new concept. It's got axe rowing, it's got AR darts in it, it's got a rope course in it, so it's uh as well as uh uh uh you know what I would call an active entertainment space. They've got uh simulators in there of the golf uh style that also can be doing ball tracking, and they've got 16-lane bowling, uh some amusement, though I couldn't nail that down from the launch information, and they've got FB. And I would argue that this is an FB facility, primarily, that has added quite a considerable social entertainment mix with a pivot towards a younger audience with the climbing stuff. I'm not sure how that will work, but this is a brand new brand. Uh, they've gone for the eat, play, bowl uh concept, so they are throwing their hat into the eat attainment bowling kind of process. Uh, it's nice to see new blood in here as well as you know, new blood spending quite a considerable amount of money to enter the market. Let's hope that they've done their research on what the North Carolinian market or Carolinian market wants. Moving. Oh, sorry, Brandon?

SPEAKER_01: 33:05

Uh yeah, sorry. I mean, I think I I don't know if I froze on that end or what. I was trying to load their site, and their site was like took over my browser for a second. Uh trying to pull up the high tides and uh and good vibes. So it wasn't giving me good vibes on the website. But um no, I'll say look, they they've got uh it looks interesting. I mean, they I think originally when this was announced, they had talked about it being uh this heavily themed surf type in surf like beach environment. And it doesn't meet that and from my perspective, but it's a good mix of attractions and uh you know be interesting to see how they do. Uh obviously, it's in a uh what would be considered a like tour, tourist travel town. And so, you know, there's there's always opportunities and uses for this type of uh this type of space and entertainment.

SPEAKER_00: 33:50

Yeah, it's it's clear that the original hype uh surrounding this at the beginning of the year painted a different picture to what the facility looks like uh away from the AI pictures. I noticed they had a couple of those uh dotted amongst their uh web page. Um we will just have to wait and see how the mix works for them. Anyway, we're moving on, excuse me, and we have uh the TIE Market uh embracing uh young active entertainment facility with a strong immersive uh attraction component. They have a number of projection rooms uh giving me uh you know a kind of vibe to the immersive theater experiences, along with uh active entertainment and art creation for a very young audience, but it's technology heavy. And uh this is interesting from my perspective, how much immersion via this kind of projection mapping environments is going to play a part in the younger uh entertainment uh spaces, as we've seen with our friends at Hello.

SPEAKER_01: 34:58

Yeah, and you know, I think what I find interesting about this is that they're integrating science and innovation enlightenment as part of their as part of their cell here for an entertainment venue. And you know, we're beginning to see this convergence of immersive entertainment existing in now museums and science centers. And so they're almost becoming, you know, museum science centers, like they're having standalone exhibits, but now really the full thing is really beginning to transform into a more immersive experience. And so now you also have your more traditional, well, I wouldn't call them traditional, but like a venue focused on entertainment beginning to bring in that science and innovation component you would normally go to a museum or a science center or a children's museum for. And now they're they're implementing that in an actual entertainment facility. So the convergence between the two were one, you know, the entertainment is bringing in science and uh and education, and then the museum and science centers are bringing in more of the entertainment and immersion. So it would be interesting to see how everything evolves over the course of the next uh you know 10 years.

SPEAKER_00: 36:00

Yeah, the the audience also will demand this. The the children that are playing within a projection immersive environment uh and getting a experience, and we will touch upon that at a later sound off, uh, are going to demand that as they get older from uh their uh their more generic entertainment facilities offerings. You're not going to be able to get away with uh projection against the wall in a couple of years' time. You're going to have to really come up with uh an immersive experience, but something to keep an eye on. Uh and then uh story of the the changing face of VR. We have a traveling VR entertainment experience that has been dropped into a number of facilities uh uh in Canada who've now finally found a permanent location. Uh uh it will be interesting to see how they find being a permanent facility rather than a traveling uh facility. It's a totally different business model. Uh, and also it's a lot harder to uh operate a permanent site than to be a little bit more laissez-faire with a mobile site. But again, uh VR attractions, from what I'm seeing, they are using off-the-shelf uh VR technology uh with some downloadable uh content. But hopefully, when they get their proper website uh up and running, we'll know a lot more about uh how their first proper site is working.

SPEAKER_01: 37:29

Yeah, it'll be interesting. Um I don't know a whole lot about Saskatchewan. I don't know its population. I was trying to do some quick searching here to get the Moose Jaws population. Um I did come across on their site or on Moose Jaw's site, uh the actual city of Moose Jaw, they apparently named themselves Canada's Most Notorious City. So uh there we are. So if that is the case, then perhaps you know, Vort VR, by the very nature of maybe you know, heavy tourism, etc., uh they might do well in a permanent site, but it is an entirely different model. And I don't know if those photos are from the permanent site or from their temporary site, but okay, good, because pipe and drape is just not going to cut it in a permanent site either.

SPEAKER_00: 38:13

No, that that's uh the only pictures available from the search was for uh from their temporary operation. Their website isn't operational properly at the moment. The only thing that seems to be doing the rounds is the picture of their logo. Uh and uh again, I looked at the site where they're moving into, and it's just a retail unit. So again, we don't know how much themality they've added to that. I would point to this as an example of how more traditional approaches to the VR arcade business are not working, and that you need to now nail down and become permanent and fixed and act like a proper uh entertainment venue. But again, I I think we'll be able to say that in more detail in a couple of months' time. And another king pin, king pin, king pin, uh, an example of the the difficulty of using king pin uh or 10 pin or any of the pins uh if you're going to be more than just uh a bowling facility. Uh again in Canada, uh Ontario is a little easier to nail down that has a very strong uh F and B uh and entertainment audience there, and uh throwing their hat into a crowded ring. Uh Kingpin has 24 lanes, uh it has mini golf, uh, it has a dedicated uh arcade area with about 70 or 80 amusement machines in it, which they've named Game Worked Arcade. Uh yiaiy. Uh, they also have some redemption in there, uh, which was uh of interest to me. Uh excuse me. And they're part of a three facility chain of what I think a more traditional sports bowling that has now pivoted for the social entertainment approach. To their business. And I get the feeling that this is one of the first that has really got of their sites that has really gone all in with that. That said, a number of their facilities also include their mini golf offering. So they are pivoting in where their audience is.

SPEAKER_01: 40:19

Yeah, it's really interesting that they've they like in intentionally name, other than their bowling, I guess they don't, but they're they name their different things. So their putting experience is putt social at Kingpin St. Catharines. So they have a whole separate logo and brand for putt social, you know, their their experience, which leads me to think that perhaps you have a different entrances, or you know, maybe there's an entrance just to put social at and then an entrance into Kingpin. They may cross over very similar to my, you know, the what Hijinx Hotel did in Holy Moley in Irvine, right? They have the two really two separate entrances with a little crossover between so they can share staff and share resources, um, and also obviously have guests flow between the two. Um, but it does lead me to think that they maybe are marketing this as a uh standalone hutting experience as well as then the joint uh kingpin experience.

SPEAKER_00: 41:12

From the uh pictures of the St. Catharines site, I didn't see a dedicated entrance into each area, but each area is its own thing. So um yes, I I would I would go with what the direction you're pointing at, which is they're trying to give each one of their zones their own thality, as seen with this uh Game Works arcade zone having its uh own branding. Um, the the the bowling side, the kingpin side, and then the uh the the golfing side. Uh it it needs to prove itself. Some sites are going to include this, some sites aren't going to include this, so that gives you the separation. There are three facilities in. Let's see how their fourth and their fifth sites uh deal with that. It's a dangerous route to go down because if some of your sites do have all of these amenities and some of your sites don't, then you're going to have to have some demarcation so people know that there will be a mini golf uh space at the next site that they go to. Then we go to the shots and uh the sales. Sales have started on uh the entertainment facilities. What I will be talking about in a little bit more detail, the story behind uh this latest acquisition by our friends at uh Mellows. Mellows uh obviously known for their theme parks as well as their social entertainment stuff, the guys behind uh Urban Playground and the Cube uh experiences uh also have uh some very strong uh operational chops in the UAE, and they are expanding their chain and taking on a regional family entertainment uh theme venue, theme park, uh like Water Valley, very traditional being going since the uh 70s, and they they really are moving away from their previous ownership, which was the Brighton Pier uh Entertainment Group. But again, we will go into a little bit more detail of what's happening there to lead to this acquisition. Uh a water park in the US of a certain age finds itself announcing that it is closing. A common refrain this year, what's left of this year, uh you know, going since the 1970s, uh Wild Wave uh just printed up uh on their page and on their social media that that's it, folks. Uh the final season of operation is uh 2026. Uh, you know, their claim is uh suffering losses from footfall and diminishing profits, i.e., business ain't good as good as it was, or more likely, um, we have put in a certain level of investment into this operation. It is now not drawing the revenue that we need to uh continue operating it. And surprise, surprise, uh, I'm sure we'll be talking about an acquisition of the space because there is a lot of real estate here to just disappear under the uh developer's bulldoze. I I get the feeling that this is a viable operation in other people's hands.

SPEAKER_01: 44:31

Yeah. Well, I mean, we I mean we continue to see these uh like I would I would call them regional amusement parks uh continue to close, decline, struggle, etc. Um, you know, when you have large parks like Six Flags with lots of money behind them struggling in some regions, the uh the regional theme park or the regional amusement park, I won't call it a theme park, the regional amusement park is uh is definitely gonna continue to, I think, see declines as we saw the last couple and we've seen over the last year.

SPEAKER_00: 45:02

I would argue for the same reasons, which is if you haven't got a business model focused on your entertainment offering, then just hoping that what used to work will still keep on working means that you uh you enter into a situation that is impacting some of those companies that we touch upon in sound off every now and then, that they are complaining about their say uh site-on-site sales uh without really improving their entertainment mix. But that's what we're seeing here. And then one of those aspects that I uh I found difficult to nail down is that it's been real hard in some cases to know if an uh uh an operation is still going or not. Many people had told me that uh the Parkas uh Rondus was not still operating their Nickelodeon adventure uh standalones. They still had them operated in their theme park site, but they weren't operating the two facilities that they had opened. Well, it uh with the change in management, which we touched upon in the previous sound off, we now find out that yes, both of those facilities had closed um now, uh, and they were part of a Nickelodeon licensing. So there's a lot of ramifications here. There's the IP acquisition that hasn't worked out, the reasons why this particular approach didn't work uh as well as just a general uh general understanding of where the Spanish market is going with its entertainment facilities. We have booms from some operations, and then we also have surprising busts from what you would have thought would have been a uh a license to print money, uh having the Nickelodeon brand behind you.

SPEAKER_01: 46:51

We've seen this now a couple of times, right? Last week we talked about Planet Play School shutting down. Um now we've seen Nickelodeon Adventure. Uh there was a Crayola, one of the Crayola Experience has had to close a couple of their locations recently. Um and it does lead me to begin to wonder like how important or effective is heavy IP for a younger audience? Um how you know how how much do they really care about a fact that it's Crayola or Nickelodeon or plan or play school when they're going and actually doing it? Do they care about doing the art or do they care whether it's an actual play school thing that they're doing, like a little spiral gyra thing or whatever in the art? Like I don't know that they care. Um and so this could be one of those where they just overpaid for the IP uh and and then also maybe didn't have the right types of attractions, leveraging that IP to get the kids excited.

SPEAKER_00: 47:46

Exactly. Uh it is uh you can't make a so-so idea better by slapping on an expensive IP, and we are seeing the reality of that uh a number of times. You've listed the number of operations. I would argue that those failed operations had a great IP, but their execution was appalling, and in many cases, the execution was from a group of executives that had zero knowledge of the entertainment market, or their knowledge base of the entertainment was in a different direction. And here we have uh a corporation that is well versed in leisure resorts theme park, maybe pivoting into an area where uh it was just out of their league, and putting a uh bandage onto a broken leg ain't gonna make it get any better. And uh hiding this information, making sure that it was really difficult to find out that these facilities had actually uh closed, uh, tells us a lot about management's uh collie wobbles, shall we say, about admitting failure. Anyway, that's the rundown of uh the opens and shuts. Uh and uh we look forward to entering a brand new horizon uh towards uh the new openings. But at the moment we've got quite a lot of uh coverage bouncing out from the Sting Report. We have our extensive five-part reporting on IALPA. Uh we're deep into that now, and uh we also will have uh some more reporting from some of the other events and other things that have been taking place uh in the sector.

SPEAKER_01: 49:29

Perfect. All right. Well, another uh another good open and shut, and uh we'll have probably an extra long one next time since we're gonna be taking a week off for the holidays. So looking forward to uh looking forward to that one.

SPEAKER_00: 49:42

Looking forward to it. Have a good one.

SPEAKER_01: 49:52

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SPEAKER_05: 50:28

Hello and welcome to Promo Pro Tips with Chuck DeMonte. That is me. And as we are coming into the new year in 2026, I want to give you a couple ways that you could set yourself up for success in 2026. Now, a lot of people are tight, right? There's bigger economic things going on. People are a little bit tight with discretionary uh, you know, spending. So, how do we make sure we could put ourselves in the best position to move the needle in 2026? Okay, so I want to give you a couple step process to help you do that, right? First things first is you need to analyze your business, right? What worked this year? What didn't work? Are you doing really well on birthdays, but your walk-ins are bad? You know, maybe your memberships were lower, right? What numbers were were uh stood out to you that has room for improvement, right? Compared to previous years, right? What do your trends look like? So you really need to understand your numbers, okay? What's your even down to your labor rates and operations? I know this is a marketing uh segment here, but you know, you really need to understand that your numbers in your business. And and I'll look at it from the angle of marketing, but there's more to a successful business than just marketing, right? We all know that. So analyzing your business from what went well, what didn't, okay? Look at reviews, okay. Hopefully you're capturing surveys, looking at Google reviews. What are people saying? Is the place clean? Like, what do you have to do? Okay, that could also influence your marketing, right? So maybe you need a facelift, maybe you need, you know, certain paint on some areas, be better at cleaning. Your birthday parties could use a revamp of what you, you know, do and have, right? Again, that'll go into the marketing and the market communication. So analyze what worked and what didn't work, okay? That's where starters. Next, create a plan to address those issues. Birthday party book is a little okay. What are you doing? What are your marketing? Did you do Google Ads? Are you doing marketing for your birthdays? Did you stop doing emails, right? Are you retargeting people who have had uh a birthday party there before, right? Like, what is the plan that you're doing? And if you need to hire a professional, go ahead and do that, right? Or if you need to work an extra longer hours, you need to go ahead and do that, or or be emailing people one by one, right? What does that look like? You need more field trips, more private events? Get on the phone, call people, right? Hire somebody to do it, right? Bottom line is you need to have a plan to uh what you focused on can improve, right? So, what are the areas you need to focus on? Come up with a plan. And any action is better than no action. I promise you that. So even if you try something at first and it didn't work, like continue to try it, continue to do it, continue to make those calls, continue to make those posts. It will make a difference. Don't just do it one say, oh, that didn't work, right? You need to do certain actions, right? Top line actions to drive to drive results, right? Surface sort of actions, get surface results, right? So really dive into stuff. But again, if you need to hire a professional, train your team better, whatever that looks like, right? Now's the time to do the work. You're gonna separate the good operators from the bad operators when money is tighter, right? When everybody in their mom was making money, it was easy to not have to do all the nitty-gritty details of things, okay? Now's the time to dig in. What didn't work, what did, and create a plan to improve it. Now that's digital marketing, in my opinion, and local, right? What are you doing locally? Are you handing out, you know, maybe sending out flyers, right? Contacting the local PTAs and PTOs and schools, and you know, what does that look like from a local effort? Attending events, right? Let's make a list of four events we are gonna attend, the festivals, community things that where your brand is gonna have a presence at, okay? And what does it look like? Okay. Plan a partner with local schools. How can you give them, you know, give away stuff to them and partner with them and just think of different stuff like that? Maybe again, creating a plan is giving you, like I said, revamping your birthday parties, right? Giving your location a fresh coat of paint, refreshing it. What does that look like? Okay. And now here's the thing: you can create a plan you need to execute, okay? This is up to you, right? Create a plan. Every Monday, I'm doing this. Every Tuesday, my team is meeting and we're reviewing this plan to make sure we're checking off that things were done for it. Okay. You need to execute. And again, if you need to hire a professional, especially if we're doing marketing for areas that you don't need, hire for um, you know, your weak areas, right? Hire hire in the areas you don't know, right? At the end of the day, you're gonna spend that money and time in some way or shape or form or fashion, right? Might as well pay somebody to do the areas you don't know too. And I understand now it comes down to budget, but you know, figure out what areas you can do and what areas you you have a budget to hire other, you know, to help you do certain things, okay? But again, you have to execute, okay? Uh so that's it, right? Three steps. Analyze your business, what worked, what didn't. Create a plan to improve those areas and then execute, continually execute. If you do action, you will get results. Don't just do it one time and say it's fail, and that's it, right? Surface level uh actions get surface level results, right? So go out there and go crush it in 2026. If you run a location-based entertainment brand and want to attract more visitors, check out Radius. They use real-time location data and customized marketing strategies to help brands like yours stand out. Radius can boost your foot traffic and build a loyal customer base. Plus, they're offering a complimentary local market analysis to show you exactly how they can help you grow. Curious? Visit radius.co and ask about your free market analysis. That's R-A-Y-D-I-U-S dot C O.

SPEAKER_01: 55:49

All right. Well, we have sound off number 103 with Kevin Williams coming out on December 23rd. So just in a couple of days. And yes, it is right before Christmas. You get some good sound off uh you know stuff. Like, you know, anyway, it's a great sound off. It's uh we we cover a lot of trends. And specifically, what I'm excited about this one is uh Kevin goes through the 12 trends that we've seen over 2025 leading into 2026. We kind of do that at the end of the sound off, and um, we have some good discussion around each of those trends. Uh, they're very point-on from my perspective as well. And so we have some good discussion along the way. So you can get that in just a couple of days on the 23rd at a sound-off number 103 with Kevin Williams. And then we're gonna be taking a break for the holidays, and we're gonna be back in the new year on January 4th for our now ongoing running predictions episode. So this would become an annual tradition where we go back and I look at the different predictions that I made for uh last year at the beginning of the year and how many I got right and wrong, called you know balls and strikes, and then uh and then we go and uh give new predictions. So I know I'll be having mine. We'll see if we can get a couple of other people on there as well to deliver their predictions for 2026, and we'll have a great predictions episode. That is uh wrap for this week's LBX show. So this is Brandon Wiley signing off. Stay tuned and keep kicking out.