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The LBX Collective aims to inform and educate, create opportunities to connect with industry peers, and to spur collaboration, discourse, and cross-pollination of ideas in the location-based entertainment and experience industry.
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LBX Collective
The LBX Show #59 - Lego Smart Bricks, Fever dreams big, and more!
Sponsored by Intercard!
Sponsored by Alan-1!
On this week's show, we trace how Lego’s Smart Play raised the bar for interactivity at home, why Sega’s Neo Shuffle signals their foray into social gaming, and how Fever is evolving from pop-ups to a discovery-and-venue platform. Openings, closures, and rebrands reveal what’s working and what isn’t in 2026.
• IAAPA FEC Summit news and Foundation FEC scholarship wacky golf
• Neo Shuffle’s entry into gamified shuffleboard
• Lego Smart Play’s screen-free interactivity and Sphere activation
• Consumer expectations driving LBE upgrades
• Fever’s marketplace scale and Fever Hub concept
• Openings: Dave & Buster’s SF, Gravity X, Mirra VR
• Sandbox VR growth and clustering strategy
• Game show format missing food and drink upsell
• Retro arcades needing unique selling points
• Closures and rebrands: War of the Worlds refresh, Cartoon Network Hotel sale
• Market restructuring, M&A, and asset sales
• Arcade Corner: David Rosen tribute and EAG lineup
• Promo Pro Tips: in-store signage, first-party data, SMS
Sound Off with Kevin Williams #105 drops Tuesday, January 13.
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Tuning you in now to the LBX Show. With your host, Brandon Wyatt. What do you buy the LBX collective? Your community to connect, engage, and inspire.
SPEAKER_01:All right. Well, welcome everybody to the LBX Show for January 11th, 2026. And we have a great show lined up for you today. It uh we're gonna dive right into some news you should know, and I'm gonna get overly excited probably about LEGO's new smart brick system and more. And then we're gonna roll into open and shut with Kevin Williams to review all the openings and closing trends from the last week. And then Adam Pratt is gonna give his thoughts on Sega's David Rosen's passing on Arcade Corner, along with some expected releases coming up at EAG this week. And then we're gonna jump into ProB Pro Tips as Chuck Temonti discusses three underutilized marketing strategies, and then we're gonna wrap it up. But before we get started with any of that, we'll do some news you should know. All right. So in just two weeks, three weeks, two weeks, three weeks, three weeks. Yeah, three weeks. All right. I had to get that right. Uh, we have IAPA FEC Summit coming up in Glendale, basically 45 minutes that direction, that direction, something like that, uh, here in Arizona. It's$500 for members of IAPA, and it is February 1st to the 3rd in Glendale. We've got Libby Gill, the keynote speaker. Uh, she's going to, she's a leadership expert, she's an author, gonna be bringing lots of really great stuff there. Uh, she's you know, former head of communications for Universal and Sony and Turner broadcasting. And so she's really gonna have uh, you know, talk a lot about helping organizations navigate transformation and really building high-performance cultures. So I'm excited to hear her speak as well as all the other education that's gonna be happening there. Um, you know, the whole concept, the theme is play the long game, build a lasting legacy. And so I'm excited for all of that. Plus, you know, we're gonna go visit some locations. We're gonna go see Fat Cats at McCon Lake Entertainment. And you guys are all probably tired of me talking about this, but I'm excited to have everybody in my backyard. It's not gonna snow, so you don't have to worry about Snow Mageddon, like we had it uh New Orleans last year. So that's a good thing. Um, although it might be a little cold because it's the desert and sometimes things get cold here. All right, and then we have also the IAPA FEC Scholarship is uh putting on a wacky golf event that benefits the IAP Foundation for the FEC Foundation Scholarship. And it's gonna be a separate ticket, it's$100. Um, and the ticket registrations are open, and so you can add that on to your FEC Summit registration if you have not already done that. And um, that is on Sunday, the first. So that starts before the opening reception. So you definitely need to make sure you get there early. I think you have to, I think it's show up like around 11 or 12 or something like that. I'm I'm not sure. I'm going, I should probably figure that out and know before the time comes. But anyway, that is the news you should know about IAPA FEC Summit. If you are not planning to go, then you need to change your mind and you need to get there and you need to go. It's a great opportunity, not just obviously education and for going and viewing the facilities, but just to hang out with other FEC operators and people in the manufacturers and suppliers community that just have uh you know lots of great experience and connections. It's a great way to network. And so, anyway, um definitely highly recommend you doing that. Um, all right. So the next on our uh news you should know is the uh Sega Amusements and Good Times Tech are unveiling a new social gaming experience at this week's upcoming EAG show in London. Um, Adam's actually going to touch on a little bit as well in Arcade Corner today, but uh this is the new collaboration between Good Times Tech and Sega. And actually, it's also from uh hard rock uh excuse me, Hudsbit Hudson Shuffleboards as well. So it's kind of like a collaboration between all three of them. They created this new gamified shuffleboard system called Neo Shuffle, and it is uh includes a 50-inch screen, which displays the visuals and effects that keep people immersed in the gameplay. This is a really small version of the uh of what it looks like, just like standalone. There's a screen at the back of it. It's obviously a long shuffle board. There's two bar tops on both sides of the shuffleboard. It's a competitive socializing component, right? It's this is their attempt at competing with others that exist in this space already. So you have GameFloat, uh, Kim Vault, uh conductors division, game vault. So game volt is a division of conductor, and they have their superstar, supercharged shuffle, if I could say that correctly. And then you also have another company out there called Shuffly that has their own gamified version. And so now it's another entrance, so it's another take on this. It is already out there in the world, so they have six different games that you can play. So not quite as many games as are available in some of the others, like Supercharged has uh more. Um, but they're already in some TGI Fridays, they're at Playbox in the UK, uh, they're at Shuffled, and then I can't remember the other one. Uh it says there, but it's uh really small. I can't remember which one it is. Um, but anyway, they're already out there in the wild, they are being used uh at different facilities, and so uh really interesting to see Sega putting their, you know, a little one more. You know, they keep putting their feet out there into the water of competitive socializing. And so this is another foray into uh Sega Amusements International making that move. All right, so that's on the new shuffleboard entrant to the space, and obviously I'm sure we'll see this at Amusement Expo. If it's if they're exhibiting it at A EAG, then I'm sure if we go to Amusement Expo, we'll have a chance to be able to take a look at it. I know I will definitely be keeping an eye on it. Uh conductor always has a pretty big, um, pretty big presence there at Amusement Expo. So I imagine Sega Amusements will uh have a competitive socializing element to their booth as well. Um, all right. So Lego Group, if you haven't heard, this is like all the fucking news out there right now at CES. They like basically blew up CES. Uh Lego Group unveiled their new innovative smart play technology, which brings what they say brings its building sets to life with sound, light, and interactivity and more. So Lego is uh Lego Smart Play is an interactive platform comprising the Lego Smart Brick, Lego Smart Tags, and Lego Smart Mini Figures. And they did showcase it at the CES show this year, and uh it has 20 uh like inside the platform has like 20 patented world firsts with their technology. So like they have different 20 different patents all baked into this tiny little uh four or excuse me, eight uh eight cap uh brick. So pretty impressive. The the you know key element is obviously the Lego Smart Brick, and it's powered by a custom chip which is smaller than the standard Lego stud, which is pretty fucking impressive. Uh this there they're there, I have a bunch of different technologies packed in. So they have sensors, accelerometers, a miniature speaker is in there driven by an onboard synthesizer, and then has really easy wireless charging as well. And then the Lego Smart tags and Lego Smart minifigures can be paired with the smart bricks to power the system, uh, with builders' creations responding to actions with sound, light, and behaviors. Um, I am just so incredibly fucking excited for this. Uh, for those of you who don't know, I am a big Lego enthusiast. I have, well, you cannot see it right now, uh, while I'm got this little showcase thing, but I've got like Lego Pac-Man here. I have uh a bunch of Lego sets at home. Um, I build like that's I have like all like Christmas Lego houses and and holiday houses and everything else. Like I've been a Lego enthusiast and pretty serious uh person about Legos like my entire life since I was a little kid. I played with duplos and I played with like the basic Legos and then I you know anyway, so I've been doing it, you know. I took like a little bit of a 10-year hiatus, but then obviously played Legos with my kids as they were growing up. And so anyway, I'm really excited about this new, this, this next step in technology. And I think what's really cool about this is um they've done it so that you can do this all without a screen. So you actually don't need like you know, a lot of like connected connected play and stuff, like you have to use the phone and your mobile app or whatever to like connect everything. It's all meant to just like work seamlessly without having to pull up a screen and everything else. And so that's also what I love is like it's now just like enhancing your ability to tell stories and to create experiences with their different sets. And so there is a little Instagram video that I want to go ahead and play, and uh we'll do that right now.
SPEAKER_04:What if you could bring your imagination to life for real? Play with your creations and let them play back with you. Well, that's exactly what we've built. Wait, really? Introducing the Lego Smart Play System. Oh boy, a new platform made of endlessly interactive smart bricks, smart tags, seriously? No way! Smart minifigures. Hold on, so you can interact with the little guys now? All connected to bring play to life like never before. Whoa, was that a burp? You think it's a burp? And react to how you move with dynamic sounds and lights. Holy shit, lights, one brick to turn your Lego builds into an opportunity to create, explore, and unlock your imagination. Ducks, this is gonna be huge. Huge. Come play in the next dimension with the Lego Smart Play System.
SPEAKER_02:Sorry about that, guys.
SPEAKER_01:It was all right. So that is that is uh that is the Lego, um, you know, the the Lego smart play technology, and uh yeah, again, I'm just super excited for this. And why am I bringing that soon as you should know? Well, first of all, you'll see in a second here why it also is uh is relevant to our industry to some extent. But um what this is, is this is like clearly just a sign, right? So like consumers are expecting more and more interactivity and more engagement, more immersion with their out-of-home experiences, their location-based entertainment, their location-based experiences. Like we know this. Like I did a talk on it at IAPA like a year, like two years ago, about the future of location-based entertainment being gamified, personalized, and and uh interactive. And so um, this is this is like the like this is we're seeing this now happening in consumer products. And this is a massive step to where you know, if if Lego does it, then there's going to be fast follows for others, although the level of technology and the patent protection and everything else they've done is pretty incredible. Um, this like literally took them like hundreds of employees over multiple years to do this. And the point is, consumers, even when they're buying their toys now, are expecting more interactivity, the ability to personalize their experience. Uh, and and so if they're expecting that at home, what are they going to expect from their entertainment experiences when they go out of home? More interactivity, more gamification, more personalization, uh, more immersion. And so just be aware that if you're doing something that is the same thing that you've been doing for the last 10 years or the last 20 years, and your experience in your in your venue has not changed, you're going to be fucking left behind. There's no question about it. It may not happen this year, it may not happen three years from now, but in five years from now, if you haven't changed or iterated and provided more gamification, more personalization, more interactivity and immersion in your facility, in your experiences, then there's going to be a reckoning. And so, anyway, um, I'm both excited, but also like using this as like a cautionary tale. Okay, but why also are we talking about this? So, one of the cool things here that they did is that they also launched um uh oh, by the way, like where are they actually making this available? So it is uh coming with starting out with like three Star Wars building sets initially. Uh, and this is relevant here in just a minute. So I'll pull this up here. Uh, three Star Wars building sets. And um unfortunately, they're only available in select markets online starting March 1st, the first one of those being in Australia. So I can pretty much guarantee you there's gonna be a lot of really uh enterprising people down in Australia who are gonna be buying all these sets and then putting them online to buy on eBay and everything else. And so I'm sure we'll be able to get our hands on some here in the States before they're actually supposed to be here. It probably comes down to like FCC certification and stuff like on some of the technologies, maybe. I don't know why. Uh, or they just picked Australia because there's like seven people down there. Um, okay. Anyway, they launched and uh so then when they launched, they did a big activation with the sphere in Las Vegas, and this is pretty freaking cool as well. I'm not gonna show a video of their whole experience, but basically they had a um they partnered with Sphere Studios and a Lego group, and then they also worked with Disney Consumer Products and Lucasfilm to create this activation. Uh, you know, the the obviously the sphere, if you're not familiar, it's like the 580,000 square foot exosphere they had transformed into a Lego brick version of the Death Star. And then they built a full-scale Lego X-Wing next to the sphere that allowed visitors to experience the iconic trench run from Star Wars New Hope and take down the Death Star. So, like basically they climb into this big Lego uh X-Wing. Um technically the S foil should have been expanded, but that's all right, whatever. Um, so they climb in this Lego X Wing and then they they like literally like do this little thing, like they're flying down the trench, and like things are actually flying around on the sphere, and then as they're like pulling the trigger, stuff is like shooting out on the sphere as well. So it's fully interactive in real time. So like an amazing inter um uh activation that they did there. And uh anyway, just pretty freaking cool. So very excited about Lego and what they've done, and looking forward to getting my hands on their smart play system as soon as possible. All right, so finally, uh for this news you should know, we're going to talk, you know, we we talk a lot about, or I do, and then it comes up on like open and shuts, and we talked about the sound off, and you know, I'll mention it news you should know sometimes, like a lot of fever pop-ups and experiences quite a bit, right? But uh they they especially even more recently, they've been taking over like not just other brands and IP and pop-ups that they're experimenting with, but they've actually been working with like groups that have that had long-term, like long-time operational chops like Merlin. They've been taking on some of Merlin's projects as well. And um, but I had absolutely no fucking clue whatsoever what fever, the moves that fever has been making. And I I guess I must have just had my head in the ground. Like, I you know, I figured like whenever I went to a fever experience, I just like went to fever's website to that exact that specific experiences like landing page, bought my ticket, and then like went. I didn't really spend any time on fever's website. Well, that was probably a mistake because I probably was like missing what they were doing here. Like they've been making big moves along the way. And uh so I'll pull up their site because like again, it's just like kind of crazy what they've been doing here. And their their site is basically this is Orlando, and um the reason I even landed on Fever's site the first place is uh you know, we're gonna talk about Adam and I will touch on, or excuse me, Adam, Kevin and I will touch on their new location called Fever Hub uh that they're doing in Orlando um on open and shut, but then also we'll cover it in a little bit more deeply on sound off in two days on Tuesday, the 13th. Uh, but uh uh when I was on their site, I was like checking out their fever hub, and I'm like, wait, they're selling tickets for Acrylo experience and for Legoland, and they're selling tickets for everything that are not fever-related experiences. So, like, clearly now they're trying to become the global ticketing platform for experiences. They now have over 150,000 experiences on their site across 200 major cities, and they have new openings launching every week. Again, some of those things are things that they're running and managing themselves, things that they're creating, uh, concepts that they're creating internally. They now have this new location called Fever Hub. Again, we'll talk about that a little bit. Um, but on their site, like you can go and find experiences in different cities, candlelight experiences, concerts, restaurants, cinema, like all these different things. And I had no fucking clue that they were doing all this. And I'm sorry if this was like, you know, if you are all like, of course, we know fever's been doing this. Um, well, I had my head in the ground, uh, apparently, and I am going to be paying very close attention to what fever is doing from now on. I have been watching more and more as they've been getting more involved in all these different experiences, did not realize that they were trying to be this like all in one site for finding experiences out there. So, anyway, that is some news you should know. Coming up after the break, we'll dive right into open and shut. Intercard is the only cashless system designed, developed, and manufactured all under one roof. They introduced cashless technology to the amusement industry and have been leading the way for over 30 years. Cashless systems from InnerCard increase customer spending, get satisfaction, and boost revenues by up to 30%. Intercard is so proud to be serving the amusement industry. 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SPEAKER_07:Hey, uh hello to the uh latest open and shot. Catch me on the road. How are you, Brandon?
SPEAKER_01:Also on the road, yeah. I'm here at the IntelliPlay offices in Columbus, Ohio. So it is it is nice and brittle outside.
SPEAKER_07:It is nice and brutal outside here as well. All right. Should we dive into it? Let's dive straight in. So as always, pause at the uh correct moment. Uh, but as you can see, we uh got to what I would like to call the reasonable numbers of openings uh rather than the fur that we've had uh over the previous months. Um and again, these are a mixture of new as well as established facilities reopening, but it's what follows next that I think we'll all find interesting. So Dave and Busters, uh, our friends have uh created a San Francisco or their latest San Francisco site. We've got to be got to be uh careful here. Again, the information is sparse about how much of this is the new thinking behind the operation, or if this is just a continuation of the monster that uh has to keep on feeding the machine. Uh from the video of the breakdown walkaround by uh it looked like one of the builders who had actually taken the video. They didn't have social bay here, it it looked like. And I don't know if that was because of the way the camera was filmed or whatever, but it has its sports bar, it has its uh midway gaming facility and its uh food layout, uh bar food layout, but I didn't see uh social gaming, so you know, take that how you will.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, if they caught it early enough and it's built out and the new CEOs focus on getting back to the basics, then I would imagine they would have made some changes to even if like structurally, architecturally, the social bays are still sort of there. I could imagine they like turned them into like little sports viewing booths or something like that instead of the actual social bays. It really depends if they caught it early enough.
SPEAKER_07:It it's easy to take that uh space where the uh the darts and the shuffleboard is and turn those into a table area uh for the restaurant. But again, it I would like to have boots on the ground there to actually see what. That core layout is like. Next one on the list is uh Gravity X VR. I'm not sure how long they'll be keeping the VR at the end of that. Uh, this is a fallout from uh Ialpa. Uh, the company was one of those that purchased uh cubics uh off the show floor, uh, and that has been installed into their facility that's uh just opened up in Georgia. So it's nice uh nice to see the reaction from the show floor actually being turned on uh uh at facilities.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, good for good for cubics. Um, you know, the the very well, it's always good when you can just clear stock right off the floor and you don't have to worry about shipping it back. Um that's that's like the ideal world. But um, yeah, we'll see. I mean, it's interesting that they don't have VR in their name on their logo, but yet like they must maybe have it in their corporate name still or something like that. So anyway, yeah, they're clearly pivoting away from the VR uh exclusivity.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, I I think the VR was only in the uh the early announcement press releases stuff. And I look at the logo and all of that, and there's no VR there. And again, Innerwise has uh managed to get a number of Qubixes out into the market off the show floor from my out, but they had a very successful show, so they must be in the high 80s now of installation. Moving on, and a VR experience that we are familiar with as a standalone facility, now we're seeing uh applied as a uh what I would call a VR uh attraction that can go into facilities. We were we were surprised to find out that three facilities had taken on board the Myra system uh and installed it. And interestingly enough, one of those facilities was the Jackie Chan Cinema chain. Uh, they have taken on two. And then we also have uh our friends in China with the Party Day franchise taking on one uh installation. I would assume that these guys are jumping on board partly because of the Chinese roots of the platform uh as well as its popularity uh as a concept. I haven't seen any ROI based on the facility that they've uh opened in the US, but we have now four applications of this platform now internationally out in the market.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, it it clearly is resonating somewhere in the fact that they are continue to expand. I still you know, I still just struggle with the uh really active gameplay with VR headsets. Um, you know, in its throughput, it's uh it's gonna be sweaty, it's not as I mean, it is immersive, but it's not as uh social when you throw on the headsets. And so anyway, we'll see how this continues to expand. I mean, yes, it's doing all right.
SPEAKER_07:They uh they've managed to leverage uh four facilities. Let's see how far they go from this point on. Oh usual gender moment uh uh continues. Uh now with a Vietnam uh spin. Uh, the uh operation opened its first uh facility in Ho Shin Min City. Um it follows the usual format, though they lean heavily on the Gaigo Japan kind of branding for the site, so it's it's that kind of positioning, but it is uh your gasheep pot, your cranes, uh, and limited amusement and kiddie ride uh approach. Vietnam is a market to watch from the uh social entertainment as well as the uh location-based entertainment market, and obviously where uh Gender goes, the market follows. Indeed. Sandbox VR, uh, another Asian uh operation that is uh putting its foot down. We're up to 73 facilities. Uh, our friends at uh LOL Entertainment opened their latest franchise uh based on this in Dallas. Um from what I've seen of the opening and facility, it is uh the cookie cutter approach.
SPEAKER_01:Um so I'm confused here that there's city center in Houston. Um is there also a city center in Dallas? And they opened two locations.
SPEAKER_07:I I have down uh Houston, Dallas.
SPEAKER_01:Um, interesting. Because Houston and Dallas are separate in Texas, and so I'm curious um where I think it could be a typo and it could be Houston, Texas, maybe. Uh that might be that might be the only reason I'm curious because I was I was looking at the city center in Houston here just to see what other attractions are there, right? Because we've and LOL tends to what what they prefer to do is they like to cluster some of their different concepts together. And so I was curious to see if they already had a few of their other concepts or sandboxes, maybe their first foray into the city center in Houston, and then they're gonna bring in a few more of their concepts because that's you know, I think they recognize to some extent that they can play off of each other, you know, with with cross-promotional marketing. Um, when they have multiple locations uh you know of different concepts together, you know, I I think it'd be better if they had a multi-location or a multi-attraction concept instead of individual concepts, but they they have found the model that works well for them.
SPEAKER_07:I wouldn't be surprised if there was a time mission in the uh wings for that area. Yeah, yeah. Uh again, talking about time mission and uh escape gaming and uh mission room kinds of uh applications, we have uh the for me an escape game uh operation and the great big game show operation combined together. So, as you were saying about LOL liking to cluster two uh similar entertainments so that an audience has a pick and mix approach here. Uh I've been following the uh the Great Big Game Show, but I hadn't been following their other brand, uh, this particular brand here. New York opening, a very crowded market to fall into. But uh from uh Great Big Game Show's point of view, they have about 17 facilities dotted around North America, uh, offering the kind of quiz and social gaming uh experience. Sorry, social game experience uh that you've uh come to find for this uh kind of application. But with no hospitality, which I think is a mix, a miss on their point.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you know, what's interesting is I mean, first of all, escape escape game uh doesn't uh open, generally doesn't have hospitality there. Um, but the the great big game show, and and actually just a lot of the other variants of Great Big Game Show. So there are they do have competitors. I've always found it really interesting that they don't have F and B or even just beverages, right? They they have like there's we have one in our area, and I've I've been to it a number of times. It's a blast. I can have a lot of fun. These are great like group experiences. Um, both it could be for team building, it could be for just family and friends. Like it's it's they're great experiences. Um they're heavily dependent on the host, right? Who your MC is, um, your game host is like very dependent on having a great experience there. Um, but I'm I was always surprised, like, all they had was like a little cooler with some sodas. And like, I don't like why don't you take a bigger opportunity to afterwards when people want to talk, right? They're gonna leave and they're gonna go somewhere else. You have so much opportunity to increase your per cap, and it just doesn't happen consistently. We see it with these smaller format operators, and I think the great big game show is missing a great big opportunity to increase their per cap by having F and B.
SPEAKER_07:Like with an escape room, you're dependent on your game master, uh, very much so in driving the experience. And like with the uh escape room business, they always drop the ball when it comes to post-show experience. They they because they're so focused on the uh entertainment, uh uh gaming, escape uh puzzle solving element that they forget that it is a social engagement and that they should have a post-show, even an opportunity to buy pictures of uh the uh the experience. Most of the time I've gone to these, they've been at press events and they've been catered. So it kind of tells you that they know that they have to supply F and B for uh a media or a launch event, but they don't understand that they have to supply that for their customers. But we can we could have a long discussion about uh uh that aspect of the pre-show and the post-show that is being left on the table by operators. Draft Cade, uh the retro arcade uh business continues uh apace. Uh, this particular retro arcade business has about five facilities out there. Virginia's about to get one going into a retail unit in a tired mall location. If the operators will forgive me for saying that. 90 machines, draft beer on tap, bishbash wash, cookie cutter approach. I worry that these venues are not understanding also that they need to have a unique selling point to stand out in the crowd, or else they could all be washed away under the same matrix.
SPEAKER_01:Uh totally, totally agree. And uh, I mean, look, how many different retro bars are there, and then how many places can I go and get a beer, right? So, again, to your point, there needs to be something unique about their approach, and I just haven't seen it yet, even down to their price, uh, their pricing model.
SPEAKER_07:I had to do some research recently on pricing models for retro arcade, and I was very surprised about how the variance is of what they're pricing and what they're offering. But again, we can touch upon that later. Moving to the final of the openings, and for me, a little bit of a surprise. Uh, I hadn't I I keep an eye on Fever. They touch so much of uh the location-based entertainment market uh with their pop-up uh and their branded and their support of existing venues, but I wasn't aware that they created their own venue. And so we now have Fever Hub. Uh, the first one opened up in Florida, uh, Orlando, Florida, I hope, rather than Dallas, Florida. No, only joking. Uh and the issue here for me is that it feels very much as a uh what we were touching upon previously as a pick and mix, which is not just one experience, but two experiences, which kind of goes back to the I told you so moment that we had last year, of saying we can't see a standalone surviving with just one experience on its own. So uh what we have here with Fever Hub is uh a glow and go active entertainment experience. That's as far as I'm gonna go with this one. It's very physical, it's very runaround, it's very mission roomy kind of approach. And then we also have the VR experience, this one particularly running uh the Titanic VR experience, uh off the shelf from uh one of the providers. Groups of onesie, twosies, three Z fourzys, so not a large arena experience uh using the immersive technology, but just enough for them to uh crack the door open. Again, this is dropped into a uh mall location, and I think it's the beginning of uh our friends at Fever dipping their toe in the water regarding rolling out a dedicated location-based entertainment chain business.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, this is super interesting, and they call their fever hub, like the tagline is an exhibition and experience center. Uh, they say it's the ultimate physical expression of the magic that fever brings to the global entertainment market. Um, and it offers cutting-edge immersive experiences designed to leave a lasting impression and create unforgettable memories. So it will be interesting. I have other things. Okay. All right. Well, that's fair. Um, but it is interesting that they are like they've really leveraging their fever brand now as a place to go and find unique experiences. And look, why not instead of running an independent experience, bring in these others that maybe can't be draws on their own, but somebody's coming to a fever location because they know that fever delivers on really interesting experiences and they're going to be swapping them out, I'm sure, every three to six months, because that's like fever is just known for operating these pop-up locations. And so really interesting to see them dip their toe. I'm not super excited about their location. It's at the Florida mall in in Orlando, so it's this kind of outdoor mall. It's not even at the point, uh, you know, in in ID. It's not on iDrive, right? So like I'm a little bit uh skeptical about it's uh it's their first pick in their location, but it's interesting to see fever really moving in this direction.
SPEAKER_07:They've dipped a toe in the water to see what the reaction is going to be. It received minimal publicity uh to the public, uh though it is being rolled out as an experience that you can go to, but a number of people were talking about this at IALPA, because fever for the first time had a booth uh at Ayalpa, uh, and it kind of pointed towards this is the direction that they they want to be the stadium as well as the people who run the football team, if you understand that analogy. Moving on, and that crossover period has taken place, uh where I'm talking more about uh changes, closings, and re-mergings and reacquisitions than I am talking about new uh operations. We're just at that point now. So we go straight in with our friends at Roxy. Roxy Lanes in uh Liverpool in the UK uh has been running for some time. They're now going to close this facility down and relaunch it as uh their new brand, the Star Pids, which is a kind of boutique competitive socializing uh bowling environment. So they're taking the proven but older Roxy experience and they're modernizing it towards their direction. Interesting thing is here when we uh speak later on uh sound off, uh we've got some changes at uh our friends at uh the owners behind Roxy, which kind of lends uh us a better picture of how they're positioning themselves for the future market. Uh War of the Worlds run by our friends at Laird Reality. Laird Reality also had run the gunpowder plot in London, which uh closed recently or closed last year. They had also been involved with the Elvis facility, which seems to be in limbo at the moment. Um, and now, surprise, surprise, we hear that uh this uh War of the Worlds facility is going to close. I reached out to the team behind Lay and Reality, and they came back to me and said it is not a closure, it is a pause while they rebrand, redevelop the facility, and then relaunch it. And so they say by March, the new facility layout, new experience, still based on the War of the World's property, will be uh opening, and I hope to be at the press event so I can report back from there.
SPEAKER_01:I look forward to hearing uh and seeing what you bring back there because uh you know London continues to be, I feel like, the epicenter of immersive experiences and story-driven experiences. So uh really interested to see what happens with this.
SPEAKER_07:Part of the reason why I'm sitting here now. Yep. Uh the fallout from what was happening previously with Palace Entertainment. We touched upon the restructuring there. Uh, this is also part of the fallout uh regarding the Warner Brothers discovery situation. Uh anyway, uh the troubled, I'll just leave it at that, troubled Cartoon Network Hotel that opened near enough in the middle of the pandemic uh and has never really found its footing. It was a troubled design to start with, uh, and was given every problem known to man, it seems. Now uh it's been decided that uh it will be closed down and turned into a Dutch Wonderland Inn. Now I'm familiar with the Dutch Wonderland resort concept, so it will be interesting to see what a Dutch Wonderland Inn looks like. Uh, I'm getting uh uh wolf lodge vibes here, uh, but on a much smaller scale.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I mean, look, I I IP is hard enough to make work in a location-based entertainment venue. And we saw, right, with Planet Play School and and others recently closed that it's just it's a lot of, I mean, you have to really nail it in order to justify the cost of a fully branded experience. Uh, it's one thing to have a game or an attraction that's that's branded with some IP, but it's another thing to have an entire experience where everything is unique to uh that particular IP. A hotel, I just I struggle with this. This is why I think the Atari Hotel in Phoenix has struggled for so long to get its legs under it. I'd be interesting to see if that actually ever happens, as they are still raising money for that. Um, it is this uh you know, it's a lot of IP to try to infuse into a hotel experience. I mean, right, you know, the Great Wolf Lodge is really one of the only ones that has done it, and that's their own IP that they created from the ground up. And so they don't have to pay the license fees. Um I struggle with you know why this may have been deemed as potentially successful in the first place.
SPEAKER_07:Away from the money that you lose in having to uh pay for the franchise of whatever brand you're using, it also helps that you have a development team to understand what the separation is between the entertainment and the hospitality. And I'm sad to say that it was clear from what we saw of the creation of a Cartoon Network, no one had a clear idea of what the entertainment experience was, and those attractions that were placed inside uh the Cartoon Network were too little and not really uh appropriate. But again, we wish the uh Dutch Wonderland uh the best of luck based upon their experience in the market to prove that you can run a hotel uh with an entertainment component. Uh Juban in South Africa, they lost their um coastal theme park, which was very tired, outdoor park, and now we hear that they're going to uh use the wreckage of the facility. Uh, they're going to uh level it and start again with a brand new approach. Uh I I didn't do the calculation of how much uh money uh one million uh one billion rand is uh in the market. Uh uh if you've got uh the currency converted there, I don't know. From what I've seen, it's an ambitious project. They're also throwing virtual reality into it. I get the spaghetti moment feeling, really, which they've taken everything that they had at the previous site, turned it up to 10, and added something else. I wish them a lot of luck because they've got to get this open by 2027 uh to match all of the investment that they've had put into it. So let's hope that the the renderings uh uh are equal to what the reality is.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I did do the conversion quickly here, and it is 58 to 61 million US dollars. Um so it's not a it's not a small amount of money to be putting into this location for its redevelopment.
SPEAKER_07:In that locality, uh actually having to rechange the uh the landscape uh and repopulate it. I I think they won't have much change left at the end of it, but as you say, it isn't a small chunk of change. The immersive entertainment sector is beginning to start to feel the reality set in themselves. And Tokyo had the immersive Fort Tokyo experience opened up in March year before last, 2024. I raised a serious eyebrow to this. It felt like Circus Olay uh met Area 15, uh, and no one really understood what they were trying to do here. They called it immersive, but it felt more like uh secret cinema and stuff like that. It was uh interactive theater. Either way, the 12 immersive attractions failed to generate the revenue needed to keep the operation going, and the operation has closed. Uh changing of hands is another thing that we're seeing. So, along with the merger and acquisition, along with the closures, along with the restructurings, we also have uh the re-uh ownerships, as it were, and uh next gen family entertainment center. The Canadian facility has uh about 12 VR attractions, as well as the hologram-based uh holographic zoo content, which we talked about in a sound off many, many moons ago. Anyway, this facility, family-run operation, has uh the family has decided to move on uh for whatever reasons. They didn't elucidate too much on what were the key reasons, but they've moved on, and uh a new family has jumped in and taken control of this. We wish them the best of luck with the concert. Uh I touched upon the whole chaos and confusion with Brighton Peer Group as they were offloading their assets, and I think the comment we left it with was, Well, we'll wait and see if the actual crown jewels get sold. Well, yes, uh the Brighton Pier uh group has just thrown uh uh the uh crown jewels onto the uh auction block. They won't tell us publicly how much money uh they're going to be looking for, but uh uh the last uh evaluations had seen the$17 million uh pound uh operation re-evaluated as being 30 million pounds. So um I think they want to get out while the going is good, uh and uh they will with the sale of this have totally offloaded all of their hospitality and entertainment business.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, or while the going is uh not declining any worse than it currently is. Uh so uh pull up, pull up yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_07:So we uh we will be interested to see if it is revealed how much money this change is hands for. If it's anything shy of 12 million, then it is definitely a wash. I told you so. I've been telling you so from day from day one, from day one. So uh you know every person on the planet seems to have sent me an email um last week uh pointing out that Wonderverse had finally admitted that uh the going was good uh and gone. They used corporate speak, and I will just read the concluding the operation as the venue transitions to a new concept. I looked forward to seeing what that new concept will be, but I can tell you that none of the team involved with the original concept will be involved with that one.
SPEAKER_01:Oh gosh, no. There's no there's no way whatsoever. Um I will say um one of my uh medium predictions on the LBX show last week, uh, when I did my predictions, was that uh, you know, first of all, we'll see a significant growth in IP-driven experiences, um, but but primarily uh those who like own the IPs will start moving into the LBE experiences themselves. Um and I did say that Sony will take another shot, right? So I do think that uh they are going to shut down Oneiverse and they'll I mean the which they already have, um, but that they will uh announce I doubt they'll open this year, but they'll announce their next attempt at LBE. I you know doubt I would be surprised if they take this and take all the learnings that they've gained and don't take another shot.
SPEAKER_07:Well, we'll touch upon this a little bit more uh in sound off, I think. Moving on, and uh a surprise one for me uh Chuck's Arcade, the Kansas City facility. Um one of the first of the Chuck arcades that had been transferred from being a previous uh CEC entertainment operation and then was turned. Most of them were um uh the the previous arcade fun zone arcades that uh CEC had been running in hotels, and then they all became Chucks Arcades. This one facility, funny enough, had been previously a Peter Pizza, uh Peter Piper Pizza, can't see how to say that quickly, uh, operation uh and then was turned into a chuck's arcade. Only 194 days fresh, and then they closed it. Seems unusual. Uh various sources tell me that the locality or the location for this site is appalling and just couldn't survive uh uh under the current situation. They said it's a you know it's a bad location, it was a bad application. Uh if we see another Chuck's arcade go very quickly, then we know we've got a problem on our hands. Though I get the feeling that this may be a little bit of growing pains as the corporation works out what does work and what doesn't work uh regarding how they place their adult retro arcade brand into the market.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean I think this uh I have to believe this was going to be a little bit of an anomaly given the fact that they had the pizzeria addendum to this. This isn't their standard you know in a mall, Chuck's arcade, just come in play some games, etc. This is like this is like sit down and have some mediocre Peter Pepper pan, uh Peter Pepper pizza. Um, and and I just don't see adults wanting to do that. Um, and the number of games for the amount of space that was in there. I I think this was I think it was just my my we'll see, we'll wait and see, but I do think this one was more of an anomaly than a canary in the coal mine for Chuck's Arcade.
SPEAKER_07:Corporate doesn't usually allow a facility to close down this quickly unless there is uh other conditions here. They will usually stick it out for at least a year, if not longer, or uh, as we saw with Wonderverse, they'll stick it out as long as possible. Anyway, that's the rundown. Uh we have for the next sound off even more developments uh and restructurings to talk about. If you have any information, and I thank those individuals out there that have passed on some of the data that we've been running with recently. Um, the LinkedIn is uh easy to contact us, the email is easy to contact us. We've just finished the uh latest of the rundown in the Stinger report of uh our extensive IALPA coverage, and we're just getting ready for some interesting news from uh the beginning of the year.
SPEAKER_01:Excellent. Excellent. All right. Well, we'll see you on the next one, Kevin.
SPEAKER_07:Have a good one.
SPEAKER_01:Whether it's perfectly foreign training to dive your efforts or explaining, having official flight competing to questions, or defending cities with having this command reach hard. Alan One has something for every venue in arcade scores to light your guests. Each game is also an access to later use for free to clear top scores and brings guests back to your venue for more. Visit AlanJacks20.com to learn more. That's AllenJox20.com. All right, well, that was a great open and shut there. Uh, you know, using the headphones. Like the audio just isn't quite right when I'm using those headphones. Anyway, that's all right. So we've got uh arcade corner with Adam Pratt coming up next time.
SPEAKER_03:Greetings everybody, it's Adam for the Arcade Corner here at the LBX Collective. Hope you've been having a great year so far. Although, as uh some people have commented with all the uh events going on in the news, it already feels like we've uh been here for a year already, although I'm still not used to writing 2026 yet. And uh yes, that's uh bird in the background, so uh try and speak as best I can over that, uh deciding to chirp. But um, we've already had a bit of news to cover in the arcade industry, so uh let's jump into it. Uh first off, on Christmas Day uh 2025, David Rosen, who was one of the co-founders of Sega, uh passed away. Now he's not a name that's really shown up a lot in recent times just because he's been out of the industry, I think, since the 1990s. However, he was absolutely crucial to the um development, the establishment of Sega, and them uh having their rise from what was essentially like a route operator in Japan uh to becoming a multinational mega gaming corporation and brand that is easily recognizable pretty much anywhere. Now, uh this uh is essentially a history of Mr. Rosen um over at a site called The History of How We Play, a blog that covers a lot of gaming history. Um, I believe um from what the writer to this has said that um Mr. Rosen was never really keen on doing a lot of interviews. He didn't like how a lot of historians and journalists portrayed the founding of Sega. Although, in my opinion, it's like why not just set the record straight uh there. But uh, I don't know, maybe some people intentionally took what he tried to share and twisted it. I don't know. Uh unfortunately, when you have a company like Sega that is so famous and so many people have an emotional attachment to that, um, sometimes you'll get people who are uh like this could be fans as well as uh some in the media or historians, where uh they'll look at things through a tainted uh view, rose-colored glasses or something along those lines. Um, but this particular audio or this particular blog post covers uh Mr. Rosen uh through his own words. Um, because if you look through old magazines like Playmeter magazine, Cashbox magazine, replay magazine, etc., uh then that would uh have that he's was mentioned many times throughout those um, especially the early years of the industry, particularly like the golden age, as it's often called, uh the peak of the golden age, like 1981 and all that, when he was the chairman uh of Sega Enterprises and such. But yeah, if it wasn't for him, Sega would not have become the company that it did uh in particular into the 1980s when Sega really rose to prominence after they had hired a guy by the name of Yu Suzuki over in Japan, who ended up developing games like Hang On and Space Harrier and Outrun and uh all as well as coming up with the concepts for these simulator style game cabinets and such. But uh either way, rest in peace, uh Mr. Rosen. Um we all appreciate uh what you did uh for the industry there. And um I guess to that uh let's uh jump into what's some other news or happier news and uh passing away uh and still involving Sega. So this week you're we're going to have EAG London, uh the Entertainment Attractions and Gaming Expo. Uh that's always held in London about the same time in January every year. It's kind of their way of uh getting the IAPA products to show up over in Europe. Although we're with IAPA Expo Europe happening in September, there's been a lot more new products showing up there. And so, in a way, between that and between EAG, it's uh covering all the bases for any operators over there. Um but uh Sega Amusements has already announced what they are bringing, they'll be at booth A60, as it mentions, there, uh January 13th through the 15th. And so just like we saw at IAPA 2025, uh they will have the new motion version of their Daytona Championship USA game. Uh now they are also carrying Speed Rider 40X, and this this is a little confusing, it's because of territorial stuff. So Bandynamico Amusements America is carrying the Speed Rider game in North America, and then Sega has the rights to sell that, carry it in Europe, and so that's why they're going to be showing it off there. So for any uh operators or game players that uh go to EAG and are interested in that bike racing game, then they can check it out there. And I thought the hardware on this game was really fantastic, the game was fun, the graphics were really good, and so all around I could see this game doing pretty well since it hits all the right notes. Now, Sega does work as a distributor across Europe and I believe the Middle East as well, and so that's why they are also showing certain products that aren't exactly Sega branded. Uh, so is in the example here of Cyberpunk Cyberpunk in 2077 Turf Wars by LAI Games, as well as Ubisoft All-Star VR. Uh Sega is uh going to be representing those games here. I believe it was Sega that was the first to show the Ubisoft All-Star VR game at IAPA Expo Europe. Now I did not have a chance to attend, uh I've never been to Europe, so I've not had a chance to attend those shows. Um but uh just as a note, there is somebody who works with me at on the Arcade Heroes blog who will be there. Of course, Kevin Williams is based out of London too. Um, and so he'll be giving us plenty of coverage as we need uh from that. But uh there is something new that Sega has announced, and so this is uh or what you see here, uh the Neo Shuffle board, which is um I'm not seeing a whole lot of information on it there because they immediately jump into the sub soccer uh and whatnot, but uh new shuffle board using camera technology and which is connected to the screen to uh know what the points are and all that. This isn't the first time we've seen a shuffleboard like this. In fact, at Yappa, there were two other ones. Uh TouchMagic's designed one for Valley Dynamo called the Slingshot, and then um Elot slash benchmark games also have their own uh shuffleboard thing. But this one is a lot bigger than either of those, and it looks like it's aiming more at a little bit more at the bar side than say like uh benchmarks, uh particular shuffleboard thing. Um but this also appears to um I don't see it in the text anywhere. Oh yeah, they mention in the text the Apex Rebel standard will be there. Maybe it's a little bit later. Oh for some reason in this uh newsletter email, they don't really mention the NeoShuffle. But uh, or I guess we can click on it and go over there. So let's do that. Um so large 50-inch screen. Um doesn't say if this was designed by 501. Uh 501 is the company that Sega's worked a lot with on those augmented reality darts, and they were also developing an augmented reality mini golf sort of thing. Uh that I'm not sure if that is the same that was adapted into Putt Up Party. Um, okay, I see on the video here it says powered by good times tech. So I'm not sure I've never heard of them before. I'm not sure uh what sort of history they have. Uh has multiple game modes with six of them made for a social uh uh competitive competitive socializing, up to six single players, 12 pairs. And so yeah, it'd be interesting to see that. Then, as mentioned, they have the sub soccer, which we've seen before. Uh Cyberboxer, this was at IAPA. Um, I guess it was Jet Games USA also has a variation of Cyberboxer with a different look where the screen's built into the marquee as opposed to is to opposed to right there uh where you might punch. Uh, but Sega's carrying this edition across Europe. And then they also represent ICE, where they're going to have the NBA baller and neon bowling. I'm surprised they don't mention the Odin's hammer strike, which was the big debut for ICE at IAPA. Um, but uh but I know uh Bandinamco will be there, and they will also be representing the likes of, say, Raw Thrills as well as their own product. Um, but I haven't heard of anything as far as Bandinamco announcing something brand new that wasn't at IAPPA. I'm sure some people are uh wondering what's uh when they're gonna see uh Resident Evil and all that, but uh that'll still probably be later this year. But speaking of Raw Thrills, really quick, uh, one of the things that they've announced is that they've released new series cards for Marvel uh Contest of Champions, which you see on the screen here, a one-on-one fighting game that was adapted from a mobile game. This was an exclusive to um uh Dave and Busters for five years, and then it became available to the rest of the industry. Um, but when it was at Dave and Busters, I think it only had one, maybe series two. Uh I think it was just the one series. Uh but now with uh series three, they have up to 240 cards, and then they've also updated the software to where it has a uh single player mode with a story, uh just like a traditional one-on-one fighting game like Street Fighter or Tekken or Soul Calibur or any of those games would have, uh, which it didn't have previously. And so that I think would give it a little bit more replay value in addition to the cards there. So um, yeah, that um yeah, there's that. And then there's also uh new cards, they're calling it Series 5, but it's only a single card uh for Minecraft Dungeons Arcade, and it's the chicken jockey card. I don't have a photo of it right at this second to be able to share, but uh uh why the bird's freaking out. Out there. But the chicken jockey is from the Minecraft movie that did really well. And so yeah, now you get a card that you can collect with that. But that gets us up to speed on what's going on with the uh arcade industry this week, so far in 2026. Um we'll see how things go at EAG. Thanks for watching. We'll catch you at the next video.
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SPEAKER_01:All right. Well, thank you, Adam, for walking us through that and for your uh touching remarks as well on David Rosen's passing. So uh we've got uh next, we've got Chuck DiMonti with promo pro tips coming right up.
SPEAKER_06:Hello and welcome to Promo Pro Tips with Chuck DiMonti. That is me. And we are coming into 2026, and I want to discuss three underutilized marketing strategies. So we talk to and work with a lot of FECs, uh, and these three commonly come up as people aren't doing or they're not doing them well. Uh, you know, marketing is a lot of things, and you know, it's trial and error. There are obviously tried and true marketing strategies, which is a lot of things that we focus on since we only work in the FEC space. We know a lot of marketing strategies that do work. Um, but marketing is most importantly consistency, right? Uh, and we'll work with clients that either try to do these things or they start and then they stop or they're just not doing them at all, right? Um, and so you know, put all these things together, all the strategies together. The cumulative effect of them, the snowball effect of them is really important, okay? And so three of these underutilized strategies, the first one, in-store signage, okay? And now we're all guilty of this ourselves, be honest, with helping our clients achieve this. It just sometimes just seems to just be forgotten about, but it's so important. Think about all the people that walk into your, hopefully, all the people that walk into your FEC, your business, your laser tag, your trampoline park, whatever, right? How many of those people could be seeing the event you have next week or your hours or your whatever, right? Anything that's happening, you should have in-source scientists, even if you have a cafe, like what is your your your family deals, what are your meal deals, what are your offering in the cafe? Like all those things will increase your cafe sales, increase awareness for events, increase word of mouth. So when when we look at advertising, there's uh one, any customer journey for any business starts with awareness. People need to know about your business, and that goes trickles down into knows about your events, know about your hours that people need to know about these things so they could do business with you, okay? And you also, once you have sort of awareness, you want to get impressions, right? It takes people a lot of, I mean, we all have so many things going on in life, right? It takes people many times to see things for it absorbed into our brains, right? So hopefully using your your store could be just another way to get in their brain with the event information, right? So let's say they walk into your location and they see, you know, in-store signage in multiple places for an event you're having a week, two weeks, a month from now, right? Then tomorrow they get an email about that event, right? Then they they follow you on social media. Hopefully, they see a post about that event, right? What do you think is more likely for them to come to that event the more times they see it, obviously, right? So again, using that in-store signage is so important. It also helps word of mouth, right? Uh, somebody's gonna, maybe they came today and they see an event, maybe they can't come next week, but they can say, hey, you know, Susie, Tim, you know, Jeff, whatever, you know, XYZ trampoline parks having this event next week. Maybe you guys want to check it out, right? So it's just an opportunity to promote yourself, get in front of people, and it's way underutilized. Again, we're guilty of it ourselves. Um, number two, uh, something we call first party data. I've covered it uh many times on this segment, uh, and we'll continue to cover it. And for the last few years, it's been really important for many reasons. Uh, but first party data is basically somebody's contact information that opts in to being communicated to, right? Email, uh phone numbers, right? Uh, why is this so important? One, it'll strengthen so many marketing channels, right? Direct communication channels, email and SMS. You're getting their email, you're getting their SMS. You can now market to them directly, okay? You don't have to worry about sort of a third party, you know, trying to get through them via Facebook or Instagram, sort of secondhand. You have their contact information. You could speak directly to them, right? So important, okay? You could take those emails as an SMS and upload it into things like Meta, into Google Ads, create look-alike audiences, retarget those people, right? There's so much value and so much power there, right? It's super, super important. And then secondly, uh, top of mind marketing, right? There's something called top of mind marketing, right? Out of sight, out of mind, right? If you are not staying in front of, you know, I I hear people a lot of times like, oh, my, you know, I don't want to annoy people with my email. Or somebody said to me once, and it always stuck with me. Even if somebody literally, you send XYZ Trampoline Park sends you an email, you look at it in your unboxing, delete it. Guess what? My brand name was now just on the top of your head, right? Now I'm just in your head. It's just another touch point. That's top of mind. If they delete it, who cares? Send it to them anyways, right? Now you want to do cleaning, click list cleaning and stuff, and all that's you know, that's important. That goes into email marketing, so your deliverability is good, but collecting first-party data is so important, okay? Uh, and the third and final one is SMS marketing, text message marketing. Uh, very few people use this. It can get expensive, right? Uh, but uh a small SMS list could be super powerful. There's 90, 95% open rates. When's the last time you got a text message and you didn't open it, right? So the open rate is extremely high compared to 20, 30% on an email list, right? You're getting a 90, 95%. So you need a fraction of the list size of SMS that you do on email. And again, it's another touch point. Hopefully they see the on email. Hopefully they get an SMS from you, right? More likely your brand, your name, your event, whatever will be on top of their mind. Okay. Super, super important. So start building an SMS list. There's a ton of tools, right? So that that first party data can help you achieve the SMS marketing, right? Uh, there's a ton of tools to do this, uh, a ton of tools to send out SMS. Uh, we like Brevo, that's a good one. It's it's it's pretty um uh affordable in terms of how many, you know, the cost per SMS message. Easy to use. A lot of this, you know, the SMS systems are easy to use. It's like sending a text message from your phone, right? So it's super easy. But uh, those are the three things uh that are highly under under uh utilized uh and quite often overlooked as marketing strategies, but you really should be focusing on them in-store signage, first party data, SMS, aka text message marketing. So go out, start working on those strategies and watch people start walking into your doors, doors.
SPEAKER_01:All right, well, so we've got sound off number 105 with Kevin Williams coming out this Tuesday, January 13th. 105 episodes, 105. That's crazy with Kevin Williams. And then next week, actually on the LBX show, we're gonna be joined once again by our friend Clint Novak for a special guest Gab to chat about his new crane venture that he has just launched. And uh, you know what? That's a wrap for this week's LBX show. This is Brandon Wiley signing off. Stay tuned and keeping the
