It Pays to Get Locked Up! Escape Rooms: The Marketers’ New Playground
One might think that being locked up is just a thing of nightmares, well now it’s the newest cool. Sweeping en-vogue industry events like the South By Southwest (SXSW) Conference, the Escape Room may be the attraction getting everyone talking. And it’s not only the participants, since this newfangled love of immersive experience is opening a door to innovative marketing opportunities, too.
What exactly can be an Escape Room? You might ask. Picture this – you are in a closed room. You have a few random clues and you have no idea ways to get out. You may think that is merely another plot from among the Saw film franchises nonetheless it is actually the makings of an Escape Room experience. This ‘craze’ involves friends all the way to 12 players – depending on where you book – https://selfievegas.com/ultimate-guide-to-entertainment-in-las-vegas/ who have to make use of physical and mental agility to unlock door after door, moving from room to room frantically figuring out cryptic clues. The catch? You have just 60 minutes to break free.
Obviously this isn’t a fresh concept but after years of virtual reality parading as the cool your government on earth of immersive experiences, escape rooms have now been confidently working through the experiential ranks to take the title of legitimately ‘wow’ ;.And in addition, sharp marketers have tracked this and are now actually finding innovative ways to maximize the experience of the experience. The ‘tie-in’ design of marketing agreement appears to be the ruling formula for this.
Famous examples currently include Disney hosting a pop-up escape experience linked with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The Escape Game in Austin Texas (America’s hottest escape experience) being bought out by FOX over time for the launch of a fresh number of Prison Break, and HBO establishing a multi-room installation themed around Game of Thrones, Veep, and Silicon Valley. Smart.
Although this form of marketing is also nothing new alone, what makes it successful is that these products marry perfectly with the knowledge, and we know that people are, significantly more than ever, compelled to invest their money on ‘doing’ rather than through traditional advertising methods, i.e. simply ‘watching’ ;.
This trend can be linked back again to the planet of video gaming and eSports. Marketers would launch games then host ‘real world’ experiences: events, competitions and interactions that complimented the gameplay and caused it to be tangible. This is where clever partnering and collaboration comes in. The perfect partnership here will be founded on a mutually beneficial commercial relationship where in fact the escape room company and the IP (or copyright) owners interact to garner maximum exposure and expand the client base, prompting a ‘win: win’ arrangement.
Escape 60 in Brazil pulled off a blinding example of the in 2015 if they linked up with Ubisoft, the creators of fantasy behemoth Assassin’s Creed, to obtain prior to the game and create an escape room orchestrated around the release of Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. America’s Escape Game, Marriott Vacations Worldwide and Vistana Signature Experiences also collaborated to create the worlds of hospitality and entertainment together, which will be now a growing trend. Alex Reece, CEO of America’s Escape Game, commented in a interview at the time (October 2016), “We view a very bright future of incorporating escape rooms powered by America’s Escape Game in multiple Vistana locations in the coming months and years. There is undoubtedly that powerful alliance brings the exploding escape room experience to numerous enthusiasts through the entire world.”