The LBX Show #65 - Topgolf’s New CEO, Odyssey Manor, Arcade Updates, & more!

Sponsored by Intercard!
Sponsored by Alan-1!

On this week's show we discuss Amusement Expo momentum, immersive F&B bets in Vegas, a major leadership move at Topgolf, and a slate of arcades, kart tracks, and VR arenas opening, evolving, or closing. Adam Pratt shares new games that matter for barcades and FECs, and Chuck DeMonte lays out a practical marketing funnel to turn awareness into foot traffic.

• Amusement Expo schedule and why education days matter
• Odyssey Manor’s immersive cocktail design and repeat-visit hooks
• Dave McKillips to Topgolf and what how a multi-attraction strategy could fix
• Dartsee’s skills-first darts mode for progression and retention
• VR franchise growth vs footprint, content cadence and claims
• Pizza-arcade hybrids competing on value and redemption
• Active-play FECs challenging classic all-in-one models
• Andretti and K1 Speed’s karting-led event strategies
• Japanese-style arcade fit for Torrance demographics
• Perfect Pour Pabst Edition for bar venues
• Stern’s Pokémon pinball as a cross-generation magnet
• Simple marketing funnel: awareness to loyalty with clear metrics

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Transcript

Welcome & Run Of Show

SPEAKER_05 0:01

Trimming you in now to the LBX show with your host Brendan Wyatt. What do you buy the LBX collective? Your community to connect, engage, and inspire.

Amusement Expo Preview

Area15’s Odyssey Manor Unpacked

Dave McKillips Moves To Topgolf

Dartsy’s Skills-First Darts Game

Sponsor: Intercard Message

SPEAKER_04 0:22

All right. Well, welcome everybody to the LBX Show for February 22nd, 2026. I am your host, Brandon Wiley, and we have a great show lined up for you today. We're getting back to everybody's back. Everybody's here. We're going to have a great show. So first we're going to dive right into a relatively brief news you should know. I got a couple of things to cover, and then we'll roll right into a robust open and shut with Kevin Williams, there to review all the opening and closing trends from last week. The next Adam Pratt is back with Arcade Corner, and he's going to share some exciting amusement in pinball news. And then finally, we're going to round out the show with uh promo pro tips. It's Chuck DeMonte, he's back as well, presents a 30,000-foot view of marketing and how it applies to entertainment venues. All right. With that being said, let's get ready for some news you should know. All right. We talked about this last week. And uh, if you're in the entertainment industry, you probably know about Amusement Expo, but I got to talk about it here. Amusement Expo is the next big expo that's coming up. It's one of the big three. Let's talk about Amusement Expo, Bowl Expo, and then IAPA Expo. Obviously, there are others like the roller skating convention and the IATP for the trampoline park and adventure park world. And we got a bunch of other little shows here and there. The FEC Summit for MyAPA just happened. But anyway, Amusement Expo is uh is the next one coming up. And their theme, every time sorry, their theme is tomorrow's industry, today's platform, and it is March 16th to 19th, uh, 2026. So the first two days, 16th and 17th, are education. Uh, our friend Kevin Williams will be doing one of the keynote talks on the first day around 10 a.m. on March 16th. And then uh the next two days, 18th to 19th, those are the trade show days. And so that's a time to go and browse around, see all the new stuff that you got coming out that that's come down the industry. And some of that we're going to talk about a little bit today. And then definitely in the next few weeks uh on the show, we'll be covering more and more, especially on Adam's Arcade Corner, about what we're going to expect to see at Amusement Expo. All right. That being said, while we're there at Amusement Expo, I'm planning on hitting up a number of the new attractions that have been popping up in the Las Vegas area. And one of those is like a bunch of the new things that's happening at Area 15. So their phase two development is really being fleshed out and has been fleshed out in the last year. And so one of the new things that was just announced this last week that I'm really excited to go try out Thursday evening is the Odyssey Manor. And so Odyssey Manor is basically a themed cocktail experience. So this is from the press release. This is combining immersed performance and craft mixology. And it's going to take place Odyssey Manor every evening from every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday beginning March 5th. So it's not started yet, but beginning March 5th, about the time we're there for Amusement Expo, it'll be running. And it'll go from 6:30 until 10. Again, every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So just on the weekends. And what they're expecting is that the guests are going to step beyond the velvet curtain and they say into a shadowy world where curiosity is rewarded and every choice determines how the night will unfold. And so they say it's behind and inspired by Area 15's lore. And uh, you know, it's her hidden lore. I've known a little bit about this hidden lore. There's some things here and there that are like tied to this, but they say that uh Odyssey Manor is the surreal home of fictional characters, Felix and Penelope, with guests there to celebrate Felix's birthday. So you're there to celebrate a birthday party, and it's described as no ordinary party. Visitors will be welcomed with cocktails, nibbles, and secrets in equal measure. So part of uh part of this is you know, obviously, a growing trend for FB experiences, and uh, you know, basically there's gonna be a rotating cast of characters, unexpected encounters. So one of the things they say is that guests are never really gonna know who they'll meet or what they'll uncover or where the night will lead. So the whole idea is to create a unique experience every single time you go back. So to try to draw you back in. You're not gonna meet the same characters, you're not gonna have the same experience. And they suggest that Odyssey Manner guests arrive in elevated cocktail attire with a theatrical flair. So I don't know if some of the pictures that are here are the actors or if these are some of the guests, some of the attendants. And so if it is, it could be really interesting. And I'm definitely not gonna come rolling in necessarily in a halter top. Um, but uh, you know, you never know. The night, the night's young. Uh, and so uh they are uh, you know, the cocktails is really interestingly, it will serve as keys that unlock a different corner of the manor and reveal deeper layers of narrative and discovery. So I think that's a pretty cool concept here. Some of the drinks include Felix's nightcap, a rumchata and tiramassure liqueur beverage, and then Penelope's Love Letter, um, which is a robust and bittersweet blend with rye whiskey and Akerol right there up my alley. So that one sounds amazing. So, anyway, I think this is just it's really interesting. Um, this is uh really exciting to go and try this out. And there's a bunch of other things again at Area 15 that I plan to try out, but this one will definitely happen Thursday night. I'll probably end up having to go back to Area 15 a couple of nights. So if you're interested in attending this with me, hit me up at Amusement Expo, find me. I'll be in and around the show floor, but also at the press, uh the press area, the press booth for a lot of the time as well. So that is uh news you should know for Area 15 and Odyssey Manor. All right. If you didn't catch this news, uh, we certainly talked about his exit from Chuck E. Cheese Entertainment, CEC Entertainment, Chuck E. Cheese uh a couple of weeks ago. This is Dave McKillops, he was the CEO of Chuck E. Cheese for a number of years uh post-pandemic. So basically from 2020, all the way through his uh his announcement of his res uh of his um resignation from Chuck E. Cheese just a couple of weeks ago. And then he said he was yet to announce where he was going, but it was a big deal and is a global brand. And so he has announced David McKillops, he is going to Top Golf. He announced this just yesterday, and the official announcement went out as well from Top Golf International, and he will be effective February 23rd. So this next uh you know, tomorrow basically. Uh, and in his role, he's gonna oversee the strategic vision and growth of Top Golf. And the company currently has uh over 100 entertainment venues and also has the top tracer technology that's used in their topgolf swing suites, and so he's gonna continue to oversee that. Uh, you know, he's had uh as we talked a little bit about his pedigree, but he's got 30 years of experience in family entertainment and media and theme park industries. Obviously, um, you know, prior to Chuck E. Cheese Entertainment, he uh uh he worked at the Six Flags Entertainment and with multiple roles there, spanning operations, food and beverage, retail, games, and procurement. And then he also managed operations for theme parks in Canada and Mexico, and then led the development of new parks globally, as well as then uh founding the company's sponsorship sales and activation division and launched the Six Flags TV Network, which he also had a major hand in launching the Chuck E. Cheese entertainment TV network. So it'd be really interesting to see what he does at Top Golf. Hopefully, he brings some of that multi-attraction and family entertainment experience to Top Golf to help try to evolve their brand and try to almost really frankly at some point, you know, some level turn around the brand and turn around the sales. So we talked about, uh we've talked about multiple times on this show that topgolf sales, uh year versus same source sales have been declining over the last several years on a regular basis. So he's got his work cut out for him, but uh he's done a phenomenal job. I'm a big fan. He's done a phenomenal job of of Chuck E. Cheese Entertainment over the last five years and six years growing that. And so I'm excited to see where things go at Top Golf. All right. Last thing we're gonna talk about here on some uh news you should know is Dartsy. So they're uh they are an interactive social gaming darts platform, so an augmented darts platform. And they unveiled a new class, uh new uh game called Darts Class. And so this is obviously in addition to all of the lineup of their other games, which they have. I think they're uh 12 other games in addition to this one now, which makes it their 13th. And in uh when in Darts class, players have three darts, as you do in darts, to hit different sections of the board. And as they progress, the game gradually becomes more difficult as sections expand and shrink, becoming increasingly disjointed and requiring players to aim ever more carefully. And so this is obviously, you know, a one-player mode. You can play in two-player mode or a multiplayer mode. So you can you play this collectively together. And again, it's really just meant to improve your dart skills, like actual real darts, not like all the different augmented games that they have and that other augmented dart players have. So this is a this is one really super interesting to me. I'm a man, I love playing darts. I'm a big darts fan. I have my own darts and I go to bars and I play darts sometimes. And so this is uh this is a lot of uh this sounds this this game sounds like a lot of fun, this class. And so you have uh three difficulty levels, two different modes, and they want to give a challenge regardless of all skill levels. And so they you know really demands, you know, the difficulty levels you can see is like highlighted by the different sections. So blue sections are smaller and trickier, and green sections are the largest and easiest to hit, yellow is harder, and red is the most difficult sections, usually focusing on bullseyes or a single triple. As you can see there, like the triple 20 is the best spot they hit on the board, and uh because it's the highest in 60 points versus bullseye, which we always think is the highest, but that's only 50. So, anyway, but there's reasons to use that. I'm not gonna get into darts, we can talk about that later sometime. All right, anyway, as you um uh so actually, you know, they're they're really trying to help uh players just get better at darts as well. So, like, you know, this is similar to going to a maybe a golf simulator, and you can practice your golf swing or you can just have fun playing golf, right? Like the idea is you can come here and you can practice your darts if you want to, and then you can go and then you can turn around and have a fun time playing. What are their newest ones? They just announced this at Christmas. So this is their castle crushers game, and you basically have a 3D physics, and then you throw, as you throw darts, it turns into cannonballs that allow the players to demolish large medieval castles, basically. So uh that is uh that is their latest game that they had introduced called Castle Crushers. And so obviously you can have fun playing that, or you can do the Dartsy darts class. But I thought it was pretty cool, and I thought it was worth mentioning here because most of the augmented game uh darts games are really just focused on how having fun and trying to democratize the dart, the game of darts, which is in you know, which is important as I talk about in social gaming um in social entertainment. But this is uh darts class is a way to improve your darts playing as well, and I think it's valuable. So, anyway, that is some news you should know. Coming up right after the break, we've got open and shut with Kevin Williams. They introduced cashless technology to the amusement industry and have been leading the way for over 30 years. Cashless systems from Intercard increased customer spending, get satisfaction, and boost revenues by up to 30 percent. Intercard is so proud to be serving the amusement industry. And if you are already part of a global family of customers, they hope you will become one too.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

Hey, uh big hello to the latest open and shut. I hope I find you well, Brandon.

SPEAKER_04 11:42

Uh of course, yeah, of course. Back in my uh my comfy little studio. So ready to go.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

Oh yeah. Comfort of home. Okay, well, let's jump in. And what a surprise. As we said previously, the momentum is there, uh, the pause uh and now the continued force. A lot of the names there are uh facilities that are adding to their uh operation, but there's also a couple of um what I would say familiar trends appearing, but we'll see more of that as we go in. Jumping in, our friends uh at Sandbox. As I am compiling or completed this particular presentation, I'm working on uh next uh presentation, and I'm already deep into that. So where we're saying 75 chain facilities for sandbox, I can actually say that it's more than that uh for the next set uh open and shut. It'll be be interesting to see what number they're going to pause at before they make their next decisions.

VR Franchises: Scale And Limits

SPEAKER_04 12:45

Yeah, this I'm a little bit shocked at the size. Only three arenas uh for this one, only 3,900 square feet. Um granted it is in you know Surrey, uh British Columbia and Canada, but it this is not a recipe for a lot of repeat visitation. Um you know, but depends on, I guess, its exact location.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

It is the franchising in Canada, you know, taking a punt at uh empty retail units. That is their want. If they feel that they can populate uh those spaces with three sandbox arenas, uh with no F and B or uh hospitality component uh ever, I would say that is the ultimate one and done uh example, if I was ever going to come up with one, unless content can draw the audience back. And that that is uh an important aspect of uh digital experiences. Our friends at serial agency, the nearest competitor uh to uh sandbox, they would argue the leaders and 150 facilities out into the global market would define them as a market leader of this particular genre of approach to a VR Arena franchise model. Mexico uh is one of those Latin American markets that is being expanded into by these uh franchisees operations, and so we're we're up to the 150s. Uh I wonder how long it will take them to get to their 200 magic number.

SPEAKER_03 14:18

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean they just keep going. Good for them.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

How long this momentum can keep rolling will be the test of time and the test of experience, uh, as well as the content. So we will be talking about these companies again no matter what. Mr. Grattis, uh pizza. It is both the pizza chain as well as the pizza chain with the entertainment operation. So they've got 61 sites out there of their what I would call pizzeria environment. Not all of them have uh the play area, the entertainment area. This one does and you know underlines it quite heavily. 14,000 square with a pizza buffet and supported by a large amusement space. I think that's over a hundred machines uh from the uh snapshot that I've got. And I wouldn't be surprised if this is the type of business that eats into the Chuck E. Cheeses and the Dave and Busters uh periphery business because it's available, it's cost effective, and it's offering uh a solution that is family friendly.

SPEAKER_04 15:28

Yeah, and Mr. Gaddies has been around for a long time and have historically had actually a fairly large arcade. I mean, they some of their some of their locations will have up to 150, right? I mean, some some will be smaller with a smaller arcade, 50 machines to 75, but then some will have up to 150 machines, depending on uh their their facility. They they tend to typically have redemption as well, and not just uh pure arcade, as you can see in the picture here. Um and I'm surprising number of locations because we don't have a Mr. Gaddi's in Arizona. Um, and they have, but they have uh at the same time like over 200 locations, which is actually fairly remarkable as well.

Pizza-Arcade Hybrids Gaining Ground

SPEAKER_00 16:06

I every time I do the calculations here, uh the feedback comes back to me that they have about 215, 220 facilities, but only 60 to 61, 62 of those are fully fledged arcade. I am wondering if what my uh research is doing, and you know, I I apologize it's a light touch research for this particular subject, if it is the dedicated pizza game park kind of approach, is in that 61 to 62 numbers or a couple of machines thrown at the back of uh the uh the pizzeria after the rest. So, you know, again, yes. From a distance. Moving through, and an example of the difficulty of uh trying to do research in some of these stories, and we'll touch upon that research problem uh later. But here we go. Adam's uh Adams VR. We're in Amsterdam. I've walked past this venue a number of times. I knew that there was an entertainment facility in the basement, I wasn't sure how big it was or uh what it comprised. Well, uh I wake up, I get the press release, and it's Adam's VR is the name of this facility. It's a games and race room. Okay, it's got simulators along with VR, and it's 1,500 square meters. Big. Uh and then uh in their PR marketing, it turns around and calls itself the largest VR park in Europe. And then you suddenly you know spit the tea across the table and uh and try and jump back. From the information that I can gather, it has been open a lot longer, but they have recently pushed the uh promotion of this facility. Um at the top of the building, uh uh the Adams Um Tower, the triple uh triple X Tower, uh on the top of that tower, they've actually got a swing attraction where you sort of swing out the side of the building. So it's a very familiar uh locality on the opposite side of the train station, if you know your Amsterdam. Uh but downstairs they have a gathering of Chinese and European arena and VR amusements with some VR simulators, and they are promoting. Thank you, Adam. Uh um, thank you to uh the company that's behind Adam VR for you know shaking us up and calling themselves the largest in Europe. I'd love to get into the fist fight to work out who is at the moment, and I know that there is a facility opening in a couple of months' time, Spark X, which is going to give them a strong run for their money, not a million miles away from where they're located. But these are the vagaries of research that we have to deal with.

SPEAKER_04 19:07

Yeah, and I find it interesting because at the very beginning of this video we just played here for those of you who are listening, it said uh over 600 square meters of space, which is not that big, actually. So this is, I think, the the you know, curious thing to me. I mean, in those of you listening at 60 about 6,500 square feet, uh, if you're here in the US, and so it can't be the biggest VR park in Europe at 600 square feet.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

And and I know the reason why they popped up on the radar is that they expanded their space a little bit. Uh, you know, they've gone from the original to uh a larger coverage, but easy on the hyperbole boards, easy, easy, you know. Give us a little bit more meat on the bones if you're going to throw around a phrase like that.

Europe’s “Largest” VR Park Claim

SPEAKER_04 19:52

Yeah, I will say at the same time, it does it is look like a it looks like an interesting kind of underground vibe and feel to the facility.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

You know, when Ialpa returns to the uh to Amsterdam, hopefully we'll get a chance to to go uh go and have a look at it. Uh moving on. And you know, again, listing facilities new facilities that kind of emulate or borrow from a proven theme. I would say from what uh the research I've done about uh Epic uh entertainment, they you know they are a brand new entrance into the market. Um, you know, 58,000 square is nothing to sneeze at. A lot of the pictures that I'm looking at, we haven't got a video walk round, but a lot of the pictures I'm looking at, this feels very much like a want-to-be main event kind of approach. Uh and partly due to this central um climbing frame uh unit in the middle or overshadowing the uh the gaming amusement floor is a trait that we've seen done uh with other venues such as this. Funny enough, uh that climbing frame approach over the uh uh the gaming floor is in uh a little bit of question at the moment after an incident that's uh taken place in our industry. So again, you know, we we we need to be mindful that safety is an important part of this kind of deployment of active entertainment over an active game floor. All of that said, it's karting, it's climbing, or active entertainment. It's they're saying about 50 amusement pieces. Uh, from the rough count I did, I think they got the number wrong. I think it's a slightly more than just 50. Um, and it's you know offering the Ohio uh area or regional area uh an entertainment that is uh sorely needed. We'll be interested to see if this is part of a major rollout of more under the Epic Entertainment brand. And I would say they're gonna have problems with that name if they're going to try and roll it out uh uh internationally.

SPEAKER_04 22:01

Yeah, this is a bit of a risky one, I think, um, given the fact that Scene 75 is also in Cincinnati. And you know, Scene 75 is a former uh, I don't know about the Cincinnati location, but uh I know one of their locations is a former FEC of the year uh brass ring winner from IAPA. And uh and so given just the fact that Cincinnati isn't that big of a town, and both locations have go-karts, both locations have arcades. I'll say the one difference between Epic Entertainment and uh and Scene 75 is all of the active play. Scene 75 is much more of your classic FEC. They've got a laser tag, black light mini golf, duck pin bowling, you know, some they do have some inflatables um and like an XD theater, where Epic uh you've talked about, has a lot more, is a lot heavier on the active play side, trampolines, ninja course, ropes course, um toddler area with inflatables. And so um, you know, besides the go-karting, they are definitely much more on the active play side and uh you know, maybe more akin to an Urban Air than uh than a scene 75, uh, given you know, given that Urban Air also has karting in some of their locations. Um, but it is uh still the proximity to uh the scene 75 is um to me would be a little bit risky.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

And scene 75 isn't the only uh karting entertainment space within Cincinnati catchment. Uh I forget the name of two outdoor parks in that area, but again, it isn't an unpopulated market. But finding a uh unpopulated entertainment market now in this day and age, as you can see from all of the sound-offs and uh opens and charts, that it's becoming less and less you are going into a target-rich environment, no matter what you do. But it's how you stand out from the crowd. I would agree with you about the urban air analogy. Um, I have problems uh from the information that I had and the pictures sources we had. They didn't show the inflatable area that closely. So I would need to see how you know, is this just a soft play area or are there a dedicated group of uh uh group of inflatables? But anyway, one to keep in the uh the mind when we're thinking of that naked and woods. Moving on, and we're now seeing the investment by the hospitality trade uh automatically looking at competitive socializing on a social entertainment mix to their facility. So if you're going to be opening up a bar, uh uh a bar with some kind of food offering, you're not just going to open it up on ThemeEt. You're now going to consider uh putting money into developing a social entertainment component. You're going to be putting in the darts machine. Uh in this particular case, the darts are relatively rudimentary, they're not that heavily gamified. You're going to have uh the shuffle board, and in this case, uh it's uh it's a light shuffle system rather than the heavily gamified shuffle system. So it's a light touch, a little amusement, and I think the amusement in in the rundown for this facility are the pool tables uh that they have. I didn't actually see any pinball or any direct video amusement, but it gives us an idea. You're gonna open up a facility, and if you're gonna open up a bar entertainment facility with a social entertainment component, it's you're gonna be digging in your pocket some three million. Uh I wait to see what the the take is from the audience, but the themality is very light here. It's very industrial, very rustic, their approach here. But you know, three million I think got lost on buying the machines uh and laying out the space uh to be blunt. But the point I'm making is the hospitality market is looking at opening now with this kind of approach, which puts the extra pressure on operators in that area uh with their own entertainment offering to keep up with the German system.

SPEAKER_04 25:56

Yeah. Uh I mean, yeah, definitely again for those listening, the the themality is very much a factory floor. Um it looks uh they they've made it, I mean it's clean, right? I mean, so they cleaned it up, it's it it is it is finished, but it is meant to look sparse, like you're uh you know walking around on a floor of a factory. Um I would be a little bit concerned about the noise in the space, given that it looks like the ceiling is not super well insulated. And so uh while it is nice and clean looking, I think there's going to be a lot of sound dampening issues. And fortunately, you know, that's something you can come back in and and you know apply and solve for later too, if it does become an issue.

Bars Add Social Games

SPEAKER_00 26:34

Certain hospitality venues with a bar mentality don't care. So we in the entertainment industry care if the noise of our amusement machines or our immersive attractions is being blown away by the noise of the people playing on the bowling system or uh on the mini golf. Here, I think they just make want to make sure that the acoustics are not deafening, but they uh they they will live with lead here from the ears, I would assume. But anyway. Moving on, and Andretti's kind of see that carting still plays a major component in anyone developing a large entertainment space. You know, Andretti's is up to 13 facilities now, and you know, their formula is quite proven for them of how they want to go into the market, the multi-layer uh level carting indoor capability with uh different uh ages and professional levels of engagement, then the amusement floor, uh then their racing simulators, then their restaurants, and then their bar, uh usually their bar, uh close proximity to the track to uh to view onto it. Proven formula, roll it out 13 times, uh, and we know they're planning on a 14th time soon. From my point of view, 100,000 square um in Illinois, and you'll recognize its locality isn't a million miles away from where our friends at Wonderverse were. So the question has to be: is this just going to be a plug and play into uh a market that is hungry for this type of entertainment, or will this facility come up against some of the uh the issues that Wonderverse came up with that weren't inherently caused by its poor design?

SPEAKER_04 28:23

Well, yeah, I think we could we could get into that uh you know with Wonderverse and whether it had its own systemic issues and was it a location issue? I mean, Schaumburg is one of the many growing, uh very rapidly growing uh suburbs of the Chicago land area. Um so the Chicago area, uh and so there's a lot of uh entertainment venues popping up in some of these other suburbs as well. Uh, Roscoe Village is another one nearby Schomburg. And so you're seeing a number of really interesting facilities opening up. You know, and this is the standard Andready formula, and I'm sure given their focus on guest uh I would say customer service and customer experience, that it will go uh, you know, it'll do well for itself.

SPEAKER_00 29:05

It will have enough of uh an image uh and an offering that uh I think that they will generate the repeat play necessary. I have had to visit this locality a number of times to watch concepts open and close. I had to go into this uh area looking at the GameWorks situation that was prevalent there that then migrated into the Sega problem. Of course, we had the uh level 257 facility there that was eventually consumed by Gander and has been running relatively quietly but successfully as its new interpretation uh entered. Uh all of this means that just because it's a crowded market doesn't mean that you can't succeed, but it is a fist fight. It is a very bloody market to consider dropping into, and we look forward to see how this proven model works. Jumping on, um, we were talking a few opens and shuts about our friends at High School Arcade in the UK that had to close down their Dorset facility for various reasons. It hadn't been opened that long, and then we now hear that uh the High Score Arcade chain is opening up a new venue uh in Andover, still pushing out the free play model that they uh have made their own uh and still following the same form factor that uh they have across their chain of nine sites now. So, you know, again, I have, you know, both of us have our opinions about free play, retro arcade, or normal arcade approaches. Uh and you know, having already gone through a turbulent loss of a facility, it'll be interesting to see what lessons they've learned going forward.

Andretti’s Proven Karting Formula

SPEAKER_04 30:50

I think the only thing I'll comment here is uh while I have my issues with free play arcades, uh is the fact that it's not just retro, it's modern amusement pieces as well. Um and that's that's what I find interesting. Most free play arcades are retro arcades uh and and not the modern games.

SPEAKER_00 31:06

Well, so high score arcade used to be heavy on the retro and then has uh run out of retro machines and has now become more much more of a broader split of amusement. And again, I think that they're beginning to see the issues of some of the modern amusement pieces don't work well as uh free play. But that said, nine facilities can't be wrong. So we will wait and see how they secure. When they get to that magical ten, they get that special badge on our database, and uh we can go into a little bit more detail about where they're taking this particular franchise. You've got a uh retail unit, uh you're in uh torrance in California, and um you decide that you're going to open up a recreation of a Japanese uh amusement facility. Okay. You're gonna get your hands on, you know, uh the candy cabs for all of uh those in the know uh that are essential for the sit-down-play video game experience. It's kind of middle retro, as I would call it. It's a recreation, but it's not the golden age retro, it's more of the 1980s, uh late 1980s video game retro. Uh, it has a very strong Asian feel to me. I would call this a Japanese retro uh arcade, and it's got minimal information. You know, you have to really dig to do your research to find out about this concept. But from the information that we were able to rise from the local media as well as from the local player base, it's really well appointed. And uh I I'm just wondering if this is one of those that sneaks under the radar, either this is a passion project or this could be the beginning of something a little bigger. That said, how are you gonna get your hands on more of those candy cabs at a reasonable price point to operate in your facility and keep them populated and fresh and maintained? It's gonna be a hard job.

SPEAKER_04 33:06

Yeah. Um, you know, I think it's interesting because not only do they have obviously some of the retro, the 80s-style retro games, but they also have some of the modern uh Japanese games too. I mean, they've got a Mime IDX, uh, a couple of MIME IDXs uh there um in the facility. And I was just looking at the demographics of Torrance, California, and uh it estimates approximately about 38, 39% of the population of Torrance is Asian uh of you know, it's Asian uh residents. And so it's uh you know, this could be something that is uh either started by somebody who is uh you know in that community or or is um you know somebody who sees a greater opportunity in other communities very much like Torrance.

Free-Play Arcades Evolve

SPEAKER_00 33:46

Also, understand there's a round one within that catchment, and round one offers that kind of Asian feel. You know, the first of the round one USA facilities made a point of opening where there was large Asian uh communities to feed off of that. I'm looking forward to seeing I wish them all the uh the best in the world in surviving happiness, but it's gonna be a hard task, Master. I know how difficult it is to operate those candy card uh candy cabs uh for Western utilization. The Western players aren't as kind as the Asian players on those systems. Carting would be the theme of this uh particular open and shut, and uh we have another K1 speed going in. It doesn't seem to be anything special compared to their usual format. So that's 2,000 square meters, that's an indoor track with some uh verticality, and there's about 50 amusement machines in there as well, as some level of FB. I couldn't nail down how much of a level of FB that this particular uh is uh facility in New Joycey is going to have, but again, a crowded market, but a market that will appreciate a professional karting environment with some amusement, and again, it is another venue for private hire and party and corporate uh in the mix, you know. But 108 K1 speed facilities out in the market, you know, they they know their business. They do. Moving to the shuts, uh sales and the acquisitions. Going back to my uh point earlier on about uh the difficulty of research, we're gonna touch upon this in much more uh detail in sound off. I'll just say here we know that at least one of the four Crayola experiences has shut its doors. We can definitely say that the Pelo Texas facility has closed due to an administrative issue where the local media are actually saying that there's a dispute with them all over the payment of rent. But at the same time, we get information from our sources in Orlando that the Orlando uh flagship trailer experience has also closed its doors. Now, was that a temporary closing? Was that just a private party? Was there something happening? The the detail is still in the uh in the wind, and we will try and get more detail about that. But at least we have one of their facilities closing, and the state of the other two facilities we can't comment about either.

SPEAKER_03 36:34

Yeah. I I'll hold off and my comments to sound off, and we'll we'll dig into it then.

Japanese-Style Arcade In Torrance

SPEAKER_00 36:40

Right here. When you're doing research about one facility, you then learn about another facility. It's something that I'm coming across now. Success is trumpeted highly, failure is just brushed into the corner and is ignored in many cases. I didn't know that the Nuremberg uh Ninja Warrior Park, which was a flagship German or European opening of this particular franchise, had closed. And I didn't find out about it until I had to write into uh the update about the opening of Jumkyard, which is opened in the same uh facility that the Ninja Warrior facility was at. Now, if you look at Jumkyard uh and you look at what Ninja Warrior was offering, they they're nearly exactly the same uh approach, except there's a little more broader entertainment uh with the uh jumyard approach. Uh, I think they actually include some amusement where the Ninja Warrior facility was mainly based upon uh the Ninja Active Entertainment Experience. Whatever the reasons are, it uh opened in 2024 and closed in 2025, so may explain why uh we didn't have a lot of information about uh uh uh this closure because it was a bit of a black eye. Uh we've already talked about in sound off that people behind the Ninja Warrior franchise property in the UK have gone through their own acquisition uh and partnerships with a new company that's taking control of this. So is this a bit of bad leadership, a bad uh bit of poor decision making on locality for this, difficulty to actually operate the concept? Take your pick. But again, this is Walls of Chalk Up as a common goal.

SPEAKER_04 38:31

Yeah, and I think this will be interesting to see how it does under the jumpyard brand. They have over 25 locations at this point as a you know, as a as a larger brand and both from acquisition and from building Greenfield. And so, you know, they clearly have some operational chops and the ability to scale and grow their company. They were only founded in 2017, so they've had a busy eight-year run already going on nine years now. And so um, it'll be interesting to see how this Nuremberg location uh for uh you know this this former Ninja Warrior, how it does under new management.

SPEAKER_00 39:05

Scroll back on the uh this particular open and shut and uh pause at the right moment, and you'll see the detail of the jumper uh Nuremberg edition. Uh another one of those that uh came and went opened uh uh 2021, Vex Arena in Washington State, offering a what I would call an active entertainment facility. Um it seemed to be in the 20,000 square uh region. You know, it had all of the standard kinds of approaches, along with a NERF laser tag component, along with a virtual reality arena. Well, it's gone. And what you know, again, this research problem that I'm finding on some occasions is uh it was announced in 2024 that they would be relocating to a different uh facility for whatever reason, no details given. So we've waited and we've waited and we've waited now for the new facility that they were meant to be moving uh the text uh arena into to open, and of course it hasn't. And so we have to chalk this up as uh missing in action, tell me something. Maybe something else to add to the opener charts, missing in action.

SPEAKER_03 40:23

Yeah, indeed, indeed.

K1 Speed Keeps Expanding

SPEAKER_00 40:26

Uh and then finally, uh a kind of uh a narrative that we're going to be talking about a lot in the coming uh months, and that is the changing of the landlord uh or the caretaker of a particular operation. So it doesn't mean that the site is suffering, or it doesn't mean that it isn't a workable concept, it just means that the company that has been running the facility for a period of time has decided to move on and do other things, uh, retirement age, or the business model now isn't as profitable as they wanted to uh get into. On many occasions, uh, some companies are moving on from running facilities because they don't want to have to put in the extra money uh uh to keep it viable against the competition, so they hand it on to someone else. Here uh in Texas, uh a very laid-back outdoor uh mini uh miniature golf. That's not crazy, but miniature golf, a lot of cocktails and uh uh golf balls, uh a really nice atmosphere. It's well known in the area, it's been going since the 1920s, and now it has changed hands uh with a new landlord who is about to throw the doors open as the season begins for this outdoor uh entertainment.

SPEAKER_04 41:43

Yeah, and I find what's interesting here is like they're clearly just going for a party atmosphere. They have a beer garden in addition to their two uh mini golf courses. Um so yeah, I mean, I think they've they've been around for a long time, and it'd be it's nice to see these types of long-term legacy experiences still being revitalized, still being kept up and um and somewhat modernized. The beer garden has not always been around. It was a more recent addition, and so uh yeah, the the new owners hopefully will continue to invest in something like this. That's clearly a long-term staple, the San Antonio region.

Closures, Rebrands & Research Gaps

SPEAKER_00 42:16

It is the revitalizing of a proven concept. If you have an audience and a generational audience, there's no reason why you can't keep something like this going if you put the efforts in, and maybe that's what the new caretakers are here to do. One suggestion that I would make to them if they would take uh uh take it uh or leave it, uh, would be to start looking at the new trend in self-service poured uh drinks. That could offer them a unique spin on what has proven itself a popular entertainment. Anyway, grab us over LinkedIn and thank you to those that have uh kept us up to date on uh some of the developments that have been going on. Uh we have some uh Stinger reports out there, we have some entertainment social arenas out there. Please jump in. Please also make sure that you're still receiving them uh through your subscription emails. If not, resubscribe. And if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to bung us an email.

SPEAKER_04 43:17

Perfect. All right, Kevin. Well, another good open and shut, and we'll see you next week for the next one. Have a good one. Whether it's perfectly fine three documents, something or defending three. All right, well, that was a great open and shut with Kevin Williams. And next up we have Arcade Corner with Adam Pratt. He is back. Let's get at it.

Legacy Mini Golf Revived

Arcade Corner: Demon Slayer Model

SPEAKER_06 44:18

Hey everybody, it's Adam for the Arcade Corner here. And believe it or not, we're almost done with February. It's weird because it seems like January took forever, and then February's just flown right by. But uh hope you've been staying warm. It's uh finally snowed where I'm at after not snowing at all for most of the winter. But we do have some arcade news. First off, as you see here with all the Japanese text on my screen, I might guess that it's a Japanese-related game. I would be amazed if this shows up in the States just due to the business model that's being used uh about it currently. So if this uh doesn't look familiar to you, this is based on the very popular manga and anime called Demon Slayer, uh, which is, as far as I'm aware, is the best earning uh anime of all time. As far as uh there was a movie that came out last year, which is only just a part of the series, and uh it hauled in well over$600 million uh worldwide. And uh again, as far as I know, no other anime has ever gotten close to uh generating that sort of interest and money, um, including Pokemon. I mean, I guess Pokemon was the number one before this, but anyways, Konami has developed this uh Demon Slayer arcade card vending game. The game itself is fairly simple as far as uh it's kind of like a um redemption game as far as how simple it goes. Like you have the samurai sword joystick or samurai sword hilt joystick, and all you have to do uh is uh repeat the movements that you see on the screen at the right time to uh do battle with somebody on screen, and in that process you get cards. But uh, I know a an operator in Japan who's uh an American and he was telling me about the um the business model behind this, just unless Konami uh totally relents on that, which is highly unusual. Most of the time when a Japanese manufacturer like Taito or Konami or Capcom or Sega or whoever uh comes up with a model in Japan, they repeat that or they want to repeat that when they bring it out west, it's just these business models they don't make a lot of sense over there in Japan, and they make even less sense um in the states just because from what I was told, um, after all is said and done due to the revenue share models, that's something they really, really latch on to in Japan, is most of the manufacturers have really shot themselves in the foot by forcing these uh you could call them egregious revenue share models. In the case of this Demon Slayer game, the menu Konami's taking 70% of an operator's earnings. Like every single play, they get 70% of it. Then if you use Konami's Paselli payment system, uh they get even more out of that. And then uh the players have to buy cards. It doesn't vend a card with every play, and it's 100 yen. And uh it's the cost to the operator is 77 yen. And so from what I was told, this is it's like after if you take into account all those things, the operator only makes like 12 yen off of which is like 12 cents off of every play, which is pretty ridiculous, really, um, and pretty greedy on Konami's part. Uh, not that they've ever uh really been uh good on in that regard, as far as I've seen, uh at least for a very long time. And so if this does show up in the States, it would probably just be through round one USA, but it's like good luck at convincing operators uh to go with a ridiculous revenue share system that uh takes a vast majority of the money. Now, sure, there is the thing where it's like you don't necessarily have to buy the machine outright, but it's like in that sense, it's almost like what's the point of operating it barely covers the electricity uh in that regard. But it's uh testing well in Japan at least. Uh but again, I just don't know how profitable it really is to the operator at the end of the day. Uh for all that probably profitable to Konami if they can convince enough places to grab one. Uh but uh that's not the only game release news. So news did come along this week that Perfect Poor Paps Blue Ribbon Edition, which is the uh checking out perfect. Sorry, let me uh mute that. This was at IAPA at the ABS Company's booth. Now, the this game, a lot of people see this and they're like, oh, that's IC. They copied Icy. It's actually the opposite. IC copied them. Uh DSM Arcade is a small independent arcade company, and uh they uh came up with this concept of pouring drinks kind of like Tapper. Um well before I see existed. In fact, somebody at Baytech saw this game on test out in Wisconsin at a bar, and that's where they decided to uh come up with the idea. But Perfect Pour itself, the regular version, actually did also hit production last year, February 2025, before IC was available. Uh, as further proof to that, it's just because it's an independently made game, very few people seem to know about it, other than the signal boosts that uh some like myself do. Um, but the overall concept of this is you know, you hold the uh tap back and it'll fill up the glass, whatever it is. But perfect port has a lot of detail to it as far as like there's pictures and there's shot glasses, and there's a variety there. Uh the keg can um explode or something along those lines and uh whatnot. But this PAPS Blue Ribbon Edition just includes newer graphics as well as um uh the licensing uh from that uh adult beverage company. And so that uh this version of it, now there's two versions of it out there. Um but if you want the PAPS Blue Ribbon Edition, let's say if you are a run uh a route that operates out of a bar or you run an arcade bar, this makes a lot more sense than trying to find a tapper out there just because tappers are almost impossible to find anymore in good working condition and they're usually well overpriced. I I've seen them go for$3,000 or more sometimes, and so this is a brand new game, um, or you don't have to worry about some of those issues of the old stuff, then uh there you go. Uh that's a good solution. Or if you just have any sort of alcoholic drinks being served in the location, as well as I know a lot of FECs are doing that now. All right, um, and for the end, uh this uh news hit right after uh we did our recordings last week, and so wasn't able to get to it, unfortunately. But uh Pokemon has been announced by Stern, and this is based on the uh original 90s anime that most people would probably be familiar with. However, uh I think this is a fantastic license, probably one of the best licenses that I've seen for Pinball, just because like I'm not a Pokemon fan. Uh, when it became a thing, I was already like a senior, junior in high school. I thought it was just a kid's show, and so I didn't pay any attention to it. However, it wasn't it was more than just a show, more than just an anime. It was actually, you know, it's a card game, it's uh done movies, uh, it's done video games, especially like on the Nintendo Game Boy and DS and Switch and Wii and all that stuff. And so it's just like the the breadth of interest, uh, the the crossing of generations that this IP has is unusual uh compared to most of the other stuff. Like for the most part, Stern's uh developments have been uh mostly appealing to baby boomers, Gen Xers, not so much uh millennials, and hardly uh anything from that would appeal to uh Gen Z as they call it or Gen Alpha or whatever. I don't know who comes up with these arbitrary uh generation names and dates as to when you're considered part of this generation or that. But um either way, this is one that really bridges the gap just because it's been relevant for such a long time. Um they haven't shot themselves in the foot like a lot of um American IP has. Like right now, I wouldn't suggest jumping on the Star Wars or the Star Trek or the Doctor Who bandwagons because those shows have found ways to piss off their fan bases by creating crappy shows and content. Whereas Pokemon has not done that. Uh they've uh pretty much just somehow managed to keep it going, keep interests strong. I mean, Pokemon cards can still go for thousands of dollars, and there's still plenty of people, not just adults, but lots of kids that still get into this. And because of that, when it comes to the obsession with licenses in our industry, it's like this makes total sense. Now, there have been some video arcade games, and none of them have successfully made bridge the gap over here. Um, but nobody's really given it a serious try either. Uh, there was like poking tournament a few years back, but that was a poorly designed cabinet. It used like a game pad instead of proper joystick controls. Um, but either way, um I think this is gonna do really, really well on location. Um, but time will have to tell there that it's available now, uh shipping now. And so um we'll see what it does out there. But that gets us up to speed. We soon do have um uh amusement expo coming up, so we should have more news hitting very, very soon. So stay tuned for all of that, and we'll catch you next time on Arcade Corner.

SPEAKER_07 54:51

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 market 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.co.

Perfect Pour Pabst Edition

SPEAKER_04 55:23

All right, well, I am a uh that was a great uh RK corner with Adam Pratt. I'm a big fan of Perfect Poor in general, as well as uh, you know, some of their variants, but uh really digging the PAPST uh Perfect Poor. When I saw that, I obviously talked about it on the show uh gosh a few months ago when it was first announced. And it's going to be at Amusement Expo. Excited to play it, excited to see it. And you know what? I might just end up walking away with one. I don't know, we'll see because uh I just want one here at the office. You know, it'd be great, it'd be fun. All right, anyway, that being said, coming up next, we've got Promo Pro Tips with Chuck DeMonty. Let's do it.

Stern’s Pokémon Pinball

Sponsor: Radius Offer

Promo Pro Tips: Marketing Funnel

SPEAKER_07 56:05

Hello, and welcome to Promo Pro Tips with Chuck DiMonti. And today I want to talk about marketing in general, right? So when you are a business owner, especially for FECs and primarily the way you uh do business with people, is then walk in your location, right? It's not like it's an e-commerce where you could very clearly see the sort of path of where people came from, how they landed on your website, and what they purchased, right? It's kind of difficult to connect those dots. Now we've done a lot uh over at Radius to connect those dots and understand where people are coming from and is our marketing working and all that other stuff. But there's when you don't understand something well, there's there's obviously gonna be a lot of skepticism in something, okay? Um, so I really want people to understand marketing at its core. What is it, right? So we're gonna really take a 30,000-foot view of marketing. So uh I think it'll really help you all understand what is marketing and what do I gotta do at a um a higher level to achieve marketing and get more people into my location, okay? So what I want to do is I want to share what a customer journey looks like, right? And I'm constantly telling is this existing clients, potential clients, what this customer journey is and what it means, okay? And so it doesn't matter to me, you know, what business you're on. Every business on the face of the planet has this exact same customer journey. I really don't care the business, right? So you have awareness, okay? And you can see that here, awareness, right? We call brand presence. Awareness is what is your brand, right? Who are you? What is your logo look like? What is your brand colors? What is what time are you open? What attractions do you offer? Where are you located? How much do you cost, right? All those things. Your brand is how you communicate with clients. Your brand is, you know, what is the experience when you go in there? Like so many things can you put under that brand and belt umbrella, right? And that is awareness, getting people to know about your brand. You need to get awareness first, right? And so that's the biggest thing that I think is a lot of times lost on people. Word of mouth is marketing, word of mouth is awareness. So there's so many things that people go, oh, you know, marketing and and I've tried this and it didn't work, and I tried that and it didn't work. It's like you don't realize that it is working, right? Um, and I know again, it's hard to tell sometimes because it's so hard to tag an ROI all the time to all your existing marketing efforts, right? But this is really important that you understand this customer journey. So, first and foremost, you need people to know about your business. Again, where are you? Where are you located? What do you offer, right? That is awareness, right? And and it's not just a one-time thing. People have so many things going on in their life, right? You need to consistently remind people who you are, where you are, where you're located, what you offer, right? There's a lot of competition in the FEC space nowadays. There's a lot of things for people to do. They, you know, social media, jobs, families, this, they're inundated all day with a ton of things on their brain, right? You need to stay on top, what you call top of mind marketing, right? You need to stay on top of their mind. So when they do are looking for something to do over the weekends, the weekdays, whatever, right? They think of you. Okay. So that's awareness. Now the next thing is you want to do is you want to amplify, uh, go into the amplification, what is what we call it, but that's the consideration phase, right? So people go, oh, that place looks cool. We should go. Let me talk to my wife, let me talk to my husband, let me talk to my kids, see if they want to go, see if they heard about it, maybe my neighbors heard about it, maybe my you know, friends or family or whoever went before. Maybe, you know, let's that's the consideration phase. I want to check this place out, right? How much is a ticket? What do they offer? Again, kind of go back into that awareness, right? Um, so that's the consideration phase. Now you want to take as many people from awareness and into the consideration phase where they go, that's cool, I want to go there, right? Or I want to go back there, right? That's the consideration phase. Now, once you have as many people as possible from awareness and consideration, you want to drive as many of those people into consideration and to accelerate into visitor acceleration, which is becoming a customer, right? So that means walking in and doing business with you, okay? That means uh booking an online ticket, booking a birthday online, right? Any any of these things, okay? So, you know, what does that entail? Right? When somebody comes to your website, it needs to be clean and understand that's the front door of your house, right? If you walked up to a house that was creepy and gross and disgusting, it's all right at the front door, you're like, I don't want to go in that place, right? Your website is the front door to your house, okay? So two people underestimate what their website should look like. Now you don't need this unbelievable, um, you know, amazing, you know, uh Amazon functionality website, right? Uh, it's an informational website. A lot of times, you know, you're online booking, you guys, you know, link out to that, and that's completely fine, right? But even informational needs to be structured easily. It needs to be have a good user experience, okay? It needs to have a good user interface, right? And the sort of um the way people navigate your site needs to be that's the user experience, right? It needs to be very seamless and easy. If stuff like don't make it hard for me to do business with you, okay? And understand how I need to do business with you, understand how much a ticket is and where you're located, and all that other stuff, okay? So that's once they're you know, uh they're in the consideration phase, you want to bring them into a customer, and then once they're a customer, you want to make them repeat customers, okay? So, what you want to do is you want to do things that are going to fill up this funnel and bring people all the way down. So, how do you get awareness, right? This is why digital marketing has become so popular over the last uh 20 plus years, probably, right? There's something called CPM cost per milli, which means cost per 1,000 impressions, right? Now, if if I saw an ad of yours, you would be I'd be like one person that you reached, right? Typically, that's a reach, a key performance indicator, reach. I'm one person. An impression, I could see that ad 10 times, and that's 10 impressions. Okay. Now, the CPMs, like I said, is cost for 1,000 impressions. When you're doing uh paid social, you're typically in the you know below a dollar to$2,$3 range for a thousand impressions, right? And you could reach tens of thousands of people for a hundred dollars, right? But again, you want them to see it multiple times, okay? So that's when when you're you're you're you know increasing your budget comes in. And it still doesn't even need to be huge budget, but this is why digital marketing has become so popular because the cost per those things is unbelievably lower than what it was for legacy marketing, newspapers, radio, you know, print ads, flyers, whatever, right? It is decrease the cost tremendously to get in front of people. So again, awareness, how do you do that? You know, for me, paid social is one of the best ways. Organic social media posting, Google ads, right? All those digital avenues that could really, and there's there's a million other ways you could do it. You could do, you know, your your your sort of uh legacy things, you could do what we call ADDM flyers, that's that's through the post office. There's a ton of things, right? But you want to get awareness, right? That could be working with an influencer, that could be um, you know, again, paid digital ads, paid Google ads, uh, you know, that could be working, going to a local event to hand out flyers, you know, you know, local activations, local community events, right? Connecting with the schools and just literally you can cold call somebody and tell them about this. So they need to know about your location. That's the first level, getting them into that awareness funnel, okay? Next, you want to be in the consideration funnel, right? And so some of the things you do, maybe you capture their email address or some sort of you know way to contact them before they even became a customer, right? And now you're gonna try and push them further down, offer them a discount, offer them something to be when they're first on customer, right? A buy one, get one, whatever, right? You want to have awareness and then you wanna try and activate them into consideration, right? So you want to hit them, that's where that frequency comes in, right? Oh yeah, I saw that place. I wanted to go, right? So there is a rule of thumb in marketing where it used to be you need to have seven touch points. Now they're saying it's 10 to 12 touch points a lot of times. But basically, what that means is if you see an organic post that my FEC posted, that's one touch point, right? If they see an ad, that's another touch point. If they drive past your location and see your sign, that's a third touch point, right? So they used to say seven, but let's say it's anywhere from seven to twelve times before somebody does business with you. So think about that. They need to see your brand seven to twelve times. How do you accomplish that, right? And within a good budget that your business could afford. So you got to get creative and you want to be on multiple channels, right? So you want to be doing the things. There is so often we work with clients and they're not posting on social media. It's like, come on, guys, like that is the easiest thing to do. Go snap some damn photos and videos and put it on your social media, right? But again, everybody, you know, a lot of times complains that they're just not getting business or they're not like you're not doing the basics, right? I'm here to tell you, business is not easy. Sorry, right? If you if you want it to be uh get into something easy, you shouldn't be an entrepreneur, you shouldn't be a business. I'm just being very, you know, blunt and honest, right? You gotta do all the things, okay? And so maybe you hire somebody to do things, maybe you do them yourself, right? Uh so again, brand presence, how do you get in front of people? Digital media is the cheapest form. Consideration, they need to see it multiple times, multiple touch points. You need to be posting organically, you need to be doing the edge, you need to be doing the email marketing, you need to be out there in the community, right? Multiple on multiple touch points, right? Then how do they become a customer, okay? You're gonna hopefully choose strategies. So here's the difference, here's the perfect example of this. If I'm doing paid meta, right, Instagram and Facebook. To me, a lot of times that's best for an awareness strategy, right? Not necessarily a uh a call to action of buying a ticket or booking a birthday. It works very well for that, but I like it for awareness. So, because people are scrolling, right? They're not in that moment looking for something necessarily to do, right? They're not looking for, hey, I need to book a party for my 10-year-old son, you know, but I'm here scrolling. No, it's like, yeah, they might seem like, oh yeah, I do need to do that, let me check that out, right? You might hit them at the right time, and that very well happens. But Google ads has intent built in. Somebody's literally searching for kids' birthday party places, right? You need to get in front of them at that exact moment, right? So that's that customer, that's that visitor acceleration. And hopefully, if they're Googling kids' birthday party places, like we said, and you had those multiple touch points, and they drove past your location and they saw a media media ad, you know, uh uh uh organic post from you and they saw an ad from you on Facebook, and they're gonna say, Oh, I I just heard of that place, right? Let me click on that one, right? So again, that's the whole point of bringing them through this funnel, right? And and also maybe, you know, we do strategies where we're doing what we call the data builder, where we're doing a giveaway. And the way people like to that giveaway is by giving us their contact information and allowing us to market to them, right? Putting them into that consideration phase. Okay. So once now they're in that consideration phase, now we have their email and their and their phone number on email and SMS marketing them, hopefully driving them to become a customer. Right? Continually pushing them down this funnel. Okay. Next is repeat customer. Okay. Visitor loyalty. Now, this isn't just marketing, this piece, and you could maybe consider marketing, but this is operations as well. Right? If I come into your location and you got me to become a customer, right? Into the visitor, visitor acceleration phase. And I don't have a good time and your place is dirty and your staff was not good. I'm not going to become a repeat customer, right? So there's no amount of marketing that could solve that. Okay. So this goes into operations, right? But say all those things are correct. You are having a good, uh you do have a good hospitality uh in your in your business, right? You do have a clean business, you are operating it in a really good, efficient way, okay? Um, then you should get a repeat customer. And how do you do that? Retargeting with paid paid social ads, you know, email and SMS marketing, right? Now that they're you hopefully capture their information, they became a customer, right? Um, you know, different just different strategies like that to stay again, stay in front of them, that top of mind. So when they do go there, just like that, you constantly gotta, you know, treat them as if they're you're trying to get capture them back again, right? You are a new customer, right? So you want to stay in front of them, you want to continue to woo them. How do you do that, right? Uh so again, I know there's always a I feel like a lot of ambiguity of like marketing and what is it? And it's this sort of black box that people don't understand. It's really pretty simple at its core process and what it means. People need to know about you. You need to stay in front of them so they consider doing business with you, okay? Hopefully you convince them to do business with you by how cool what you have is, right? And what you offer your attractions. And then hopefully they have such a good experience they want to come back. It's pretty much that simple. Now, within those things, right? Yeah, you can have some complexity. How to run Google Ads, how to run paid meta ads, how to post on a social media, all those stuff. Sure, there could be some complexity in there. But honestly, consistency in doing something is always better than nothing. So I really hope this helped. Um, again, get out there, just start doing and think about this funnel and start doing your basics. Posting on social media, running some media ads, running some Google ads, running email marketing. I promise you, done over time, even if you can't connect an ROI to it, right? It will be working. Okay. And it's I I you will be dead in the water if you're not doing these things. And one way to think about this, if you are having a tough time and you're like, I really need to understand ROI, and I, you know, if you're having a tough time implementing maybe conversion tracking, because a lot of online booking software is and you know, people don't have all the tools to understand if I'm doing marketing here, is it increasing foot traffic? Something you want to look at maybe is marketing efficiency ratio. Okay. Now, this kind of comes from e-commerce, but it's like, how much am I spending in marketing? Okay, versus how much uh are we making in revenue, right? And that's basically total revenue divided by total marketing spent. Okay. Now I'd love to see it be a 3.0 or higher, right? But that doesn't mean it needs to be, okay? Uh and that'll give you a good indication. So if I spend more marketing, does my revenue grow? Right, which would give you an indication of like the marketing's working. You don't need to need to know, okay, this ad got me this booking or this this customer, right? I'm increasing marketing. Is my revenue increasing? Okay. So maybe look at marketing efficiency ratio if you really, really, really want to understand the the effectiveness of your marketing. Okay. So get out there, start doing some marketing, and hopefully increase your foot traffic.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:12

All right. Well, that was a excellent uh extended promo pro tips with Chuck DeMonty. And so it was a great overall primer on what to do if uh you know you're you're marketing your venue and how to think about it. So anyway, that was excellent. Uh all right, we've got sound off number 111 with Kevin Williams. It's 111 with Kevin Williams on Tuesday, February 24th. So just in two days, we've got a great sound off. We also have, I believe, a virtual arena, uh, which we haven't seen one of those from Kevin in a while coming out as well. So check your email inbox. And if you haven't done the subscribing to the Stinger Report and all of the other newsletters we send out called Entertainment Social Arena, the Virtual Arena, and Stinger Report, please go to LBX Collective.com and sign up and get that done. Well, that is a wrap for this week's LBX show. This is Brandon Wiley signing off. Stay tuned and keep kicking ass.