Advertising
Escape the Space: 2015–2016
CONTENTS
Escape the Space: 2015–2016
49
Media Evaluation
29
29
Target Profiles
7
Team Profiles
Marketing Communication
55 Final Moves
1
What is Escape the Space
9
11
51
Company History
7
The Team
23 Research
41
Executive Summary
Poster
35 Executions
13
The Rooms
WHAT ARE ESCAPE ROOMS? Escape rooms are a thrilling new form of entertainment that are gaining popularity throughout the United States. Locked in a room with other participants, each team member must come together to solve puzzles, find clues, and ultimately escape the room.
WHAT IS ESCAPE THE SPACE? Escape the Space is an escape room business that passionately focuses on teamwork, relationships, and true engagement. The experience is designed to test client’s problem solving skills and teamwork abilities in certain situations where there is a sense of urgency and pressure. Escape the Space offers an exciting and engaging experience for everyone looking to push themselves, their abilities, and local recreation.
Escape the Space: 2015–2016
2
OUR TASK
Although Escape the Space has successfully attracted attention and plenty of business from the local community, it has yet to permeate the extensive student population that comprises much of Athens, GA.
We aimed our efforts at reaching undergraduate and graduate students that were seeking new activities to fill their free time. These students are interested in engaging, interactive experiences that push their mental capabilities and put their problem solving skills to the test. These students are looking to share experiences with those around them and escape the normality of their everyday lives. In order to reach these goals, we strived to achieve top of mind awareness for students interested in trying new activities, increase engagement on social media outlets, and make Escape the Space’s grand re-opening a known event among Athens residents. Our team created and executed a themed student night to better reach the student body. Student night offered discounted tickets to students, which addressed the concern of many students that prices might be too high to try a new activity. By compiling a survey and sending it to hundreds of students, we better understood our target market.
Escape the Space: 2015–2016
THE T
TEAM
t
EMMALINE
Ace in the hole, fearless leader, Queen E, etc.; meet Emmaline, our account manager. We literally would have never spoken to our client if it wasn’t for this woman. Is that not enough for you!? Then consider the fact that she kept a diverse team in constant contact all from the safety of the local Terrapin Brewery. In a time when individuals are more and more preoccupied, the ability to bring people together can make all the difference.
LIZ
Few teams get social media specialists, but even fewer get locally acclaimed models! This is Liz, our digital clutch who dual-handedly maintained multiple social profiles while sipping bottomless martinis with her hoppin’ momma! Yet while dramatically increasing our client’s online engagement was noteworthy (percentages and whatever), her free spirit reminded the team that there was more to life than work— and the work was better for it.
CATHERINE
If ever a classic hair metal ballad need a subject of inspiration, it would find it in our very own Cat Satch. Cat Satch Fever anyone? Forget it. Yet while other teams were left wondering why time seems to slow wherever she walks, she was busy calculating exactly how our extravagant goals were being met. Listen, sometimes they were not met, but her windless, factual rationale invariably convinced the team that some ideas are best left as just that.
JOEY
If you’ve ever had to post something professional while cool, mysterious while inviting, and smart while dumb all at the same time, you know just how hard that can be. Take a look at Joey, our copywriter. Behind a face that expert writers might deem, “holy sh@%, did you see that glorious face? I quit my awesome copywriting job now to forever stare at that man’s face”, is a glorious whirlwind of all the perfect things we could never think to say. Or write.
KYLE
Art Director. Demigod.
MADDIE
Damn Daniel, back at again with fresh creative strategies. This is Maddie, the social mahatma who knows what's trending before the people who made the trends even trended it. It’s a shame she doesn’t just trend those things before the trend-setters trend them, but then how would she discover the trends she loves so much? It’s a good thing, too, because her enduring passion for what is changing the ad game pushed our creative executions further than any narrow mind could have imagined.
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SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS
Escape the Space: 2015–2016
11
Company History
Two years ago, while on vacation in Orlando, Athens natives Alicia and Andrew Brasher took part in something that would soon consume their lives. The Escape Room they took part in Florida then inspired them to bring the experience to Athens, setting up their first location at Chase Street Warehouses. They soon moved over to the Bottleworks location and hit the ground solving. They started working on puzzles immediately and locally sourced all the necessary materials. The job became full time for the both of them and in just four weeks Athens' “only real-life escape room� came to be. Both Brashers have creative backgrounds in theater, music and painting. The Brashers worked with youth ministry for a number of years in Athens prior to starting Escape The Space. Their newest endeavour has been moving out of Bottleworks to a bigger space on Hawthorne, that now offers four rooms and provides the freedom to dream big with the community they love so much.
THE ROOMS
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Escape the Space: 2015–2016
SWAT ROOM
You and your team are the line of last defense. A group of criminals has planted a bomb in a downtown apartment building and you have an hour until detonation. Can you decipher the cryptic messages in time to defuse the bomb and save the day?
ESCAPE DETENTION
I hope putting thumbtacks on the teacher’s chair was worth it because teacher-man has finally had it! You and your prankster pals have been locked in detention until you can solve his dastardly puzzle.
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O’MALLEY’S PUB You’ve always wanted to run your own restaurant right? Well, here is your chance. The local food critic is here and Chef O’Malley just walked out on your first day of work! It’s up to you to lead your kitchen through O’Malley’s indecipherable recipes and save the restaurant.
INDUSTRY TRENDS
Part game, part theater, part team-building exercise, escape rooms are taking off around the world.
The number of permanent rooms worldwide has gone from zero at the outset of 2010 to at least 2,800 today. The concept was born in Japan, spread through Asia, then arrived in the U.S. in 2012. For many escape rooms, corporate clients make up 50% of all business. Escape Rooms are now also making their way into mainstream entertainment. The studios behind Tom Cruise’s coming “Mission: Impossible” film planned escape rooms at AMC Theaters allowing them to become “agents” of their own. There have been many extensions of escape room such as online puzzles and digital games. The service extension opportunities are also gravitating toward themed entertainment areas. Many believe that escape rooms are going to start to see smaller operators go out of business and the larger side making more revenue. Some are moving into the franchise model as well.
Escape the Space: 2015–2016
RESEARCH 37%
Adults over 21
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INSPIRATION The audience for the games is broad. Research by Scott Nicholson found they had universal appeal, but a survey of 175 escape game venues around the world found 37 percent of players were from aged 21 or over. According to many escape room owners the biggest market appears to be the millennials who are always out seeking for alternative entertainment. Millennials are at the forefront of the experience economy and escape games are in a position to capitalize on this market. People are also looking for those memories that they can experience and share with their friends.
RESEARCH METHODS We created a survey to send out to one of Escape the Space’s key target audiences, college students aged 18-25 years old. We focused on this sector of the market because the owner’s felt that is where they struggled the most in terms of engagement. The goal of our survey was to gather more data to gage the level of awareness of college students in the community of their business.
STRENGTHS
Escape the Space brings a unique, fun and ever-changing experience to people looking for a bonding experience with friends or teams. They are the first escape room business in Athens and on the earlier end of opening in the South. Past customers adore the owners; our client is looking to highlight their brand’s personality. Our client is also moving to a larger venue to accommodate more customers at a time. As of now they have great word of mouth from previous customers.
WEAKNESSES
Our client is not very competitively priced compared to its direct competitors in Athens. The escape room as entertainment is still such a new concept that consumers may be hesitant to try it. Our client is majorly run by three people trying to manage many different aspects of the business especially with their big move, this is challenging.
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OPPORTUNITIES
Escape the Space Athens can be one of the first businesses to be a part of this new trend of escape room entertainment. The owners are from Athens and support local Athens businesses while other local businesses reciprocate. They are moving within the upcoming month to a new, larger venue that holds up to 20 more people at a time which can increase business. They have yet to explore many paid advertisement opportunities and still have that as an option to take advantage of.
THREATS
While they have been moving locations, overall sales decreased this past month. Their new site is also moving them farther away from the heavily student-populated downtown area of Athens. There also is the threat of other similar businesses coming to Athens as this trend expands.
MARKETING & COMMUNICATION
Escape the Space: 2015–2016
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TARGET PROFILES
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BEAR This 32 year old Athens local has moved on from the college affiliated scene. He is looking for a more unique experience at a local business outside of downtown. Bear is real chill and has traveled to more places than you can solve a puzzle at.
SOPHIE Sophie is a sophomore at UGA studying marine biology. She’s got a TON of friends and is way cool, therefore downtown isn’t for her. She’s also strikingly smart (you can tell by her eyes), so she likes activities that challenge her. The fact that she hates losing only increases the appeal of win/loss percentages. In the future Sophie will also encourage Escape the Space to make an underwater room. They will laugh at first, but then realize how serious she is and do it so no one gets hurt.
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EXECUTIONS
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Whether you’re fortunate enough to win or lose, a shirt that boasts your status is now available.
PARTICIPANT SHIRTS
Escape the Space: 2015–2016
ESC
SPACE THE E AP
Athens
Escape the Space: 2015–2016
, GA
ESC
Shirt Concepts
SPACE THE E AP
Athens
, GA
40
12
book here:
December 2015
Christmas Vacation Room #outthinkordinary
By investing the time to design custom posts, we acheived our goal of introducing an acceptable, unified aesthetic while prompting more engagement with followers.
TV SPOT As a result of impressive increases in sales, we figured a commercial might not be too distant of an expense.
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BRAND BOOK
47
We also felt it necessary to create a summary of their brand guidelines for future coherence. This 12 page guide explains every aspect of their brand, from logo and colors to fonts and current designs.
For our media strategy, we began with conducting an online survey analyzing the current target market of students within the Athens community. From our research, we learned that price was a huge factor for these students and less than 2% of the surveyors had even tried an escape room before. After understanding that our target market was for the most part unaware of the idea of an escape room, let alone the availability in the Athens community, we aimed to increase trial and awareness by offeri ng student night, dispensing flyers on pizza boxes, and promoting ETS on social media.
Social media was the main focus of our media strategy, with a concentrated effort on increasing engagement among our new target market of millennials and college students. Because our clients had already invested a lot of their energy into making Facebook a great social media foundation for Escape the Space, we chose to have a sole focus on Instagram and upping our follower/following base in that area. We created puzzles to engage the followers, graphics to announce the new escape rooms, and the hashtag #MundaneMonday to give our client’s new follower base a fresh idea for fun on a Monday. We took the initiative of following not only UGA students, but other local Athens businesses to show support. This ultimately resulted in a huge success and our Instagram fan base has since increased heavily to almost 150% and is continuing to do so. Escape the Space: 2015–2016
MEDIA EVALUATION
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
51
Problem UGA students are generally unaware of and often confused by the concept of escape rooms, and thus fill their free time with other activities. While Escape the Space had been able to attract much business from the local community, it has struggled to reach the extensive student audience that comprises much of Athens, GA. Our efforts were aimed at reaching college and graduate students who were looking to expand their activity skill sets.
Strategy Spread awareness of Escape the Space and the concept of escape rooms through increased social media engagement by 30%. Using our social media expertise, we engage the student population of Athens, GA across a variety of media including: print, social media (Facebook, Instagram), events, and out-of-home. Host promotional Escape the Space events to build awareness and engagement among students and Athens residents.
Impact Relaunched ETS’s social platforms and increased Instagram following by 150%, engagements per post by 68%, and overall engagement by 38%. Facebook received a 58% increase in reactions per post as well as a 75% increase in reach, from around 1000 people to an average of 4000 in February.
50
INSTAGRAM 15.6%
engagements per post
9.3%
engagements per post And a 38% increase in overall engagements
• 68% increase in •
OVERALL SUCCESS 20K 15K 10K 5K
April
53
May
June
July
Aug.
Sept.
FACEBOOK 63
reactions per post
26
reactions per post And a 75% increase in reach
• 58% increase in •
core execution period 20K 15K 10K 5K
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Jan.
Feb,
Mar.
• September and October of 2015 were transition months from the old facility • November 2015 shows revenue since the move and our team’s core executions
55
FINAL MOVES We want to leave to our client with the keys to engage with students in the most direct way possible. In order to achieve this, we created a list of fraternity and sorority contacts for our client to speak at their chapters about Escape the Space, since awareness with our target was initially slim to none. As for our student night initiative that we executed at the start of 2016, in order to improve it further, we have planned to turn that into discounted nights for not only students but for different organizations around the Athens community and UGA campus clubs as well. This will help ETS become an advocate in the community and promote business on slower nights. Lastly, we want Escape the Space’s Instagram to have more fluency throughout their posts, so we created a Pinterest inspiration board. This includes graphic examples and a color scheme that will spark ideas on how to make the page look more consistent and integrated with their brand’s theme.