Playgrounds for Big Kids
How to effectively orient attractions to adults and corporate business
by John Morell
On a 10-acre plot surrounded by the scenic Rocky Mountains in Colorado, Ed Mumm scoffs at the idea of Wiis, video, and virtual reality games: “Those just hint at real experiences. Here, you get to do the real thing.”
The real thing offered at Mumm’s Dig This in Steamboat Springs is an opportunity for anybody to take the controls of an actual bulldozer, skip loader, or excavator and dig holes, build earthen walls, and move boulders. The experience is designed for adults and kids 14 and older, and there is a brief instruction period before you’re allowed to smash giant rocks and move tons of dirt.
The price of the experience ranges from $200 to $750 depending on duration and the type of equipment rented. While visitors can show up and take the wheel, Mumm’s main objective is selling the experience to corporate groups looking for new team-building exercises. “It’s unique, fun, and anyone can do it. There are no physical requirements and the great part is, everyone’s on the same level. Very few people have experience operating this kind of equipment,” says Mumm. His experience demonstrates some broader trends happening in the group sales market right now.
Corporate Focus
Dig This is entering its third year, and the irony of opening an attraction that focuses on corporate business in the midst of a recession isn’t lost on Mumm. “Lots of corporations have cut back on events like this to save on costs, but we feel this is such a special attraction, we stand out in a smaller marketplace. We’ve done business with a number of companies based outside the U.S. that may not have been as affected by the economic downturn, and we’re getting more calls from corporations that say they’re able to budget some events this year.”
The slashing of corporate budgets for parties and teambuilding events has affected a wide range of industries, including theme parks and FECs, hurting bottom lines. “The profits from corporate business are much higher, which is why everyone hurts when this segment slips,” says Jason Bock, marketing director for Lasertron in Amherst, New York. “At corporate parties and events people are freer with their spending. The company is paying for the games and food, so they’ll often spend a little of their own money for extras.”
There are creative efforts by operations such as Mumm’s to attract corporate business, and some are working well. “Companies want unique, meaningful experiences for their events, but they’re also watching their budgets,” says Kim Sullivan, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for the Event Planners Association in Mission Viejo, California. “That’s an advantage an amusement facility has over other types of venues. They’re already a destination, and they can be creative with the events they host.”
Creative Marketing— Just for Adults
One disadvantage for parks and FECs when pursuing corporate business is the perception that their activities are geared to youth. Lasertron is trying to get past that image by aiming its marketing squarely at adults 18 and over. “Although we love having kids here and we still do lots of birthday parties, all of our ads and TV spots show adults having fun here, no children,” says Bock.
The 22-year-old facility is one of the pioneers in laser tag arenas with a 9,200-square-foot course and adjacent go-karts and Cyber Sport games. Thousands of children in Western New York have played Lasertron’s course, but three years ago management saw an opportunity if they tweaked the marketing a bit. “Kids knew us, but adults didn’t. Adults would go to the movies or a club for entertainment, but they wouldn’t think of us.”
 Lasertron added a bar and lounge seating and began promoting the facility heavily to local companies, aiming not directly for corporate business but for grown-ups. “Our goal is to make Laserton an option when people go out for the evening,” says Bock. “We’ve even changed our advertising tagline from ‘The Interactive Entertainment Center’ to ‘Where Adults Come to Play With Family and Friends.’”
The facility promoted and hosted bachelor and bachelorette parties, fantasy football league draft parties, and grown-up birthday parties. “This generates interest from companies. Employees come here for laser tag, tell their co-workers how much fun they had, and the word gets out from there,” says Bock.
Core Kid Audience Unaffected
The new adult marketing concept hasn’t affected business from children and youth. “The fact that we’re focusing on adults helps us with kids,” says Bock. “It makes us a little edgier. Kids, particularly teens, want to go to a facility where adults have fun.”
Alternatively, some traditional kids’ facilities are shifting gradually to more adult business. “For us, parents are closely involved in the play of their young children, and they’re crawling into the equipment to help them or retrieve them,” says Terry Dillenburg, co-founder of Pump It Up, which has 160 inflatable activity centers in the U.S. “As a result they’re in touch with the equipment; they can feel how fun it is.”
A parent attending a child’s birthday party at Pump It Up a few years ago told the manager she wanted to see if the facility was available for a corporate team-building exercise, and a new marketing segment was born. Pump It Up created an activity guide for its franchisees detailing corporate team games that can be used for companies.
And of course when dealing with inflatable equipment, the question of weight limits comes up when trying to picture adults in a bounce house. “Our equipment is very heavy duty; it’s designed to our specifications with additional baffling and stitching so it can take a bunch of grown ups,” says Dillenburg.
The point with team building is also that the participants won’t be doing backflips during the session. “It’s very structured, and we provide a facilitator who takes the group through various exercises like an obstacle course or an inflatable rock-climbing wall,” says Dillenburg. “It’s intended to teach, so there’s not a lot of free play involved.”
Overall, Dillenburg believes attracting corporate and adult business comes down to presenting a quality entertainment experience. “There’s still a kid in all of us, which is what attracts us to these kid games,” she says. “When you create a setting where it’s OK to jump around, you see these ‘kids’ come out, and it creates a memorable experience for the guest.”
John Morell is a freelance business writer based in Los Angeles whose work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times. He can be reached at john@jcmorell.com.
Like All Attractions, Safety Comes First at Dig This
Operating heavy construction equipment at Dig This is safe, according owner Ed Mumm, despite the fact that he had to shop for a year before finding an affordable liability policy. “We had the insurance representatives here, and they could see that it’s much safer than riding a horse,” he says.
The activities an operator is asked to do are relatively harmless. When you’re in the excavator you may be using a GPS to dig and find clues for a treasure hunt, or you could be moving various painted boulders into a pile. All the while, operators are in radio or visual contact with technicians who assist when they need help moving the equipment.
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