Know Your Audience
Mike Davis of Universal Studios Japan discusses what’s important when creating holiday entertainment
by Amanda Charney
 There’s a lot more to putting on an outstanding holiday show than lights, cameras, and action. Mike Davis, senior vice president and executive producer of Universal Studios Japan’s entertainment department, says the No. 1 factor in successful holiday programming is to know your customers—how they feel and react to holidays and their respective icons and symbols.
“All of us sometimes say, ‘But this is really brilliant; they should love this,’ but at the end of the day, they’re buying the ticket. They’re making the effort to come support your business,” he says.
Davis is a career industry professional, starting as lead vocalist for an eight-piece show group that toured the United States and Canada. He spent the next 21 years with The Walt Disney Company in a variety of capacities, including vice president/ executive producer for Walt Disney Special Events Company, as well as head of entertainment, manager of show production, and casting/talent booking assistant at Disneyland. He then moved to Japan to head up the entertainment department at Universal Studios, producing literally thousands of events over the past decade, including “The Gift of Angels” Christmas show and the “Magical Starlight Parade,” both of which won Big E Awards at IAAPA Attractions Expo 2009 in Las Vegas.
In this interview, Davis shares with FUNWORLD his key facets of producing live seasonal entertainment.
What’s the key in conceiving a truly new idea for a holiday show?
You have to know who the people are you’re presenting to, and every culture and every language, particularly from an international perspective, may or not have a culturally branded approach to what Christmas is. Certainly Christmas is celebrated differently here in Japan than it is in the United States. So knowing what your audience understands about that seasonal event is very important.
Second, it’s important to understand if there’s an obvious icon that helps you with mass communication. Theme parks are in the mass business—it’s about large volumes of people, and certainly when you advertise in the media-cluttered day we live in, it’s often difficult to break through with something people understand.
We found that angels were associated with Christmas somewhat differently than in the United States … not Christmas from a religious standpoint but [as an icon] like a Christmas tree, a holiday wreath, or Santa Claus. Try to pick something that’s iconic; as you talk about it and market it, the icon becomes quick and easy for people to understand.
Whether they like that or not is always the second issue of business. But if you can’t communicate it correctly, then you stand no chance people are going to make a decision to come to your park or your event.
What have you found is the length of show holiday guests expect, on average?
In a theme park environment, if it’s a big show you’re promoting you have to give people at least 15-20 minutes, or they seem shortchanged. Oftentimes depending on the kind of venues you have, you can go to 30 minutes if you’re inside a theater or if you have comfortable seats. Even if it’s theme park hard-bench seating, at least it’s a chance to sit down. But if you have a standing audience, we’ve found 15 minutes is the beginning threshold … we try to keep it to 20-22 minutes.
What should parks consider when planning a show whose audience comes from a variety of backgrounds, religions, and geographic locations?
Again, a powerful simple icon that people can connect to is critical. You certainly want to make sure that’s not going to be offensive to people. At some point, when you get into subject matter that is religion based, you probably run a risk that what might be very exciting for some might be slightly offensive to others, but you have to understand that audience very carefully.
What can parks do to ensure they find the best cast and behind-the-scenes staff for a holiday performance?
The best script, the best music track, the best choreography will never meet its potential if you don’t have the delivery system at the end of the chain, which is the performer. A great performer can make a bad script better, but a bad performer doesn’t help anybody.
 You have to make an effort of not saying, “Billy works for me, and I really like him; and Sandy is a wonderful gal, she’s always been on time, she’s a very good singer or very good dancer.” But she might not have ballet training, and you’re trying to cast a ballet section. The best way to ensure you find qualified staff is to audition; don’t just accept what you have in your own stable at a given moment is going to fit the bill.
Similarly with backstage production and operational support crew, you have to find people who enjoy that work. I know some organizations feel like, “Well, I’ve got this extra person, and I’ll use them as stage manager, or maybe I’ll let them run lighting for this show.” Not that those are always bad decisions, but if you’re going to cross-utilize talent, just like the singer, dancer, and actor, make sure they have the right skills; make sure they’re passionate about doing that part of the work. And if you can get people who are well suited for the function you want them to do, everything in the production will run better every night you perform.
How do customer response and feedback play into plans for future events and shows?
It’s critical. Not only do we do consumer research on the front side to find out what people would be interested in, we talk to them afterward. At the end of the day, it’s attendance, attendance, attendance—that’s what triggers everything. People have to come to the park. If they don’t come, you don’t get the gate revenue, you don’t get the merchandise revenue, you don’t get the food revenue, you don’t get the connection to the brand, you don’t get the word of mouth to the neighbor and other family members and other consumers. So it’s very important to understand how they react to things.
What are some budget-conscious ideas small or independent facilities can use when planning holiday entertainment?
Let’s say you’re doing a Halloween event. Some people think Halloween’s about trick or treating; some people think it’s about scaring people; some people think it’s about dressing up in costumes and being silly. First you have to understand: What does this mean to your consumer base?
There are very simple ways to be able to do trick-or-treat. I think people are looking for participation opportunities. Let your guests come with their creative ideas on how to dress up in a costume; maybe they come dressed as branded characters or items you offer in your park.
For years show business was about sitting in the audience watching the show, and though I still think there’s an enormous need for that, we’re finding in Japan more and more people want to feel like they’re also a part of it. Audience participation is not an expensive thing to do; you just have to be clever.
With scaring people, you can put in very elaborate special effects, but surprisingly enough you can hide somebody around the corner and go “boo” and have [the guest] start breathing rather quickly.
We have the good fortune to be in a position to do spectacular shows like “The Gifts of Angels,” which clearly enhanced our overall business during the Christmas period. However, some of the memories that guests have in our park can come from getting a photograph with Elmo wearing a Santa’s cap or seeing Snoopy wearing some type of holiday attire. That photograph may be just as meaningful to the family as the multimillion- dollar production, though we believe that offering both spectacular productions and important simple intimate interactions helps to make our park a world-class experience on a variety of levels.
At what point does a holiday show become too much work? Is there some sort of calculable ROI when it comes to these shows?
I don’t think there’s an exact formula. From a business perspective, most of the time people do holiday promotions because they think they’re going to increase incremental business. And if you’re going to spend extra money, that should be the point. Even when it doesn’t work, fine, try another program. But don’t stop. Standing still is the worst thing you can do in this business. It’s OK to take a failure and learn from it—just don’t do it very often, or you’re out of business.
IAAPA’s entertainment awards program is getting a new look for 2010. A brand-new event, called the Brass Ring, will recognize awards in a variety of categories, including live entertainment. Nomination forms and details can be found at www.IAAPA.org.
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