The Christmas Pop-Up Bonanza

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From our studios in Las Vegas and
Tampa. This is Green Tag teen Park

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in thirty. I am, as
always, joined by my delightful co host,

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Scott Swinson. Scott Swinson Creative Development, and Scott's favorite time of year

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is Christmas, so I know,
if you couldn't tell from his background for

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those ulysses, Scott has a Christmas
tree in his background. So I thought

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today we would talk about Christmas and
what seems to be a pop up bonanza

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that is sweeping the nation and perhaps
the world. It seems like everyone is

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doing something for Christmas this season.
Some are repurposing assets to make Christmas events,

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while others are simply using their Halloween
stuff. You know, it doesn't

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have to be Christmas. You just
put up the Halloween stuff, it's fine.

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And yet others are opening with limited
run shows that really have not much

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to do with Christmas at all.
So it's a very interesting mix that we

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are seeing. So I thought we
would kind of go through each bucket of

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categories, and the first bucket of
category is the people that are repurposing assets,

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because Scott and I love to talk
about people that are repurposing assets because

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we like the concept well and it
makes sense financially. I mean, it's

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just one of those things that you
can buy things that you only use for

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two months out of the year,
or you can buy things that you use

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twelve months out of the year but
use them four different ways. So that's

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up to you. And that first
story in this segment goes to the Factory

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of Terror and they have opened what's
called the Christmas Factory, and the Ohio

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Christmas Factory will feature a fifteen minute
light show synced to music on our five

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story entrance facade, lots of Christmas
characters, seasonal photo ops and selfie stations,

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Christmas cocktails, a giant gingerbread house, and the Christmas Tree Stroll and

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more. It's fifty thousand square feet
of indoor and outdoor heated space. And

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what's interesting about this is they're taking
the asset, which is the Factory of

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Terror, like the big asset,
and they're adding to it new new sets

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and new furbishments and then there so
it's like mixed, so they're re using

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stuff like their lighting package, and
they're building and their common spaces and their

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queue lines and whatnot. But they
did make a lot of new sets for

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this that Gingerbread House is new,
obviously, the characters are new, the

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costumes are new, and they're trying
to make this a full almost like a

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screen park, but a Christmas version, right. So it is a large

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event, and I actually what's shocked
at how large it was for a year

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one event that just kind of came
out of the gate already a full event

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with a full thing. And if
you go into their website, which we

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will link in the show notes,
you can see they have a map and

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they've listed out the different areas to
make sure everyone knows what's involved. So

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I want to get Scott's take.
The last thing I'm going to add on

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this is that I think this fits
squarely into the same things we were talking

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about with Halloween, which is value
for ticket, perceived value for ticket.

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This isn't just a Christmas event.
This is a Christmas factory where you can

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do at least six different things in
a free form style thing. So I

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think the value popposition for this sounds, at least on its surface, right,

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the marketing of it sounds a lot
higher than a single event at a

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single place, right, Going to
get photos with Santa at the mall versus

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a whole Christmas evening where you can
do all of these different items on this

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list or they have nine items listed
out on here. So tell me,

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Scott, what do you think?
Well? I think that you know,

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here's the challenge that I've found with
Christmas events overall, and certainly standalone pop

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up events Christmas events that happen at
theme parks or zoos. You already have

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a great deal of product there,
so you don't have to rely solely on

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the Christmas product. But with even
some of the larger ones, and some

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of the ones that have been around
for a while, like en Chant in

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various cities, and they really are
basically utilize seing everything they got, everything

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is new, They're not They're not
allowed, They're not able to rely on

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their existing rides or there is existing
attractions or exhibits or habitats. So I

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actually am very I look at Christmas
events with a very different light than I

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look at Halloween events. No pun
intended. I think that excuse me.

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With Christmas events, you know,
obviously people want to say, let's look

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at the lights, we want to
go see pretty Chris, which is great.

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The challenge I have is all too
often that just means looking at the

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same kinds of Christmas lights over and
over and over again in a very large

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space. I can't say whether Ohio
Christmas Factory. It looks like based on

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their map and based on their on
their listing of experiences, et cetera,

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it looks like it's kind of a
lot of the same spread out. But

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then you've got Missus Clause and then
you've got characters, and you've got letters,

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and you've got the bakery, you've
got a magic show, you've got

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a crawl in a kid's fund zone. So these are all things that I

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mean, I have not been,
so I cannot say, but these are

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all things that could just be in
one location. Really, I mean,

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it could be a big open space
that this corner is the kid's play zone

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and there's Missus Claus's Bakery in the
other corner, and so you know,

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for the price point, which is
what twenty four twenty three ninety five for

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adults, is that I think that's
about right something like that. I'm not

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looking at the website, I don't
know, but yes, it's a twenty

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three ninety five per person for general
and then kids are eighteen ninety five before

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four pm, Yeah, it does, it's more after four pm. It

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doesn't sound it doesn't sound outrageous.
In fact, I think it's it's a

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very fair price to in consideration of
what else is being offered in various markets

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around the around the country. But
I think to think of it as a

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full Christmas night is probably a little
on the aggressive side, because what I'm

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seeing is they have one show,
they have a play area, and they

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have a bar, and then they
have a light show. But you know,

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as much as I love as much
as I love Christmas, as much

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as I love Christmas light shows,
a fifteen minute Christmas light show, after

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the first five minutes max, you're
gonna be done. It'll be like,

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okay, let's go inside now,
or let's let's do something else. And

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again, I'm not trying to slander
the event because I've not seen it.

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I'm just speaking in general generalizations and
certainly mistakes that I've made when I do

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Christmas events is you know, I
get something that I'm really excited about,

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and I make it just too long
for anybody who's not as excited as I

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am. So so I've had to
I've had to think it's better to do

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short hits in multi and expand the
different kinds of things that are offered as

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opposed to one long light show,
song and dance show, whatever, because

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there's a lot of other things to
see. I also strongly would recommend to

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pretty much anybody who's doing Christmas is
make certain that if you are doing Christmas

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that you want people to walk around
in, make sure that you pick different

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color schemes for each area so that
it has a visual sense of here's something

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different, here's something new. And
again, the Christmas Factory may be doing

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this. I do not know.
I cannot speak. I'm just going by

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what I've seen on the website and
the photos that I've seen, and it

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all kind of looks like your basic
primary color scheme. It looks like Christmas

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lights, which is lovely, but
I'm not sure it's a full evening.

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So as long as you manage your
expectations, I think you're fine. But

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as you say, they are doing
exactly what we suggest as far as reutilizing

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assets, They're utilizing their power distribution, they're reutilizing their location. This is

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something that I'm sure was probably in
the process of being installed during the during

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the actual hot season. I was
thinking that and then you just turn the

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lights on. You know, it's
it's not too different from and it's it's

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a little closer. Uh. For
the Indianapoliszoo, for example, what we

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did is we did a topiary garden
of pumpkins. But all the topiaris were

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already lit and ready to go for
Christmas. So all we had to do

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is take the pumpkins off the topiary, turn the lights on, add some

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some different garland using the same hang
points and the same power distribution, and

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we were able to do a quick
changeover. So well, I think Scott

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that you you kind of brought up
a bunch of stuff that I was thinking

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about but didn't mention, which really
is more like the state of competition is

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kind of what I'm thinking when I'm
when I'm hearing you go through all this,

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because I agree with everything you said, and I was just making me

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think about how like this, Well, first of all, this is the

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Ohio Factory of Christmas is in Canton, Ohio. So this isn't like they're

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competing with Universal or Disney. You
know, there are theme parks around of

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course that area, but they're pretty
far and I think for the if you

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think about the state of competition.
I think I agree with you in that

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it looks like they're trying to copy
basically like what you have done and what

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you've worked on at the you know, the Tampa Zoo or any It seems

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like the same stuff you would see
everywhere else, which I feel like is

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more of like a nod to compete, like they're trying to compete in that

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market. And I think that underscores
that if you're going to do something for

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Christmas, it's a competitive market because
everyone is doing something for Like everybody is

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doing something for Christmas. So what
can a haunt do? Because if you

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just open up your haunt and just
a walk through your haunt, but with

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Christmas lights on, the value proposition
to my first point of that is lower

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compared to literally everybody else doing stuff, Like more people do stuff for Christmas

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than Halloween, I would bet,
but don't have the data that would be

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mine. Well, And the thing
is, you know, everybody everybody wants

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to When all of my clients come
to me, not all, When many

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of my clients come to me and
say we're going to do Christmas, the

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thing that they want to lead with
is we want more Christmas lights than anybody

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else. We want more Christmas lights
than anybody else. And my answer is

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we want to be the scariest Scott. You want to be the scariest nights

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and we want to have them.
Well, here's the thing. People can

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drive down well decorated streets. There
are two blocks ye, two blocks a

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two blocks stretch here in Tampa that
you can for free. You can drive

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through and and even some of the
neighborhood. Neighbors in the neighborhood will hand

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out candy canes. There's always someone
playing Santa Claus there and it's free to

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drive through. So you are not
only in competition with all those other charging

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events, you're also in competition with
all of the free events. Christmas lights

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are also something that additional or that
churches will do to raise money. There's

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something that you can do, you
know, shopping malls they want to get

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people in, especially now because brick
and mortar stores are suffering horribly. They

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want to do anything they can to
get people in to see the stuff.

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So you're right, Philip, there
is come petition out there, but it's

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not just competition amongst other theme parks
or or zoos. Or attractions. It's

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now competition even with just neighborhoods that
like to decorate. So I think that

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the unique thing that I think they
have to offer and that I think they

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really need to lean into is the
fact that there is indoor space, the

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fact that it is climate controlled,
because that's you know, that's one of

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the things that being based in Florida, a lot of the folks here don't

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think about when we have to do
stuff further north. You know, we

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had to we had to work when
we when we started doing Indie Zoo,

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we had to really focus in on
everything from what equipment can handle sub freezing

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weather, to how do we costume
things differently? To how do we cast

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things differently to make certain that you
know, can cant how how do we

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how do we make certain that stilt
walkers can always work in an outdoor space,

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you know, if it if there's
sleet and it and it and it

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gets slippery, slippery. We have
to have costumes that don't require still so

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we can still keep these characters out. So, yeah, excuse me.

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I think the thing that that you
have that they have in Ohio that they

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can really lean into is this is
not weather reliant, you know, ye

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excuse me, Yeah, it's just
in I agree with all that. I

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still think though, to your point, there's there's a lot of you know,

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you can still drive around your car, and that's that's I mean,

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I guess if it's snowing too bad
and you can't physically drive your car,

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than sure. But you know,
I think to your point, there's so

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much of the competition. I think
it. I was thinking about this when

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we were putating the list together,
and I'm honestly not sure really what I

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would recommend someone to do, because
there's like there's so much competition it almost

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becomes like if you're not doing something
for Christmas, it almost stands out.

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It's almost like and I'm not even
sure if there's enough demand. I mean,

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maybe there is. I guess we
don't know yet. I guess the

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answer is like, well know,
I mean, look at retail I mean

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everyone's been trying to predict how this
season is going to go retailers attractions,

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so we don't know. And I
guess we'll find out whether the there was

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too much supply for the demand of
people doing things. But we'll give a

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few more examples here. The next
example that's in the same vein of that

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is that the ski themed Christmas pop
up bar opening in Westland, and that's

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actually hush So it's the same type
of concept where Hushmun Attraction has their legendary

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bar that they have that's attached to
the Haunt. It's the same building,

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it's just on one side of the
building and the legendary bar normally is open

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year round, but for Christmas they
have redecorated it and re themed it and

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put a new sign out and then
the whole overlay of it to turn it

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into a Christmas pop up experience,
which does not involve actrain at all.

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It's like it's a Christmas experience and
they've extended it into part of the Haunt

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where they've put snow, a snow
machine and Christmas trees in to make a

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little bit of a walk around dying
area. I think it's the same exact

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everything we talked about applies for the
most part to this. I think the

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thing they're leaning into which is unique
is the alcohol. You know. I

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mean, you can go and drink
at a friend's place, but at least

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here I think you can have cocktails
that hopefully are good that are like you

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know that. You know that,
you know you're going into an establishment where

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you can purchase cocktails, and it's
going to be a themed and decorated experience

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for you to get Christmas themed cocktails. But there's at least a dozen,

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if not more pop up bars,
you know, within the metro area that

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they are competing in. You know
that, and I think it's a great

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idea that this one's turned into a
Christmas pop up bar. But then it's

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like, now you're in competing with
all the other Christmas pop up bars well,

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and it's interesting because I think that
goes back to something that we've said

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a couple of times on the show, and that is when you're when you're

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looking to do something like this,
especially for the first time, don't try

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to replicate what is successful in your
area. Try to find what hasn't been

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done yet, and and try to
find something that doesn't directly compete but rather

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compliments what's being done. And you
know, as you say, there there

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are plenty of pop up bars,
and it even maybe something as subtle as

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you know, I love the fact
that it's ski lodge themed. To me,

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that's a very specific that's not just
Christmas throw up. That is,

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we're doing a ski lodge theme,
which I think is also very wise considering

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what I've seen of the of the
actual existing decor of the bar. To

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it's it's an easy, yeah,
it's an easy overlay to make it,

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to make it a ski lodge.
I mean an example here in Tampa,

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for example, that that I have
worked on in the past but did not

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work on this year, and they've
changed their They've changed their their look significantly,

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and that is Sparkman Wharf. Sparkman
Wharf doesn't want to be traditional Christmas.

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They want to be anything but traditional
Christmas. Uh, they want to

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be Florida Christmas. And so you
know, they're they're Santa Is in Bermuda

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shorts and and a points out of
Hawaiian shirt. They do have a snow

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machine, but it's clearly a snow
machine. They make it very clear that

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it's it's not really snowing, it's
it's snowing for Florida, you know.

230
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And they're they have illuminated stilt walkers, and and it's all about bringing families

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out so that the retailers and the
restaurants can have some additional oomph during the

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holiday season and there's no there's there
is a small stage, there is some

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small entertainment that goes on there,
but there is no there's no charge for

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it. It's all it's all free
to come out. But it's just to

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help to bring people out for the
for the the culinary and merchandise side.

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So yeah, I think the idea
from a consumer standpoint, and I don't

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know whether this is shifted or not, but I think the idea from a

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consumer standpoint is they're willing to pay
for Halloween, but Christmas they expect to

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be either included in the general admission
price if it's a theme park or an

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attraction, or it's something that is
free where you can go and enjoy it.

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But then there are up charges for
additional things. Now there isn't.

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Like I said I mentioned in Chant
earlier in Chant and there's Jollywood Jollywood Knights

243
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Art. Yeah, and those are
and those are all I mean, those

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are all ticketed events. Those are
all separate ticket It's almost like Disney World

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is trying to charge for all of
Christmas basically. Yeah. Yeah, And

246
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and you know it's it's been a
discussion. It's it was a discussion back

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in the dark ages. When we
first started doing Christmas Town at Bush Tampa,

248
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it has it has never been a
discussion for for Indie Zoo, They've

249
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always just made it part of a
mix in. So, you know,

250
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it's it's one of those you have
to be very careful when it comes to

251
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Christmas. People don't want to houge
at Christmas because they're already spending enough on

252
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already spending enough on pres and travel
and food, and you know, it's

253
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it's it can be overwhelming. Now. The interesting thing is I think that

254
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like in certain cities like here in
Tampa, for example, young young urban

255
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families will go to Sparkman Wharf,
Young young families who have grandma and grandpa

256
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in but still have very small children
will go to Zoo Tampa. Teens and

257
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tweens will go to Bush Gardens.
So there's each of these The big what

258
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I consider the big players when it
comes to Christmas, have their own target

259
00:18:36.400 --> 00:18:40.160
demo. Yes there's overlap, there's
complete overlap, but I think they've they've

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been very wise in looking at what
the different the different demographics are and you

261
00:18:45.599 --> 00:18:48.519
know, yes, you have to
you have to have Christmas lights of some

262
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sort, holiday lights, even space
Center Houston, which does not buy into

263
00:18:55.400 --> 00:18:57.200
Christmas at all, does not call
it a Christmas event. They have Galaxy

264
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Lights, which is all about light
and color and splashiness. So no matter

265
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what your religious background is, you
can go and enjoy this festival in the

266
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winter season. Yeah, well that's
a perfect segue. I was actually gonna

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mention speaking of the different demographics,
there are plenty of. The next bucket

268
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over is plenty of like I want
to call it, like holiday bleed,

269
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but basically stuff that isn't a full
Christmas overlay. So this is where you're

270
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gonna get all of your holiday haunts, basically in your crampus and all that

271
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kind of stuff. And there's so
many examples. We're tracking over one hundred

272
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haunted houses that are opening the season
on our website and we just keep getting

273
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more that kept being emailed over to
us. But some of the ones I

274
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thought were most interesting is six Flags
Over Texas has reopened one of their haunted

275
00:19:55.039 --> 00:19:57.839
houses. They did a very light
overlay, I would say to it,

276
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making it crampus holiday House of horrors, but it is open every night.

277
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The park is open. Started on
November nineteenth, going through December thirty.

278
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First you can go and do the
Haunted House, and it is you do

279
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have to buy a ticket, so
it's an up charge ticket for it to

280
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go through it, but it's an
intance. We just talked about how Halloween

281
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might change since after the merger,
and I think this is I think this

282
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is very interesting to watch because there's
a lot of Six Flags parks and they

283
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all have assets, right and if
they could just put some Christmas lights up

284
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and run it through, it could
be an interesting experiment. They also did

285
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announce Six Flags also announced at the
around the same time that the Haunt opened,

286
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they announced the return of screen Break, which was the basically opening Haunted

287
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Houses for spring Break in March.
It's coming back March sixteenth. So if

288
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you look at these two things now, you're like, okay, well this

289
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Haunted House is open from November through
December another almost two months almost, and

290
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then in just a few months then
so they're going to open for a screen

291
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Break as well. So it's uh, I thought this kind of bleeding.

292
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You see, the Haunted House is
doing the you know, the same thing

293
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opening for cramp as whatnot. But
I think the more interesting story is looking

294
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at the Six Flags park just in
light of the merger and of what this

295
00:21:19.400 --> 00:21:22.839
potentially mean now that there are so
many six Flags parks, and if this

296
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is a test somewhere and suddenly it
becomes every six Flags is opening a Christmas

297
00:21:27.720 --> 00:21:30.640
Haunt in the next season, that's
I don't know, that'd be interesting.

298
00:21:30.720 --> 00:21:34.160
Well, I think a Christmas haunt, a spring break haunt. We've talked

299
00:21:34.160 --> 00:21:37.799
about, you know, in the
on the haunt side, in the hant

300
00:21:37.799 --> 00:21:42.079
industry, we've talked about finding ways
to do you know, haunting around the

301
00:21:42.119 --> 00:21:48.920
haunting around the calendar for years and
and now people like six Flags are starting

302
00:21:48.920 --> 00:21:52.400
to test that, they're starting to
see if that's going to work. I

303
00:21:52.119 --> 00:21:56.839
have strong confidence that it will.
I think that as long as they create

304
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enough enough change so that it's worthwhile
seeing it every time, I think that's

305
00:22:07.559 --> 00:22:10.920
I think it's an interesting choice and
we'll see. Now. The other thing

306
00:22:10.960 --> 00:22:15.480
we have taken into consideration is not
not only will it will people go and

307
00:22:15.519 --> 00:22:19.440
see the Crampus House when it's a
Christmas time or the Screen break House when

308
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it's springtime, but will this take
away from the Halloween numbers? Is it

309
00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:30.039
going to reduce those numbers or is
it just going to continue to build the

310
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brand. That's what I want to
watch. I want to see if you

311
00:22:32.839 --> 00:22:34.640
know they're they're robbing, they're rob
they're taking money out of one pocket to

312
00:22:34.640 --> 00:22:38.759
put it in another, and that
may be exactly what they want to do

313
00:22:38.839 --> 00:22:44.119
so that they can make the experience
at Halloween better because their attendance numbers go

314
00:22:44.200 --> 00:22:47.119
down, so they can create a
better experience. But they're not losing any

315
00:22:47.200 --> 00:22:51.240
money on the annual basis. And
they're also spreading out that you know,

316
00:22:51.440 --> 00:22:55.039
you've heard me use the phrase thirteenth
month. They're spreading out that thirteenth month

317
00:22:55.680 --> 00:22:59.920
over a longer period of time so
that they don't just get that big chunk

318
00:22:59.920 --> 00:23:03.839
of money at one time. I
agree with all that, and I think

319
00:23:03.880 --> 00:23:07.279
it's something that we should all think
about for our attractions as well. Also,

320
00:23:07.440 --> 00:23:11.240
I think to point out there's a
demographic and now apparently you know,

321
00:23:11.319 --> 00:23:17.400
in several markets, there's a big
enough demographic that's interested in horror that that

322
00:23:17.519 --> 00:23:21.960
you could serve that with something like
this which is you know, which is?

323
00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:26.240
Which is? I think didn't maybe
exist as much before this big of

324
00:23:26.279 --> 00:23:32.440
a market of for for horror attendance, And I do think it's it's worth

325
00:23:32.680 --> 00:23:36.880
watching to see how that's going to
go, to figure out if it's something

326
00:23:36.920 --> 00:23:40.559
you could expand or you know,
or supplement in some way. And then

327
00:23:40.880 --> 00:23:44.720
also the competition there's not you know, I mean, it's it's Christmas time.

328
00:23:45.240 --> 00:23:47.240
There's so much less I was just
thinking about this the other day.

329
00:23:47.240 --> 00:23:49.599
There's so much less competition, Like
you know, normally, if you have

330
00:23:49.640 --> 00:23:52.599
to like we just we talked about
this last Holloway season. If you're having

331
00:23:52.599 --> 00:23:56.160
to choose what you're gonna do for
the holidays, and then it comes down

332
00:23:56.160 --> 00:24:00.920
to choosing six Flags over Universal,
and you can afford Universal, you're probably

333
00:24:00.960 --> 00:24:07.000
gonna choose Universal. But there's no
other choice in this case if you're going

334
00:24:07.039 --> 00:24:10.400
to if you want to do anything
yet exactly yet his thing, but for

335
00:24:10.519 --> 00:24:15.000
screen break up at six Flags Magic
Mountain. I remember last season they got

336
00:24:15.039 --> 00:24:19.160
all the talent, everybody, all
the talented individuals from the whole Socau region

337
00:24:19.240 --> 00:24:22.960
went to work there because it was
the only haunt thing open at that time,

338
00:24:23.119 --> 00:24:27.079
right, So you know, and
well, they may be they may

339
00:24:27.119 --> 00:24:30.759
be on the on the forefront of
this of this shift. If they're at

340
00:24:30.799 --> 00:24:33.839
the front of the wave, there's
there, they'll have some they'll have at

341
00:24:33.920 --> 00:24:37.759
least one or two years where they're
not there's not going to be any competition,

342
00:24:37.400 --> 00:24:41.039
yep, yep. I think the
last bucket is just something I've noticed

343
00:24:41.079 --> 00:24:47.799
recently which has been really just uh
places that are opening up I would say,

344
00:24:47.799 --> 00:24:51.960
almost normal shows, but just kind
of labeling them as a holiday type

345
00:24:51.960 --> 00:24:56.039
of experience, which again down to
the pop up thing. I mean I

346
00:24:56.039 --> 00:25:02.200
I recently went down to a Nightmare
Cafe which is next to the Nightmare Toys

347
00:25:02.200 --> 00:25:04.920
in Vegas, and they have a
new you know, like a new show

348
00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:08.200
for the holidays, but it's not
a holiday show at all. It's just

349
00:25:08.200 --> 00:25:11.440
like it's just a new show,
but they're opening it up for the holiday

350
00:25:11.480 --> 00:25:14.799
season, which I thought was an
interesting take on the challenge. The challenge

351
00:25:14.839 --> 00:25:18.440
being what do we do for the
holidays when all this other stuff is happening.

352
00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:22.640
Well, we don't need to actually
do anything for like like themed for

353
00:25:22.680 --> 00:25:26.039
the holidays. We could just do
something that opens during the holidays, you

354
00:25:26.079 --> 00:25:30.000
know, And the same thing with
I went down to the pop up experience

355
00:25:30.079 --> 00:25:40.240
for the Sassafras Salon which is in
downtown Los Angeles, and it's it's basically

356
00:25:40.880 --> 00:25:44.640
the same It's a Sinister Salon,
which is again it's horror theme, so

357
00:25:44.640 --> 00:25:48.599
there's burlesque and performers and cocktails and
whatnot. But the way they themed it

358
00:25:48.680 --> 00:25:52.599
was just by adding the Grampus animatronics, so it becomes like Night of the

359
00:25:52.599 --> 00:25:56.160
Crampus, but it's the same show
otherwise, you know, it's just it's

360
00:25:56.240 --> 00:26:00.480
just kind of the holiday timing version
of it. So I think that adds

361
00:26:00.519 --> 00:26:03.680
another layer of the to the competition, which is just places that are just

362
00:26:03.720 --> 00:26:11.039
opening new shows or new experiences or
new what have you during the holiday season

363
00:26:11.039 --> 00:26:12.279
to capture some of that traffic.
Right Well, I mean, you know,

364
00:26:12.319 --> 00:26:18.079
we were talking talking about the the
Christmas overlay. In my neighborhood.

365
00:26:18.599 --> 00:26:22.960
There is a i'll call it a
hipster bar called the Independent Bar and Cafe.

366
00:26:22.440 --> 00:26:27.440
And this this coming Tuesday, December
fifth, based on when we were

367
00:26:27.440 --> 00:26:33.440
recording, they are doing Crampus Knocked. They're actually in the bar they're doing

368
00:26:34.240 --> 00:26:38.799
they're having a Crampus appearance. It
is clearly not for children. It is

369
00:26:40.400 --> 00:26:47.400
for people of drinking age, and
they are working with other local shops and

370
00:26:47.519 --> 00:26:52.960
vendors. There's a a independent record
store that's that's nearby. There's a small

371
00:26:52.960 --> 00:26:59.359
boutiqui arts kind of shop, and
they're they're doing a Crampus market, so

372
00:26:59.440 --> 00:27:02.799
to speak, on a Tuesday night. I'm sure it is just a test.

373
00:27:03.960 --> 00:27:06.799
I unfortunately don't think I'm going to
get a chance to get over there

374
00:27:06.799 --> 00:27:08.880
and see it. But if I
do, I will I will share my

375
00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:15.240
thoughts. But again, it's a
It is an independent bar literally called the

376
00:27:15.240 --> 00:27:18.880
Independent, and they're they're not even
going to try to compete with Santa Claus.

377
00:27:18.880 --> 00:27:22.319
They're going to go straight into Grampus
because they think it's something that is

378
00:27:22.400 --> 00:27:26.720
more adult themed. And really,
all it's going to take them to do

379
00:27:26.799 --> 00:27:30.640
is they'll change their lighting, they'll
change their music, they'll add a costume,

380
00:27:30.920 --> 00:27:34.279
they'll add a character in costume,
add some some, change the names

381
00:27:34.319 --> 00:27:41.359
of a couple drinks, and invite
their their compatriots to come in and sell

382
00:27:41.359 --> 00:27:45.799
stuff. You know, I think
that this is I think this is the

383
00:27:45.880 --> 00:27:49.200
tip of the iceberg, and those
organizations that are doing it now I think

384
00:27:49.319 --> 00:27:52.880
are going to be the first wave
to come through. And like we just

385
00:27:52.920 --> 00:27:56.640
said, I think that will help
reduce the competition. I don't know whether

386
00:27:56.640 --> 00:28:00.720
it'll give them accurate data because there's
no competition yet. But there will be

387
00:28:02.240 --> 00:28:07.960
shortly if it works. Who knows, Yeah, this tip of the candy

388
00:28:07.960 --> 00:28:10.920
cane, maybe yes, yes,
because because you know when you when you

389
00:28:11.000 --> 00:28:11.799
eat a candy can, if if
you don't bite it, if you just

390
00:28:11.799 --> 00:28:15.839
suck and it gets really pointy.
So it's just the tip of the candy

391
00:28:15.880 --> 00:28:19.640
cane and then you can stab people
with That's right, But it's well,

392
00:28:19.759 --> 00:28:22.519
I just I just worry this whole
time. I think it comes back to

393
00:28:22.519 --> 00:28:26.279
what we talked about, which is
the execution, and I just worry just

394
00:28:26.400 --> 00:28:29.559
it just feels so similar to me
with all the other trends that we've lived

395
00:28:29.599 --> 00:28:33.599
through, even just in during recording
the show, which was VR and AR

396
00:28:33.839 --> 00:28:37.599
and which I think is still happening. I guess meta verses around there somewhere

397
00:28:37.240 --> 00:28:42.799
immersive experiences that just every day,
yeah, being paid for back right,

398
00:28:42.839 --> 00:28:47.480
and the just I just feel like
it comes down to the execution and the

399
00:28:48.599 --> 00:28:51.079
like even escape rooms and all that. I mean, remember the escape rooms

400
00:28:51.200 --> 00:28:53.799
got that huge bubble and then you
know, I just think that's going to

401
00:28:53.839 --> 00:28:57.200
be the problem is that I think
a lot of the places are not thinking

402
00:28:57.240 --> 00:29:03.759
about their differentiator because worried about putting
something out on the market to capture the

403
00:29:03.799 --> 00:29:07.039
market, which is fine, but
it's also like it's not going to stay

404
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competitive per se. Sure, you
know, yeah, I think that if

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you're going to look at a business
plan right now, you look at and

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you look at it in two phases. How do we capture the market,

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and then how do we sustain the
market? You know? Because yes,

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anything that's new and fresh and wonderful
is huge when it first comes out,

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and then other people start to replicate
it and you become less special and they've

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already done what you've already offered.
So now you have to figure out how

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do I continue to sustain this model. Now, I will say that with

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Christmas, one of the cool things
about Christmas versus Halloween or any other seasonal

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event, Christmas relies greatly on tradition. So the moment you can get locked

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into a family tradition, they're going
to come really whether you change anything or

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not. And I've used this example
many many times when I've taught seminars on

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this. The Goodman Theater in Chicago
does a Christmas carol, and people go

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see the Christmas carol. It's either
the Christmas carol or a nutcracker. They

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go to one or the other.
It is a family tradition. They have

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done it for generations and they will
continue to do it for generations. So

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you know, it's one of those
How do we find a way to tie

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into a tradition and will crampus have
that same foothold as a family tradition?

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I don't know. But how can
you make it such that people go back

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and look at their photos and go, oh, this was the year that

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we This was twenty three when we
did this, and it's now twenty seven

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and we've got all these other photos
for every single year. So if you're

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looking long term, try to figure
out a way to make it something that

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is repeatable because it becomes a tradition, not because it changes radically because that

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becomes very expensive, but because there's
enough change and that it becomes a tradition

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that people want to go back to
a year after year after year. So

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I guess what I'm saying is when
you get people in the door, make

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sure they're having a good time.
That's what it really boils down. To

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make sure it's something that they want
to bring their families back, want to

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bring their children back and their grandchildren
back, and If we keep talking,

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we'll have grandchildren before this show is
over, because we are out of time

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and so on. Behalf of Philip
Bernandez with Gantam Lighting and the Hunted Attraction

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Network, and myself Scott Swinston with
Scott Swinson Creative Development. We hope you've

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enjoyed our little pop up discussion about
the holidays, and we will see you

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next week here on Green Tag Theme
Park in thirty