One of the most important, yet often overlooked, aspects of opening an entertainment facility is the grand opening and the marketing preparation surrounding this opening. This same philosophy applies to existing entertainment venues that are adding new attractions.

After years of hard work, and investment of countless time and money, owners are very focused on getting the doors open and the facility operational. Too often, new operators forget about the PR and marketing side of the business! The question is: how do you get the local community excited about the new business so that people are flocking to the doors right when you open?

Next Door Escapes proactively considered the marketing and PR side of their grand opening long before they officially opened. They worked with us to execute our new Marketing Launch Package, and the results were astonishing. They received so much publicity and attention that they quickly sold out their opening week and actually ended up opening earlier than anticipated in order to satisfy the immense customer demand.

Keli Miller, owner of Next Door, sat down with us in June 2021 to reflect on the process of opening her business. Here’s the story of how we worked with Next Door to promote their business and grab the attention of local media to ultimately help the new business blast off as soon as they opened.

A Family Affair

Next Door Escapes is an entertainment business specializing in escape rooms in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Miller has always been a huge fan of escape rooms. It’s a passion that she shares with her family as well. “I have always loved escape rooms. My family travels and plays escape rooms,” commented Miller.

When Miller decided that she wanted to pursue opening her own business, escape rooms were a logical option to explore. In the Tulsa, Oklahoma area, Miller wanted to bring a unique and fun business to the community. “We started Next Door to bring a really positive escape room experience to Tulsa. The city is really growing up and we wanted our escape rooms to grow up with it.”

Download This Presentation to Learn How Escape Rooms Can Improve Your Attraction Mix

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What Is The Marketing Launch Package?

In 2021, we created the Marketing Launch Package as an additional service to help our clients. The goal was to create a program that utilized the experience and expertise of our team and Kevin Loughery at Prospr Communications. We wanted to create something that helped clients achieve strong revenues from day 1 through public recognition and marketing efforts.

Prospr Communications is a company that specializes in helping brands tell their story. Their goal is to help companies gain media opportunities that reach the right audience for the right reasons.

The Marketing Launch Package is designed to get your message out to everyone in your community, differentiate your business, and get customers in the door. It’s everything you need to get the word out, all in one package.

Prospr Communications crafts a local pitch, builds a media list, proactively reaches out to media outlets, invites media for grand opening events and preview opportunities, creates posts, and monitors story pickup & impressions.

The package also includes professional photography and a 3D tour of your attraction. You can learn more about the Marketing Launch Package here.

Successful Launch

Tulsa is not necessarily a huge market, however Miller understood the potential that the Marketing Launch Package would have on her new business. After deciding to move forward with the new Marketing Launch Package, Miller worked closely with our team and Prospr Communications. The results were impressive.

Several local news channels ran stories about Next Door and Miller herself was on the news a few times as a result of the stories. The stories were so impactful that Next Door actually had someone reach out to them and ask if they could do a marriage proposal at the new business! “We were able to tie that in with our news story as like, ‘Look at this fun thing we can do for you at Next Door!’”

The press release itself was also successful and opened a lot of opportunities for Next Door. Prospr made sure that the PR was very unique to Next Door and included a lot of specific information that would help the new business connect with the local community and draw people in. The initial PR also led to one of the news stations asking if they could do a follow up story, giving further exposure to Next Door.

For one of the stations, the news anchor and videographer actually played one of the escape rooms, and then shared their experience of playing it. “In the news story, she challenged people to ‘Come see if you can do it better than me’ and then several people called Next Door Escapes about that,” explained Miller.

The results of the news stories and press release led to HUGE sales for the business in the first few weeks. The community response was so good that Keli opened up bookings early. “We, about a week and a half early, had to start running rooms because we blew up. We completely booked out Saturday. It was a crazy weekend. I mean, it went smoothly but I had no idea we would have that kind of traffic that fast. I was calling people into work early and staying late all day.”

Even with phenomenal business in the first few weeks, the results of the Marketing Launch Package proved to be impactful long term, too. “We’re still seeing benefits from that press release…we’ve been open for three months now.”

In the end, the Marketing Launch Package generated over 7 million media impressions. With an initial goal of 1-3 million media impressions based on Tulsa’s medium market size (500K-999K residents), the final, total impressions succeeded 238% of the campaign’s high-end goal.

Not surprisingly, when Miller was asked her opinions of Prospr’s work, she only had positive things to say. “They were so great to work with. Communication was phenomenal.”

“A Total Game Changer”

The reactions from customers have been just as positive. Before opening Next Door, Miller identified five competitors in the Tulsa area. Since opening, customers have told Miller directly that they like the Next Door escape rooms better. “We constantly hear like, ‘Oh, you guys are so much more immersive than other rooms that I’ve done,’ or, ‘It’s not just locks and keys everywhere.’ Those puzzles are really unique.”

In all, the Marketing Launch Package is something that Miller highly recommends. “There was such a kickstart at the beginning of our business. It’s a different level of being able to offer things to your guests…I think it was a total game changer.”

In today’s increasingly digital world, the impact of the Launch Package carried over into social media as well. “We hit 400 Facebook likes that week that those news stories went out because people just started talking. If you’re looking for a really straightforward way to get a lot of just gusto, I think it was a no-brainer.”

Experience With Creative Works

Before deciding to work with us on their escape rooms, Next Door and Miller did their due diligence through an extensive research process. During that process, there was a lot of debate about whether to do DIY rooms or use a manufacturer. Even after deciding to work with another company, Miller still spent a lot of time researching the options. The research process took months to complete.

Miller was initially a bit nervous about the prospects of our team building all the rooms and then dropping them right into their space, ready to go. But, her worries were soon relieved. “That’s exactly what happened. It was so seamless. The communication was on point…I genuinely cannot brag on the Creative Works experience enough.”

Miller was also specifically impressed with the added value of the Launch Package and how we over delivered on expectations. “You get what you pay for. There’s so much value added here that was beyond what I even think I understood in those beginning calls. I have had such a positive experience working with this team.”

To learn more about how our escape rooms can generate revenue and bring in new customers, click here. To learn more about our PR and Marketing services, click here.