Thursday 17 December 2009

What if Steve Jobs & Disney designed indoor play centres?

What if your budget was limitless, who would you ask to design your indoor play centre?

Well, if your family fortunes survey asked 100 people, most people would likely agree that Steve Jobs (Apple / Pixar) and the Disney team would "probably design the best play experiences in the world".

Alas, we don't have a magic wand (or an infinite budget) but this article about the redesign (more re-imagining) of Disney stores might give you a few clues and ideas as to what your design dream team might come up with:

"Disney Stores, which the media giant is considering rebranding Imagination Park, will become more akin to cozy entertainment hubs. The chain’s traditional approach of displaying row after row of toys and apparel geared to Disney franchises will be given a high-tech makeover and incorporated into a new array of recreational activities. The goal is to make children clamor to visit the stores and stay longer, perhaps bolstering sales as a result."

"Cozy entertainment hubs"; what an opportunity that can be replicated by entrepreneurs starting and operating soft play centres; ironically, the main concern of Disney executives "was that the concept was so lavish that parents would try to use the stores as day care centers," what a great problem to have!

We have talked frequently in blogs and our starting a play centre seminars about key trends that represent significant opportunities for play centre operators:

- The potential of social media in play centres to connect people and grow revenues

- Soft play centres becoming a third place, a family entertainment hub and meeting place within the community

- Designing indoor play experiences that engage all senses and move beyond reliance on soft play equipment that primarily provides a physical play experience

Disney seems to agree and with typical flair, they are bringing a new level of design thinking from which we can learn:

"Theaters will allow children to watch film clips of their own selection, participate in karaoke contests or chat live with Disney Channel stars via satellite. Computer chips embedded in packaging will activate hidden features. Walk by a “magic mirror” while holding a Princess tiara, for instance, and Cinderella might appear and say something to you.

It’s your birthday? With the push of a button, eight 13-foot-tall Lucite trees will crackle with video-projected fireworks and sound. There will be a scent component; if a clip from Disney’s coming “A Christmas Carol” is playing in the theater, the whole store might suddenly be made to smell like a Christmas tree."

These ideas are not only inspirational in terms of play / experience design, it is also exciting that the decreasing cost of technology means that play providers can replicate these features at reasonable cost; we are now only limited by convention and imagination.

Finally, if you are developing a business plan for your soft play area, may I suggest you ask, "how can I learn from Disney and complement the traditional sources of income for play centres (entrance, food, parties)"?

- Can I develop my own brand and characters to sell merchandise or would it be better to work with a recognised brand such as Disney?

- Why not sell toys (via a cooperative website or association with a local toy shop)?

- Why not allow parents to book holidays whilst their children play (another opportunity to use Twitter / social media in your play centre)?

- What if I started a book club and established an affiliate scheme with Amazon or a children's book store?

I have been asking these questions since it became clear that play centres could be at the centre of the combined "on-line / off-line" era. I am still not sure why so few people are taking the initiative; if Steve Jobs or Disney were sitting alongside you, what would they be asking?

ShareAndComparePlay.com is the Indoor Play Supplier Comparison Website that Saves Play Operators £10,000s. The only source of independent reviews on every Supplier to the Play Industry, ShareAndComparePlay.com works to revolutionise the Play Experience for Children and to enable Businesses to profitably understand and meet the future needs of Families.

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Wednesday 16 December 2009

Honesty box for independent "starting a soft play centre" seminars

Since 2007 when Radiohead bravely experimented with an honesty system to sell “In Rainbows,” I have been fascinated how such economic initiatives revolutionise business models, influence demand and propagate ideas.

As you know, we like our experiments (Free influenced the founding of our Company) and trust our community so it seemed an interesting (and scary) idea to use an honesty system in the pricing of our How to Start a Soft Play Centre seminars to demonstrate the value of spending a day with us in January.

According to Wikipedia, an honesty system is:

“a philosophical way of running a variety of endeavours based on trust, honour, and honesty…granting freedom from customary surveillance…with the understanding that those who are so freed will be bound by their honour … not (to) abuse the trust placed in them.”

Although we know our seminars to be extremely popular and valuable (you can read feedback here), the challenge we face in fully adopting a fully fledged honesty box system is that unlike Radiohead, we have released no albums (believe me, that is a good thing) and unless you have attended our seminars (where capacity is limited to fifteen) you have no way of measuring value in advance.

Therefore, reflecting the principles of trust, value and honour in pricing the seminar became the most important considerations. After much thought, we decided to maintain the current price but at the end of the seminar, ask attendees to value the day they shared with us. If they think the value of the information we share is not worth £100 (+ VAT), we will refund the difference; this does not cover failure to attend where we offer alternative dates. Don’t worry, if you join us and value the day at more than £100, we will not ask you to pay more (unless you really really want to).

Like all experiments, we can’t predict the outcome but we hope this shows our confidence in the value of the information we share, the trust we place in the users of our website and those attending our seminars; this also hopefully makes it even easier to get your hands on all the independent information you need when starting a soft play centre.

Ultimately, we also hope that by again trying something new and risky, we inspire and / or encourage soft play suppliers and indoor play centre operators to experiment with business models and adopt ideas from outside the indoor play industry.

As always, our future is in your hands…over to you.

ShareAndComparePlay.com is the Indoor Play Supplier Comparison Website that Saves Play Operators £10,000s. The only source of independent reviews on every Supplier to the Play Industry, ShareAndComparePlay.com works to revolutionise the Play Experience for Children and to enable Businesses to profitably understand and meet the future needs of Families.

Follow us at Twitter.com/shareandcompare or (Un)subscribe to our Blog by e-mailing us.

Monday 14 December 2009

Now we all have the power; "Yes sir/madam, of course"

Leading and working in transparent times is challenging and even scary to some; however, this same risk offers untold possibilities as we discussed in "Twitter in Play".

Each day, we encourage soft play suppliers and other organisations to open their business to social media and in the words of Seth Godin, lead with their glass jaw.

Once again, Seth has written a concise insightful note for leaders in transparent times who are worrying and planning rather than doing, listening and evolving; an excerpt:

When your staff sees how much power you've given random consumers, they'll freak. And then, magically, they'll start treating customers differently, because maybe, just maybe, this customer is the one who's going to use the power. Suddenly, the answer to, "do you know who I am!!" is, "yes sire, forgive me."

Social media and transparency, jump in and see what happens.

ShareAndComparePlay.com is the Indoor Play Supplier Comparison Website that Saves Play Operators £10,000s. The only source of independent reviews on every Supplier to the Play Industry, ShareAndComparePlay.com works to revolutionise the Play Experience for Children and to enable Businesses to profitably understand and meet the future needs of Families.

Follow us at Twitter.com/shareandcompare or (Un)subscribe to our Blog by e-mailing us.

Wednesday 9 December 2009

Why is play not all aflutter about Twitter?

Depending on who you believe, Twitter is either:

1. “A real-time short messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices”
Twitter

2. “A playground for imbeciles, skeevy marketers, D-list celebrity half-wits, and pathetic attention seekers.”

3. “A tool for connecting people with people and people with information; a tool that at its highest manifestation can change lives and empower people to change the world”

Whatever your thoughts, you have likely heard about Twitter (we have been presenting on Social Marketing in play for almost twelve months) but as of yet, the play industry has yet to embrace Twitter or Social Marketing to reach anywhere near its potential.

Let’s go back to basics and remove the distraction of technology and hype.

Organisations exist to create products, services and experiences so valued by people that they are willing to exchange their time, effort and money to benefit.

In the case of Play, we are asking parents to trust that we are creating and providing valuable experiences for the most precious of people who cannot fully articulate their thoughts and needs whilst the impact of the experience may not be felt for many years.

As the indoor play centres we design, build and operate impact children for the rest of their lives, is it not our responsibility to figure out new ways to create value; to observe and listen to customers, sharing information and collaborating to invest in the play experiences of the future?

Today, technology enables us to listen and observe children and parents, to gather, analyse and utilise information so that we can better provide transformational (play) experiences and yet we choose to ignore the opportunity; why?

There are a woefully small number of soft play suppliers (three to my knowledge; as it happens, the same three suppliers that have embraced our website / transparency) and a relatively small number of play operators that use Social Media to exchange information with (prospective) customers and the broader community.

Furthermore, those organisations that use Twitter et al waste the valuable attention of their customers by talking solely about their business. This is like being the guy at a party who continually talks about himself rather than genuinely being interested in others.

Just because you are being ignorant using Twitter rather than in person, doesn’t make those that just talk about themselves any less of an ass.

In terms of opportunity, the potential of Social Media in play is infinite. To get the ball rolling, here are three simple opportunities where Twitter and / or Facebook can be used by play centres:

• This prototype toy for kids sends Tweets to parents to say what the child has been playing with. Why can’t we use a similar principle to gather information as to what children use and like on indoor play equipment (so we can track which events they like rather than us guessing)? Why can’t we communicate this to parents on a big screen so they can “see” what their child is doing?

• Weather often equals a busy play centre and yet it is difficult to predict either. Why not incentivise customers to use Twitter to let you know if and when they will be visiting so that you can adjust staffing accordingly? A better service for customers and more profit for play centres.

• Why not establish a social network around your play centre so that parents can exchange information on parenting and then meet at your play centre when they like; if you can facilitate new connections, you will win (and so will your customers)

Whether you believe Twitter is for “imbeciles…/…half-wits”, has the potential to change the world or somewhere in between, in coming weeks we hope to persuade of the potential of social media to provide additional value to customers of play providers / suppliers and significantly grow the value of the play industry.

In the meantime, can we persuade you to take the first step of visiting Twitter and registering your name? 5 minutes could change your life, or at least, your business.

ShareAndComparePlay.com is the Indoor Play Supplier Comparison Website that Saves Play Operators £10,000s. The only source of independent reviews on every Supplier to the Play Industry, ShareAndComparePlay.com works to revolutionise the Play Experience for Children and to enable Businesses to profitably understand and meet the future needs of Families.

Follow us at Twitter.com/shareandcompare or (Un)subscribe to our Blog by e-mailing us.

Tuesday 1 December 2009

What we can learn from Walt Disney...(and thanks Paul)

In September 2001 whilst we were at Disney World, my wife bought me a paperweight engraved with this quotation by Walt Disney:

“You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful place in the world…but it requires people to make the dreams a reality”

In short, business is all about people.

This valuable message is one that I have carried with me for many years; business is so much easier when you respect and trust the talents of others, enjoy their company and share a common purpose.

I write this blog at this moment because ShareAndComparePlay.com will soon be losing its Managing Director, Paul Smith.

I have been friends with Paul for many years and we started our first business together in 2002, since then we have started two companies, sold one and travelled throughout the world looking for innovative products and services to introduce to the UK’s indoor play industry.

When Paul started working with us in March, it was at a time when we were largely unknown with few soft play suppliers aware of the potential to engage with customers and prospective play operators using our website. At this time, Paul was the one leading the way to contact suppliers and spread the word, a thankless and difficult task at the time but one that he pursued with typical vigour, skill and ultimately success.

Although we did what we could to persuade Paul to stay, there are certain things that even we can’t change (like moving Kilkenny to the UK); the reasons for Paul leaving us are twofold.

Firstly, Paul and his family live in Kilkenny, Ireland. If you have ever visited this beautiful place then you will understand why they choose to live there but also be aware that it is two hours from Dublin which makes travelling to the UK and back in a day or two (it involves a 3am start) a challenging affair.

Secondly, the birth of Holly Mae in March means that Paul wishes to be at home a little more than he has been in the last few years and so he will be leaving us to work in Ireland which means he can for the first time in many years, work in the country in which he lives.

We would like to thank Paul for his dedication and leadership during the last eight months and I would like to thank him for working with me for so many years on a journey that has been extremely rewarding; we wish him well in his new role and I will do my best to hold the fort until additional help arrives.

Our dream of a world where children can live their dreams continues and so as Walt said, we require people to work with us (this doesn’t just mean colleagues but also partners and individuals with a passion for play); therefore, the search will begin in the New Year for a new Managing Director capable of continuing the good work started by Paul, there is still lots to do.

Thanks for your support.

ShareAndComparePlay.com is the Indoor Play Supplier Comparison Website that Saves Play Operators £10,000s. The only source of independent reviews on every Supplier to the Play Industry, ShareAndComparePlay.com works to revolutionise the Play Experience for Children and to enable Businesses to profitably understand and meet the future needs of Families.

Follow us at Twitter.com/shareandcompare or (Un)subscribe to our Blog by e-mailing us.