As an escape room owner, you know that safety is a top priority. You want to ensure your players are safe and not put in dangerous situations while playing your game.
With the proper safety equipment, your games are fun for everyone involved. Escape rooms without fire alarms or emergency exits have lower player satisfaction scores. In contrast, those that provide these essential features enjoy customer retention.
The best way to keep customers happy is to provide them with a great experience and safety at all times. Investing in essential safety equipment like fire alarms and emergency exits is highly relevant. It will be easier to maintain high customer satisfaction ratings. Thus, people will return for more and recommend your service, too!
Are Escape Rooms an Amusement Building or Something Else?
An escape room is an amusement building and also a recreation center. As an amusement building, it provides games that need physical exertion to escape the room for fun or a hobby. Also, it tests the mental capability of teams playing inside. The puzzles and riddles serve as their mental exercise.
As a form of escape entertainment and recreation center, the escape room urges players to solve puzzles, find hidden objects, and break codes to escape. Using clues and hints provided, completing the escape game is always possible.
Do Escape rooms undergo safety accreditation checks?
Escape room safety is a priority for escape game owners and operators. Local escape rooms should undergo inspection before opening. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has established standards that regulate the quality of construction, design, maintenance, operation, and personnel qualification of establishments.
Escape room operators should show escape plans while a game is in progress and enforce them if needed—likewise, visible marked emergency exits of the escape room with prominent signage. Game masters must have safety training before playing any role-playing. This is to ensure they know how to escape the game in case of an emergency.
Escape room operators should have documentation. It includes safety plans and emergency procedures. It should be available for inspection or customers at any time when their escape rooms are open to the public.
How do escape room business owners keep players safe in their facilities?
Owners should include safety guidelines in their introductory video and escape room design. Escape rooms have props, puzzles, and clues that can be hazardous when not used properly. So players should be well oriented about the escape room and materials used.
Here are some examples of what you’ll find inside an escape room:
Escape room props, which may contain hazardous materials
Escape room puzzles can cause injuries if not handled correctly or according to the escape game’s instructions.
Escape rooms also keep players safe by providing a clear escape plan and exit strategy for all participants in an emergency.
Whether you’re first designing an escape room or looking to renovate an escape room, you must consider escape room safety for the following reasons:
Escape rooms are highly complex and demand constant attention from players. The escape game experience is immersive and can result in injury if not played with proper care.
Creators design escape games to be as realistic as possible. It often includes escape room puzzles that can cause injuries if not handled correctly or according to the escape game’s instructions.
Escape games require players to solve problems and find clues to escape before time runs out. Players are also responsible for maintaining their safety during these activities by following all safety guidelines at the start of gameplay.
Ways to Keep Players Safe
There are many ways escape rooms keep players safe, but some of the most popular include:
Keep your escape room clean and tidy.
Keep the lighting in your escape room uniform.
Provide a sign outside that clearly states “Escape Room” with an arrow pointing to your building
Make sure you have enough staff on hand for opening and closing time as well as during gameplay hours
Have a safety word or phrase that players can use if they need assistance from staff without interrupting the gameplay.
Consider adding a panic button inside the room so players can alert staff at any point in their experience.
Create rules for yourself about who you will allow into your escape room. Do not let anyone under 18 years old enter. Make sure people understand how intense it is before they start playing, etcetera.
Check all locks and bolts on windows and doors before opening up shop each day to ensure no defects or malfunctions present that could create an unsafe environment for customers coming in to play games with your escape game.
Use two-way mirrors instead of glass when possible – this way, people cannot see what’s happening behind them while still getting natural light into space (glass reflects too much light, which causes glare). It also helps with escape room design because it allows you to observe players and the games played to improve your services further.
If you have a video game or escape room with more than one team playing simultaneously, it’s essential to keep an eye on what is happening in both chambers – make sure there are no physical obstructions that could cause injury.
Red Flags of Unsafe Escape Rooms to Observe
Since the safety of the players in your escape room is your utmost priority. As a business owner, you should identify firsthand the red flags that can make your escape room unsafe to players. Escape room design flaws that are potential safety hazards in the event of an escape game malfunction or injury are:
Escape rooms without a fire extinguisher, first aid kit, emergency exit, etc.
Having too many players at one time for your space (too many people crammed into a small area can result in injuries).
Small moving space of the escape room.
Poorly lit escape rooms
Inadequate escape game design, such as requiring players to carry a heavy object or being in an escape room without access to the outside world.
In Conclusion
Safety is a big concern for escape room players. Your priority should be to provide an environment free of hazards and dangers, making your escape games more appealing to customers who want their safety ensured before they get started on the game. Contact our Cluetivity experts about how we can help you design safe rooms with all types of puzzles in them!
Escape Room Marketing is like a safari. There are countless ways, surprises and disappointments. So that you don’t lose the overview, we have compiled the ultimate Escape Room Marketing Guide for you. It will help you navigate through the marketing jungle and reach your goals.
The Escape Room industry is still relatively young. Nevertheless, new escape rooms have sprung up like mushrooms in recent years. While the competition in small towns and rural areas is often still manageable, the market in many metropolises is saturated.
As a result, companies no longer attract enough players and have to close. But what distinguishes a successful escape room provider? And what should you do in order to be among the winners of the market shakeout? Two aspects are particularly important:
the quality of your missions
the quality of your marketing
Since we hear again and again that escape room operators want to improve their marketing, we have gathered all our experience and compiled what is probably one of the most comprehensive escape room marketing guides on the entire Internet. We hope it will help you and provide inspiration!
Challenges for your Escape Room Marketing
Escape room operators basically have to deal with three problems in their marketing.
even in 2022, there are still many people who do not know what an escape room is.
they must not reveal too many details about their missions because the details are secret.
escape room missions are only played once.
The first problem will probably only be solved over time. No single Escape Game provider can ensure that the awareness of the industry will increase abruptly. But according to the online service Google Trends, more and more people are searching for the term “Escape Rooms”.
“Escape Rooms” search volume on Google Trends
To stay competitive, your Escape Room Marketing should focus on two things: generating new customers and getting existing customers to come back.
Many of the following tips focus on these two areas. But some are more general.
Marketing for Escape Rooms Is Easy to Learn, but Hard to Master
We divide our Escape Room Marketing tips into the following categories:
Digital
Paid
Analogue
B2B
This way, you can go directly to the paragraphs that are most relevant to you.
Before we start, here’s a basic tip: Define your target group. Only if you know who you want to address you can reach your goals.
In the best case, you create so-called personas. Personas are fictitious users of your product. So you think up people you expect as customers in your Escape Room – with age, hobbies, media usage behaviour and so on.
The personas should not only be based on your imagination but on thorough data research. We have already collected some facts and figures about Escape Room players that can help you.
Facts and Figures About Escape Room Players
Example Persona: Eric Enthusiast
Place of residence (results from your location; we take Berlin as an example): Berlin
Age: 28 years
Profession: IT Specialist
Hobbies: sports, video games, series
Media usage: PC Gamer, PC World, The Players Tribune, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Quora, Youtube, Netflix
Experience: has played more than 10 Escape Rooms
Motivation: Fun with friends, challenge, wants to be the smartest and fastest
Biography: Here should be a short paragraph in which you describe Eric Enthusiast in more detail. The more intensively you deal with your personas in advance, the easier it will be for you to address them later with the right offers and marketing measures.
Quote: “For an Escape Room to be fun, the story must be good and the puzzles challenging. For a technically high quality and challenging room, I’m happy to pay a few Euros extra”.
Now that we’ve developed a persona and laid the foundation for our Escape Room Marketing, we’re finally going full steam ahead. Here are 30 Marketing Tips for Escape Room operators.
Digital: Website, Social Media, Influencers
1. Buy All Domains
At the beginning of everything, there is the name of your company and therefore also your internet address. Of course, you want to keep your costs low. However, at some point, it can become important to have all domains secured with your company name.
If you don’t, a competitor can create a fake domain under your name and damage your business. This is prohibited. But by the time you notice it and take action against it, he may already have caused a lot of trouble.
Less dangerous but still annoying is when confusion occurs because of very similar domains. Do you have a .de Internet address, and someone else has the same domain with .com at the end? This can confuse users.
Of course, “all domains” does not really mean all domains, but at least the so-called top-level domains under your name. These include:
your country code top-level domain, for example .de,
.com,
.net,
.biz,
.org and
.info.
You should also distinguish between spellings with and without a hyphen. So you can, for example, secure the domain escape-room-berlin.de and escaperoom-berlin.de as well as escaperoomberlin.de.
You will notice that domains have many variables. If you want to cover all variants, you could end up with 30 internet addresses. But registering a website is not expensive these days: .de domains are available from about 5 Euros a year, .com addresses from about 12 Euros a year.
Look for different offers before you register your domains. The costs vary from provider to provider, sometimes by more than 100 percent. However, this is also due to the fact that some providers only reserve the domain for you and others offer you additional web space.
Important: You only need to buy webspace from one provider, not from all 30!
2. Your Website Is Your Business Card
About 80 percent of all escape room bookings are made online. Accordingly, a modern website with an easy-to-use booking system is very valuable.
Setting up a website is no longer witchcraft these days. With tools such as WordPress or homepage construction kits, as many domain hosters and other portals offer them, almost anyone can create reasonable websites without extensive programming knowledge. However, it will take you some time to get used to the tools.
If you feel unable to create your website on your own, you should consider hiring a professional designer. They can not only help you to get things started, but they can also help you with the next aspect.
In addition to the technical infrastructure, you also need great pictures for your website. If you are a talented photographer and know how to use image editing programs, perfect. If not, you should get professional help. Your website is your business card and should attract your customers immediately.
3. Create Social Media Profiles
Social media like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter can be a very important factor that you should consider as part of your marketing strategy. In many cases, social media profiles are the face of the company – and at least as important as your own website.
Facebook and Instagram are mandatory for escape rooms. Both networks are very visual, so you can score points with good pictures. Facebook also focuses on the interaction with (potential) customers.
When it comes to designing images for social media, you can use a tool like Canva.com. It’s not quite as feature-rich as Photoshop, but it’s free and offers customisable design templates and more. So if you’re not the most creative person, don’t worry.
Special tip: Create your own GIFs! The use of those small, animated graphics is more popular than ever and especially on social networks, GIFs get a lot of attention.
4. Create a Social Media Editorial Plan
Are you still missing ideas about what to post on your social media profiles? No problem! An editorial plan will help you to regularly publish something new.
You should include important annual and action days as well as seasonal and regional events in your editorial plan. This way, you’ll be prepared for events such as Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day, Halloween, carnival, etc. We all know that these holidays, otherwise, always come so unexpected!
For small businesses, the editorial plan can be a calendar or Excel spreadsheet. There you enter the data that is important for you and store the pictures and texts that you want to post. On the day of the event, you can simply copy everything and publish it on your channels.
5. Take Pictures of Your Customers and Post Them
You should also update your social media profiles between holidays and special offers. An easy and common solution in the escape room industry is to post photos of your guests. With their permission, you should be able to choose from several photos each day.
You can even tag the players on the photos, getting them to share the photos on their own channels. This will multiply the reach of your posts because they will be shown to your players’ friends. And reach is an important currency in social media.
But be aware that the organic reach of Facebook posts is very limited. If you have 1,000 fans, usually not even 10% of them will see your posts.
6. Give Away Coupons on Facebook and Instagram
You can improve your range with small raffles. It is simple and effective to draw vouchers via Facebook or Instagram.
To enter the raffle, people must follow your account, link the post and tag the people they want to play the Escape Room with. Boost the post for a few Euros so that more people can see it.
After one week, you announce the winner of the raffle. This way, your post gets attention a second time.
Some say followers won through giveaways are not as valuable as “real” fans. But raffles are a good way to generate coverage and let your account grow a bit.
7. Create Profiles on TripAdvisor and Yelp
Review websites such as TripAdvisor and Yelp have great potential for your Escape Room Marketing – especially if you are in the tourist business.
You can upload your logo and photos, enter your address and contact details, your opening hours and, of course, collect ratings from your guests. The ratings will also be displayed in Google searches. That looks like this:
In addition to TripAdvisor and Yelp, other rating portals may be relevant to you, depending on your location.
8. Collect Ratings on Google and Facebook
As mentioned above, ratings are an important currency in Marketing for Escape Rooms. Because no matter if you are a local or a tourist – most players generally look for escape room ratings before they go to the website of a certain provider. This is your chance to stand out!
For many users, the first port of call is Google search. If there are several escape room providers in your city or area, you want to be the one with the most and best ratings. With positive reviews, you can gain the trust of potential customers.
The reviews can also improve your ranking on Google: The positive reviews will give your business more attention, and your homepage will be clicked more often. The larger number of visitors to your website will again lead to a better ranking on Google.
However, it is not easy to get positive reviews. Even if the players had fun in your rooms, only a few would write a review for you afterward. Read in our next tip on how you can increase your chances.
9. Ask Actively for Reviews
The first step is to actively ask the players for a review. Those who verbally promise to write a review will usually keep that promise.
Your customers will much rather recommend you to others if they themselves have something to gain from it. This could be a discount on their next game, a free drink or whatever.
You can also ask your customers to write a review right after the game. In return, you give them a small gift like stickers, magnets or key rings with your logo on them. You can order the corresponding advertising material in China for little money. If you take a photo of the group after the game, you can also give it to them for free as a thank you.
10. Collect Blogger Reviews
Besides reviews on rating portals, reviews by bloggers can also be valuable. Bloggers often deal intensively with a topic and describe their experiences in great detail. There is hardly a greater nobility for a small business like an escape room (provided the report is positive)!
Additionally, you can hope for a link to your website, which will have a positive effect on your Google ranking.
There are two ways for bloggers to write about you:
your escape room is so good that bloggers write about you of their own free will.
you actively talk to bloggers and invite them to visit you. In technical jargon, this is called Blogger Relations.
11. Check If Influencer Marketing Is an Option for You
In addition to bloggers, connections to other multipliers (influencers) can also be beneficial for you.
Influencers are people who, due to their strong presence and their high reputation in social networks, can be considered for advertising and marketing. Especially in young target groups, they have become very popular in the last years. Most influencers are specialized on Facebook, Instagram or Youtube.
However, there is a lot to consider when doing Influencer Marketing. Many influencers are nowadays organized in networks or agencies so that you can not contact them directly. The more followers an influencer has, the more expensive cooperation usually is.
If you are seriously considering Influencer Marketing, you should think very carefully about which influencers suit you. As a local business, for example, it may not be of much use to you to work with a national or even international influencer.
Only influencers with a regional focus or those who have a very close connection to the escape room industry are really suitable.
12. Stay in Touch With Your Customers
Regardless of whether bloggers, influencers or “normal” guests: It’s always good to stay in touch with your customers. The best way to do this is to gather your customers’ contact details – for example, using a questionnaire. In the questionnaire, you ask for their names, e-mail addresses and how they heard about you.
Shortly after the game, ask your guests by e-mail to write a review on Google, Facebook, TripAdvisor or Yelp. You can contact them again a few days later. This time you send them a voucher for their friends. This way, they will keep you in mind positively.
13. Subscribe to Escape Room Directories
Escape room directories are like the Yellow Pages for the escape room industry. Usually, entries in these directories are free of charge. You can use them to present your rooms and generate links to your website.
You can’t expect too many hits on the Escape Room directories. But it would be reckless to leave out this Escape Room Marketing opportunity if all competitors use it.
14. Do Search Engine Optimization (SEO), but Be Patient
Search engine optimization is part of the standard marketing repertoire of every company that has anything to do with the Internet – including escape rooms. SEO is all about appearing as high up as possible in the listings for so-called keywords (i.e. search terms that are entered in Google).
You achieve this by cleverly integrating the keywords that are important to you on your website. The most important keywords for an escape room are usually
Your company name
Escape Room + your city/region
Escape Game + your city/region
Do you appear in the top 3 on Google for these search terms? If so, you meet the basics and don’t necessarily have to spend more time (and money) in your SEO.
But, of course, there are many more terms that might be relevant for Escape Room operators. Here are some examples …
… to get more bookings from companies:
Teambuilding + City/Region
Escape Room Team Event
Team event ideas
… to get more bookings for special occasions:
Gift Ideas + City/Region
stag party Escape Room
stag party ideas
Family excursion + city/region
Ideas for the first date
Etc.
Unfortunately, SEO includes a big “but”: In order to appear on the first page on Google for these terms, you have to have a really good SEO. So it takes a lot of time and money – because you can only improve your search engine ranking with good content. And good content – like texts, pictures and videos – takes a lot of time to be created.
15. Use Coupon Portals Like Groupon. Or Don’t?
Voucher portals like Groupon do not have a good reputation in the escape game industry. On the one hand, you have to grant 30 to 50 percent discount on your missions. That means your profit margin will drop dramatically. On the other hand, there is no guarantee that you will ever see customers who have played with a discount voucher again.
Nevertheless, there are arguments for Groupon in Escape Room Marketing. For example, you can sell discounted games for less busy times like in summer. Or your Groupon vouchers can only be used between Monday and Thursday.
The summer gap is a serious problem for you? Provide your customers with Outdoor Escape Games from Cluetivity to provide your customers with exciting additional activities.
With analysis tools such as Google Analytics you can gain deep insights into the user behaviour on your website. How many users visit your website? Which pages do they look at? And where do they come from?
With this knowledge you can identify weak spots on your website and improve the user experience.
In addition, Google Analytics shows demographic characteristics of your users such as gender, age, location and language. You can also see what keywords users use to find you in the search engine.
Google Analytics is just one of many website analysis tools. Due to its large scope and the fact that it is free of charge, it is used by many website operators.
Paid: Advertise on All Channels
17. Use AdWords
We’ve already talked about SEO – it’s a lengthy process to improve your Google ranking on important terms. With AdWords you can get to the top faster and easier.
AdWords is the advertising system of Google. It helps you to be found in the search engine.
When you use AdWords for the first time, it may seem a bit complicated. But the way it works is relatively simple: you create a campaign, set a campaign goal (for example, generate revenue or clicks on the website) and enter the keywords you want to be found for.
Of course, an advertising system like AdWords is not free. So you have to set a budget for it. But the good thing is that you only pay for clicks on your website. So, only if someone clicks on your ad you’re charged.
If you are successful, your AdWords ad could look like this:
18. Use Retargeting to Address Website Visitors Again
Nowadays, almost everybody knows the procedure: You look at a product in an online shop, and suddenly you see ads for it on all kinds of websites. The marketing technique behind it is called Retargeting.
As the name suggests, it’s all about getting people who were interested in a product to buy it. In your case, this means you want visitors to your website who have not booked a mission to come back and book it.
Since the technology behind this procedure is quite complicated, you need a tool or an agency to integrate Retargeting into your Escape Room Marketing mix. The expenses vary from provider to provider. Often, however, payment models similar to Google AdWords (pay per click) are possible.
19. Buy Ads on Facebook
Facebook does not play ads based on keywords. In the world’s largest social network, you create target groups that you want to reach with your ads. You have many options: location, demographics, interests, hobbies and more.
Actually, you would think Facebook would be a good advertising platform for escape rooms. Facebook is very visual – and as an escape room operator, you can score with good photos.
But actually, you should also consider the intention with which people use a platform. People who scroll through their Facebook feed don’t necessarily want to buy something or book an Escape Room.
This does not mean that you should ignore Facebook. You might get great results using it. But our experience shows that Escape Rooms usually get more access and bookings via Google AdWords.
Analog: Cooperations, Print Media and Trial Offers
20. Give a Money-back Guarantee
You may ask yourself why you should offer a money-back guarantee in an Escape Room? Cinemas, theatres and so on don’t give money back if you don’t like the performance. This is what makes the service so unique! And it shows that you are convinced of the quality of your missions.
If you have really good escape game missions, hardly anyone will use the money-back guarantee. But you have an extraordinary unique selling point for your marketing and can take away the fear of indecisive people spending money on something they don’t know.
21. Sell Vouchers
Giving away coupons is becoming more and more popular. The adventure industry, in particular, is profiting from this: instead of filling their homes with decorative items, many people now prefer to spend their money on experiences.
So you should not miss out on vouchers from your Escape Room Marketing mix. Whether as a Christmas present, for a birthday or for other occasions – a voucher is always a good present.
To make it as easy as possible for your customers, they should be able to order the vouchers online or buy them directly at your place. You can also offer different vouchers: Starting with a small amount like 20 Euros up to 150 or 200 Euros.
22. Speak to the Local Press
Although escape rooms exist already for a couple of years, our industry is still a new and exciting topic in many regions. Journalists can tell good stories about people who lock themselves up for 60 minutes as well as about escape room operators.
You can use many plugs to get mentioned in the local press:
Opening your store
Challenges in starting your business
Finding ideas for your missions and building the escape rooms
Attention in the local press can be a first step towards becoming more well known in your region. And a report in the newspaper usually appears on the newspaper’s website too, so that you can reach even more people in this way.
23. Distribute Flyers
Flyers are one of the oldest advertising tools for local businesses – nevertheless you should consider them for your Escape Room Marketing. You can use them to present important information such as your address, opening hours and missions, and display the flyers in various places, such as bars, cafes and restaurants. Or you can hire promoters to distribute your flyers in the area.
We all know from our own experience that most flyers end up in the trash can within a very short time. You can prevent this by combining your flyers with a special incentive – for example, that customers who show the flyer in your shop get a discount. A 10 percent discount won’t cost you much, but will motivate people to “cash in” your flyer.
There are many templates for Escape Room Flyers on the Internet, including Postermywall.com. Alternatively, you can create your flyers using Adobe InDesign or an online photo editor such as Canva.com.
24. Cooperate With Other Small Businesses in Your Area
Flyers are also useful for displaying them in other shops. But since not everyone is allowed to put their flyers wherever they want, you usually have to cooperate with the respective store. In return, you can invite the owners to free games, provide them with vouchers for raffles or advertise them.
Especially in the case of small businesses that are locally connected, these cooperations can be very individual. Just talk to your neighbours and ask them if they are interested in cooperating with you. Most of them will certainly be open-minded.
Cooperations with hairdressing studios and other shops where the employees make small talk with their customers can be especially valuable. Many customers talk to their hairdresser about anything and everything. If the hairdresser then tells them about the great team event in your Escape Room, it’s the perfect word of mouth for you.
Word of Mouth is an important Marketing currency for Escape Rooms. The reason for this is pretty simple: You trust recommendations from friends even more than reviews from the internet. In addition, Word-of-Mouth marketing is free of charge – so it’s perfect if you only have a small budget for advertising.
25. Create Mini-games for Your Escape Rooms
What? Don’t I anticipate all the excitement with a mini-game?! No, not necessarily.
People love to get things for free. A short version of your Escape Rooms is no exception.
For example, offer 10 to 15-minute trial experiences at trade fairs, shopping malls or universities.
We all know the desired psychological effect of the weekly market: If you accept a free sample, you will most likely buy something.
In addition, the mini-games meet one of the biggest challenges of Escape Room Marketing mentioned at the beginning – namely that customers have to buy something they don’t know. Through the mini-games, they at least get a first impression of what you have to offer.
You can get even more attention by offering your mini-games as an app. The development costs some money. But this way, you can increase your target group many times over and become known nationwide. You might even attract tourists who found your app by coincidence in Apple’s App Store or the Google Play Store.
26. Cooperate With Tourist Guides and City Maps
There are travel guides for almost every city and region, in which event and insider tips are given. However, some of the companies or sights that are advertised as “insider tips” are not even selected by the editors but are the result of marketing cooperation.
As an Escape Room, you have the chance to be mentioned as well. Contact the providers of travel guides, event calendars and other media to sound out the possibilities of cooperation.
27. Give Away Merchandise
We have already talked about merchandise before. You can give your customers merchandise items as a thank you if they recommend you on a rating platform. But merchandise also helps to be remembered or even becomes a topic of conversation.
Imagine friends of your customers seeing your stickers, magnets or key rings. They might well ask what the experience in your escape room was like. Normally your customers should then recommend you to others. This way, you can manage to get people talking about your business.
28. Sell T-shirts and Other Souvenirs
Many people like to buy souvenirs of places they have visited. The best example are the Hard Rock Cafés around the globe. And it would be great if your customers would run advertising for you, for example with T-shirts, wouldn’t it? Besides T-shirts, mugs, posters and caps can also be a good idea.
You can find many companies on the internet that will print your logo on all kinds of things. Often the price per unit will decrease if you order large quantities. If you’re just starting out with merchandise, you might want to wait and see how the sale goes. We don’t want you to end up with thousands of unsold items.
29. Call Former Customers for Their Birthday
Automatically generated birthday emails are nice. But usually, they are deleted immediately.
If you want to stand out from the crowd, you have to try something new – for example, call your customers to congratulate them on their birthday. Telephone numbers can be requested in the booking process, for example.
When they receive the call, your former guests will surely be amazed at first. But you have definitely brought yourself back to their mind, and after the first surprise, they will probably be in a positive mood.
It is important that the birthday call does not turn into a sales call. Just call to congratulate them. This can be done within 30 seconds. Do not try to persuade them to book again.
If the customer wants to play an escape room again, who will he probably think of? Correct, you!
A birthday call increases the probability that a former customer will come back. And this Escape Room Marketing opportunity is completely free of charge.
There may also be one or two former customers who find a call intrusive. But experience shows that most people appreciate the attention. And if the call really only lasts 30 seconds, nobody loses much time.
30. Offer Games on Special Occasions and Holidays
Whether it’s Christmas, Easter or Halloween, birthday, bachelor party or first date: It’s a huge advantage for your Escape Room Marketing if you make offers for different occasions.
Since you can’t constantly redesign your escape rooms, the differences must be small or take place outside the 60-minute game time. Here are a few escape room ideas for different occasions and holidays:
Christmas: Specially designed gift certificate. Christmas pastries and mulled wine are included in the price. Entrance area festively decorated.
Easter: Specially designed voucher. Chocolate bunnies hidden in the Escape Room. Entrance area decorated for Easter.
Halloween: Specially designed voucher. Entrance area creepily decorated. Staff dressed up.
Birthday: One (alcoholic) drink is included in the price. A gift is hidden in the Escape Room.
Bachelor Parties: Bride/Groom play for free. One (alcoholic) drink is included in the price.
Date: Welcome champagne is included in the price. An engagement ring is hidden in the Escape Room.
Do you want to expand your offer and be able to adapt it more easily to special occasions? Then Outdoor Escape Games are the perfect fit for you. Their big advantage: You don’t have to redesign your rooms, but you can make all changes easily in software.
We have already talked about many Escape Room Marketing tips. Most of them can be applied to both B2C and B2B customers. But there are also marketing measures that are especially useful for the B2B sector. Learn more about team building in an Escape Room and how you can make your establishment more attractive for corporate customers.
Would you like to know which escape room themes are most popular among players? Just head over to our blog post and find out.
The summer is the most dreaded time of the year for many people. To make matters worse, there are also fewer escape rooms this season. It means that it’s harder to get an appointment or slot during this time, and you have fewer options if you want to try something new.
But don’t worry! We’ve got a solution to your problem. You can still enjoy fun adventures like these even in the middle of summer! All you need is a little planning (and some help from us!).
With our guide, we’ll show you how to turn your boring office into one exceptional team-building exercise without having to go too far away from home or breaking the bank. Let’s do it!
Considerations to Ponder in Planning a Summer Team Bonding with Colleagues
1. Consider the size and age of your team
The most crucial factor to consider when planning a team-building event is who will participate. Organizing an inappropriate activity for your employees’ age or fitness level can lead to embarrassment and injury and prevent them from enjoying themselves.
2. Decide on a fun activity that will be accessible to everyone (i.e., not golfing or kayaking)
Find something that everyone in your group likes to do or at least has the potential to appreciate. Bowling is a great activity because it’s fun for all ages and skill levels. If you’d like something that will test your team’s skills and mental capability, an escape game is the most recommended activity for team bonding.
3. Food plan – don’t just rely on fast food options. Pack a lunch or order in advance.
It’s important to consider everyone’s preferences while planning for food. Some people may be vegetarian, allergic to certain foods, or simply don’t like what you want to serve.
4. Consider transportation needs – do you need buses, vans, etc.?
Transportation is essential when planning a company team-building activity. When choosing the perfect event, consider activities that are easily accessible by public transit or are close to hotels and airports for easy group travel.
5. Keep it short and sweet!
A day-long team event is too much for most people to handle. Plan a fun team building for about 4 hours max with breaks between activities. It’s important to remember that you don’t have to spend too much money. However, organizing team bonding is an excellent investment to promote productivity and harmony in the company.
Games, music, or even just a trip out can be fun and entertaining for everyone! You can also try escape rooms or scavenger hunts which can be played simultaneously for as short as 1 hour, depending on how long you want the game to keep going.
Summer Team Bonding Ideas for the Company
1. Have a potluck lunch.
Potlucks are a great way to socialize with friends and coworkers. If you’re new at the office or have just started working, potluck lunches can be a great way to get to know everyone. It also encourages creativity in the kitchen.
2. Take a company-wide walk to get some fresh air.
Taking regular walks helps employees be more productive because it clears the mind and makes people less stressed. Plus, walking is fun! Did you know that taking a 10–15 minute walk outside three times a week can help reduce stress and improve your mood?
3. Organize an office Olympics event with different games for all departments
Office Olympics is an exercise in team building. It reflects the importance of having people work together smoothly and effectively. When people are involved in severe teamwork, they develop a sense of shared experience, which means they will trust each other more easily and feel closer.
You can organize a corporate event that mixes games and sports competitions to bring people together in a suitable environment. You can also customize games based on the different departments to feel included, no matter their role in the business.
The best thing about an office Olympics event is that it’s fun for everyone. And don’t forget to celebrate even the most minor achievements, like winning a raffle or something else.
4. Host a movie night and watch the newest blockbuster together.
Movie night is a perfect idea for those seeking to encourage a sense of community and bring people closer together. People are generally in higher spirits during the summer months, so it’s an ideal time to foster this type of interaction.
Ideally, you should schedule outdoor movies in a large area for such an event so everyone can be involved and have room on either side. Cleanup is relatively easy afterward by distributing garbage bags before the event begins.
5. Go on an outdoor adventure – take your big or small team to experience Escape games.
One of the best examples that come to mind is an escape room — these activities involve teamwork and give people a chance to have great fun together. Some companies choose this as their team-building activity, allowing employees who might be introverted or don’t fit into social groups to integrate into the office by participating in this event entirely. It also helps them build emotional intelligence too since it encourages empathy and improves understanding of how other people feel when we interact with them.
There are many different types of escape rooms worldwide today because this idea has become such a popular one. You shouldn’t have any problem finding some inspiration if you’re looking for something new.
With these ideas, you can make your company’s summer unforgettable. These team bonding activities encourage harmony and productivity without breaking the bank. And if you’re looking for the most innovative and interactive idea for an office summer team-bonding event that will have everyone talking about it in years to come, nothing beats escape games!
So what are you waiting for? Let’s get started today. Before beginning this project, contact our Cluetivity experts to assist with any questions or concerns.
We’ll help ensure everything goes smoothly throughout the process, from conception to execution. Want a personalized quote or try our latest escape games? Request a demo play today.
Are you seeking excitement, thrill, fun, and adventurous games for your employees and customers to enjoy? Have you tried adding an outdoor escape game to your training, tradeshow, and events you organize for your employees and customers? Here’s the best information about outdoor escape games you need to know and why it’s a company must-have.
Today you will know all about outdoor escape games:
Outdoor escape games are among the most famous fully immersive adventure game experiences for company events, family bonding, and friends getaway. Frankly speaking, it’s a worldwide trend as more and more people experience the fun and excitement it can offer. Even at weddings, outdoor escape games are a big hit!
Escape games are adventure-based games where players seek to solve puzzles and riddles. Participants search around to find clues, hints, and items that can help them complete the game. Typically, escape games take place in physical rooms like offices, gymnasiums, or the streets.
Benefits of Playing Outdoor Escape Game
When it comes to lasting experiences, outdoor games are way better than other games available. It improves our emotional, mental, and physical health. If you’re looking for a fully immersive escape game for significant events that bring value to the money you invested, here are the top 5 benefits you can gain in considering Outdoor Escape Games.
Outdoor Escape games can improve players’ overall health
Outdoor games such as escape games are also exercises that offer more awesome fun. As the participants try to figure out how to escape the game with the hints and clues to solve a puzzle, it helps them stay in shape and maintain an ideal fitness level without noticing it.
It allows people to get an adequate amount of sleep
When your employees or customers participate in outdoor games, they also get into a rigorous exercise beneficial to their bodies. As a result, it enables the body to utilize unused energy that you don’t usually use when they’re just sitting in their workstation with minimal movement.
It can boost a person’s concentration
Escape games do more than just keep a person physically fit, which is essential in this time. When they answer a riddle, solve a puzzle, or look for hidden clues, it serves as a mental exercise, further boosting focus. Lack of concentration in this game can fail as people are expected to keep their thoughts together to surpass the challenges and complete the escape room.
It’s an innovative way to socialize
This kind of game is the perfect company activity if you want your employees to socialize or just want to interact with your target customers and get to know them more. It’s a good marketing tool to get more information about the market your company is catering to.
Outdoor Escape Game is an alternative to a boring wellness program in the company
If you want to keep your employees in shape while having fun, you can spice things up by allowing your employees to play in escape rooms. It can be a perfect cardio workout because your employees will be moving a lot to race against other teams and beat the clock.
If you want to carefully plan the building of your outdoor escape game for essential events to avoid any mishaps on the day of your company fair, we’ll share with you a simple step in building an escape game with your colleagues.
How to Build Escape Game for Outdoor
Here is a simple guide you can follow for your DIY outdoor escape game:
Come with questions or tasks to be done by your participants inside the “perimeter.” You can create custom pins or color-coded t-shirts for each group, depending on your theme that suits your escape game story. Ensure a good background story or a theme to follow to ensure that the tasks or questions are on the same page.
Next, think of a street or location where you will leave a way out. You can creatively reveal this secret location by giving out info or hints in the after-answer comments. You can give out letters one by one that will form the location’s name.
Think of a picture overlay that you want to use and make sure it surrounds the area. If you want it to look clean or professional-looking, you can simply ask help from a designer to create an image that looks exactly like the city area outline where you plan to run the game.
To ensure that your players escape the right way out, you should create many minus areas to block the ways out of the room the game will take place. To do so, you can use a no-answer type of question and set them to give a significant amount of minus points or warning pins.
Ensure that the players know what they have to do, their primary goal, the areas in the city they should avoid, and always keep in mind the background theme or story.
In this stage, the game is already set to be tested. To ensure that everything works well, you should probably need to run the test on your own or ask guests to play and try the game before the actual event for honest players’ feedback.
Yet, suppose you want an outdoor escape game that’s already made for you and only requires a little bit of customization with no programming skills needed. In that case, Cluetivity has the best outdoor escape game available.
Online Escape Rooms with Cluetivity is Possible!
Cluetivity offers outdoor escape games, mobile games, and online escape games. It allows companies to subscribe to their gamification platform to customize their predefined games with ease according to your desired location and needs. Users don’t need any programming skills to do it!
Their Online Editor allows users to create their scenarios, riddles, routes, stories, and games in a few hours. Likewise, they can upload images and videos, use their pre-defined Augmented Reality Interactions and play thrilling mini-games. Once your escape rooms are all set, users can now engage with their participants or customers.
Here are some of their best outdoor escape games from Cluetivity to check out!
Best Outdoor Escape Game for Events
Blackout
Blackout is our brand new outdoor game, released in 2022! It is a Cyber-Spy-Hacking-Game taking place in a very modern universe. The story runs in the players’ city, where the power plant was hacked by an unknown group of hackers, causing one of the biggest threats in modern times: a citywide Blackout! The consequence is the complete collapse of the modern world as we know it. Players don’t have much time to stop the hackers, restore the power supply and avoid the biggest catastrophe in modern history! The mission is complemented with special gadgets such as an iPhone, lantern, speaker, LED fan and other thrilling tools. This thrilling outdoor game can be played in single teams or multiteam-versus mode.
Operation Mindfall
Operation Mindfall is an outdoor and indoor team-building game where the players take the role of secret agents. As international secret agents, their primary mission is to protect the entire world from danger. Players are grouped into 3-5 secret agents that will solve tricky puzzles, experience an Augmented Reality setup, and have lots of fun as they enhance their teamwork.
Each team always has an iPad they have to use to follow the map, play the riddles, and communicate with the AR Secret Agent as a guide. They need to carry a suitcase with all the physical gadgets they must use in some puzzles (mirror, cards, etc.). The perfect problem-solving tool for corporate team-building events.
Magic Portal
Magic Portal is a fantasy escape game that can be played indoors or outdoor. This game is ideal for newcomers and is designed for the whole family and children. It offers ready-to-play content that allows game customization. No need for more staff to run the game flawlessly! This game also provides Augmented Reality. Thanks to this, the virtual avatar comes to life. Players can experience fiction and reality all at the same time.
The Last Secret
Last Secret is an outdoor escape game that will expand players’ range with excitement and versatile Augmented Reality. In this game, the players will act as adventurers to solve tricky puzzles using the most modern tools you can think of. Participants will have an extraordinary and intensified play with its sophisticated puzzles and navigation.
Conclusion
Outdoor Escape Games are the next big thing in recreational activities enjoyed by families, friends, employees, and customers. It does not only offer fun, but it allows bonding and interaction. As the participants escape the game, the fun-filled memories and newly discovered friendships will probably stay for a very long time.
Get your escape room ready for that exciting outdoor activity with your employees and customers when you contact Cluetivity today.
As part of a team-building event, an Escape Room is a fantastic way to build teamwork, communication skills, and problem-solving abilities. They’re also a lot of fun! If you’ve never tried one before, it might be time to give them a go.
TEAM BUILDING VS. TEAM BONDING
To be more effective, we need the two departments that spend most of their time in conflict to work together. So what if they did this by spending a couple of hours on a soccer field by having team-building or team bonding? Escape rooms are often the gamified solution used for team building and team bonding to resolve departmental conflicts.
But what exactly are team building and team bonding? Team building is an essential part of any workplace. Whether in the office, on a construction site, or at home with your family, teambuilding has several benefits. For example, trust-building and better communication skills to share ideas more efficiently and feel confident about yourself are significant advantages that should lead to patience when things don’t go according to plan.
Team bonding is an ongoing process that helps to increase loyalty among the team members. One way of achieving this objective, which many companies use, is by addressing past experiences in a positive light through fun activities like giving each other compliments or joining together for lunch.
Escape rooms offer both team building and team bonding. When you enter an escape room, the first thing that your group has to do is work together on little tasks to move along through a storyline toward the big goal – escaping!
You’ll find yourself at highs and lows of feeling like you never can get out when one person opens up another door for someone else who was stuck. The experience brings people closer together than they ever would have been before.
What is an excellent team-building activity?
An excellent team-building activity is fun for the team and challenging.
Escape rooms are an excellent way to get everyone on your team working together, solving puzzles to escape from an unknown room before time runs out. This type of activity requires teamwork skills such as communication, analytical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity. All while you have some suspense and thrills thrown in for good measure.
The American Management Association published a study that found that 91% of those surveyed who participated in team-building activities reported improved communication, problem-solving, and creativity.
In the same survey, it was determined that 82% of participants said they would participate again to get another opportunity to use teamwork skills learned. In contrast, others see team building as a chance to build rapport among coworkers.
Suppose you would like your team-building event or company offsite to be memory and budget-friendly. In that case, escape rooms are an excellent option since they’re typically sold at a flat rate for time slots of one hour. They can accommodate any number of employees with different levels of experience.
What are examples of team building?
An example of team building is an escape room built for team plays. This type of activity uses gamification, and it can be done anywhere with any group size.
Another example of team building may include scavenger hunts or treasure hunt activities where teams have to find clues hidden in different places around the city. One could also incorporate these games into marketing products and services to customers by making them a part of the overall experience.
What are the excellent escape room themes?
The must-try escape room themes are horror, mystery, and technology-themed.
Horror Escape Room
A horror escape room theme is always a good option for team building. This theme features a zombie, a vampire, and other terrifying creatures. The team is in constant need of solving puzzles to escape the scary room.
Mystery Escape Room
A mystery escape room theme has clues that will lead your team of players to solve different riddles and puzzles as they explore the story unfolding within this virtual world. They must gather all the necessary pieces to solve the why’s of the escape game.
Technology-themed escape game
Technology is the future of team building, and it’s good to keep up with the news so that this one will be a favorite for most people. The latest gadgets and devices have been used in gamifying these escape rooms for your team-building adventures. Most of the technology-themed escape rooms use AR technology, allowing for a more immersive experience.
Under-the-Sea theme
Another great team-building escape room theme is the ‘undersea’ theme which offers a fun and different experience from what your team may be used to. This one will be perfect for those looking for something out of the ordinary, such as an underwater adventure with beautiful sea life images all around them.
Superhero theme
For an escape room that involves children or teenagers, a ‘Superhero’ escape room is perfect for this type of team building. This one will have your team working to save the day, and it’s up to them to be superheroes themselves!
Hopefully, these ideas helped you find something that may work out well for your next event or team-building session.
Top Places to Setup Your Escape Game
If you’re setting up an escape game for your corporate events, the best places are:
#1 In a rented event space or office building
It is because escape rooms are usually designed to have six people at the most, so you will need plenty of room for all team members and no distractions from other workers around them as they try to solve puzzles.
#2 Indoor facility of escape game provider
You can also find many companies that provide these games on location, which could be in your area or state. These companies will typically have a team of people who travel around to set up games in different locations and can customize the game to your company’s theme or message if you wish them to.
#3 Meeting rooms for events and conferences in Hotels
Some other great places offer their meeting rooms for events and conferences because they often come equipped with escape room kits already there!
#4 Classrooms
Other rentable rooms that might be a good option are classrooms. The classrooms are great because they are already set up with desks, chairs, and whiteboards for any meeting you may have. You could also use the classroom to hold team-building activities requiring a little more room than your office provides, like dodgeball or other physical games!
#5 Theme Parks
The theme parks are optional for team building because it has the perfect escape room experience without traffic and parking hassles. Also, theme parks have lots of open spaces where you could set up pop-up escape rooms and create a team-building event that is interactive and engaging.
#6 Museums
Museums often have areas where they display interactive exhibits that are team-building in nature, or you can rent out one of their meeting rooms to host your event! Likewise, museums give off the mystery vibe that escape rooms are known for!
The options for this type of team-building adventure game depend on your needs, so consider how many people you want to have in the room at one time and what kind of environment will work best for them!
Just make sure that the venues follow COVID safety protocols. Here are a few things you should do before and after your escape room experience to go smoothly!
Inspect the rooms to make sure they are clean and COVID safe before letting people enter.
After every game, sanitize all surfaces in each room with a disinfectant wipe or spray suitable for cleaning hard surfaces.
Check all ventilation and airflow systems before and after every game. COVID safety protocols must be followed during each team challenge.
Ensure that you have an escape route for players in case of emergency by checking your fire exits and ensuring they can open from both directions (outward and inward).
In Conclusion
The best way to ensure your escape game is a success is by considering what themes are suitable for the age group you’re targeting and ensuring that the concept relates to your company’s objectives. You should also think about how many participants will be joining in on the fun so you can pick an appropriate size room with enough clues and puzzles.
If all this sounds too difficult, or if you just want someone else to handle everything from start to finish, we have experts who specialize in setting up custom-tailored escape games as part of our suite of corporate event services. Contact a Cluetivity specialist today!
