Are you exploring opportunities in haunted attractions? Are you trying to find new ways to increase your current business? Geofencing might be the next technological advancement that can help you.
Haunted attractions have turned into big business. There is an explosion of haunted houses, hayrides, and mazes. More and more people are enjoying a good scare. According to Hauntedworld.com, Americans spend around $300-$500 million each year on haunted house tickets. The National Retail Foundation estimated that US Halloween spending was around $9.1 billion in 2017.
But at the same time, the haunted attractions business is getting competitive. The new cash flow is attracting top special effect artists from the movie industry. The designs are getting more complicated. So the costs of maintaining haunted attractions are going up. Businesses are trying to find new ways to attract customers to counteract the costs.
Geofencing provides a unique opportunity. The technology is simple and easy to integrate. The industry can take advantage of geofencing to attract more customers and create more engaging experiences. It can open up new doors.
Basic Challenges of the Haunted Attractions Business
The $9.1 billion Halloween spending might paint a rosy picture of haunted attractions. But it’s not an easy business. Here are some of the hurdles the industry is facing:
Finding appropriate real-estate is hard. Haunted attractions need a lot of real-estate. Far away locations might not get enough traffic. On the other hand, getting a location in a busy area means high expenses. So the business needs to strike a balance between customer traffic and real-estate costs.
There is a lot of bureaucratic red tape. Haunted attractions have to ensure the safety of the patrons. So there are rules and regulations for fire-safety and property management. Businesses need comprehensive insurance to cover any mishaps.
Communities aren’t always welcoming. Most communities don’t appreciate their children seeing actors in horrifying makeup roaming around the neighborhood. The result is that owners have to set up haunted businesses in out-of-way locations and depend on marketing to attract customers.
Creative talent is expensive. The mom and pop shops can’t survive in the new competitive environment. In order to design an attractive haunted attraction, businesses have to hire the top talent. And top-talent in any creative field is costly.
Marketing costs are rising. The businesses have to invest heavily in marketing to attract enough customers to offset the regulatory and creative costs. Companies are looking for ways to leverage the power of technology to get better results with their limited marketing budgets.
Geofencing for haunted houses.
Geofencing Opportunities for the Haunted Attractions Industry
Geofencing is a location-based service that defines a digital perimeter around a physical location using components like mobile devices, RFID, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other technologies.
For example, if you enable a geofencing app for a particular shopping mall, it can help you find the right products as you roam around. It can show you coupons for the products you want. It can advertise merchandise in real-time as you navigate the shopping mall.
A great advantage of using geofencing is that most of the components are already in place. Consumers already have their mobile devices. Carriers have already set up wireless networks. Most public places have Wi-Fi services. Geofencing solutions can take all of these components and create applications that can help you market your services and create better experiences for your audience. The geofencing industry itself is supposed to surpass $1.7 billion by 2024.
Marketing
Haunted attractions are trying to target particular audiences and bring more foot traffic to the facilities. Here are some ways geofencing can help:
Targeting Universities: Haunted house audiences are in the 15-22 age group. You can create a virtual fence around nearby universities to find the people from this age demographics. This kind of targeting can provide a better return on investment (ROI) than trying to use flyers and posters. Distributing flyers and posters physically is time-consuming and resource-intensive. Geofencing can help you reach a larger audience faster.
Targeting Competitors: Businesses thrive on repetitive customers. A good part of the haunted house business is that customers enjoy having more options and more experiences. So setting a geofence around a competitor’s facility can be a great strategy to attract customers. Obviously, you can’t monitor inside the competitor’s perimeters. But you can track the customers leaving the facility.
Social Networking: Geofencing can be easily combined with social networking apps. It can help create better marketing campaigns. Snapchat is a great example of using this technique. It provides users with location-based stickers, filters, and content. Haunted attractions owners can use similar virtual perimeter techniques. You can provide coupons, discounts and special deals to increase your marketing effectiveness.
Enhancing Customer Experience
Haunted attractions industry can go further and incorporate geofencing into their attractions.
Audience Engagement: Geofencing is already used in crowded venues like museums, concerts, festivals, and fairs. Visitors are getting show times, history of the attractions, real-time commentary and more. Haunted attractions can start incorporating similar ideas inside the virtual perimeter. It’ll create more engaging experiences for the audience.
Safety: Safety of the visitors is always a concern for haunted facility owners. Geofencing can use innovative ways to implement safety features. Guests can be provided with wearables that can track heart rates and vitals. Geofences can be used to monitor traffic within the facility. If businesses are able to show the effectiveness of such solutions, insurance companies and regulatory boards might take these into consideration during evaluations. It can counteract the rising costs of operating haunted facilities.
Geofencing Limitations and Concerns
Geofencing is an evolving technology. So anyone who wants to use it as a tool needs to be aware of the limitations:
- Power Issues – Geofencing apps run in the background. So if designed poorly, it can drain batteries. App developers should ensure efficient power use. Otherwise, customers will uninstall the app.
- Targeting Range – With geofencing, you can cover as large an area as you want. But when it comes to targeting smaller areas, the accuracy depends on factors like Wi-Fi strength, the number of beacons, indoor/outdoor use, and more. So you should design your application with the constraints in mind. Test out the application to make sure you are getting the results you want.
- Privacy Concerns – Make sure app users are well aware of what data is being collected. Get explicit consent from the customers. You want to build a trusted relationship with your audience.
The Future of Geofencing in the Haunted Attractions Industry
It’s already possible to create geofencing applications using mobile platforms like iOS and Android. So the haunted attractions industry can start investing in geofencing to create the necessary applications today.
You can use the apps to monitor entry, exit, and dwelling of your customers to gather analytics. You can use push notifications and third-party APIs to show advertisements, coupons, and upcoming events. There are a lot of geofencing application possibilities for the haunted attractions industry. So take the step to stay ahead of the competition.
Tags: Future Technology, Geofencing, Halloween, Haunted Attractions
Comments are closed here.