July 5, 2024
©Sergey Novikov via Canva.com
Will RWS Global and CAMP Take the Lead With ‘Retailtainment’?
In a move set to impact the family entertainment sector, RWS Global has announced a partnership with CAMP, The Family Experience Company. RWS Global declared that the collaboration is long term and exclusive, and it aims to bring immersive, IP-driven experiences to families worldwide, leveraging the company’s expertise in live entertainment.
“Through this strategic partnership, we’re unlocking the potential for exponential growth by leveraging RWS Global’s production services, empowering us to amplify our focus on delivering what defines CAMP’s brand magic. We are thrilled to partner with RWS Global to truly transform the theatrical side of our business and prepare CAMP for scale.”
Jenica Myszkowski, CAMP’s CEO, via PR Newswire
According to the official CAMP website, “CAMP is known for our totally unique shop/play hybrid experience in our physical locations across the country. Inside CAMP stores are rotating themed experiences. Every surface is a seamless blend of play and product.”
Furthermore, the company has already been responsible for “retail experiences like Bluey x CAMP, Encanto x CAMP, and Trolls x CAMP, inspiring and engaging families through its unique combination of play, product, and performance.”
With this new partnership, RWS Global will assist CAMP in expanding its reach beyond its current seven stores to add two new locations: one in Philadelphia’s King of Prussia Mall and another in The Galleria in Houston. These new venues will feature CAMP’s signature “Magic Door” and will be powered by RWS Global’s comprehensive show operation and retail services.
Through the Magic Door, shoppers enter and are treated to the large rooms for immersive experiences after buying applicable tickets. Each location features a special and unique theme to that location.
“We are so excited to partner with the CAMP team, who shares our passion for creating unforgettable family experiences. When we combine our unparalleled expertise in live event planning, casting and attractions with CAMP’s brand equity and engaged audience, we believe there is an opportunity for significant growth across the family entertainment sector.”
Ryan Stana, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of RWS Global, via PR Newswire
Now that the two companies are collaborating, RWS Global and CAMP are set to redefine the very notion of what they dub “retailtainment” by offering new and engaging retail experiences.
Retailtainment, related to experiential marketing and experiential retail, is a trend that many believe is the future of shopper engagement. According to TechRadar, “Retailtainment is not just a buzzword but a new frontier…It represents a blend of entertainment with retail, where shopping becomes an engaging, enjoyable activity.”
And it’s not just happening in person. The way consumers shop online is rapidly evolving, with global e-commerce expected to surpass $8 trillion by 2027. This transformation is driven in part by retailtainment and the growing popularity of video shopping experiences.
Gen Z, accustomed to using mobile technology and a myriad of interactivity, demands personalized and secure online shopping experiences with real-time interaction, exemplified by live video commerce where hosts can engage directly with viewers and facilitate purchases within the video. Retailtainment enhances this with additional interactive features like games, polls, and competitions, creating an immersive shopping experience.
BrainTrust
Warren Shoulberg
Senior Contributor, The Robin Report
Georganne Bender
Principal, KIZER & BENDER Speaking
Jamie Tenser
Retail Tech Marketing Strategist | B2B Expert Storytelling™ Guru | President, VSN Media LLC
Recent Discussions
Discussion Questions
As the concept of “retailtainment” evolves, how do you see the balance between entertainment and retail shifting, and what strategies should companies prioritize to maintain this balance while meeting consumer expectations?
With the growing integration of live video commerce and interactive features in retail, what are the potential challenges and opportunities for brands in terms of maintaining authenticity and building long-term customer loyalty?
Poll
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We often talk of the importance of experience in retail. Camp is the embodiment of good practice in this arena, with the magical, fun-filled worlds it creates capturing the hearts and minds of kids (and adults). While the concept is brilliant, the business is a hard one to operate as new stores need a lot of effort to build out, to market, and to keep fresh with new installation and themes. Partnering with RWS seems like a great match as it will take some of the burden off Camp in terms of creating new experiences and will boost the commercial opportunities via selling related merchandise.
The Brand Promise of “retailtainment” = “Every surface is a seamless blend of play and product.” Now, how many product categories can tap into that model? Maybe if the words learning, or education, or insight, or knowledge, or…are substituted for play, then the definition can be more expansive. Sounds like something Toys ‘R Us would have benefited from years ago. Or what if Macy’s had taken this approach with STORY…and regionalized it…??? My equation for several years now has been:
Explore + Experiment + Execute = Experience³ It’s not a simple sum of the parts. It’s Exponential.
The customer wants to Explore and Experiment. And the retailer has to Execute to that Expectation. Different product categories have to solve for that equation. Costco might be the last place that “pile it high and watch it fly” will still work. Even then, Explore is still a gigantic part of the Costco equation. Has anyone ever visited a Costco store and not purchased something…?!?
Excellent points re TRU and Macy’s. It could be applied to any department store.
The CEO of RWS Global posted on LinkedIn that his company is powering CAMP’s IP driven experiences for BBC, Disney, and Universal, taking retailtainment to the next level.
Location-based entertainment capitalizes on the overlap between digital and in-store experiences, and the partnership between RWS and CAMP is close to being ideal.
I’m exited to monitor progress and results in the first nine stores in order to imagine the future. However, my enthusiasm is tempered because of all the complex effort that will be required in each store to pull it off. – Db
Call it retailtainment or call it shoppertainment, it’s not anything new. That wonderful intersection between shopping and entertainment has been a frequently requested topic in our Retail Adventures presentations for over 35 years. Rich and I collect, share, and run shoppertainment events with the independent retailers every year.
I think we need to acknowledge that there is a difference between Camp’s incredible in-store experience and a shoppertainment event in a typical retail store. Camp is designed to be an entertainment space that sells merchandise. It’s not unlike a mini trip to a theme park where kids are entertained and the experience ends in the gift shop.
Traditional retailers, on the other hand, must be up to do something different to create shoppertainment in their stores. It might be a day of demos, an open house with food and entertainment, Parking Lot Olympics to raise money for a charity, Santa Paws on the sales floor during the holidays, a Create Your Own Coupon Sale in the dog days of summer – the list is endless.
There are retailers out there who preform tremendous acts of innovation in their stores every day. July is Independent Retailer Month. I can’t wait to see what they do next!
I confess I didn’t quite understand the full import of the RWS Global / CAMP alliance until I looked at this article:
https://kidscreen.com/024/06/27/camp-taps-rws-global-to-manage-touring-ip-shows/
CAMP stores have thus become a channel for children’s entertainment properties from Disney, DreamWorks and Universal. This is an evolution, I think, from the CAMP store I visited in Manhattan 18 months ago.
That location was an enhanced toy store with outstanding displays and a charming multi-level play area for children. Most or all of the toys and games on the shelves were private label, as I recall. Quality seemed first-rate. (I believe that unit, in Hudson Yards, is no longer in operation.)
The evolved CAMP store business model is focused on event ticket sales and a paid membership program, with emphasis on its entertainment partners. Character licenses are featured prominently in its online toy assortment.
So yes, this is a blend of retailing and entertainment. It is not a model easily mimicked by many other retailers (although in some ways it reminds me of indoor play at Bass Pro Shops). For other experiential inspiration, check out Meow Wolf in Santa Fe or Denver, and Outernet in London. (Yes, @Jeff, STORY would be on that list too, if Macy’s had done better with it.)
With the power of mega-entertainment partners behind it, CAMP has potential to greatly accelerate its growth. Prior to hooking up with RWS it was building a wonderful brand on its own. Now it has shape-shifted into a channel for other people’s brands.
(light bulb goes on) Ah, the Meow Wolf collective would be a fascinating case study on this topic – their Omega Mart installation in Las Vegas really does write the book about immersive experiential retail. They’re even booking group events there!
Your typical Renaissance Faire may have themed merchandise in a 360-degree setting, but those independent vendors are not telling a collective story. Whereas every single product for sale or on static display, fixturing and signage, and every staffer at Omega Mart is all part of a cohesive script (even if room for improvisation is given).
That’s a really high bar to reach, and I wouldn’t even want my local gift boutique, toy store, or flower shop to even try. As long as staff are having a good time and the products are thoughtfully curated at a reasonable price, I’m a happy shopper.
CAMP is creating a standalone category of entertainment and retail others will find challenging to replicate. This latest partnership with RWS Global will accelerate growth while bolstering capacity to innovate even faster through high profile brand partnerships like Disney.
The Top Bunk membership platform is full of compelling benefits and will likely become a key driver of not only return visits, but an increasingly important component of top-line revenue.
The CAMP idea is built on creative juices. RWS may have the best creative juices in the world. I wonder if RWS will be disapointed in the small palette stores offer. Maybe there is more to this package than we see on the surface.
Camp is a wonderful retail concept, makes me wish I was still a kid. (They do give me funny looks when I go into one of their stores alone and snoop around.) But I truly wonder if the business model is sustainable. They generally take some pretty premium high-priced real estate and you’ve got to ask if they are generating the sales to justify that kind of investment. I hope they are, it’s what physical retail must do to move ahead. But as other so-called experiential retailers — Pirch being the latest, but going all the way back to Incredible Universe — have found out, it’s a tough business model to make work.
Interesting, however you still need to sell stuff to make this work. And in order to make this scalable you need to consistently create interesting scenarios which is a tall order. Further, you are putting money into new locations in….malls. Which have been in trouble for a while. I mean, how many shoppers go to Great America Mall to ride the roller coaster now?
I wish them well, but I think this trend (if you can call it that) will fizzle out.
This partnership definitely takes things to the next level for retailtainment and allows them some scale to execute across multiple locations. I also like that it will be a mix of instore and digital experiences. Georganne, I like the reference of CAMP being an entertainment space that sells merchandise. The economics would have to be completely different than a more traditional retail store. That said, I continue to believe that there are lessons that a traditional retailer can take from their business model just as so many before have studied Disney. I am curious about the KPI’s they use to measure success if anyone has any insight.
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We often talk of the importance of experience in retail. Camp is the embodiment of good practice in this arena, with the magical, fun-filled worlds it creates capturing the hearts and minds of kids (and adults). While the concept is brilliant, the business is a hard one to operate as new stores need a lot of effort to build out, to market, and to keep fresh with new installation and themes. Partnering with RWS seems like a great match as it will take some of the burden off Camp in terms of creating new experiences and will boost the commercial opportunities via selling related merchandise.
The Brand Promise of “retailtainment” = “Every surface is a seamless blend of play and product.” Now, how many product categories can tap into that model? Maybe if the words learning, or education, or insight, or knowledge, or…are substituted for play, then the definition can be more expansive. Sounds like something Toys ‘R Us would have benefited from years ago. Or what if Macy’s had taken this approach with STORY…and regionalized it…??? My equation for several years now has been:
Explore + Experiment + Execute = Experience³ It’s not a simple sum of the parts. It’s Exponential.
The customer wants to Explore and Experiment. And the retailer has to Execute to that Expectation. Different product categories have to solve for that equation. Costco might be the last place that “pile it high and watch it fly” will still work. Even then, Explore is still a gigantic part of the Costco equation. Has anyone ever visited a Costco store and not purchased something…?!?
Excellent points re TRU and Macy’s. It could be applied to any department store.
The CEO of RWS Global posted on LinkedIn that his company is powering CAMP’s IP driven experiences for BBC, Disney, and Universal, taking retailtainment to the next level.
Location-based entertainment capitalizes on the overlap between digital and in-store experiences, and the partnership between RWS and CAMP is close to being ideal.
I’m exited to monitor progress and results in the first nine stores in order to imagine the future. However, my enthusiasm is tempered because of all the complex effort that will be required in each store to pull it off. – Db
Call it retailtainment or call it shoppertainment, it’s not anything new. That wonderful intersection between shopping and entertainment has been a frequently requested topic in our Retail Adventures presentations for over 35 years. Rich and I collect, share, and run shoppertainment events with the independent retailers every year.
I think we need to acknowledge that there is a difference between Camp’s incredible in-store experience and a shoppertainment event in a typical retail store. Camp is designed to be an entertainment space that sells merchandise. It’s not unlike a mini trip to a theme park where kids are entertained and the experience ends in the gift shop.
Traditional retailers, on the other hand, must be up to do something different to create shoppertainment in their stores. It might be a day of demos, an open house with food and entertainment, Parking Lot Olympics to raise money for a charity, Santa Paws on the sales floor during the holidays, a Create Your Own Coupon Sale in the dog days of summer – the list is endless.
There are retailers out there who preform tremendous acts of innovation in their stores every day. July is Independent Retailer Month. I can’t wait to see what they do next!
I confess I didn’t quite understand the full import of the RWS Global / CAMP alliance until I looked at this article:
https://kidscreen.com/024/06/27/camp-taps-rws-global-to-manage-touring-ip-shows/
CAMP stores have thus become a channel for children’s entertainment properties from Disney, DreamWorks and Universal. This is an evolution, I think, from the CAMP store I visited in Manhattan 18 months ago.
That location was an enhanced toy store with outstanding displays and a charming multi-level play area for children. Most or all of the toys and games on the shelves were private label, as I recall. Quality seemed first-rate. (I believe that unit, in Hudson Yards, is no longer in operation.)
The evolved CAMP store business model is focused on event ticket sales and a paid membership program, with emphasis on its entertainment partners. Character licenses are featured prominently in its online toy assortment.
So yes, this is a blend of retailing and entertainment. It is not a model easily mimicked by many other retailers (although in some ways it reminds me of indoor play at Bass Pro Shops). For other experiential inspiration, check out Meow Wolf in Santa Fe or Denver, and Outernet in London. (Yes, @Jeff, STORY would be on that list too, if Macy’s had done better with it.)
With the power of mega-entertainment partners behind it, CAMP has potential to greatly accelerate its growth. Prior to hooking up with RWS it was building a wonderful brand on its own. Now it has shape-shifted into a channel for other people’s brands.
(light bulb goes on) Ah, the Meow Wolf collective would be a fascinating case study on this topic – their Omega Mart installation in Las Vegas really does write the book about immersive experiential retail. They’re even booking group events there!
Your typical Renaissance Faire may have themed merchandise in a 360-degree setting, but those independent vendors are not telling a collective story. Whereas every single product for sale or on static display, fixturing and signage, and every staffer at Omega Mart is all part of a cohesive script (even if room for improvisation is given).
That’s a really high bar to reach, and I wouldn’t even want my local gift boutique, toy store, or flower shop to even try. As long as staff are having a good time and the products are thoughtfully curated at a reasonable price, I’m a happy shopper.
CAMP is creating a standalone category of entertainment and retail others will find challenging to replicate. This latest partnership with RWS Global will accelerate growth while bolstering capacity to innovate even faster through high profile brand partnerships like Disney.
The Top Bunk membership platform is full of compelling benefits and will likely become a key driver of not only return visits, but an increasingly important component of top-line revenue.
The CAMP idea is built on creative juices. RWS may have the best creative juices in the world. I wonder if RWS will be disapointed in the small palette stores offer. Maybe there is more to this package than we see on the surface.
Camp is a wonderful retail concept, makes me wish I was still a kid. (They do give me funny looks when I go into one of their stores alone and snoop around.) But I truly wonder if the business model is sustainable. They generally take some pretty premium high-priced real estate and you’ve got to ask if they are generating the sales to justify that kind of investment. I hope they are, it’s what physical retail must do to move ahead. But as other so-called experiential retailers — Pirch being the latest, but going all the way back to Incredible Universe — have found out, it’s a tough business model to make work.
Interesting, however you still need to sell stuff to make this work. And in order to make this scalable you need to consistently create interesting scenarios which is a tall order. Further, you are putting money into new locations in….malls. Which have been in trouble for a while. I mean, how many shoppers go to Great America Mall to ride the roller coaster now?
I wish them well, but I think this trend (if you can call it that) will fizzle out.
This partnership definitely takes things to the next level for retailtainment and allows them some scale to execute across multiple locations. I also like that it will be a mix of instore and digital experiences. Georganne, I like the reference of CAMP being an entertainment space that sells merchandise. The economics would have to be completely different than a more traditional retail store. That said, I continue to believe that there are lessons that a traditional retailer can take from their business model just as so many before have studied Disney. I am curious about the KPI’s they use to measure success if anyone has any insight.