Executive Summary

• Family entertainment centers include experiences like theme parks, arcades, and sports complexes, which all can use storytelling to keep their audiences interested and engaged.
• Storytelling harnesses the power to effectively engage audiences, make an emotional connection, and leave a deep-rooted memory.
• Create better stories by identifying your brand identity, immersing your guests in experiences, and leveraging user-generated content.
• Better amplify your stories through digital storytelling approaches, immersing guests in experiences, and adequately training your staff.

Family Entertainment Centers Have a Problem—They’re All Selling Joy

It may sound strange for us, the Brand Joy people, to suggest that too much happiness can be a problem. But for Family Entertainment Centers (FECs), a joyful experience is expected. Telling a more nuanced story about the true feelings your attraction will bring—that’s where the magic happens.

FECs comprise a wide-ranging vertical that includes experiences like theme parks, arcades, zoos, and sports complexes, like Top Golf or trampoline parks. Building brand loyalty is an essential aspect of FEC marketing, crucial for fully immersing audiences in your experience and driving repeat visits.

The key to the story is not just the singular joy you offer, but the layered ways in which you pull it through from your marketing to the in-person experience that you provide.

1. Understand Your Brand’s Core Story Beyond the Obvious

You’ll need to know your story by heart before you can tell it. Identify what makes your experience unique by outlining your history, mission, values, brand purpose, and unique value propositions.

In a market where everyone sells happiness through bright colors and smiles, your first task is to understand what makes your brand different. To find that second dimension of joy, think about the true emotional benefits that you offer.

For example, LEGOLAND Discovery Centers allow kids to become “Master Builders” within larger-than-life LEGO worlds, using a hands-on narrative of creativity and exploration to sell the brand’s overarching idea of bringing imagination to life. For LEGO, storytelling is not just a marketing tactic; it’s a core part of the brand’s identity.

Understanding the real benefit—in this case curiosity and imagination—will help set the stage for your experience through your marketing. The next step is activating this message in a clear and compelling way.

2. Tell Your Story to Build Emotional Connections

An emotional connection is one of the most vital pieces in an experience. Our research has shown that 63% of purchase intent is related to the joy consumers experience through a brand’s communications—accessing that emotion at multiple points in the funnel is essential for driving sales and repeat purchases.

When you understand the unique emotional draw of your attraction, building it into your full marketing funnel will drive positive interactions. Consider not just advertising—particularly if you’re on a budget—but how you tell your story across all touchpoints, including:

• Social media
• Website and blog content
• Coupons and promotions
• Signage and visitor experience

Take for example, Disney, whose parks are billed as the Most Magical Place on Earth, and they follow through with several themed areas across the park as well as actors that refuse to break character.

Of course, not every brand can afford that level of experiential production, but you can focus on how you communicate the joy your brand brings through every step of the journey. Take a look at your social media, emails, and welcome signage. Do they read like moments in the audience’s journey? Every touchpoint is a moment in your customer’s journey.

3. Help Your Visitors Tell Your Story for You

Digital storytelling in online and social media content offers a canvas to dive deeper into your brand story, and crucially, it gives your visitors a chance to participate.

User-generated content goes beyond simply re-sharing social media posts from your fans—that’s table stakes. The best brands creatively integrate user input into their experience. Look again at LEGO: In 2015, the brand launched their “LEGO Ideas” campaign, which invited fans to submit their own designs to be produced by the company. If an idea gets 10,000 votes, the company considers producing it.

Here, LEGO takes their core emotional promise of imagination and puts the action in the hands of its biggest fans. When you help your audience become part of the story, they’ll help you tell it.

4. Train Staff to Be Brand Storytellers

Each personal interaction is a chance to leave a lasting impression on your guests. Employee engagement ensures that every touchpoint of your FEC carries out your story—train your staff to embody and communicate your brand story so that it really comes to life.

Some ways that your staff can be part of the story include:

• Pointing visitors to experiences they may not know about
• Sharing the history—or lore—of the brand
• Taking the reins of marketing channels to share what they love about the brand
• Acting as a character in the overarching story

You don’t have to have elaborate costumes and storylines to make this happen. Consider the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, who turned their social media feed over to their colorful head of security during the coronavirus pandemic.

Your people can be some of your best messengers if you give them direction and make them feel like they’re part of the brand story.

What to Do Now

• Find your core emotional benefit: Your experience will blend into the sea of sameness if you’re using photos of smiling families. What is it that sets you apart? Find out what emotional benefit your visitors love so much about your attraction (go ahead and ask them!).
• Take stock of the whole journey: If you have your core emotional benefit figured out, the next step is integrating it into every step of the visitor’s journey. Everything from billboards to emails to follow-up surveys should tie back to the core story you’re telling.
• Leverage your storytellers: Your staff and your biggest fans are some of your most effective storytellers. Use this to your advantage by giving them opportunities to join the conversation. This can mean platforming different staff members on your social channels or featuring your guests’ experiences in innovative ways.