The IP Landscape: Intellectual Property in Theme Parks and Attractions
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
1 like•1,447 views
JRA CEO/Owner Keith James discusses why attractions use intellectual property, as well as the design opportunities and challenges inherent in recreating cherished IP characters, themes and environments. As presented at the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions' 2015 Euro Attractions Show in Liseberg, Gothenburg Sweden on 7 October 2015. For more information, contact Shawn McCoy, VP of Marketing and Business Development, at smccoy@jackrouse.com, and for a transcript, visit www.jackrouse.com/blog.
Recommended
More Related Content
Similar to The IP Landscape: Intellectual Property in Theme Parks and Attractions
Similar to The IP Landscape: Intellectual Property in Theme Parks and Attractions (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
The IP Landscape: Intellectual Property in Theme Parks and Attractions
- 1. TEA Presents: The IP Landscape Keith James CEO/Owner JRA (Jack Rouse Associates) Wednesday, 7 Oct. 2015
- 2. Why IP?
- 3. Why IP? Capitalize on proven popularity, stories, characters and environments
- 4. Why IP? • Capitalize on proven popularity, stories and characters
- 5. Why IP? • Capitalize on proven popularity, stories and characters
- 6. Why IP? Instant recognition and credibility - public, investors and industry
- 7. Instant recognition and credibility - public, investors and industry
- 8. Why IP? Can instantly fill in a gap with desired target market
- 9. Why IP?
- 13. Why IP? Can provide short-term and long-term boost in attendance
- 21. Why IP? Valuable marketing and PR
- 24. Challenges in Working with IP
- 25. Challenges in Working with IP Balancing IP and client (desires, budgets, approvals)
- 26. Issues that arise when you create the attraction. • Balancing IP and client desires, approvals and budgets
- 30. Challenges in Working with IP Sensitivity toward translating 3D characters, environments
- 40. picture of harry potter details
- 41. Challenges in Working with IP Lack of usable design assets
- 42. Issues that arise when you create the attraction.
- 47. woods on phone
- 49. Challenges in Working with IP Changing IP Assets
- 54. Challenges in Working with IP Lifespan of IP
- 57. current
- 58. Benefits of Working with IP • Capitalize on proven popularity, stories, characters and environments • Instant recognition and credibility • Can instantly fill in a gap with desired target market • Can provide short-term and long-term boost in attendance • Valuable marketing and PR
- 59. Challenges In Working with IP • Sensitivity toward translating 3D characters, environments • Lack of usable design assets • Changing IP Assets • Lifespan of IP
- 60. TEA Presents: The IP Landscape Keith James CEO/Owner JRA (Jack Rouse Associates) Wednesday, 7 Oct. 2015
Editor's Notes
- Thank you. Over the past few years, it seems that more and more IP’s are making their way into the attractions industry, so I’d like to look at some of the opportunities and challenges in designing attractions based upon intellectual property.
- But before we look at designing with IP, I think it’s important to first look at why owners decide to invest in IP-based attractions in the first place.
- First, using IP allows the licensee to capitalize upon years of the public’s familiarization and affinity for the selected IP’s stories, characters and environments. For example, would you rather..
- Visit a theme park based upon this story….
- or this story?
- The use of IP also provides instant credibility, to the public, potential project investors and the industry.
- As another test, would you rather invest in a new attraction based upon the characters on the left, or the one on the right?
- IP also can help an existing theme park fill in a gap with an existing target market.
- Kings Island, a successful regional theme park back in my home town of Cincinnati, in the United States, has done a good job of this over the years, using a variety of IP’s to develop themed lands specifically targeted to younger children and their families.
- Beginning with Hanna-Barbera characters, such as Yogi Bear and Scooby Doo, which they used from the early 1970’s until 2006.
- This land then changed to a Nickelodeon theme.
- and most recently to Planet Snoopy. So by using a variety of known well-known, family-oriented IP’s, the park has been able to continuously attract and entertain a valuable segment of their audience since its opening in 1972.
- You can also add new IP to existing theme park to increase attendance, both in the short-term and long-term.
- Paulton’s Park is a 140-acre park located 2 hours southwest of London. Founded in 1983, the park featured no IP-based attractions and averaged about 500,000 guests per year. That was until 2011, when the park added…
- The world’s first Peppa Pig-themed attraction - Peppa Pig World. That year, visitor numbers to the park increased from 500,000 per year to over 1 million, which has been mainly attributed to adding the new IP land.
- The IP has been so successful that the park has now embraced the land as a significant part of its marketing efforts,
- even resulting in a change in its logo and branding.
- Probably a more well known example of an attendance boost through IP is the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which as Lesley Morrisetti pointed out in a recent article boosted the park’s attendance by 70% in its first two years.
- And most recently led to the development of the new Diagon Alley land, which created an additional 17% spike in attendance after it’s first year of operation. (…meaning that it really doesn’t look like this too often, but
- ….more like this.)
- And finally, IP provides valuable marketing and PR opportunities and assets for the license holder.
- For example, the new Hunger Games traveling exhibit is able to tap into iconic characters and imagery from the movie franchise to market its current run in New York.
- The license holder also benefits from the IP’s own marketing, so the exhibit will certainly benefit from the media blitz accompanying the series’ final movie premiering next month.
- So, those are some of the benefits in using IP. From a designer’s standpoint, what are some of the challenges in working on IP-based projects?
- One of the biggest challenges as a designer or architect is that your are typically hired (and paid) by the licensee, but you also have to answer to the IP owner. And sometimes what a brand wants - and what it will take to fund or operate these wants - creates conflict.
- For example, Ferrari licensed their brand to Aldar to create Ferrari World Abu Dhabi. The park’s spectacular building was created by Benoy, with a roof painted in vibrant "Ferrari Red”,
- which becomes not so vibrant when the desert sand coats it. As this specific red color is an integral part of the Ferrari brand, it was important for Ferrari to ensure that the roof’s color remained consistent. The idea for an automatic washing mechanism on the roof was suggested, but this option wasn’t operationally or financially viable for the Owner. So, a compromise between the IP and Owner was reached in order to keep the roof clean and authentic to the brand…
- which consisted of a team of workers climbing on to the roof to clean it on a regular basis.
- which creates some pretty interesting photographs, but also symbolizes the lengths that often go into protecting an IP’s assets and how early design decisions can have operational ramifications down the road.
- A designer also has to be aware of the IP’s holder sensitivity toward creating three-dimensional versions of their characters and environments, especially when they have only been seen in a 2D format, such as print or traditional animation. But there are techniques that can be used to make this translation authentic to the brand.
- For example, when JRA created a themed land based upon Curious George, we took the beloved children’s books as our design inspiration,
- and created designs that matched the illustration styles found within the books.
- As seen in these facade drawings, our team worked hard to keep the lines loose,
- which was then translated into three-dimensional environments.
- We even used giant reproductions of the books themselves to provide context for the guest through their exploration of the space.
- Sometimes, the best way to translate 2D characters into the three-dimensional world is to keep them as 2D. This technique is used quite well within the Springfield at Universal Studios,
- where you’ll find all of the series’ characters throughout the three-dimensional recreation of their hometown. From Bart and Milhaus…
- …to Homer and Maggie.
- Designers and fabricators of IP-based environments must also share the same magical attention to the details, as do the IP’s creators. For example, representatives for JK Rowling review every detail of any attraction or environment based upon the popular books and movies.
- Even if those details can’t be seen by the naked eye (such as this turret top) they have to meet the IP’s guidelines, because a guest might be able to see the detail through a telephoto lens, and it has to remain authentic to the IP.
- One of the biggest challenges in working with IP is the lack of usable design assets. Sometimes this is because the assets haven’t been created yet.
- In the early 1990’s, JRA worked with Universal Studios to create a children’s play zone based upon the animated film Fievel Goes West. The problem was, we had to finish our design work before the actual movie was even finished.
- So, we had to work with the studio to review their work in progress and develop the renderings based upon key sections of the film that were completed. Luckily….
- …the project turned out well, and has been open for over 23 years.
- Sometimes the IP’s assets are already created, but they aren’t usable from a technical standpoint. For example, our team has worked a lot with Rovio, the creators of the Angry Birds games. And while Rovio has a large inventory of digital characters and environments, they were formatted for mobile phones and iPads. Needless to say, the resolution of their graphics wasn’t high enough for themed environments. So our team had to recreate all of their graphics for a large-format output - beginning with their characters and building blocks…
- To their lush background environments…
- ..so that we could create large printed murals. So, again, another challenge in working with with IP is that their assets might be available, but are not usable.
- Another challenge in working with IP, is that some IP is constantly changing.
- For example, keeping with our work with Angry Birds. When we began designing an indoor attraction based upon the IP, the characters looked like this, as they are seen in the game (no wings, no feet, and they don’t talk). Then, midway through our design process, the characters had evolved for use in Rovio’s animated shorts or Toons), and now looked like…
- this. So, we had to change many of the attraction’s graphics to reflect the updated characters.
- Then, Rovio created a new game based upon their relatively new Stella character, so a new themed zone had to be created to reflect these new assets.
- And, most recently, images for how the birds would appear in next year’s animated feature were released - showing dramatically different looking birds - who now have wings, and feet, and speak. So, future attractions will have to accommodate the changing look of these characters and need to make decisions on which assets to use - the game version, the Toons version or the Movie version.
- Another challenge in creating attractions using IP is that they all typically have a lifespan, and will need to be changed at some point - either due to an expired licensing agreement, or a change in park ownership or strategy.
- Using the Kings Island theme park again as an example, when I first worked at the park in the 1970s, this restaurant was designed around a generic Octoberfest beer hall theme. However, when Paramount purchased the park, they asked us to turn it into a themed restaurant based upon one of their more popular movies. So, the Fest Haus became
- a Bubba Gump shrimp shack, based upon the movie Forrest Gump. Our designers were careful to limit the theming to decorations and paint treatment only, however, so that the facility could easily be changed to future themes once the IP agreement expired, which it did when Paramount sold the park to Cedar Fair and their designers took over. So now if you visit the restaurant, instead of Bubba Gump Shrimp Shack, you’ll find
- Big Hank’s Burrito Shack. So again, it’s important to keep that flexibility built into your designs when working with IP.
- So, to recap, the are a variety of benefits in working with IP, including… Capitalize on proven popularity, stories, characters and environment Instant recognition and credibility Can instantly fill in a gap with desired target market Can provide short-term and long-term boost in attendance Valuable marketing and PR
- But, there are also a variety of challenges that accompany these benefits from a design standpoint, such as… • Sensitivity toward translating 3D characters, environments • Lack of usable design assets • Changing IP Assets • Lifespan of IP
- And as the use of IP seems to becoming more and more popular, I think that it’s great to have these discussions, so that we can all learn from one another, and ultimately create attractions that benefit the owner, the IP owner and, most important, the guest. Thank you.