Park People Q Lines KidZania
KidZania was born in 1999 as La Ciudad de los Niños (City of Children), a role- playing entertainment centre in Mexico City’s Sante Fe Shopping Mall. A second outlet followed seven years later in Mexican city of Monterrey, and now the concept has been franchised to a further six cities around the world, with many more on the horizon. As more and more parents seek out attractions combining entertainment with
education, KidZania’s time has come. Park World catches up with the
company’s founder and president Xavier López Ancona and chief
marketing officer Cammie Dunaway, who will be spearheading KidZania’s expansion into North America
How was the Kidzania concept born? Xavier López Ancona (XLA) – Well first of all it’s important to say we did not invent role-playing! Role- playing is something children do everyday at home, everywhere around the world; they see what their parents do and imitate it. We took children’s favourite game and made it an attraction. Before there were some similar ideas with role-playing inside children’s museums, but I think this is the first time anyone has put it altogether under one roof and done a whole city with all the buildings, all the different professions and its own economy.
How do you market the concept in new countries? XLA – We do very little advertising at the beginning, but we do a lot of PR. Targeting kids is very simple because one kid goes and tells his whole school, “I went to this cool, exciting place” and word of mouth spreads very fast. We also have a TV studio, a newspaper office and a radio station as attractions in most of our venues, in partnership with local media, so by working with these partners that helps us promote KidZania a little bit. Cammie Dunaway (CD) – I’ve been fascinated looking at YouTube videos and Tweets from parents that have been to a KidZania in Dubai or Tokyo and just want to spread the word to their friends. KidZania is very much a media company as well as an entertainment company and our partners certainly help promote the brand and create awareness.
How do you create an engaging ‘edutainment’ experience? CD – If you can make experiences fun you can really use that to teach and to reinforce positive aims. That has been shown with something like the Wii Fit games console, where all of sudden Nintendo got a lot of people exercising because it was fun to
Firefighting is a popular profession for KidZania visitors
workout on the Wii. Kids today spend a lot of time alone on computers and watching TV, so face to face interaction is very important for parents. KidZania is all about empowering kids by teaching them in fun ways all about teamwork and making choices. Bringing education and entertainment together is a very powerful combination and KidZania is doing is better than anyone else.
Why are shopping malls the perfect fit for your attractions? XLA – We like being in shopping malls for many reasons. First, the investment is lower than if you go out and buy a piece of land, put up a shell, parking; all these facilities. Shopping centres have very good infrastructure, access and transportation, so we tap into that. We also get an immediate address. Rather than saying you are at 556 International Drive or whatever, you are inside this shopping centre which most people know and which enjoys good visibility. Also I think most malls need entertainment, so I think there is a lot of scope for us and the shopping centre to work together.
What is the typical KidZania attendance? XLA – Anywhere from about 500,000 to one million a year. In Mexico City, we get about 70% of visitors from the city and 30% outside. Those 30% only come once a year but the locals come on average three times a year, which for our type of entertainment is very high.
Cammie Dunaway and Xavier López Ancona on site at KidZania
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An airport check-in desk provides the entrance to KidZania Lisbon in Portugal
How does the content differ in each country? XLA – As I said before, role-playing is universal, but of course we customise it for each location. Every place we go we choose local partners who know the market, that is very important. In each attraction there is a mix of 50 to 60 different establishments and professions for the kids, and we change the mix to reflect the local culture. In Indonesia we have a noodle factory, in Mexico we do a lot of activities with Mexican food, in Japan there’s a lot of education establishments. CD – One of the benefits of having a global presence is that good ideas can come from
APRIL 2011
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