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IMAGINE EXHIBITIONS


in a very compact space, but it’s so beautifully used that the exhibit feels very large. Do you recognise where an exhibit could go then approach the casino? TZ: More often than not I approach a casino with an idea. Occasionally, an operator reaches out to us. They want to create an exhibition space and want to know what we have to offer. We enter a relationship where we’re never just a tenant; we need their support from the marketing side, and they want to lend support because we are offering an amenity to their guests. If you check into Bally’s, you get the key package and there’s information about the show. We’re included in the Total Rewards introductory package. We are something in the casino that drives attendance. We’re not like a store that relies on footfall passing. We are in just about every magazine in Las Vegas, we’re on all digital and social platforms, and we have outdoor advertising, street teams, ticket brokers; we are actively marketing our show. We’re not just paying rent and letting people walk by, we are aggressively promoting and driving traffic. That’s what differentiates us from other tenants. Our exhibitions always start with a story. We are


The Grand Staircase from the Titanic exhibit at Venetian Macau


Premier in 2009 and started Imagine Exhibitions. Shortly thereafter, I was working at the Georgia Aquarium, helping them bring in some exhibitions, and I met the aquarium’s president, Mike Levin, who is something of a legend in hospitality. He was the CEO of Days Inn, Holiday Inn - he’s done so many things it’s hard to list them all! Mike and I really hit it off. I was in Singapore within the first couple of months after launching Imagine, as Mike had asked me to work with him on building the ArtScience museum at the Marina Bay Sands. So I’ve got some history with the casino space, including the early days at the Tropicana and the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, Foxwoods, the Rio, Tropicana, Luxor, Planet Hollywood, and recently with Warhol at the Bellagio, a Da Vinci exhibition and a National Geographic exhibition at the Venetian. And now we have our permanent installation of REAL BODIES at Bally’s. We bring daytime traffic to a casino. One of the most interesting stats for us is that, while tracking visitors in Las Vegas, we find that 10-12% of our exhibition visitors are coming from the hotel we’re in. That means 88-90% of our guests are not from that hotel. Our clients very much like that we drive traffic into their space. I’d like to have an exhibition in every casino on the Strip; we have enough content to do it, too! We have over 30 exhibitions in our current portfolio and we develop new ones every year. It’s a very synergistic relationship with casinos because they have massive amounts of people looking for something entertaining to do at all times. We’re another amenity to the casinos, not only for their own guests, but also as a driver of new traffic.


CI: How does an exhibition happen in a casino? Do they approach you? REAL BODIES at Bally’s is


42 FEBRUARY 2017


storytellers in the end, that’s what we do. Most of the time, we take a linear approach to our storytelling. We like to take you on a journey. In Bally’s, we have about 8,500 square feet, but we could have filled 12,000. We thought it was enough space though, and by creating a pathway, this labyrinth, it allows you to get the maximum use out of that space. I want people to feel something that’s not just visual; you’re looking at things, you’re reading, but we also put interactivity in there, like the room called “Breathe”, where we have installed fans that feel like the room is breathing with the air circulation. In the next room on digestion, you might walk on rocks that make you think of your environment and help you relate to the stories we’re telling about how hunger and group meals created connections between people all the way back to ancient civilizations. The next room, about the circulatory system, has a padded floor and is a dark space. You’re looking at blood flow and the room feels completely different. We want you to experience a mood; we want it to be experiential. The bodies are the stars but we wanted to use the space as best we could to tell a story and get people to connect to the concept of what it means to be a human.


CI: Assuming that you don’t have the demographic information from a casino’s player loyalty scheme, how do you know what the right exhibition is for the right casino? TZ: Las Vegas has 40 million visitors a year. About half of those are repeat visitors, and more than half of those are from southern California, or convention- goers. 18 per cent is international, and that number grows every year. Of your domestic market, perhaps 10 million are new visitors to Las Vegas, and they are coming for a good time. And there’s a lot to do. They can walk around and enjoy the free shows, walk through the properties. We have to pick the right


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