Summerland is a new live immersive theatre show that brings Summer to Winter in London.
Business overview
| Location | London, United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Social media | |
| Website | www.summerlandlive.com |
| Sectors | Entertainment Non-Digital B2C |
| Company number | 09275145 |
| Incorporation date | 22 Oct 2014 |
Idea
***This campaign has been reopened for investment due to the ineligibility of a large institutional investor for SEIS relief. We will keep this round open until the full SEIS availability has been utilised.***
***This is part of a larger raise totalling a minimum of £845,000. This is the initial SEIS eligible portion, the remainder will be raised through a follow-on campaign which will be EIS eligible.***
Introduction
Summerland is an immersive live event which offers audiences a warm, hyper-real tropical paradise in the middle of winter.
Winters in Europe are long and escaping the cold means a flight. Often people do not have the time and money to spare, but still crave the chance to relax and reconnect in the warmth. This is why we have created Summerland.
The experience will be like going to an immersive festival in a jungle paradise. With multiple attractions all around, the audience will roam freely and explore what is effectively a film set with a live theatrical wonderland.
The theme is Holiday in a Day, with a whole day and night condensed into each 4hr show. Audiences check-in at the Departure Lounge before teleporting into a hidden paradise with jungle, waterfall, pool, hot-tubs and bands, spectacular AV displays, jungle landscaping; character performers, live bands and immersive warmth.
Characterful, authentic and original, Summerland will be unlike any other event in the world.
Intended impact
Summerland is designed to make people happy and do good.
Relax and Escape.
Summerland is pure escapism. Here the audience become fully immersed in an alternate reality. An attraction such as this summons the audience to not only be part of the story but to feel as if they have fallen down a rabbit hole into a whole other world.
Families Reconnect.
In these pressured days, time to reconnect as a family is a rare thing and too often family fun days are not fun for everyone. Daytime shows are designed by parents for parents - time to relax while kids are happily entertained. Summerland has a myriad of areas for children to explore, from questing to restore Santa's magic, playing at the Kids Club Treehouse Playground or splashing around in the pool. All ensuring enough peace for at least one Mai-tai and a massage.
The Ultimate Party.
By night, this charming tropical paradise becomes the ultimate venue for wild bacchanal. Evening shows are edgier, bands are bigger, the dancers more exotic, the capacity is doubled, and it generally goes off like the most having it pool party imaginable. Imagine, for example, Nicki Minaj giving it the Anaconda, with dancers on the rock walls and waterfall all around. Dazzling light shows in the sky above, which you enjoy from your stage-side hot-tub as you sip champagne with your mates. On all levels this will really be the most epic night out in the city.
A Luxury Experience for All.
Enjoying the music and atmosphere is fun but upgrades such as Spa, Hot tubs and Beauty Packages make this a premium experience at an accessible price.
Health Benefits.
From the light frequencies to the fresh juices, yoga and spa treatments, Summerland is intended to help people feel good in winter.
Education.
Not everyone gets the chance to visit a real jungle but here they can experience and learn about one.
Sustainability.
In the long term, helping to protect threatened rainforests via partner programs will bring Summerland full circle.
Substantial accomplishments to date
Debs Armstrong is the founder of Shangri La at Glastonbury Festival. In its 8th year and with over 160,000 visitors a year, it is one of the best loved and most influential immersive attractions in the UK.
Substantial achievements to date include the following:
The company has been boot-strapped by founders for 2.5yrs and is ready to go to market and generate revenues.
A formidable team and partnerships - the production, operation, finance and marketing aspects will be delivered by industry leaders.
Concept and designs well developed, with scale plans, models and technical drawings in place. Suppliers confirmed, with each aspect costed and quoted and only detailing to be further developed.
Strong supporters including: Virgin Atlantic, London & Partners, AKA, Seetickets and Billetto.
Significant discounts negotiated on major costs such as venue hire fees and technical equipment.
Our lead investor is the president of Rubik’s Brand Limited, David Kremer, an expert in global licensing.
Monetisation strategy
The key revenue stream is ticket sales and upgrades. This is supplemented by private hire, merchandising, food & beverage sales and sponsorships.
Long term growth is expected to be from replicating the format globally across a number of locations through licensing and/or franchising.
Ticket Sales
Summerland is aimed to be an affordable and accessible experience.
Prices range from £6-£16 for children and £18-£75 for adults. Ticket pricing is demand-led and dynamic, with low, medium and high priced sessions. In addition there is one Super Show, on New Years Eve, which will be a gala event at £125.
There are up to four shows per day, capacities are 2966 for evening shows and 1200 for daytime shows.
Upgrades
Add-ons on offer to our audiences include: Fast-track, Travel and Hotel Accommodation, Pre-booked Lunch and Dinner, Reserved Seating Area (Book a Nook) or Hot-tub and Private Dining in the Crystal Cave.
Packages include:
• Wellness Package
• Beauty Package
• Family package
• Play and Stay package
Corporate and Private Hires
Summerland will be available for exclusive or shared private hires during evening sessions from 13th December to 16th December.
Merchandise
As well as the usual t-shirts on offer, bespoke branded Summerland items such as sunny umbrellas, trainers with tropical prints, sunglasses and so forth will be available. The range can be further developed into towels and swimwear, beauty and massage products and toys for children.
Sponsorship
Summerland is expected to be of significant interest to the travel industry, and expressions of interest received include Virgin Atlantic.
Food & Beverage
The bars are being managed by Soulshakers, a highly reputable firm with a long established relationship with founders, on a revenue share basis.
There is no immediate revenue opportunity on food as a company is already in place at the venue which has exclusivity. They will be operating under service standards specified by Summerland.
Use of proceeds
The money raised through this round will be utilised to pay:
Marketing and PR costs to take Summerland to market. Tickets will go on sale in Jan 2016, provisionally on Blue Monday, the most depressing day of the year. A pre-launch Event for corporate sales and sponsorship partners will aim to cement and develop partnerships.
Final phase R&D is required to detail smaller set items.
Overheads are planned to be kept to minimum, but they include core wages, professional fees and venue deposit.
By raising this round of funding for Summerland we unlock our financing opportunities for future rounds and benefit from core audience development.
Market
Target market
Summerland is positioned into the key winter festival, family trips and immersive theatre markets. The daytime shows are aimed at family days out, while the evening shows are for adult audiences.
The consumer market is estimated at some 42.6m people (MHM). The corporate market for innovative brands staging engaging events has seen a 328% increase from 2014-2015. (londonlaunch)
The value of Britain’s events sector is:
Conferences and meetings – £18.8 billion
Incentive travel and performance improvement – £1.2 billion
Corporate hospitality and corporate events – £1 billion
Outdoor events – £1 billion
Festivals and cultural events – £1.1 billion
Music events – £1.4 billion
(BVEP)
Winter Festival
The festival market has seen huge growth in the UK. Between 2005 and 2009 there was an average annual increase of more than 1.64 million adults attending festivals and events and the sector is expected to be worth more than £1.4B by 2020 (BVEP Growth). Whilst the summer music festival market sees continual growth, we believe that the winter festival market remains underserved. Summerland is able to serve the existing demand in the winter months including headline acts at lower rates.
Family days out
We believe that the demand for a pioneering winter attraction is underserved in London. Despite the weather, the demand for Winter Wonderland has grown year by year, from 2 million in 2014 to 2.5 million 2015 over a 6-week period.Many audiences seek warm and comfortable, affordable yet exciting options. We feel that Summerland is positioned as a genuinely unique alternative to Winter Wonderland.
Immersive Theatre
The market for interactive and immersive theatre has grown exponentially with social media as sharing trends demand wow-factor. As part of the Experience Economy, demand for experiential increases year by year driven by unprecedented growth in the youth market (Ticketmaster).
This is reflected in the audience interest and sell-out shows such as PunchDrunk and Secret Cinema.
Characteristics of target market
The market is largely consumer driven with a small, but important demand from companies for hospitality. Daytime shows are aimed at family days out, while the evening shows are for an adult audience.
Customers have been segmented (via MHM) as follows:
• EXPRESSION- c.5.5m adults with 27% having children at home - they regularly enjoy arts and culture.
• STIMULATION- c. 5m adults with 31% having children at home - they are independent thinkers with a keen sense of adventure.
• AFFIRMATION- c. 4.5m adults nationally with 38% having children at home-they enjoy both learning & entertaining days out.
• ESSENCE-an older (73% over 35) audience of c.3.8m adults who regularly spend on culture with 33% having children at home.
In addition to the above, 17.4m international visitors & 12.4m domestic visitors visit London annually with 4 out of 5 visitors stating ''culture and heritage'' as the main reason for visiting. We will target tourist markets. supported by London & Partners.
Marketing strategy
We are working with THE AKA GROUP (AKA) on developing a robust marketing strategy to ensure high volume ticket sales
Over 20 years old AKA have proved themselves to excel in achieving ticket sales, providing innovative media, marketing, digital and creative solutions to the live entertainment industry, namely west-end musicals and theatre, music festivals, comedy arena tours, and other site-specific events & attractions.
They are the preferred supplier for the Department of Media, Culture & Sport framework which supports 11 of the best attended cultural organisations in the UK (such as The Tate & V & A) as well as having internationally recognised theatre clients such as The National Theatre, The Donmar Warehouse, The British Museum & The Young & Old Vic.
Their remit for Summerland includes Advertising, Media Planning & Buying, Digital Marketing, Creative services, Specialist Marketing, Brand Partnerships & Ticketing
The Summerland Marketing Strategy includes:
Outdoor;
Print Media
Broadcast Media (Cinema and Radio)
Digital Display
SEO / SEM
Social Media
Trade Groups and Schools
Brand Partnerships
This will be a sales-focused campaign with the budget in place for a high visibility campaign.
AKA will provide a unique service that encompasses in-depth consultancy, reporting, data comparison and analysis of sales driven by our marketing campaigns. This analysis will allow us to tailor future campaigns as well as pro-actively reacting to current campaigns.
The marketing strategy - with breakdown of allocated budget & proposed activities is available on request.
We plan to reach the Christmas party market through agents for Corporate Hires and by contacting companies that we already have relationships with such as the Guardian.
Competition strategy
The competition for Summerland is the wider entertainment market, areas which compete for the wallet share of consumers during the winter holiday season – ie concerts, theatres, cinemas, and exhibitions etc as well as seasonally themed events and activities such as beer fests, street markets, circus, outdoor ice skating, etc.
Audiences have become bored with traditional shows and are demanding more experiential and immersive environments.
Direct competition for experiential events includes Winter Wonderland, Secret Cinema and Lapland UK. The latter is probably the closest to the Summerland concept, aimed at families, with shows and immersive experiences that are similar.
All are well established and well executed yet we believe still lack the “everybody happy” factor.
Summerland is a place where you can take the kids for a good time without worrying about freezing rain, queues and overpricing.
Fixed capacities avoid overcrowding, it is relaxing for parents and offers good value for money. A fun and affordable experience which both parents and kids will enjoy, it incorporates high quality performance and musical entertainment. Here, in the guaranteed warmth, people have a festival as well as theatrical experience.
The climate, originality and execution of the Summerland concept, and its competitive pricing should position it well relative to other events on offer.
The success of existing events and the growth seen in the market we expect will undoubtedly attract new entrants, both local and further afield.
The IP has been protected, with copyrights, trademark and assignments in place and a franchise manual in development.
Competition can spur continuous improvements to the customer offering, leading to growth in the total size of the market and success for those that deliver the best customer experience.
We anticipate that Summerland's character and authenticity will make it a unique proposition for years to come.
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