Storyland Studios is a three-dimensional storytelling firm that imagines, designs and creates immersive experiences and environments to lift the spirit.
It was recently announced that the company will be designing a new studio city in Lagos called Kebulania. This is set to revolutionise the Nigerian film industry. In addition to the firm’s exciting recent projects, Storyland has also worked alongside some of the world’s most well-known IPs over its twenty-year history. Some of its most notable work includes concepts, designs, scenic fabrication, and themed environments for Marvel, Star Wars, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, The Walt Disney Company, LEGO, and Trilith Studios.
In addition to theme parks, Storyland Studios has become adept at applying the skills of Spatial Storytelling and introducing its themed entertainment approach to novel clients and market types. This includes Sports Illustrated Resort & Action Park in Orlando, Marvel AVENGERS S.T.A.T.I.O.N. in Las Vegas, Bethany Children’s Hospital in Oklahoma City, International Disability Center in Los Angeles, and Trilith Studios in Atlanta.
As Storyland Studios continues to grow from strength to strength, expanding into new regions and markets, we spoke to Ben Thompson, partner and chief strategy officer, to find out more about its latest themed entertainment projects and what is powering this phenomenal growth.
Storyland Studios expands
While it has only been two years since we last spoke to Thompson, who chatted to blooloop alongside the company’s co-founder Mel McGowan in September 2020, much has changed in that time, as he explains:
“Two or three years ago, Storyland Studios was a respected West Coast design firm with a Walt Disney storytelling heritage and a trusted US client base including LEGOLAND, Universal Parks and Resorts, Marvel Entertainment and the Children’s Hunger Fund, with whom the firm won a Thea award. There was no international business whatsoever to speak of before 2020.
“Today our international business, based in offices just outside London, has grown to well over a third of total company revenues. A big part of this growth has been our partnership with clients looking to enter location-based entertainment for the first time, either as major stand-alone new developments as in the case of Qiddiya, or large existing operators like the Cataratas group in Brazil entering for the first time into themed branded experiences.”
Latest project brings design expertise to Nigeria
This global expansion can be seen in one of Storyland Studios’ latest projects, working on Studio City Kebulania in Lagos, Nigeria.
Nigeria is home to a booming film industry. In fact, “Nollywood”, as it is known, boasts the world’s second-largest film industry by output, creating almost 2,500 films a year. In terms of the number of films that the country’s film sector puts out, is second only to India’s Bollywood. It also generates more than a billion dollars in gross annual sales.
For the design of Kebulania, Storyland has included fully fitted modern sound stages, support workshops, a creative university, a theme park and residential and commercial real estate. The Film City project is expected to bring in up to 5,000 to 10,000 visitors per day. This will generate revenue for the region and will also help to create significant economic activity within the community.
It is ideally located to attract western clients as well, further stimulating the local industry and boosting the output and value of Nollywood. The first phase of the project will begin in the first quarter of 2023. It is expected to take two years to complete.
“I think what’s great about Kebulania is that it’s a great example of inspiring the next generation of storytellers in a rapidly developing market economy,” says Thompson. “The film business, which is also the storytelling business, has always had a profound impact on culture. However, for most of the last century, this has been a case of Hollywood exporting stories to the world.
“We’re now seeing more of these developments whether it be in the continent of Africa, the Middle East or Asia. Young, talented filmmakers can now dream about telling the stories that inspire them, from within their own country and community.”
Ground-up themed entertainment projects in the US
In addition to this, Storyland’s work in the US is also continuing apace. As well as its longstanding work under development or construction for established US parks, two entirely new US-based theme parks are being master planned and designed by the Storyland Studios team.
One of these is Storyville Gardens in Middle Tennessee, which will be an immersive, story-driven theme park. Taking inspiration from European pleasure gardens such as Tivoli, this unique new interactive park aims to instil a love of reading in visitors.
“This full-day themed resort in the Nashville metro area will bring stories and songs from the four corners of the world, with a purpose-driven literacy initiative helping children of all ages understand that “words create worlds”,” says Thompson.
Storyville Gardens will cover a 130-acre site. It will feature over 220,000 square feet of entertainment, retail and dining facilities alongside the theme park. There will also be three hotels. It is expected to open in 2025.
Another US theme park project that the firm is working on is the redevelopment and renewal of Ghost Town in the Sky in North Carolina’s Great Smoky Mountains. Here, Storyland will revitalise the classic mountaintop theme park, which originally opened in 1961.
The destination was inspired by popular western films like The Magnificent Seven and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. One of the main draws was an authentic replica of an Old West main street. The new-look attraction will feature retail stores and boutiques on the ground floor of the main street’s buildings.
New hires at Storyland Studios
To support this growth, and in addition to strategic hires that Storyland has made this year already, Thompson says that the firm is excited to be recruiting for three new roles.
Storyland is now seeking a strategy director to support its strategic storytelling business.
“This person will work directly alongside our clients, both existing operators and those opening new developments as a co-pilot for the internal strategy or management team. They will bring years of experience in asset-phasing, business models and partnership development.”
Secondly, Storyland is also recruiting for a director of client development in the US.
“A major focus of this person’s work will be real estate developers who can benefit not just from consultancy and design services but also from partnerships with major IP owners. A great example of this would be the Ubisoft World concept which we are currently engaged in designing and rolling out.”
In addition, Storyland will also be hiring a head of Asia Pacific, to be based in the region and represent the firm to the booming LBE market in this territory.
“We expect to be at the next IAAPA Expo in Asia. We look forward to meeting friends from around the industry at this event, hopefully together with our new Storylander!”
The importance of strategic storytelling
Storyland Studios employs a growing team of artists, architects, designers, coders and craftsmen who tell stories in three dimensions. As immersive experience designers and ‘a big idea’s best ally’, the firm’s in-house expertise allows it to take a story from idea through concept, fabrication, installation and realisation.
One of the key reasons for the company’s growth has been this team’s focus on what it calls “strategic storytelling”.
When a company has the word “story” so prominently in its name, a focus on storytelling it’s probably not a great surprise, as Thompson points out. A focus on strategy, however, is perhaps more unusual. Elaborating on what this looks like in practice, he explains:
“Storyland provides strategic consultancy services to our clients when they are in the “figuring out what to build” stage of development. We use the decades of experience within our team to serve clients at this phase in three ways: the proposition, the partnerships, and the P&L.”
The proposition
Firstly, there is the proposition.
“In an incredibly competitive industry, where the best and brightest minds are constantly thinking “what’s next?” and “how do we go one better?”, we help our clients develop compelling propositions that are ownable and unique.”
“We go deep into the DNA of the location, brand, and product of the client we’re serving, and we develop that DNA into big, marketable ideas that will stand up against any competition. Not just because they are exciting for today but because they represent authentic storytelling that could only come from this particular client, in this particular location.”
The partnerships
Thompson then goes on to explain the second way that the team serves its clients, the partnerships.
“A large part of our success over the last few years has been our ability to think like a franchise owner, and to develop location-based propositions that will not only be commercially successful, but which will deliver the long-term brand and marketing goals of the IP owner.”
“We see our role here as a value creator. So, we combine a deep understanding of the world of intellectual property, whether from the film, TV, gaming, consumer products, sports, food and beverage or lifestyle sectors, with the skills of a multi-disciplinary experience designer and the instinct of the dealmaker.
“We partner with IPs to develop propositions and turn them into successful businesses. Also, we work with operators and developers who want the right mix of branded experiences within their property to engage with and secure those partners.”
The P&L
Finally, Thompson says, there is the P&L:
“We’ve been in this industry long enough to know that nothing gets built without investment. And investors need to see solid, defendable business plans. Our team’s experience in companies like Disney and Merlin, along with our participation in countless feasibility studies, and board and investor presentations, has given us a unique ability together with our economic experts to construct or simply validate the business plans of our clients.
“Typically, this involves working hand in hand with the firms producing the feasibility study.”
Curators of cutting-edge technology
Understanding the role of technology in telling better stories, and creating more immersive, more memorable story worlds and experiences has always been part of Storyland’s DNA. Peter McGowan was a successful tech entrepreneur before founding the company 20 years ago together with his brother Mel. He still runs two tech companies today including Storyland’s sister company Kitestring, creator of Ozone Rig Studio.
According to Peter McGowan:
“Ozone Rig Studio by Kitestring is simple; feature-film quality characters, anywhere. It’s the brainchild of Pixar veteran Rich Hurrey, whose vision is to bring feature-film quality characters to real-time environments, telling enriched stories in film, tv, gaming and the metaverse. Ozone Rig Studio has a wide audience, from the film producer chasing after “Pixar quality” at a fraction of the typical animation cost, to the everyday gamer who wants a lifelike avatar for a “Ready Player One-type”, real-time experience in their games”.
“We’re looking forward to developing Ozone Rig Studio partnerships within the location-based entertainment world – watch this space for more news!”
Thompson adds: “It helps that we have a studio full of avid gamers and video game nerds… it was with this background both in terms of the company and some of our creative leaders that we set out a few years ago to start understanding how to realize video games within the physical, themed entertainment world.
“We announced our partnership with Ubisoft last year. I’m excited to announce that we are working on not just one but two locations for the first Ubisoft World. Within this process, we are learning for real what it takes to deliver somewhere near the level of responsiveness, and hyper-personalisation that has made the video game industry the largest entertainment industry in the world.”
New Storyland Studios projects: watch this space
For this journey, Storyland has partnered with Alterface, a leader in interactive technology.
“I’m looking forward to continuing to work closely together on this and other projects about which we can’t yet talk openly,” says Thompson.
“Suffice to say, I would be hard-pressed to imagine that there is a themed entertainment designer out there that knows more than we do about the narrative strategy and technology underpinning required to make a success of one of these video game-as-physical-experience locations. There is much more work to do of course, and we don’t yet have one of these centres open. But we’re getting closer every day.”
“As we have started on this journey, we have found ourselves in the privileged position where our clients look to us to bring them not just the most exciting storytelling technologies available today, but to take on the role of “storytelling futurologists”, scanning the market in the next 5,10 and 15 years to identify the mix of technologies coming to maturity at the right time for their developments.
“Sometimes this will even involve investments in leading-edge technologies to accelerate that development road map.”
Who is the ideal Storyland Studios partner?
Looking at the different types of clients that would benefit from working with the firm, Thompson explains:
“I would say Storyland Studios is a brilliant partner to three types of clients. If you’re looking to enter the LBE market for the first time as an owner, operator or developer, we can help you create the right strategy, and then design and launch the right mix of experiences. Or, if you’re an IP or brand owner within film, TV, gaming, sports, CPG or lifestyle looking for a strategic design and development partner, give us a call.”
Additionally:
“If you’re an existing operator or an IP owner with an existing portfolio of LBE assets and you’re looking for fresh thinking, new ideas and new partners, give us a call.”
Storyland Studios will be exhibiting at IAAPA Expo 2022 in Orlando, Florida. This takes place from 14 – 18 November at the Orange County Convention Centre.
“We’d love to get to know you better, either at the show or whenever works for you, so drop us a line in advance,” finishes Thompson.
