In December 2022, attractions professionals from around the world gathered online to take part in the first-ever blooloop Festival of Innovation. As well as the announcement of this year’s blooloop Innovation Awards, the three-day virtual event featured expert speakers from across the industry.
In the themed environment session, sponsored by Lumsden Design, Sarah Roots, EVP of Warner Bros. Studio Tours & Retail at Warner Bros. Studio Operations, gave an update on the latest news from Warner Bros., thoughts about innovation and also teased some exciting new plans.
What’s new at Warner Bros. Studio Operations?
Roots began by giving an overview of some of the latest developments in terms of Warner Bros. visitor experiences. In the UK, the company celebrated the opening of Professor Sprout’s Greenhouse at Warner Bros. Studio Tour London: The Making of Harry Potter, its flagship tour.
“That has been really lovely,” said Roots. “And we’ve done some other updates to the backlot as well.”
In the context of innovation in the attractions industry, she reflected on this project, in particular, talking about the importance of keeping things fresh:
“When we first opened the studio tour in London it was a brand-new innovation at the time. It’s a behind-the-scenes angle on filmmaking, which was certainly new for a permanent visitor attraction. Everything that you do feels innovative at the time, but then you’ve got to make sure that your offer feels new and that it stays memorable, engaging and interactive.
“Effectively, innovation is new things and coming up with those things is really important. We have been able to continue to innovate and bring something new and different to the tour. So, we have Professor Sprout Greenhouse this year. Also in 2019, we had a huge expansion to the tour with the introduction of Gringotts.”
Harry Potter Store New York
Another recent development is the opening of Warner Bros. flagship Harry Potter Store in New York in 2021
“We were supposed to open in 2020 and of course, that didn’t happen, but we managed this project remotely, which was pretty innovative in itself,” said Roots. “We opened in June 2021 with this amazing retail experience in central New York, just behind the Flatiron Building.”
“Here, we have taken everything that we’ve learned from running studio tours and attractions and used that to enhance the retail experience. It’s like a free-entry attraction and it’s been really successful, with great photo opportunities and interactives. We’ve got this fantastic interactive wand duelling table where you can act out the last scene of the last Harry Potter film, with the big fight.
“But then there other things that are much more simple. For instance, there is a Nagini embedded in the ceiling and you hear parseltongue as you pass it. There are Hagrid’s boots with a Hagrid behind; you can stand in his boots for a photo op.”
With this project, the team has understood and responded to the fact that today’s visitors want to be part of the experience.
Visitors to the store can also discover House of Mina Lima, from the firm that designed all the graphic elements for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo
The team’s main focus right now, said Roots, is on the new studio tour project in Japan, Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo: The Making of Harry Potter.
“This tour is in central Tokyo, opening next summer. It’s a wonderful building in a great location, and we’re very excited about what we’re going to offer. A lot of it is top secret, but it is still made by the filmmakers. We have all the unique differentiation of the London tour, plus more flexibility to be able to add more engagement for our visitors, and more photo ops.”
As with the London tour, Warner Bros. has been working closely with Thinkwell Group, the global experience design and production company, on the Tokyo project.
“We’ve got brand new sets, we’ve got moving portraits where you can take your photo and it will go into a moving portrait, we’ve got the moving staircase. We’ve got new photo opportunities all around, which I can’t talk about yet, but it’s going to be really exciting.”
This will all flow seamlessly into the tour’s F&B offering, which is a project that Lumsden, a design firm specialising in retail and F&B for visitor attractions, is working on.
“Again, that’s what the visitors want, to be more interactive and more immersed in the whole Harry Potter experience. We are definitely taking up that challenge in Tokyo and I think what we’re going to deliver, with Lumsden, is going to be really special.”
Embracing new trends
Moving on to talk about what’s new in the Warner Bros. portfolio of attractions, Roots spoke about embracing some of the trends for virtual and hybrid experiences.
“I think probably the most interesting example is the two VR experiences that we have in the Harry Potter Store in New York. One is a team experience where you take on a challenge and you are gaming through Hogwarts, and the other is where you’re flying on your own broomstick. You can fly separately or with your friends and family. Both of them are absolutely amazing and they have driven interest in the store.”
This mix of VR and retail has added value to the guest experience. However, she also added:
“There are many things that you can do that aren’t so high-tech. For example, we have a new shop experience on our e-commerce, which is a digital 360-degree immersive shopping experience. It’s like you are going into the shop on e-commerce and you’re shopping just like you would do physically in the store. I think we’ll see a lot of change in that area in the future.”
Roots and her team are also exploring the use of AR, which she says has a lot of potential as it doesn’t require large infrastructure investment. It also has the ability to be flexible, as it can easily be updated and changed.
Magic wands from Warner Bros.
Finally, Roots gave attendees a glimpse of an exciting development that we could see in the near future:
“We are in the process of launching a caster wand, which is literally a magic wand. That has been a huge new development for the company, and I think it will be interesting to see how that rolls out. It will allow people to take the magic into their own homes for the first time. So that’s pretty exciting!”
Innovation, she concluded, is about engaging visitors, about offering something that is both authentic and different.
Sarah RootsOur market is intelligent and our customers want to see something that is authentic to whatever your product is. If you can root everything in authenticity, then decisions about what innovations you use become much simpler. You’re looking for things that make visitors feel like they’re part of the experience.
Roots also teased that there is the potential at the studio tour in London for a significant development, in the next few years. “We’re thinking carefully about what that might be.”
Watch the interview with Sarah here which includes the teaser video for Tokyo:
