By Natalia Bakhlina, Leisure Development Partners
High-definition digital projection is a tool for creating various attraction types. A black box equipped with powerful digital projection capabilities offers an excellent canvas for various forms of immersive storytelling.
Venue versatility: The Moonwalkers at Lightroom
Opened at the end of 2022, Lightroom is a digital projection-based venue located at the base of new Meta (formerly Facebook) offices within a remarkably successful regeneration development around King’s Cross and St Pancras – London’s busiest tube station and one of the country’s busiest train station clusters.
Succeeding the David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) experience in December 2023, The Moonwalkers became the second show at the venue.
The Hockney exhibition remained at Lightroom for about nine months. While this fell within the realm of digital art akin to Frameless—another top immersive attraction in London—The Moonwalkers offers something different. With its clear storyline and educational content, The Moonwalkers documentary is a cinematic experience more comparable to the recently closed BBC Earth Experience or an IMAX.
Thus, by creating a black box hosting several temporary events, each appealing to a different audience, Lightroom has broadened its addressable market and encouraged some repeat visitation from locals.
High-quality experience with a great degree of storytelling
The Moonwalkers at Lightroom is a 52-minute documentary about the 1960s lunar programme. After a short wait time (with a glass of wine if you choose), we were led by friendly staff to an impressively large room. This is able to accommodate 240 people, according to the venue.
During our Wednesday night visit, there were only 50 people in the audience, which resulted in an exceptional experience. However, staff reports that weekend shows typically sell out. Whilst the space felt vast, it also appeared that the experience would suffer greatly once the audience exceeded 150 due to sitting limitations and overcrowding.
The show integrates the original footage with a coherent storyline narrated by Tom Hanks, a space enthusiast renowned for his role in Apollo 13 some 30 years ago.
The ultra-high-definition projections on walls and floors bring viewers back to the iconic events surrounding the Apollo programme, the moon landing, and subsequent expeditions and scientific endeavours. The narrative extends to the next generation of moonwalkers in the contemporary Artemis programme.
Avoiding some overused anecdotes, the film delves into lesser-known aspects, rare footage and original audio recordings. This caters predominantly to the lunar programme enthusiasts – a demographic well represented in the audience – while still appealing to the general public with a basic understanding of the subject matter. Compelling and cohesive storytelling is the show’s key advantage over most digital art attractions. Furthermore, the educational angle adds immensely to the experience.
Like many cinematic venues, however, Lightroom suffers from uncomfortable seating arrangements. A modest fixed seating section offers optimal viewing. However, most attendees must make do with cushions, movable poofs, or a bare floor during the 50-minute runtime. This makes it less suitable for visiting with children and may also deter some adults.
Premium pricing for The Moonwalkers at Lightroom
The venue operates on a premium pricing model with adult online admission ranging from £25.00 during slower times to a peak of £35.00. A dynamic pricing algorithm determines the fluctuations within the range. For comparison, the nearby Everyman Cinema charges around £20.00 for a peak adult ticket to a blockbuster, which would entertain visitors for over two hours.
The price per hour of £25.00 is double the London average. Nevertheless, with superior quality and unique content offered by The Moonwalkers, this seems justifiable considering the recent price surges and inconsistent quality across London’s immersive attractions. While the peak fee of £35.00 (likely unsustainable for a permanent experience) may dissuade family visits and price out many others, it certainly serves to manage weekend crowds.
Due to capacity constraints and its temporary nature, the attraction can push the envelope. This, coupled with limited discounting, is expected to yield strong per capita spending.
The role of marketing
Lightroom has employed a robust marketing campaign in the context of the attractions industry. Not only does co-writer Tom Hanks narrate the experience, but his likeness is also used for extensive advertising throughout London, and he has further promoted The Moonwalkers on UK television, thereby enhancing the Lightroom’s visibility as a venue.
The reach of this marketing campaign is likely to have extended beyond conventional bounds, underscoring its significance within the broader entertainment industry. With another celebrity star, the preceding Hockney exhibition also took marketing seriously. It successfully attracted visitors from as far as an hour’s travel away.
Inherent challenges
Regardless of quality, the performance of any attraction is dependent on many factors, including the inherent challenges of the attraction type and limitations of the market. With immersive attractions, the following are crucial:
- Limited repeatability: immersive experiences are typically not repeatable, with attendance declining after the initial surge, particularly in low tourist-traffic areas. This limitation underscores their predominantly temporary nature, a challenge Lightroom has addressed by transitioning between different attraction types. This could become increasingly challenging as it matures.
- Niche appeal: digital art attractions tend to appeal to social media-savvy teenagers and young adults, thus limiting market appeal. Lightroom has expanded its demographic reach by alternating between digital art and a more specialised subject with The Moonwalkers. The key challenge now lies in consistently developing sufficiently diverse experiences. The industry is expanding rapidly, but high-quality content remains relatively scarce.
- Weekly spikes and troughs in attendance: unless an attraction draws education groups, parents with preschool children, and tourists, visitation tends to be skewed towards weekends and Thursday/Friday nights, as is often the case with immersive attractions. This, alongside capacity constraints, limits attendance. For instance, with a maximum capacity of 240 and 11 shows a day, Lightroom has a maximum attendance of 2,640 on a sold-out Saturday, thus losing any excess demand.
- Limited secondary spends: with a visit of around an hour (often shorter for immersive experiences) and a high entry fee, visitors are not motivated to spend on extras such as basic F&B or merchandise. Lightroom’s counteroffer is an upscale bar that visitors can enjoy before or after. Given the attendance constraints and limited visitor spend potential, non-visitor revenues also become crucial for a sustainable operation. Some digital attractions, like Frameless, have done well with personalised private events. Other possible revenue streams could include sponsorships, naming rights, filming, and private hire.
An engaging experience
Overall, The Moonwalkers at Lightroom offers an engaging, high-quality, professionally designed experience in a venue with well-trained and friendly staff and comprehensive visitor infrastructure. The venue’s adaptable nature allows for the seamless rotation of diverse experiences, catering to a broad spectrum of audiences.
Lightroom’s commitment to delivering high-quality experiences has contributed to elevating the London immersive attractions scene. Yet the key to its long-term success lies in differentiating its future content. As the venue refines its strategy, I anticipate the possibility of watching an entire feature film in a venue of a similar calibre one day.
