Balich Wonder Studio (BWS) is a leader in the global live entertainment and communication space. Based in Italy, it merges international talents and partners to create and manage ground-breaking events and experiences across five continents. BWS’s aspiration is to continue to build on its impressive growth as a creative hub, acquiring realities worldwide. The group’s latest investments have focused on countries with the highest growth in the entertainment sector, including United Arab Emirates, Vietnam and Qatar.
In 2021, Stefano Core, the CEO, described to blooloop how Balich Wonder Studio had leveraged the downtime imposed by the pandemic in 2020 to reinvent itself, presenting an integrated platform and four specialised business units, each with its area of expertise, under a rebrand. Betting on the value proposition of its strategic roadmap, the company positioned itself to exploit the post-pandemic event and entertainment landscape.
Now, as that vision proves itself and BWS begins to reap the rewards of those strategies, Core brings blooloop up to date, joined by Gianmaria Serra, co-founder, group executive president and director of the Destination Experiences Unit.
Balich Wonder Studio: beyond the rebrand
“Two years ago, we told you about the integration of the company, and the rebrand,” Core begins. “We decided then to make business units or divisions, in order to be much more focused. We also decided to hire managers responsible for each business unit.”
This decision was alongside a move into new markets, with a focus on KSA and the Middle East:
“Nowadays, they are the regions with the highest spending on entertainment,” Core explains “Basically, everything that we envisaged happened. The first news we have to share – and you are the first to hear this – is that in 2022, our group revenue is around €320 million. This is compared to €107m in 2021.”
“Essentially, we tripled the revenues as a result of implementing the roadmap we outlined to you last time we spoke: re-organisation and rebranding of the group focusing on creativity in different areas of entertainment and expanding in different countries with a strong business development.
“We are now beginning to reap the rewards, and, actually, our budget and projections for 2023 are even higher.”
Encouraging figures
BWS’s turnover in 2019 was €103m, with a forecast turnover for 2020 of €150m, and the aim of doubling in 3 years, by 2023. Due to the COVID pandemic, the firm’s growth slowed, but then in 2022, it reached a result that far exceeded its initial plans.
In light of these figures, the current revenue is extremely encouraging also for 2023.
“Among many productions, we have created and produced the biggest event of 2022 in the world, the ceremonies of Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022 and the flag handover at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Ceremony and we have challenged ourselves with a 30-day giant water show with drones and pyrotechnics on the Corniche in Doha.
Balich Wonder Studio also created the incredible Lusail Icon for the Qatar 2022 World Cup: a 30-meter, 20-ton aluminium and stainless-steel art installation of a whale shark, ‘Al Nehem’, suspended between the four Lusail Towers, the symbol of the newly developed Lusail area. For each night of the Qatar World Cup, the whale shark was brought to life with a 7-minute light and music show. This featured a bespoke composition by composer Roberto Cacciapaglia.
“The initial idea was that it would be a temporary installation,” Core comments. “But the government liked it so much it is now going to be permanent. We are very happy about that. We have grown in Saudi Arabia, and are considered the preferred strategic partner for many ministers there.”
Strategic events
In terms of the Destinations Unit, he adds:
“We don’t simply organise events or ceremonies. Instead, we plan and create them in order to increase the attractiveness of an area. For example, we did a two-month series of events in Asir, a region in the mountains of Saudi Arabia. This year, we’re working as a strategic partner with the Al-‘Ula region, to make Al-‘Ula a destination for high-end tourists, focusing on culture and art.”
In short:
“The number of activities that the group does is very wide. The fact that we have consolidated and concentrated those activities in different units allows us to operate very precisely and specifically.”
As a summary of the last year, it is more than impressive:
“We predict that 2023 will surpass it, especially in the Middle East, and with the Destination Experience Unit,” he says. “Gianmaria will tell you more about that.”
Balich Wonder Studio’s Destination Experience Unit
Serra steps in to clarify precisely what the Destination Experience Unit’s remit is:
“We, as a company, started by doing Olympic Ceremonies; the biggest shows in the world. We positioned ourselves in the market to be distinguished from the outset, in order to be able to grow fast. Luckily, we succeeded in becoming the market leader in the Olympics business.
“Our approach was always related to developing a deep understanding of a culture in order to capture its essence, the soul of a country, of a place, and then to create something unique to forge strong emotions. At some point we thought, why don’t we bring the same approach to other areas of the business?
“The Destination Experience is, in the end, all the contents and experiences that can be designed for a location to transform into a destination.”
Transforming places into destinations
Such a destination can be a new development:
“Our main clients are big mixed-use developments, where you can find both commercial and entertainment content; big resorts with mixed-use scope. Obviously, there are also such institutional clients as countries.
“In the end, with Destination Experience, Balich Wonder Studios create a different typology of product: any type of permanent show that transforms a place into a destination. We do water shows, like the one we delivered in Qatar during the World Cup. Plus, we’re developing a few in Vietnam and Mexico.
“Then, perhaps more typically, there are the lasting, resident shows that remain for many years. We are designing two custom-made theatres and creating shows, one in Dubai and one in Vietnam.”
Balich Wonder Studio works with theme parks and more
Theme parks and water parks are the other major clients of BWS.
“We don’t work on creating the park itself, but in creating the entertainment and shows, and specific activations, adding value,” he clarifies. “Going beyond the shows, we’re also working on museums. We are focusing on how to use emotion, from immersive experiences to site-specific activation, to enhance culture.”
The key, he says, is not to lean into digital:
“In the end, digital strategies don’t really work for culture. When you rely on video, interactive screens and so on to interpret culture, it comes close to what you can do from home, with your own devices, where you have access to whatever you want.”
In terms of cultural spaces and artefacts, immediacy and authenticity are important:
“You need, first of all, to create a strong emotional impact in order to open people’s hearts, and get them ready to receive information and understanding.”
A new direction
This is, he explains, a crucial new direction for Balich Wonder Studio
“We have presented a big project for a museum in Saudi, and are awaiting the feedback. We have been paid for the design, and now we’re waiting to get activated for the next phase.”
The museum in question is a new institution celebrating the Rose of Taif, which flowers in a small region in Saudi. It is part of a drive to transform the location into an international destination.
One of the biggest BWS projects currently in development is in Vietnam for the Sun Group, one of the country’s biggest developers.
Serra comments:
“We are developing seven projects with them, ranging from water shows to designing the theatre, to theme park activations. We’re really excited about that, and will soon be able to communicate about a few of the specific projects we are creating that I’m sure will be really meaningful in the market.”
Following the roadmap
The growth of Balich Wonder Studio is panning out precisely according to the strategic roadmap Core set out previously.
“Let’s say that the COVID-19 pandemic gave us the time to plan and to think carefully and strategically,” says Core. “Often, when you want to alter or accelerate a company’s strategy, you need time, and in the meantime, you need to continue with the normal business, fulfilling obligations. So frequently, you postpone strategy activation because you are too wrapped up in ensuring the day-to-day activities run smoothly.
“During COVID, we had this opportunity to rethink and restructure the company. The potential was always there, but, for the first time, we could organise in order to fulfil that potential.”
The change in strategy is not, he stresses, without its own challenges:
“We are now a size that is comparable with the biggest entertainment company in the world. However, we are not measuring our success in size, but in quality. We want to be, simply, the most prestigious live entertainment company in the world.
“We want Balich Wonder Studio to be recognised as the one that, in every field of entertainment where it decides to invest and make something, do it in a different and in a better way, creating new benchmarks, creating new ways of doing things.
“Our aim is not just to go into the market and surpass what others do. We want to change the paradigm completely.”
Quality events with Balich Wonder Studio
There are, he concedes, many other companies that create quality events:
“We are not the only ones, but we want to be the ones that do something different. We believe, for example, that Destination Experience has the potential to be a new benchmark in the market.”
Serra adds his perspective:
“The way we differentiate ourselves from competitors in the destination experience market comes, firstly, from our approach to the Olympic ceremonies.”
“It begins with a fully integrated model, which comes from the study of the place. First, we acquaint ourselves with the client’s goals, the geography, and the flow that can be generated. We then come back to the client with what we call an ‘emotional masterplan’. This is a study of the place in order to design all the experiences and content that can be created there to transform it into a destination.
“This can start from the design of the public areas in order to be more attractive and to adapt better for the specific experience to be created there, from temporary activations to permanent installations, such as the big icons like the whale shark [‘Al Nehem’] or the Tree of Life [L’Albero della Vita, the Expo2015 world icon].
“Our offer to the client at that point is a full turnkey solution from the initial study. This involves business model and management model creation, development, production, delivery and operation if needed, normally operating for some time and then handover to the client.”
A deeper understanding
The second differentiating factor is, he continues, a deep understanding of the culture:
“We like to create meaningful things that are based on the site’s specific needs and rooted in the culture.”
This involves a research phase:
“We have a very strong research and development team, and we integrate with local people. This has been our model since our Ceremonies division. We start with research involving local people, from universities or other institutions, depending on the project we are developing.
“Our strength has always been to enter deeply into the culture of the country we’re working with and to involve the best talents from there to help build meaningful experiences.”
Balich Wonder Studio creates emotional connections
It is through an understanding of the culture that the emotional connections that set the experience apart can be forged.
“What we want to do, in Destinations, is not only to create unique projects that can be distinguished in the market,” he explains. “But also to create special moments, special experiences, and special memories for the audience.”
“This is particularly important now when so many superficially ‘immersive’ experiences are flooding the market, most of them existing only for social media content. We want to do the opposite. We want to create meaningful experiences that can touch people deeply, to reconnect people with live experience.”
A meaningful experience doesn’t have to be profound, he adds:
“Even something super-light in terms of sense or narrative can be strong emotionally,” he says. “A ride can be emotional, and it’s real. What I hate is when entertainment becomes just images on the wall: take a picture and post.”
Sustainability is key
Something very meaningful that the company is working on is the ESG policy it is implementing on sustainability.
Core comments:
“We realized that for sure, in the medium term and long term, we need to find ways of being increasingly sustainable.
“When I talk about sustainability, I also mean social sustainability, diversity, inclusion and equality are key drivers for our company. We have, for instance, more than 25 nationalities in our companies and have worked in many countries of the world, always involving young people from the country to be trained and formed in our business and then keeping them with us for the following projects. We focus a lot on forming the new generation of high-level professionals for live entertainment.
“In terms of eco-sustainability, however, we need to work harder. So, we have decided to go public with our mission for eco-sustainability. We are working with Bocconi University here in Milan on a specific study and making a public manifesto in which we commit to specific deadlines and milestones. This manifesto will be open to other companies in the market. They will be able to join us to work together towards a more sustainable event and entertainment industry.
“Our goal is to bring our creativity into the world, generating strong and meaningful emotions to communicate beauty, peace and culture to the people.”
Top image: BWS water show in Doha, 2022
