At the 2025 Festival of Innovation, we were joined by Julie Swanston, executive creative director of Merlin Magic Making, and Nick Moran, co-founder and creative director of Phantom Peak, for a session exploring innovation in storytelling.
Swanston and Moran discussed the importance of storytelling in attractions and how to maximise guest engagement. They also shared insights into key trends such as actor-led experiences, IP, and the use of technology.
blooloop’s annual Festival of Innovation is a free online event. It invites the global visitor attractions community to explore the most innovative projects, products, and organisations that are shaping the future of the sector.
Innovation in storytelling: meet the speakers
Julie Swanston is the executive creative director of concepts and new product development for Merlin Entertainments. As a member of Merlin’s in-house creative team, Merlin Magic Making, she has spearheaded the creation of engaging attractions for the resort theme park and gateway divisions.
Key projects have included Thorpe Park’s Hyperia rollercoaster, the tallest and fastest coaster in the UK, as well as Alton Towers’ Wicker Man ride, regarded as the world’s most immersive rollercoaster.
Swanston was previously VP of commissioning at BBC Studios, where she led original programming across the BBC’s global channels.
Nick Moran is the creator and co-founder of Phantom Peak, a unique open-world immersive experience which launched in 2023.
The experience offers a hybrid of immersive theatre, escape room, and real-life television series. Guests can spend up to four hours exploring the mysterious world. This includes approximately 100 games and challenges, as well as interacting with the residents. Highlights include a boat trip, saloons, and dining options.
Moran develops, scripts, and structures immersive experiences, constructing richly detailed environments that reward and encourage audience participation and agency. He has been working in experiential and escape rooms for a decade. During this time, he has entertained hundreds of thousands of visitors with games and activations.
In 2020, Moran launched Spectre & Vox, a new genre of at-home entertainment experience that raised more than £250,000 on Kickstarter. He was also the creative director of Time Run, a London-based live gaming experience company, from 2015 to 2019.
Innovation in storytelling at Merlin Magic Making
“Storytelling is probably the most important thing in any attraction that we conceive and develop,” says Swanston. “It’s at the heart of every roller coaster. Every figure that we put into Madame Tussauds. And is considered in the guest experience of the London Eye.
“It’s something that we obsess about.”
The team strives to build layer upon layer of storytelling into all of its attractions, with careful consideration of the touchpoints. For example, at Wicker Man at Alton Towers, this spans the entrance portal, the queue line, the music, and the low-lying level smoke.
“All these layers of richness all contribute and combine to help tell a story,” says Swanston.
The Wicker Man story is revealed in the pre-show. This reveals that guests have been lured into the ride to feed the Wicker Man, “to feed the flames and keep his badness alive,” says Swanston.
“Every single bit of that roller coaster experience is imbued with the story.
“We even invented a tribe of people who worship the God at Wicker Man. Before we opened the roller coaster, we went to Alton Towers. We pulled together all the operators that worked on that ride and did a full immersion session. If you’re part of the Bjornen, which is what we call the tribe, this is how you look. This is how you walk. When people look at you, this is how you look back at them.”
Powering Phantom Peak
At Phantom Peak, storytelling powers the experience.
“Phantom Peak is an open-world experience, a little bit like a video game in real life,” says Moran.
“People come, they explore, they roam, they drink, they eat. Each session is about four hours, and people go on these things called trails.
“Trails are individual stories within the town that exist across a season of Phantom Peak. A season is three to four months, and there are 10 stories across that three to four months. There’s a content swap after that, and then there’s a whole collection of new stories.
“So, Phantom Peak is really powered by storytelling in that way. And that’s what brings people back over and over. Phantom Peak has about a 30% return rate, which is very high for the industry.”
To weave this world, the Phantom Peak team balances the stories they wish to tell with the mechanics available to create surprise and delight, and to ensure visitors understand every single touchpoint.
“So at the end, when the experience and the story conclude of that individual trail, they have a satisfying ending which proves the story of the trail.”
Delivering ‘to the max’
Storytelling helps different kinds of audiences engage.
“You’ll see kids running to the front of the queue line on Oblivion. All they care about is the thrill of the ride,” says Swanston.
“What becomes important is the environment, and delivering an incredible guest experience.”
While some guests are motivated by the scariest ride or the latest celebrity at Madame Tussaud’s, there will always be those who want more, she adds. “As long as we are delivering for the people that want a real, premium experience and that incredible level of depth and thoughtfulness, then our thinking is we’ll scoop everybody up.
“If we deliver to the max, hopefully we make sure that everybody is happy.”
Phantom Peak uses technology to guide guests into its world.
“99% of people complete at least one story at Phantom Peak. Pretty much everyone engages,” says Moran. He attributes this to its app. This acts like a heads-up display in a video game that “guides you around the world, that puts you in control.”
With this, guests know what they should be doing and what happens next. As they progress through the trail, they become more confident in their interactions and learn how to engage with the world.
This ensures high engagement and sets the scene for the attraction’s extraordinary repeat rate, as guests return to complete all the stories or try new seasonal challenges.
“There’s been 116 trails since inception,” says Moran. “And there are quite a few people who’ve completed them all.”
Fragmentation, actor-led experiences & tech
They then discussed the key trends shaping the sector when it comes to innovation in storytelling.
“We work closely with brand and insights, and are always looking at our competitors and what consumer needs they’re answering,” says Swanston.
A key theme, she says, is fragmentation. Visitors range from those seeking deep engagement, such as at Phantom Peak, to others who desire instant gratification and Instagrammable moments, without a substantial amount of storytelling.
“The other thing we see lots of is the use of tech. The latest Punchdrunk [Viola’s Room], an incredible story told incredibly well by Helena Bonham Carter, uses one of the best examples of sound design that I’ve ever experienced.”
She also notes the upsurge of actor-led experiences such as Peaky Blinders, tech-led ones like Abba Voyage, and simple pop-ups for instant gratification.
“It’s hard to pin down one single trend. There are loads. And it’s incumbent upon us, as creative leaders, to keep our eyes on what’s happening and hopefully stay one step ahead.”
“There’s a lot of growth where people are trying things. There’s a lot more appetite for risk, which is quite exciting,” says Moran.
“To build on what Julie says about Viola’s Room. It’s incredible, but it’s also a risk. Punchdrunk have never done anything like it before. It’s exciting that they feel the market can support them moving out of the masked promenade show, which they’ve been doing for over 20 years now.”
Appetite for risk
“What’s great is you’re seeing lots of people try things that are bold and ambitious,” says Moran. “And you’re seeing all these brands and IPs desperate to get a bit of that into the space, which is exciting as well.”
Brands, he says, offer a gateway into immersive experiences. Those who may not consider a time-travel themed immersive experience might opt for a Doctor Who one, and then venture further into the market.
“So it’s great to see just a bit more appetite for risk. A bit more appetite for doing cool things in terms of storytelling, and an audience willing to come see them in lots of different ways.”
“And I think everybody, including us, we’re all pushing into new territories, new formats, trying out new things,” says Swanston. “I think the appetite for testing and learning is only going to grow. The other thing I was going to talk about is the mashing up of things that is massively on the rise.
“Things like Frameless working with Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place, offering sound baths in the midst of a Bosch or a Dali painting. It’s phenomenal creativity, to think about how you take those two brands and smoosh them together.”
This combination of wellness, entertainment, a sense of immersion, and potentially a sense of participation, Swantson adds, is a trend to watch.
Storytelling for differentiation
The speakers shared ways in which innovation in storytelling supports differentiation.
“What it allows us to do that differentiates us is leave guests with a sense of time well spent,” says Swanston.
This substance is easier to achieve in a linear experience, such as a roller coaster, she says. However, it becomes more difficult when it’s not a linear experience, such as the World of Jumanji at Chessington.
“Everybody knows the story of Jumanji. The films have a beginning, middle and end. People who are coming to our park, arguably, are well-versed in that narrative. They know what it is.
“It’s our job to then think about, actually, how do we take that narrative and deliver it in a non-linear way? And how do we know what the important parts are of that IP to dial up? How do we really engage?”
As a result, the team focused on pivotal scenes from the movie, such as where the mandrill monkeys are on the rope bridges. This inspired the flying coaster Mandrill Mayhem, an interpretation of the scene which gives riders the feeling of being scooped up by the mandrill and taken on an amazing ride.
“I love working with IPs for that reason, because people have a preconceived idea of a narrative or what a brand stands for. And we work really, really closely and really well with IPs to bring the essence of everything they are to life in a different way, sometimes for a different audience.”
Innovation in storytelling: seasonality & structural challenges
Phantom Peak creates new stories for each season, building upon the existing structure and components.
“We know what the components are that we have to play with across the trail. And how do we use those in the best ways possible, and use the things that we know have to happen and the things that we can vary? And make the best things possible have that kind of element of surprise and delight for the audience?”
However, this structural underpinning can also present challenges.
“I think some of the best decisions and the best things we’ve done across Phantom Peak’s various different trails are because of the limitations that we have.
“Would I like for there to be more different tech units across town? Absolutely. Would I like there to be more locked-off spaces that we can use for individual dioramas? Yes, absolutely. But I don’t have those, so I’ve got to do things in the best way I can.
“So, for example, this season, do I want a quantum mail boy half phased through the ceiling of the saloon? Yes, he’s going to be there because I don’t have anywhere else to put him. But that’s funny, and you know, that’s the thing. It forces you to think in different directions.”
Limitations force you to be more creative, he says: “It is about what you can do with the dynamic range of the experience, and how you can stretch and squish it, and how you can learn and grow.”
Leading the sector
For Swanston, the key challenge is staying ahead of the game.
“It’s finding new and nimble ways for our business to show up, in a world where theme parks and long-standing attractions are only one of a plethora of ways that people spend their time and spend their money.
“Everybody’s looking for the latest, the newest, the most braggable experience to go to. When Abba Voyage first showed up, that’s what everybody wanted to say they’d been to that.
“What’s our next version of that? Not in terms of music, but just in terms of using imaginative and innovative tech and ideation to create world-class experiences.”
Creative guardianship
“We spend a lot of our time thinking, ideating, running things past our exec and hoping that we’re not going to be laughed out of the boardroom,” says Swanston.
“That’s the fun of it.
“I use an analogy about a rugby pitch. Our job is to conceive an idea. Let’s call it the rugby ball. And once we’ve conceived it, and we’ve told people about it internally, and we’ve got initial buy-in, it’s our job to hold that, protect it from the equivalent of the fly half, and run from one end of the pitch to the other.
“Imagine trying to pitch, ‘Let’s make a wooden roller coaster in the middle of the woods in Alton Towers. We’ll have a 17-metre-high wooden effigy. Every time the train passes through its chest, it’ll burst into flames,’ right?
“So that rugby ball was one that I carried dearly from beginning to end. And saw off quite a lot of fly halves. That’s the beauty of the job. It’s finding virtue in the challenges that face us. That’s the joy of the job.”
“If it was all if it was all easy, it wouldn’t be the same,” says Moran. “I don’t think you’d make half as many good things.”
“The challenges along the way force you to duck and dive, and what comes out the other end sometimes is so much better than what was conceived, because it’s having to survive the rigours of the rugby pitch.”
