Hasbro’s F&B recipe for LBE suggests tasty ROI
interview by Tammie Richards
At MONOPOLY Lifesized’s The Top Hat Restaurant & Bar, the ever-popular board game’s famed “Water Works” property is also the name for a delicious plate of fish & chips, while the Millionaire’s Cheesecake includes candy MONOPOLY Money on top.
Around the world, location-based entertainment (LBE), driven by popular Intellectual Properties (IP), expands the ways fans and visitors can interact with their favorite brands, stories and characters. Here, we explore the culinary aspect of these attractions. A memorable dining experience can leave a lasting impression, and for industry leader Hasbro, it’s been a core strategy for successful LBE development.
Hasbro has developed food-focused fun tied to several of its iconic franchises, including MONOPOLY, TRANSFORMERS, PEPPA PIG, MY LITTLE PONY and more. Matt Proulx, Senior Vice President of Global Experiences, Partnerships and Music for Hasbro, shared the company vision of promoting family togetherness by combining play and dining in exciting new ways.
Why is branded food and beverage so important to the guest experience at Hasbro’s LBE venues around the world?
At Hasbro, our mission is to entertain and connect generations of fans through the wonder of storytelling and exhilaration of play. This extends past traditional areas like toys and games, and acts as a guiding principle as we meet fans where they are with new touchpoints to engage with their favorite brands. We know that enjoying food and drink is pivotal to social gatherings, whether it’s a family meal at home or dining out with friends, so it became clear that investing in dining experiences would enhance that goal and strengthen our LBE strategy. Food and fun just go together.
Additionally, F&B (food & beverage) allows us to expand each unique world we are creating for our brands. A great example of this is The Top Hat Restaurant & Bar at MONOPOLY Lifesized. With locations currently open in London and Riyadh, this dining experience is connected to an immersive, physical version of the family favorite board game, and features brand-inspired food dishes, cocktails and mocktails. The fun, playful atmosphere of this competitive social gaming experience flows into both the dining style and culinary offerings, which are focused on shareables and variety. The F&B environment encourages mindful group interactions while drumming up friendly competition and building anticipation for the main attraction.
How do you determine the best F&B approach for each LBE?
The key is in underscoring the central, social role of food and beverage in our lives, and how you apply that knowledge as the mechanism to bring people together within the experience. Ultimately, you have to know your fan base and the nuances of the region where you’re opening an experience.
We’ve applied two different business models to meet the needs of our fans. The Top Hat Restaurant & Bar (UK and Saudi Arabia) integrates F&B into a larger branded experience. People are drawn in by the interactive game play, and then extend their stay by visiting the restaurant.
Other Hasbro IP lend themselves to standalone “eatertainment” dining experiences. TRANSFORMERS: The Ark (Hong Kong) is an elevated QSR (quick- service restaurant) at its core. Food is the main attraction, enhanced by a highly themed environment that includes a cinematic battle sequence. Following the traditional model, guests exit into retail. The whole unit works together cohesively for repeatability.
The PEPPA PIG Play Café (China) is designed for what I call the “Toddler Plus” age group, known for not being able to sit still for long. Our concept allows kids to run off and play, enjoying a fun experience surrounded by their favorite characters. After exploring ball pits and climb-and-play structures, kids can join their family at a table with waitstaff and enjoy a full-service, high quality meal together.
The young adult market calls for more of a social entertainment dining experience. That can include gamification and other fun ways to gather with friends and enjoy activities fully centered around food and beverages, often adult beverages.
What tools do you rely on to determine the best options for guests?
We are committed to being the best in the business at understanding our fans, so we’ve invested in advanced analytics to identify consumer preferences and regional demographics. Such insights, coupled with actual consumer impressions, form the building blocks that help us create the best possible attractions.
Many of our successes come from personal experiences. When it came to brainstorming our food service approach for PEPPA PIG Play Cafés, I leaned on my own background as a parent. My wife and I love food and going out to enjoy nice places, but it seemed impossible for us to even consider a two-hour meal outing when we had young children. We use that kind of insider insight to help address such challenges and create solutions – providing delicious food in a kid-friendly environment.
How does social media impact LBE food design?
Social media sits at the epicenter of all we are doing with LBE, and it is key to living in an experience economy. Social media posts carry social currency across both personal and professional networks.
With live experiences, you don’t want to reveal everything to guests before they arrive. But working with F&B is different. Visual appeal is everything, and we want guests to share photos of their dining experience with their networks, enticing more people to visit.
How does Hasbro use food to encourage repeat visits?
Repeat visits are essential for success. We always incorporate seasonal elements for special treat themes. Limited time beverages provide incentives. Seasonality also encourages guests to try new F&B offerings before they’re gone.
Consistent quality in your menus builds trust for return dining, but you also need ongoing innovation with culinary experiences to keep things fresh.
Does local food culture play a role in food design for staying true to brand, internationally?
Absolutely! We adapt our menus to wherever we are. The menu at The Top Hat Restaurant & Bar in London is different from the one in Riyadh, which will be different than the menus we will offer in other locations.
The types of toppings used and how food is served varies around the world.
You always need to consider local modifications to be successful. For instance, we know Hong Kong customers enjoy a good burger. But the types of toppings used and how that burger is served vary from elsewhere around the world. That being said, certain things work across the board regardless of where you are, like ice cream.
Even from a branded cocktails perspective, we approach recipes from a carefully nuanced position with every element designed to appeal to the population in each region.
Regarding the development process, are LBE concepts created first and then a home is found for them, or the other way around?
Both. We’re currently exploring concepts in the F&B space that we are very excited about – some of them adult-targeted, some of them family- targeted – and we’re thrilled at the potential of what they may hold for Hasbro, given the power of our brands. But we’re also approached by entrepreneurs in different parts of the world with their own Hasbro suggestions to consider. The TRANSFORMERS: The Ark restaurant came from a potential licensee pitching an idea that we’d not yet contemplated, and it has since become a phenomenal experience. Their team is a large corporation that’s been in the restaurant space for a long time, and having great partners like that allows us to leverage their insights, their knowledge, and their capabilities in a special way.
centered on themed food, mocktails and cocktails.
What about special events?
We love birthday parties! Corporate events are wonderful at all our venues, but birthday parties are a significant part of the overall business when looking at stops like NERF Action Xperience (NERF AX) in Manchester, our NERF-themed family entertainment active play center. Archie’s is a UK hamburger restaurant that serves phenomenal food onsite. With their partnership, people can book birthday parties with us and say, “Hey, I’ve got 15 kids coming,” order from our fun menu packages and we take it from there. We’ve discovered a lot of families simply don’t have places to go for these larger parties, and so we’re providing this high value experience where kids can have a great birthday party and the parents are assured of a good quality meal along with it. We’ve not actually done any weddings yet, but… that’s not to say it won’t happen! •
