Escape Hunt plc (LON:ESC), a global leader in the growing escape rooms sector, has announced an update on the progress of its digital and remote play strategy.
Performance of the digital and remote play products in December has surpassed management’s expectations, significantly offsetting the reduction in site revenues resulting from the temporary closure of a number of the Company’s sites and the restrictions on household mixing in place under the Government’s COVID related tier systems.
In Spring 2020, the Company launched a new element of its strategy to develop products which could be played remotely, were not limited to the capacity of physical rooms, could be delivered digitally, and would form a core part of the ‘Escape Hunt for Business’ proposition. Whilst the strategy initially aimed to combat the loss of business due to closures forced by the Coronavirus pandemic, the Directors regard the development of the digital and remote play products as strategically important for the long term growth of the Company, providing the ability to target new customer segments and build a strong B2B brand.
So far in December, across six digital propositions aimed at the B2B market specifically, the Company has delivered nearly 200 bookings, comprising over 1000 corporate teams and over 6000 individuals. As a testament to the scalability of the products, the largest attendance in a single game had 347 people split between 57 teams playing in the same game all hosted by the Company’s in-house delivery team.
The digital strategy was initially launched with the successful release of print-and-play games in April 2020, which ultimately led to an agreement with Netflix to develop a game based on the Netflix™ original film, Enola Holmes©. This suite of games is still proving popular with consumers and the downloads are not included in the numbers above. Moreover, with the licensing agreement announced in September enabling the Company to develop and market proprietary games, there are now 17 products on offer across a number of propositions.
With the UK continuing to face strict rules regarding socialising and mixing, the development of the digital suite is timely, as consumers wishing to enjoy our experiences are able to do so virtually if not physically.
Commenting on the site developments, Richard Harpham, Escape Hunt’s CEO said:
“We are absolutely delighted with the success of this important part of our strategy to date. We have benefitted enormously from the fact that companies have looked to offer their staff a remotely delivered social event for Christmas in light of the Coronavirus restrictions. The success has demonstrated our ability to deliver large-scale events remotely which we believe can be applied to a number of B2B opportunities outside Christmas and the Coronavirus pandemic. This would include corporate team building events, learning and development, outdoor events, and conferences. We will continue to invest in this part of our business as we seek to build on our success, create greater scalability within our products, and deliver a successful digital business to sit alongside our hugely popular physical rooms.”
