With growing demand for new entertainment media, there are many new and established entertainment brands present in the UAE market.It is a lucrative business destination for distributors/ retailers and franchisors in the entertainment industry. Read on.
We live in an entertainment culture today with leisure being an important part of today’s life. People like to unwind in their spare time by pursuing their hobbies, watching movie or television, engaging in sports, parties, games etc that are considered to be a recreation. As the commercialisation is the buzz of modern day life in the Middle East region, the rising demand for entertainment media in the UAE offers immense scope for businesses in the entertainment sector. From theme parties, toys and gadgets to fun parks, the entertainment sector has a variety of viable and profitable business opportunities catering to children as well as adults alike.
Demand facts: Entertainment is one of the fastest growing areas of the economy in the Middle East including Emirates. The country’s prime retail market and high purchasing power and the local people looking for avenues for leisure and entertainment further give the push to the entertainment market. The rising population and the region being among the youngest markets in the world, growth further leads the sales of toys, games and other entertainment media. The entertainment sector has mass appeal as people constantly looking for new and exciting leisure pursuits. It includes wide range of products and services that may relate to selling anything from toys, electronics/ music CDs/videos to theme parties and holidays.
Major players: Several local as well as global entertainment and life style brands have launched their concepts targeting the young and adults to provide then a variety of entertainment media. From theme parks to electronics and gaming, these brands have all to offer to the fun loving people of the Emirates. These concepts need to be in conformity of local cultural and life style norms as it is a case with all other brands from other sectors foraying into the Middle East market.
Fun City: Fun City is one of the prominent family entertainment brands across the Middle-East. The brand owned by Dubai’s Landmark Group, caters to babies and toddlers, teenagers and parents. Founded in 1999, Fun City theme parks are home several attractions and rides with a host of restaurants and amusement centre. The themes including imaginative play, social and pretend play, dress-up and role play along with fine-motor skills development. The centres offer entertainment with value-based learning experiences.
Virgin Mega store: An international chain of record shops, Virgin Megastores is one of the leading entertainment retailers in the country. The first Virgin Megastore was launched in London in 1976. The brand offers CDs, DVDs, games, books, apparel and electronics to its consumers. The company has current operations in France, Australia and the Middle East, consisting of over 100 stores. It has recently launched its eighth flagship store in the UAE in Dubai Mall and also planning to have more locations in the Emirates and other regions of the Middle East. It would open another two stores by early 2012, within the UAE. It is also considering for expansion in Qatar and Egypt.
Build A Bear: Recognised for providing guests joyful and friendly experiences, the first Build-A-Bear Workshop was launched in Missouri, USA founded in 1997. It is an interactive entertainment retailer of customised stuffed animals and established presence in the Gulf region via franchise model. The concept retail store offers a teddy bear-themed experience that mixes the universal appeal of plush animals with fun filled interactive process allowing children to create their own toy bears. The stores have a wide ranging toy bears along with latest designs of clothes and accessories. An American icon, the Teddy Bear has found immense popularity among Middle Eastern children. There are two Build-A- Bear locations in Dubai in the UAE and also presence in Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait.
Kidzania: KidZania is themed as a child-sized replica of a real city, including buildings, shops and theaters, as well as vehicles and pedestrians moving along its streets. The target clientle is children aged 2 to14. The concepts involves providing children a learning experience of the adult life through performing work in branded activities from bottling Coca-Cola, working in a Crest-sponsored dentist office, working at a McDonalds restaurant, painting with Corporação Industrial do Norte, washing hands with P&G's Safeguard soap, and using airline tickets from American Airlines and Emirates. The children earn KidZos currency while doing these activities which is kept in the KidZania bank for children to spend at the gift shop and on non-free KidZania activities. Based out of Mexico, the brand KidZania first launched in Mexico City in 1999 as La Ciudad de los Niños, rebranded KidZania La Ciudad de los Niños. Later the brand opted for franchise model and a number of franchised locations came up in K Tokyo in 2006 , Jakarta (2007), Koshien (2009), Lisbon (2009), Seoul (2010) and KidZania Dubai, opened in January 2010. The brand is soon to open franchise locations in Malaysia in begining of 2012, Also, the future expansion comprising several centres to be opened under the same franchise structure in Dubai, India, Egypt, China, Philippines, Brazil, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Turkey is in pipeline. The Kuwait location will have the fuselage of a DC-8 aircraft for activities and also a Chevrolet-sponsored area. Further, the franchises are expected to open in the United States in 2013.
SNOWMAX: Established in 2005, India based SNOWMAX, a Snow based entertainment brand is actively seeking franchisees for opening centres in India, Middle East and Africa. It is a pioneer in snow based leisure and amusement activities in India. The company is in business of setting up stand alone snow domes or snow based family entertainment centre in malls, snow discotheques or snow pubs or any other indoor snow based recreation, amusement or leisure facility. Having one owned facility and a franchisee in India, the company is seeking expansion domestically as well as aiming franchise expansion in the Middle East in all capital cities and well known tourist places in the region.
Conclusion: As discussed, the entertainment industry like every where, has vast scope and diverse opportunities for the market players in this business. Whether there is a low cost opportunity like birthday concept parties for kids or a multi billion concept like a themed park, both the business and the consumers have a variety to choose from. As franchising is suitable model for most of the businesses for expansion, therefore, several entertainment brands are adopting the franchise route for launching their concepts in different locations. Further, the Middle East and especially the UAE is every franchisor’s preferred business destination, therefore, the entertainment and lifestyle brands are also leveraging from booming regional economy and merrily raking profits!
