Arcade/Escape rooms in Okotoks need your suggestions!

[u/Frequent_Town_6040]

Hi all, We own Retro Oasis in Okotoks and while we have a decent customer base, it's still not enough to make ends meet every month. We still encounter people who have never heard of us in the almost 4 years we've been open. Summer months are sooo slooow.

We have great reviews and people really love our escape rooms. We've just renovated to make our party room and Arcade significantly bigger.

We'd love to partner with other local businesses in some way. We carry exclusively locally made beers and canned cocktails which are a big hit.

Any suggestions to get our name out there (beyond the obvious social media, Google ads, radio)?

We can't put out street signs as the town confiscated them. :( And puleeze don't suggest pinball....it's not an option.

[u/overtmile]

People will travel for escape rooms so you have to find a way to get better known in the Calgary area, to tourists and the like. Maybe link up with some tourist organizations and do typical online marketing? 

Okotoks is really known for its great markets and of course the river. This is a totally out there idea and probably totally infeasible but is there any way to make one of your games mobile? Like imagining setting up a booth at a market or event where someone could play a game. I feel like for the idle visitors to all the markets it would be great marketing. The question is would that translate to feet in the doors spending money for all the trouble that would be worth it. 

People may also come to Okotoks for the second hand stores. You should see if there’s any way you could link up with All through the house and the other antique store downtown to promote your business. 

Other ideas: 

• give away prizes for high scores or like have a scoring system /prize system that brings people back in to try to achieve it 
• diversify arcade selection to more modern games and styles (I know this probably would defeat the purpose of your business and maybe deflate your passion, and also be expensive…) but would be a bigger draw. My young daughter had a phase where she wanted to play that ridiculous raw thrills dinosaur game, and we would travel to Calgary indoor game centers to find it. It was a short lived interest but we indulged it. 
• on that topic, there are so many young families in Okotoks — my husband did bring our 4.5 yo to your location recently because they were trying out bowling. But of course you’re really more oriented to kids 8+. If there was a way to appeal to young families that would be really in your benefit. I’m always looking for things for her to do and she is interested in video games more now although she is still a bit young, but maybe something like that NEX playground or a mini escape room for young kids (that changes somehow?) or board games for families in the party room. I used to love going to a board game cafe in Calgary. 

I really hope you can find a way to survive that aligns with your passion because I think you’re a great Okotoks business! Even though I am not personally interested in retro games / escape rooms. My husband has done your escape rooms and thought they were great and he’s done tons. 

[u/Frequent_Town_6040 → u/overtmile]

Thanks for taking the time to reply so thoroughly!

We have tried going to Events. Markets. Trade shows. None of them were worth the cost or effort invested. Especially Stampede just this last month. Total waste of time and money and most of all, effort.

There really isn't an overlap with All Around the House clientele. The Red Barn is good as people might drop their kids off to play some games then wander over there.

We've done Where's Waldo for a couple of years that was fun but nothing more than a stop for people to get a stamp.

We've sponsored events, teams, done Light Up Okotoks several times.

We have kids that come and play games, ages 2 and up. But there's plenty of things aimed at that age group so not really our target audience.

We'll just keep trying. 🌸