ROLLER’s “Scaling Success: Building a World-Class Attraction” webinar focused on improving the guest experience, streamlining operations, and embracing innovation. Packed with actionable tips, it provided a roadmap for venues looking to grow and thrive in a competitive landscape.
Watch the webinar below, or keep scrolling for a summary of all the incredible insights.
Meet the hosts
Elliot Goldford, Product Owner at American Dream
During the webinar, Elliot shared the journey of American Dream, a mega mall that’s home to North America’s largest indoor theme and water park. It’s a 5-million-square-foot complex in New Jersey features shopping, dining, and entertainment experiences, including a Nickelodeon Universe, DreamWorks Water Park, and the only indoor real-snow ski slope in the U.S.
Elliot discussed how the venue attracts local, national, and international visitors while offering a cohesive guest experience.
Luke Finn, CEO and Founder of ROLLER
ROLLER is an all-in-one venue management platform that helps operators, enterprises, and groups grow their businesses. ROLLER’s CEO and Founder Luke Finn led the discussion, emphasizing the importance of technology in enhancing customer experiences and operational efficiency. He also highlighted how ROLLER’s powerful technology supports venues like American Dream in their growth journey.
Key takeaways
One of the standout themes from the webinar was the importance of flexibility and adaptability when scaling a venue. Elliot Goldford emphasized the need to stay nimble and avoid rushing into growth without being fully prepared. His advice reflects American Dream’s careful approach to scaling, ensuring they learn and grow along the way:
"Put yourself in a position to be very reactive and flexible. Ensure that you can move quickly and really try to learn and grow. Don't try to scale too quickly. I think that's the most important thing."
Elliot Goldford
Product Owner, American Dream
Data-driven insights for better marketing
During the webinar, Elliot shared how American Dream relies heavily on data to tailor its marketing efforts and understand customer behaviors. This helps the venue target different guest segments, from local shoppers to international tourists, ensuring personalized communications and promotions.
Elliot explained, “We're very data-driven. It's really really important for us because we have so many different stories to tell and so many different audiences locally, across the country, and internationally. We want to make sure that we're enabling our teams to be effective with better communications.”
Strategic guest feedback
Elliot also explored how American Dream has improved their guest feedback loop to get more specific, actionable feedback and data from guests.
“We're also very strategic with our surveying. Depending on the type of product you purchased, or the specific day that you visited, you might get very targeted survey questions. We can gather and synthesize that data and layer it against some of our public reviews that we're getting to derive what our NPS score is.”
Capacity management and guest flow
Elliot highlighted American Dream’s focus on balancing entertainment and retail experiences. With attractions integrated into the mall layout, guests naturally move through retail and dining areas, creating opportunities for cross-sales. Elliot emphasized the importance of strategically managing guest flow to maximize dwell time and guest spending, with the average visit lasting around 4-5 hours.
“Our flagship attractions are built within the layout of the property where any customer that is going to visit those venues will need to move through our retail and dining spaces,” Elliot explained. “We're really focused on how we can integrate those different outlets into a holistic experience and also drive the opportunity for conversions.”
Managing off-peak periods
Elliot shared how American Dream tackles the challenge of maintaining guest traffic during off-peak periods.
“Not everyone is going to an amusement park every day, but people are going for dinner multiple times a week. So how do we capitalize on that type of traffic?”
Elliot Goldford
Product Owner, American Dream
American Dream created bundled promotions that encourage guests to explore more areas of the venue. For example, visitors who come to the water park or theme park may receive dining discounts or retail offers, incentivizing them to extend their stay and explore other parts of the venue.
American Dream has also been able to drive weekday traffic by focusing on group sales, particularly for corporate events, school outings, and organized camp visits. These larger group bookings fill capacity during quieter periods and help maintain steady business during the week.
Marketing strategies
When discussing marketing strategies, Elliot emphasized the growing importance of social proof through user-generated content and influencer partnerships. By leveraging authentic guest experiences shared via social media, American Dream is able to promote its vast offerings to potential visitors in a relatable and engaging way. User-generated content, whether through guest reviews or shared social posts, builds credibility and encourages more people to visit.
“On our website, you have a feed of various individuals' Instagram posts on their experiences within our center. I think that adds an extra layer of validation.”
Elliot Goldford
Product Owner, American Dream
Leveraging technology for scalability
The pandemic forced American Dream to reevaluate its strategies, particularly around ticketing and capacity management. During this period, the venue switched to ROLLER for ticketing and used the platform’s flexible technology to adapt to the new normal of staggered guest entry and enhanced safety protocols.
The right technology can make all the difference
The shift to ROLLER’s ticketing system during the pandemic enabled American Dream to adapt quickly, resulting in a strong post-pandemic recovery. American Dream was able to take the platform and adapt it to their unique needs by using the ROLLER API to build customized and bespoke products.
“The ROLLER platform really lends itself well for that type of scalability.”
Elliot Goldford
Product Owner, American Dream
Elliot emphasized how flexible APIs allow them to enhance the guest experience while optimizing operations.
“We've really evolved in the last year in terms of custom applications that we're starting to build with the ROLLER APIs. About 2 months ago, we went live with our self-service ticketing kiosks at the Nickelodeon Amusement Park. We built a web-based application on top of ROLLER's platform to print out RFID or barcode wristbands depending on the use case.”
"A big focus for us over the last 4 or so years has been building out the API to allow businesses like [American Dream] to take it to the next level. If you've got something that you want to build on top of the platform, the API is there for you to use, and we put a lot of effort into making that API developer-friendly."
Luke Finn
CEO and Founder, ROLLER
Scaling for long-term success
American Dream’s story shows how venues can find long-term success by focusing on smart growth and using the right tools. They’re always tweaking their approach, using data-driven marketing, managing guest flow, and gathering feedback to make sure every guest has a memorable experience.
A big part of their success is striking a balance between bold ideas and staying flexible. They’re always ready to adapt based on real-time feedback and changing trends. When it comes to scaling, it’s important to get things right, but as Luke Finn pointed out, it’s also important to get things done.
“You can spend all your time trying to perfect it and then not make any progress, but at some point you've gotta move forward.”
Luke Finn
CEO and Founder, ROLLER
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