KIDZANIA
A truly revolutionary and dynamic concept with a unique focus on ‘edutainment’, KidZania is a ‘city’ that offers a variety of interesting role-playing activities, such as doctor, policemen, firefighter or constructor, among many others. KidZania provides children and parents a safe, unique, authentic and educational environment that allows kids between the ages of 3-13 role-play, naturally mimicking traditional ‘adult’ activities.

As in the real world, children are either paid for their work or pay to shop or to be entertained; they learn to work, get paid, save, spend and interact in a realistic, fun-filled and interactive venue.
The indoor theme park is built to scale for children and accurately reflects the workings of a typical city through paved streets, vehicles, a functioning economy (‘Kidzos’ are the official currency of KidZania) and recognizable destinations (bank, supermarket, department store, police station, theater, hospital, car dealership, etc.) in the form of branded establishments.

There are sponsored pavilions where each activity is associated with real-world brands and products; the marketing sponsors, thrilled at the prospect of imprinting and showcasing their brands to both children and parents, get to mold their own pavilion and specific activities to reflect their image in a natural, unique and non-intrusive manner. KidZania currently has over 60 leading multinational and domestic companies as sponsors.
“We offer a unique proposition to parents: the opportunity for their children to explore the KidZania environment independently without constant parental supervision,” explains Executive Vice President Global Business and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Andrew Darrow. “Utilizing our state-of-the-art security system, coupled with highly-trained staff, parents can leave their children and take time to shop, have lunch, see a movie or engage in other retail related activities.”

It is logical then that KidZania is always located in a mall, shopping center or significant retail environment. As such, retailers have been thrilled by the presence of the brand since it not only provides enhanced retail visitation but also draws highly qualified adult consumers to the retail market.

“Ultimately, this creates a truly winning combination resulting in our incredible appeal and success around the world,” continues Darrow.

At present, there are four KidZanias operating worldwide; the brand owns and operates its facilities in Mexico including a flagship location in Mexico City and a second location in Monterrey. It is currently building a third Mexican location in Guadalajara which will open in 2009.

Internationally, the brand is licensed on a national territory basis. “Our first international location was opened in Tokyo in 2006 and has been incredibly successful,” says Darrow. “It has sold out virtually every day since opening and our Japanese licensee will be opening in Koshien in March 2009.”

KidZania’s second, Indonesian licensee opened its first location in Jakarta in November 2007 and it too has been very successful, exceeding attendance projections by more than ten per cent.
“This year is going to be a very busy, exciting year for us as we open six new locations,” says Darrow. “In addition to our new Japan and Mexico KidZanias, licensees will be opening new facilities in Dubai, Seoul, Lisbon and Santiago. We have also signed license agreements for India, China and Turkey and have already commenced construction in some of these countries.”

The company has signed letters of intent for Thailand, Malaysia and Egypt, and is in various stages of negotiations for the Philippines and Vietnam, whilst seeking locations in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan.

“This is just the beginning,” says Darrow enthusiastically. “Our next big push will be in Europe, both Western and Eastern, and South America; we expect to have agreements for more than 20 countries by the end of 2009, with plans to open as many as 50 locations within the next
3-4 years.”
With a reach of this magnitude, visitation is projected at 40 million annually.
“With a worldwide audience of this size, we can also develop new platforms for our brand including motion pictures, television, internet and retail merchandising,” he continues. “Of course, there is also a huge opportunity for us in the US. However, as we want KidZania to be recognized as an international brand, we wanted to establish our global footprint first.”

The group will first start considering opportunities in the US in 2009 where it is seeking a joint venture equity partner

For the full article please see the RLI January 09 issue
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