Retail & Local / Events, Recreation & Lifestyle Businesses
Family entertainment center marketing for traffic, party bookings and repeat visits
Family entertainment center marketing from MBI is built on three campaign concepts - a traffic-driver campaign, a party or group-booking campaign, and a retention or repeat-visit campaign - and on three channels: local personal-mail offers, paid Facebook and Instagram, and opt-in text messages, planned, produced and delivered by one team.
Not sure where to start? Talk with our teamThe campaigns
What sits behind family entertainment center marketing?
The short answer
Three campaign concepts sit behind it: a traffic-driver campaign, a party or group-booking campaign, and a retention or repeat-visit campaign. The channels are local personal-mail offers, paid Facebook and Instagram, and opt-in text messages. MBI is one company that plans, produces, and delivers the work that brings in the next customer.
The three campaign concepts. The three researched campaign concepts for this vertical are a traffic-driver campaign, a party or group-booking campaign, and a retention / repeat-visit campaign.
One team. MBI is a customer acquisition partner for businesses - one company that plans, produces, and delivers the work that brings in the next customer - from a single team in DeLand, Florida.
What the sources join
Direct mail
What does family entertainment center direct mail carry?
The short answer
Local personal-mail offers, which can be part of family-entertainment direct marketing. No standard format is fixed for them. MBI plans, produces and delivers the mailed offer. Behind a family entertainment center sit three campaign concepts: a traffic-driver campaign, a party or group-booking campaign, and a retention or repeat-visit campaign.
What the sources say, and what they leave open. Local personal-mail offers can be part of family-entertainment direct marketing; the source does not specify a standard format.
USPS Domestic Mail Manual 602.5 provides that each address, except for mail bearing an alternative address format, in a mailing at commercial First-Class Mail presorted or automation prices or USPS Marketing Mail prices is subject to the Move Update standard, and that each address and associated addressee used on the mailpieces in a mailing must be updated within 95 days before the mailing date with one of the USPS-approved methods, which include Address Change Service and the National Change of Address Linkage System (NCOALink).
USPS Domestic Mail Manual 602.5
USPS Domestic Mail Manual 201.1.2.1 requires each stamped card or postcard or each half of a double stamped card or postcard claimed at a commercial card price to be not less than 3-1/2 inches high, 5 inches long, and 0.007 inch thick, with cards more than 4-1/4 inches high or 6 inches long, or both, a minimum of 0.009 inch thick; no more than 4-1/4 inches high, no more than 6 inches long and no thicker than 0.016 inch for each stamped card or each half of a double-stamped card or double postcard; no more than 6 inches high, no more than 9 inches long and no thicker than 0.016 inch for each postcard; and within an aspect ratio (length divided by height) of 1.3 to 2.5, inclusive, with the exception that mailers may use an 11-inch by 8.5-inch sheet to create four identical-size postcards.
USPS Domestic Mail Manual 201.1.2.1
direct mail mailing lists postcard mailing services direct mail cost
Postcard · Direct Mail

Postcard · Direct Mail

Behind the offer
Facebook and Instagram
Which campaigns run as family entertainment center Facebook ads?
The short answer
Paid social, including Facebook and Instagram, is listed among common family-entertainment marketing channels, and the campaigns to run on it are traffic, party/group, and seasonal. MBI plans and produces that advertising. Meta states that advertisers are responsible for understanding and complying with all applicable laws and regulations.
What the sources name. Paid social, including Facebook and Instagram, is listed among common family-entertainment marketing channels, and the channel note's instruction is to use it for traffic, party/group, and seasonal campaigns.
Meta's advertising standards state that advertisers are responsible for understanding and complying with all applicable laws and regulations, and that ads must not promote products, services, schemes or offers using identified deceptive or misleading practices, including those meant to scam people out of money or personal information; and that Meta's ad review process starts automatically before ads begin running and is typically completed within 24 hours, although it may take longer in some cases, with ads reviewed again, including after they are live.
Meta, Advertising Standards
digital advertising services direct mail and digital marketing
Meta carousel · Facebook

Party and group booking
What is family entertainment center party booking marketing?
The short answer
A party or group-booking campaign is one of the three campaign concepts behind a family entertainment center, beside a traffic-driver campaign and a retention or repeat-visit campaign. Party/group is among the campaigns to run on paid Facebook and Instagram. MBI plans, produces and delivers a venue's party and group-booking campaign.
FTC advertising guidance for small business states three basic rules under the Federal Trade Commission Act - advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive; advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims; and advertisements cannot be unfair - and, in the FTC's Deception Policy Statement, that an ad is deceptive if it contains a statement, or omits information, that is likely to mislead consumers acting reasonably under the circumstances and is material, that is, important to a consumer's decision to buy or use the product.
FTC, Advertising FAQ’s: A Guide for Small Business
Meta ad · Facebook

SMS
What can family entertainment center text message marketing send a past guest?
The short answer
SMS is suited to time-sensitive weekday promotions, event reminders, and limited-time offers for past guests. CTIA's messaging principles say Message Senders should support opt-in mechanisms, and messages should be sent only after the Consumer has opted-in to receive them, which is where a venue's list begins.
What SMS is suited to. SMS is suited to time-sensitive weekday promotions, event reminders, and limited-time offers for past guests.
CTIA's Messaging Principles and Best Practices state that Message Senders should support opt-in mechanisms, and messages should be sent only after the Consumer has opted-in to receive them, and list entering a telephone number through a website, clicking a button on a mobile webpage, sending a message from the Consumer's mobile device that contains an advertising keyword, initiating the text message exchange, signing up at a point-of-sale or other Message Sender on-site location, and opting-in over the phone using interactive voice response technology among the mechanisms by which a Consumer might demonstrate opt-in consent; Message Senders should also document opt-in consent by retaining seven kinds of data where applicable, among them the timestamp of consent acquisition, the consent acquisition medium, and the specific campaign for which the opt-in was provided.
CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices, May 2023, §5.1.2
SMS

SMS

The traffic campaign
Which channels suit weekday traffic campaigns for a family venue?
The short answer
A traffic-driver campaign is one of the three campaign concepts behind a family entertainment center, and time-sensitive weekday promotions are among the jobs SMS is suited to. Traffic is also among the campaigns to run on paid Facebook and Instagram. MBI produces the work behind both from a single team in DeLand, Florida.
CTIA's Messaging Principles and Best Practices state that Message Senders should ensure that Consumers have the ability to opt-out of receiving Messages at any time, should support multiple mechanisms of opt-out including phone call, email, or text, and should acknowledge and honor all Consumer opt-out requests by sending one final opt-out confirmation message per campaign; and that Message Senders should not use opt-in lists that have been rented, sold, or shared to send messages and should create and vet their own opt-in lists.
CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices, May 2023, §§5.1.3–5.1.4
Reel · Instagram

Questions
Questions a family entertainment center asks before it mails
Searched for recreation and entertainment marketing, entertainment venue marketing agency or family entertainment center marketing agency? Same work, same answers.
Does a family entertainment center's mailed offer have a standard format?
No. Local personal-mail offers can be part of family-entertainment direct marketing, and no standard format is fixed for them. Where a venue's mailed offer is a card, the specification and production questions sit with postcard mailing services, and MBI plans, produces and delivers the piece a venue sends.
What sets the quote on a family entertainment center's mailing?
Producing the mailed offer and mailing it are the two costs inside every quote, and seven decisions move those two numbers, among them Quantity, Format and finished size, Data and personalization, and Postage, mail class, and sortation. A venue that wants all seven before it approves artwork will find them at /capabilities/direct-mail/direct-mail-cost.
Which postal standard applies when a venue's guest moves?
Move Update. Each address, except for mail bearing an alternative address format, in a mailing at commercial First-Class Mail presorted or automation prices or USPS Marketing Mail prices must be updated within 95 days before the mailing date by a USPS-approved method, among them NCOALink and Address Change Service. A venue's mailed offer runs against addresses updated that way.
Which postal limits apply where a family entertainment center's mailed offer is a card?
Where a venue's mailed offer is a card, the commercial card-price standard is no more than 6 inches high, no more than 9 inches long and no thicker than 0.016 inch for each postcard, and a card more than 4-1/4 inches high or 6 inches long must be a minimum of 0.009 inch thick.
Which records does a family entertainment center keep of a guest's opt-in?
CTIA's messaging principles say Message Senders should document opt-in consent by retaining seven kinds of data where applicable, among them the timestamp of consent acquisition, the consent acquisition medium, and the specific campaign for which the opt-in was provided. A venue's weekday promotions and limited-time offers for past guests rest on those records.
Which three rules apply to a family entertainment center's advertising?
Three basic rules sit under the Federal Trade Commission Act, in the FTC's small-business guidance: advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive; advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims; and advertisements cannot be unfair. A venue's mailed offer and its advertising are both written to those three.
How long does Meta's review of a family entertainment center's ad take?
Meta's ad review process starts automatically before ads begin running, and is typically completed within 24 hours, although it may take longer in some cases. Additionally, ads may be reviewed again, including after they are live. A venue's traffic, party/group and seasonal campaigns each go through it.
Get started
Start a family entertainment campaign.
Say which of the three campaigns it is, and the offer it should carry. It goes to a real member of the MBI team, not a queue.