David Hutchinson on why MONOPOLY is right for The Path Entertainment Group’s entertainment concepts…

David, you’re the CEO of The Path Entertainment Group. Tell me about that; towards what vision are you working?
When we set up Path, the ambition of the company was to develop global Location Based Entertainment – LBE – concepts, bringing together world class IP with competitive socialising concepts… Using a theatrical toolbox to create truly unique experiences.

A theatrical toolbox?
Yes! My background is traditional theatre so a lot of our thinking is around how we bring iconography to life using more traditional means… Live performers, sensory elements, storytelling – theatrical tools – alongside elements of technology and gaming to help the user experience feel exceptional.

And how is Path set up to do that?
Path set up one division, Gamepath, to focus on LBE concepts such as MONOPOLY LIFESIZED from Hasbro which are physical. Our second division, Showpath, fuses the live theatrical-performance space with experiential…

The perfect example would be DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Twenty Sided Tavern which Showpath produces. As you may know, that’s an interactive D&D show in a traditional proscenium arch theatre setting. In any case, we want to build the business to be one of the biggest global producers of high-quality live experiences… While our roots are in London, we are focused on large scale international expansion in the next few years.

Excellent, thank you. You have a couple of extraordinary experiences relating to the board game MONOPOLY. Since you already mentioned it, let’s start with MONOPOLY LIFESIZED! For the uninitiated, what is that?
It’s a team-based experience where groups of up to six play – for just over an hour – to be the most successful real-estate mogul! This happens on a large, life-sized Monopoly boards against up to three other teams.

Amazing! How does that happen, David; how do they compete?
They do it by winning challenges in order to buy properties, physically build houses or hotels to ‘up their rental take’ – and try to avoid going to jail! And if they do end up in jail, escaping as quickly as possible…

On the board, each team is guided through the rules and games by our talented tokens – played by live actors! They add a huge amount of fun and energy to the experience. The team that collects the greatest amount of assets by the end of the session wins. Audiences get to experience their favourite MONOPOLY moments in a truly unique way. What’s more, we have four unique boards so you can come back and have a totally different experience on another board.

I have a friend that’s done it twice – she mentioned that each visit was completely different. How did this idea come about, David?
The idea was developed in-house at Path, after Hasbro approached us to discuss partnership opportunities. Most of the magic was developed during Covid, so our team was working remotely to conceive how to make a 60-minute version of the world’s most famous board game… And offer an experience like no other.

Presumably you had to get Hasbro‘s buy in quite early before developing the concept?
We did, yes! But when we pitched it to Hasbro, they were super on board – excuse the pun. So then – led by our creative producer, Tom Beynon – we drove from concept to a fully developed production plan working with Hasbro and their incredible brand and licensing team. We then brought on a wonderful freelance creative team of designers, lighting and sound specialists to help us realise the ambition and visualise how the concept would play out to audiences…

We also engaged technology and gaming experts to help us understand how tech could help us run the game smoothly given the variety of potential outcomes it has. A game really can go in a number of different directions depending on your roll and the decisions teams make so we had to ensure we had all eventualities covered.

What were the biggest challenges transforming the game into this experience?
When we were developing the concept, we wanted to give audiences the opportunity to play the game as faithfully as possible… But make all aspects of the game ‘larger than life’, or amplified, to really give a unique, new user experience. There’s so much iconography with MONOPOLY that the heavy lifting on emotional investment is already there… How, though, could we transform a five-to-six-hour length board game to a one-hour interactive experience? That’s where the focus went.

By then, we already knew we wanted live actors involved, so we created the concept of having them play tokens or playing pieces. This is a hugely successful element that our audiences love! The actors support the groups playing against each other. They also ensure that participants get fully immersed in the world and stick to the rules. We also added rooms to every property square – again to amplify the gameplay – so that participants must complete a short challenge in order to win a property, all themed on that location. We wanted to weave together both IP and the city the board represents, and our incredible set designer Tim McQuillen did a great job at recreating iconic London locations for our UK production.

Tim McQuillen-Wright?
Yes! Do you know Tim?

I do! Fantastic designer and a lovely fella; salt of the Earth… I’m set to interview him when we can get our diaries to align!
Ha! Tim is incredible. One of the locations is jail of of course… For that, we have a real jail cell inside which unlucky players may find themselves. The whole game is controlled by an app we custom designed to keep things moving at pace and to control all the banking elements… So there is, of course, no cheating!

Shame. Ha! I love how much authenticity you’ve bought to the experience. Before we move on, what do you think is the appeal of MONOPOLY, David? Why is it still so enormously popular 90 years after its inception?
There’s huge generational buy in… It’s the king of all board games, and there’s such international recognition around the IP. It also continues to be beloved, not least during Covid when we all needed to find a way of being brought back together. Whether it was in your households during lockdown, or playing virtually, MONOPOLY was such a comfortable reminder of shared experience with friends and family.

Beyond that, Hasbro has done a great job at continuing to evolve the brand. The fact they’ve been so open and such good partners in us conceiving MONOPOLY LIFESIZED shows how much they support investing in the brand and bringing it to new audiences, and continuing to evolve its appeal to all ages.

Fantastic. Thank you, David. Now, for MONOPOLY fans that have more of a wanderlust, you have a second attraction! Tell me about the MONOPOLY Tea Tour… What is it, exactly? How did it come about?
This is a partnership with Hasbro and the wonderful people at Brigit’s Bakery! They work with us on a number of our attractions as a bakery partner. For years, they’ve demonstrated brilliant bus tours so it was a natural fit to partner with them on a London MONOPOLY Tea Tour. The experience fuses gameplay with sightseeing and, of course, delicious food and drinks! So… If you want to see the sights of London with delicious food and drinks, and a really fun interactive MONOPOLY game concept, this Tea Tour is a must!

And looking at it, you must’ve been quite creative putting it together… What were the highlights for you?
The Path team collaborated on the gameplay side of the experience, to ensure the tour is interactive and fun for patrons as they journey between London’s landmark sites. Our Food and Beverage team, led by Joseph Smith, did a great job of collaborating with Brigit’s Bakery and Hasbro to conceive how the F&B would fuse with the brand in a delicious tea experience.

Brilliant. And how extraordinary to have two such enormously different experiences under that one brand. Tell me, David: what’s the secret to creating a great immersive experience?
Audience first! What does a consumer want to see and feel in order to experience something in a way they never have before? When we’re thinking about our creative concepts, we keep the consumer at the front of our minds. That’s especially true when working with brands because the consumer will have very strong emotional connections to their favourite characters, or the brand itself.

As a result, they have a clear expectation of what they want to engage with on a deeper level. Where we then make a good experience great is to offer audiences something they didn’t know they wanted – like added value, or an additional layer of experience they haven’t had before. But it must be based on what the fabric of the brand is, and how it has so deeply connected with audiences in other mediums. It’s really fun to do and the Path team love diving into our nostalgia to remember what makes the emotional memories so vivid and special for our prospective audiences.

Great answer. And if someone wants to help turn brands into great immersive experiences, what qualities would they need?
Hmmm. There’s no one way of creating an immersive experience, and the beauty and excitement of working in this space is the fact that it brings together so many storytellers, creatives and specialists to collaborate and learn how best to create an interactive concept…

For me, the key ingredients have to get the balance between being faithful to the core values and nostalgia of a brand but not being scared to cross the line into offering a different perspective, or interaction, with the brand. The most important question I ask the team at Path when we’re exploring a new brand-based immersive experience is, “What value are we bringing to consumers that love this IP, that they’ve never had the opportunity to enjoy before?” It’s important that we’re always evolving and adding value to these incredible kinds of IP and growing the importance and love for the experiential sector by being brave and offering unique memories.

Fantastic answer. Thank you so much for your time and insight, David. And congratulations again on having two such enormously different and interesting executions around the same brand.