BENCHMARK

ISSUE 12016

THE SECRETGARDEN FESTIVAL

What makes this eventso unique?

INNOVATIONIN THE LEISURE SECTOR

Contents

MOMMAS

3

Interrelations within the leisure sector

EVENTS

6

The human nature of disclosing secrets

ARTS & CULTURE

9

Catching up withtechnology

MEDIA

12

How to reach the publicin an innovative way

HOTEL

16

Innovation iseverwhere

TOURISM

18

A question ofperspective

ENTERTAINMENT

21

Change the world around you

Leisure Benchmark

Interrelations within the Leisure Industry

The Leisure Industry is verybroad. It consists of lots ofactivities that can be done allaround the world. The model onthe bottom of this page, statedthese leisure activities.

The Mommaas model, as the abovefigure is called, consists of thirteenactivities, that can be categorized aseither place-related or not, and eitheractive or passive. While some activitiesmight be completely different thanother ones, still every single one ofthem, is connected to the other. Thereason for this is, that they all needmotivation to undertake them. Thiscould be either social motivation (theneed for social interaction), basicpleasures for the body (eating,

drinking, sex, sport) and social learning(developing new social skills or skills toperform the activity better, developingknowledge and interests which givesatisfaction to oneself) (Argyle, 1996).This motivation needs to be found withinevery activity, for one to actually performit.

Another explanation why all activities areinterconnected, can be told by definingleisure. If this definition is adaptable toevery activity, they are all connected aswell. To start with, leisure has a lot ofdefinitions. Some may say it is just anattitude of the mind (Josef Pieper, 1952),others may say it is the time left besideswork (Raymond Aron, date unknown).The last definition results in the equationL = T – W: Leisure = Time – Work.

Charles Brightbill (1961)argues that also necessities aseating and resting should besubstracted. The reminder iscalled ‘true’ leisure. During‘true’ leisure, the consumercan really decide themselveswhat to do. If this isconnected back to the modelof Mommaas, the conclusioncan be made that everyactivity stated in the model isnot work-related and also nota necessity. This results inthe fact that again allactivities, how different theymay seem, are connected.

To conclude: when looking at themotivation needed and how the time ina day is divided for leisure, one can seethat all thirteen activities in theMommaas model are interconnected.For example Hotel & Catering andGames may be totally different, butsince the motivation and the time inwhich these activities occur are thesame, they are still connected. Thisthought can be applied to all thirteenactivities and therefore, all of them areinterconnected.

The central theme of the followingbenchmark will be 'innovation', whichcan be defined in various ways. Toput it in a nutshell, it means to bringa new product on an existing market.In the ideal situation this bringsprofit, which is the core value ofinnovation in an economical way.Innovation should close a customers’gap in the existing market.

INNOVATIONAND LEISURE

INNOVATION

- The introduction of a new productor a qualitative change in anexisting product- process innovation new to anindustry-opening of a new market-development of new sources ofsupply for raw material- other inputs and changes in theindustrial organization

Innovation defined by Joseph Schumpeter

BENCHMARK

Either sitting in theshade of a giant fox orenjoing the greatatmosphere of anabandoned officebasement; creating amemorableimpression for thecustomer is moreimportant than everbefore.

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eing innovative is a must in theevent industry. Since thereare thousands of events takingplace every day, you need to

find a way to stand out from the crowd. Oneway to catch attention is to make anexperience more personalized. Most peoplenowadays want to escape from theireveryday life. Disclosing secrets lies in thehuman nature. It is innovative to catch upwith that thought because it makes anyexperience more personalized. In thefollowing there are two companies that putthis into practice and suceeded.

'The secret garden party' is a musicand arts festival taking place inCambridgeshire, UK. What makes itoutstanding: you have no idea what itis about.It is themed, but the organizers do notpublish any information about itbefore the festival actually starts. Thewhole event is a good kept secret. Ifyou visit the festival's website, you willleave it with even more questions thanbefore. It makes you really curious!And this is how the concept works: Outof curiosity you buy a ticket, becauseyou want to be part of disclosing thishuge secret!

Find out more: secretgardenparty.com

'The secret cinema' is an event of adifferent kind! The concept is clever:you buy a ticket online but you do notknow what to expect. Neither you havea clue of the title of the movie nor atwhich location it is shown. Thecreators mostly choose speciallocations, like, as shown above, anabandoned church. This creates anunique atmosphere. Every visitor iscurious about what is going to happen.'The secret cinema' also hires actorsand singers to even support theexperience. While the movie is playing,there are soldiers or 'Star Wars'characters walking through theaudience. Got curious? Grab yourself aticket before they are sold!

Find out more: secretcinema.org

Innovationin the Arts &Cultureindustry

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reating a vivid experiencce isvital not only in the event, butalso in the arts and cultureindustry.

With all the technologies overflowing ourworld and everyday life, the art industryreally needs to catch up. People are nolonger interested in simply looking atpaintings, sculptures and other pieces ofart, they want to be involved. Here we will tell you more about two artgalleries that stand as an example of asuccessful blend of art and technology.

“Charles de Gaulle Monument” inParis, France is an interactivemultimedia space dedicated to thework of Charles de Gaulle. Themonument is located at theunderground level of the Musee del’Armee. The area doesn’t contain anyobjects but rather favors sounds andimages in all their forms. Still andanimated archive images - news,posters, photographs, etc. - arecombined with and supplemented byfilmed interviews with historians,multimedia books, dynamic walls,maps, entertainment news, aninteractive world map, etc. Everyvisitor can organize their stay as theysee fit. With the usage of autonomousinfrared device, visitors can choosetheir own path and create their ownexperience. At their disposal are 400audiovisual documents and nearly 20hours of commentary.

Find out more on http://www.musee-armee.fr/

“Gallery One” is located at theentrance to the Cleveland Museum ofArt (CMA).The gallery is a highlyinnovative blend of art, technology,design and a unique user experience. Itinvites visitors to connect actively withthe art through exploration andcreativity. Multi-touch screens allowthe public to explore artworks visuallythrough magnification and rotation.Every art installation is created in away that encourages the visitors to notonly observe, but also to connectactively with the collection and seethemselves in the art on view. “Build inclay” even inspires the public to makea sculpture in clay by virtuallykneading, rolling, coiling, cutting, andassembling. Visitors can also share allof their creations through email andsocial media, such as Facebook andTwitter.

Find out more on http://www.clevelandart.org/gallery-one

Innovationin the Mediasector

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he media sector is one of theoldest ones and over manyyears it has gone throughmultiple transformations.

It’s impossible to move forward withoutchanging and innovation is all aboutchange. In the media sector it could berelated to product innovation, processinnovation, position innovation andsocial innovation. Here we'll introduceyou to two practices that take a differentapproach to innovation, however, aimingfor the same goal.

Time Inc. takes a distinctive approachwhen it comes to their content creationprogram. Time + Leisure (a Time’sInc’s title) is using a platform whichincreases the publishing volume of themedia from 12 online posts a week tomore than 100 per week. In order toachieve that, the digital media uses asmall network of experts who handle acertain area, where the rest of thecontributions (50 to 100) will comefrom freelancers. In addition to this,Time Inc. has begun to create audioversions of its daily newspaper, TheBrief. The idea is to reach digitallydistracted audience and it is workingwell. According to Digiday (May 20,2015) in April 2015 people havelistened to an average of 16 minutesper session. Having in mind that welive in a time where everybody is busy,preoccupied with social media andconsumes much fewer articles, this isan impressive result.

Hotels.com is a leading onlineaccommodation booking website andthey have a very different approach totheir video commercials policy. Mostusers will agree that when Facebookand Instagram launched the autoplayvideo in 2013, scrolling down theirtimeline was getting more and moreannoying with the tons of videosplaying just when they scrolledthrough them. As time passed, peoplegot used to the online video setting,especially since they have to unmutethem by themselves, by clicking on thevideo. The problem however, is thatmost of the users do not take the extratime to actually stop and click onthem.

Companies need to overcome this andthe new “silent policy” of Hotels.com issucceeding in this. A smart campaignwith their mascot Captain Obvious wasreleased in June 2015 and had a greatsuccess. According to Mashable.com intheir article in June 2015, “The first ofthe two (ads) garnered five times moreengagement than the agency's averagebrand ad, and the comments sectionhas been overwhelmingly positive.”

Innovation in the Hotel Industry

Innovation in the Hotel Industry isvery important. Since there is a lot ofcompetition, hotels have to keep upwith the newest trends. The hard thingis that innovation in the hotel industrycan be found in everything, forexample: the use of social media,unique locations, sustainability andtechnology. In this benchmark, acomparison between ‘feminine’ hotelsis made. These hotels focusparticularly on women who aretravelling alone, especially for businessexecutives. In this chapter the PremierHotel in Times Square and the LuthanHotel and Spa will be compared.

According to the Premier, womenweren’t requesting protection, butbetter light for makeup and more diet-friendly food. The hotel offers irons,special bathing products for theoversized bath, yoga mats, women’smagazines, and other similar products,for no extra price. The idea behind thisis that these women work hard andwill also want some time to relax whenthey get back to the hotel. Still thefemale floors have extra security.Think about a key-card door and justfemale staff, so when they open thedoor for room service, they will not feelintimidated.

The Luthan Hotel and Spa isthe first hotel for just womenin the Middle East. They donot just offer a floor towomen, but every singleroom in the hotel is onlyallowed for women. Thewebsite of the hotel tells thatthe hotel helps to rebalanceenergies. This happens byfacilities like AquaMeditation, Salt InhalationRoom, Herbal Sauna and anIce Fountain pool. Also thehotel pays a lot of attentionto art, cosmetics and fitness.

To conclude, hotels look more andmore at the needs of women and try toapply this knowledge in their hotels.Some feminine hotels, like thePremier, are mainly focussed onbusiness women, to give them apleasant stay with a lot of extras torelax more. Other hotels, like theLuthan Hotel and Spa, are focussingon women in general and not justbusiness woman. They offer morefacilities to relax, so you can stay in thehotel for the whole day, while this isnot the purpose of for example thePremier. Both have a very differentconcept, but both are still innovate andfocussed on women.

Innovationin theTourismSector

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nnovation is an importantpart of tourism that wasunderestimated for a longtime. There are different

types of innovation in tourism:product or service, process,managerial , management andinstitutional innovations. On the nexttwo pages you can read about twocountries which make clear howimportant innovations, especially inservice, are.

Both, Egypt andArgentina, areemerging countries.Their innovations intourism are similarand very simple in theEuropean sight.However, theseinnovations areimprotant for thecountries because theyhelp keeping touristscoming.

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nnovations in Egypt's tourism are importantbecause tourism is a mainmoney source.

The most improtant innovations ofArgentina's tourism are in the marketing.Services make sure that the counrty iswell presented on the internet so it getsenough attention and tourists keepcoming. Argentina's tourists servicesmake contracts with foreign travelagencies and try to keep already existingservices in good shape.

Let´s have a look at Egypt! On first sight the innovations inEgypt's tourism might seem simple.However considering that it's anemerging nation makes itunderstandable. The country makes sure to keep theaccommodations and highwaysbetween sightseeing spots wellmaintained, offer its tourists newrecreational activities and trys topromote them overseas. Actually,promotion is very important for thecountry, that's why tourism servicesmake contracts with travel agenciesin foreign countries.

One of the most important parts in theEntertainment Industry is beinginnovative. Everyone wants to invent somethingnew in order to win the competition.Everything in the EntertainmentIndustry is moving very fast. One thing might be totally new andgreat the one day, will be changed in anew and better way within only a fewdays. Since there are new and innovateinventions every day there are a lot ofbest practices to choose from. On the following pages the comparisonbetween the Microsoft HoloLens andthe Oculus Rift is made. The HoloLensis bringing your ideas in the real worldwhile the Oculus Rift is putting you inthe virtual world.

The Microsoft HoloLens is, as they sayabout it themselves on their webside,the first and most advancedholographic computer that puts yourideas into your environment. You can make your own decisions onhow it is supposed to look like andeven share your ideas with colleaguesor friends. If you for example want todesign your own piece of furniture theMicrosoft HoloLens allows you to lookat it from multiple perspectives. Andsince there is no mouse or screen youcould use to navigate through theholograms, the Microsoft HoloLens isworking with your gestures, gaze andvoice. And if you want to have a real copy ofyour idea then you can print it with thehelp of a 3D printer.

Change the world around you

The Oculus Rift on the other hand isnot about putting anything into yourenvironment but about getting youinto a Virtual Reality. They promote iton their webside as something that isnot like anything you have ever seen orfelt before. They work with anadvanced display technology that issupposed to make you feel the way asyou're actually in the game or movie orany other virtual reality. In contrast to3D glasses which put the movie out ofthe screen the Oculus Rift is gettingyou into the movie instead. Forexample if you are watching a movieabout a roller coaster the Oculus Riftlets you feel like you are actually sittingin the roller coaster. You can lookaround and see the birds in the skyand you can the buildings next to youwhen you look to the side. Your viewchanges whenever you move your headjust the way as it works in the realworld.

In conclusion, theEntertainmentIndustry is reallyfocusing on beinginnovative and new.Both inventions arevery innovative. Theyboth look similar in away because you wearthem as glasses onyour head but thethings they do arecompletely different.

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That gives us an insight onhow the world might be in afew years.

Innovation will always be a huge part ofwhatever someone is doing in the LeisureIndustry and not only there but also inevery of our lives innovation is having animpact on what we do and how we act.