As the Chief Playlist Officer at Control Play, Adam Melrose helps expand the company’s knowledge and viewership across both Canada and the United States when he is not creating business-focused music playlists. He attends events such as the one hosted by the International Adventure and Trampoline Park Association (IATP) to help grow Control Play’s knowledge of the evolving trends of the industry and showcase the company itself.
The Association deals with trampolines and inflatable jump-parks. “Think a bouncy house that they would bring to your backyard when you were ten years old, now take an old factory and fill the entire place with one of those,” Melrose describes.
While this kind of industry seems rather niche, Melrose has seen it grow exponentially over the last few years. He finds it especially intuitive and creative of this expanding industry to use empty factory spaces for new opportunities.
The conference Melrose attended in October was to grow the industry and educate people who are interested in partnering with the different locations.
“There’s a little trade show, and about 55 different vendors there, that’s literally the guy selling the toilet paper holder in your bathroom to the music provider like us and everything in between.”
Each vendor during the event had opportunities to talk with one another and those running the show to help get the word out for their products and services. With many companies forgoing physical corporate or retail spaces, events like these are especially productive to upsell their products and services.
“When we go to these trade shows, its kind of like our storefront for those three days.”
Each vendor at the show is brought in and curated by the runners of the event to be industry-specific, Melrose continues, which is vastly different than even a few years ago. He demonstrates how he was once had a trade show for bowling alleys and one of the vendors sold mattresses because they bought the booth themselves. This change to special curation exemplifies the growth of the industry in a short time.
“It becomes a really interesting networking situation for the delegates, the people walking around the show, and even us as service providers. We get some of our best ideas or deliverables within our service by going to these shows.”
This event provided Melrose the opportunity to discuss with and educate people on Control Play’s version 12 software, but he describes an event a few years ago where someone said how they should do music videos. Now, music videos are one of Control Play’s biggest products.
“A lot of it comes down to little functionalities,” he says. During the show, he was able get into the nitty gritty of the new software and answer people’s questions.
One of the biggest requests was to have playlists, signage, or messages be tailored to a company to be more specific.
“There’s a variety of things that a lot of places do,” he continues. “If it’s something we can make generic for the whole industry, then we’ll make the generic version. If a park wants to pay the production fee to have it specifically made for their park, then we’ll do that, too.”
One example he gives is a roller-skating vendor wanting messaging for Saturday afternoons. Rather than opt-in for a message specific to their rink, they requested a generic message that was included in the service. When ideas and options like these are brought to him at these events, he says, they help other subscribers because they are added to the service Control Play offers.
Many conversations Melrose had were about how to elevate promotions and gift card sales. He was able to help people develop their ideas and signage to develop the best way to showcase their specials.
During the conference, different speakers were given the opportunity to give presentations during the day then they visited a local business later in the evening. Many of the vendors speak on different aspects of running a business from how to run better birthday parties to how to better insure your park. The meetings are also almost like a holiday for many of these vendors.
“A lot of these small- to medium-sized business owners, the only time of year that they get away from their business is to go to one of these meetings,” Melrose explains. After the day of learning and educational speakers, the coordinators give them time for dinner and entertainment downtown Nashville.
Melrose finds the biggest opportunity for vendors at these conferences is to go out to learn from professional speakers, meet with vendors, and speak with other operators from across the country. He himself will often introduce himself to groups and discuss various challenges these people have with their businesses to help find solutions for them.
“The networking is awesome,” he says. “Where I’m intrigued on the educational piece is understanding what’s being presented to them as an industry and what are the programs they’re trying to put forward. When it comes back to our digital signage or messaging is making sure we have a piece of generic content that makes sense for that.”
He gives the caveat that it wasn’t always this way for the family entertainment space. He explains how the bowling industry spear-headed the idea to maximize downtimes during the week with corporate gatherings and meetings to help facilitate industry discussions and growth.
There are also opportunities for new salesmen or businessmen to learn about the job and their own products at these shows. Melrose explains how, at larger events, he would bring team members to pitch Control Play, its services, and its products countless times on the show floor.
At this event, Control Play’s networking opportunities were on the show floor rather than giving their own large speeches. When asked if he could see a difference in engagement between events where he was a speaker versus ones where he mingled in between speeches, he explains how the larger platform can create familiarity between himself and the other vendors.
“When you’re in the trade show booth, they know you, because they saw you speak,” Melrose continues. “They can come and talk to you in the booth. I don’t mind being able to talk on that grand scale, but it’s normally about an idea or how to better market something. I really enjoy the conversations where people come into the booth and give us their current challenges.”
Melrose has found that there are better opportunities, both for Control Play and potential customers, at the more personable level. Smaller groups with more intimate conversations have helped Control Play team members speak with people and offer direct solutions to their problems.
“It’s about being able to approach them in a manner where you’re not just trying to sell them right away,” he implores. “If we have a quality conversation and I find I’ve got a solution for you, I’m going to present it.”
For Melrose and Control Play, music is at the heart of every business. Their strategy is lead with the simple questions: What are you doing with music in your business? How are you promoting events? As he says, everyone is doing something with music and audio messaging.
Many of the jump and trampoline parks that frequent these events use strict time schedules with colored wristbands to limit and monitor people’s times. He has been able to help many owners by offering proper automated messaging. They come to Control Play for a high-quality music distribution service. Oftentimes, Melrose can offer them automatic messages, both visual and auditory, that help maintain their schedules while keeping their customers both happy and informed.
“In this industry, for the show we were just at, [messaging] is absolutely the biggest reason folks come to us. Doing the messaging thing properly, in a compelling way, is difficult.”
Consistency is the major problem owners have found for their messaging when it is done by employees, who, Melrose has found, are often high school students. Instead, Control Play gives them full control of the messaging, the timing, and the atmosphere in their parks.
These conferences, large and small, are packed with moguls and new recruits of the various entertainment industries, all of whom are buying, selling, and networking with each other. Melrose himself notes, with a chuckle, how active Control Play subscribers have acted as a live testimonial for the work he and his team do.
“Now it’s not me trying to sell to that person, it’s another person in that industry saying, ‘You should work with these guys.’ This is a real-life Amazon review.”
The IATP brings like-minded people together while helping individual companies grow and the entertainment industry expand exponentially. Melrose frequents these conventions, brining a personable touch to these businesses and easy solutions for these owners.
