Success in real estate, they say, is built on “Location, location, location.” The variety of location types among the nominees in this category within the 2020 Licensing International Excellence Awards is striking: a pair of escape rooms; a hotel; a restaurant; a theme park attraction; a traveling dinosaur show; a garden attraction; a pop-up experience, and an experiential pop-up shop.

Overall, more than 600 entries were received this year from companies in 22 countries; they were judged by a panel of 152 executives from 20 nations. The licensing industry will make its selections from a ballot that includes 175 nominees in 23 categories of brands, properties and companies.

For a full listing of the categories and the nominees please click here.

Here are the nominees for Best Location-Based Experience:

Escape Life – Peaky Blinders Escape Room

Peaky Blinders, The Live Escape Game, has quickly established itself as top escape experience since launching at the end of 2019. Hosted in a new property in Birmingham, home of the Peaky Blinders, the two experiences are truly immersive games which allow players to feel part of the hit TV series.

With 100% 5/5 or 10/10 rating from online reviews, TripAdvisor rank the experience as #1 of 113 ‘Fun & Games in Birmingham’.

Feld Entertainment – Jurassic World Live!

Jurassic World Live wowed audiences at the larger-than-life premiere in Chicago this past fall – really delivering on the wonder, thrill and terror that the franchise is known for – and audiences continue to be amazed as the show rolls into new cities each week. Ticket sales are also strong, with Feld reporting increases as new markets are announced. Press are impressed by the adventurous show too – from behind-the-scenes features with The New York Times, Forbes and “Sunday Morning” on CBS, to local media coverage in each market when the show arrives.

Hourglass Escapes – The Evil Dead 2 Official Escape Room

The Evil Dead 2™ escape room has innovated the escape room industry and shown that licensed properties are the future of the hottest new entertainment format.  We have taken our small local Seattle-based company and turned it into a tourist attraction destination for travelers, getting customers from all over the U.S. and Canada coming to Seattle to experience the cult classic.

With the help of mega star voice actor Yuri Lowenthal as in-game voice-over talent and the fans of this cult classic, we showed that smaller IPs can be big news.

Merlin Entertainments – Room on the Broom “A Magical Journey”

This best-selling Halloween picture book, “Room on the Broom,” has been reimagined as an immersive theme park attraction in which children can discover the story, helping Witch on her journey and scaring off Dragon who wants to have “Witch and chips” for his tea! Our deal with Merlin Entertainments is eight years, and the attraction includes themed hotel bedrooms, an interactive green screen movie-making experience and a bespoke range of licensed product. The attraction was scored 8 out of 10 by guests.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar at the Royal Horticultural Society

The summer partnership between the RHS and the Very Hungry Caterpillar saw two longstanding British-loved and nature-focused brands brought together for the gardening charity’s largest-ever brand partnership. With activities, product and co-branded product across all four gardens and flower shows over the summer, the partnership achieved extensive media coverage including a BBC television feature, a flower show silver award and a social media campaign of nearly 2 million impressions.

The First Group – MasterChef the TV Experience

MasterChef, the TV Experience, from Dubai-based property developer and fast-growing F&B specialist The First Group, is the first experiential dining concept based on the world’s most popular reality cooking series.  The restaurant opened at Dubai’s Millennium Place Marina hotel last April and has quickly established itself as one of the city’s premier dining destinations.

Since its opening, the restaurant has also hosted guest residencies by former Champions including MasterChef UK’s Simon Wood and MasterChef Australia’s Diana Chan.

Featuring an interior design inspired by the famous MasterChef set, guests are immersed in the TV show’s concept, providing a dining experience unlike anything else in Dubai.

The Thread Shop – The Beatles Pop-Up Shop

The Beatles Pop-up Shop was free to attend, and sold out all merchandise product instore, including the pinball machine! The pop-up welcomed nearly 25,000 visitors. Advertising efforts engaged millions of people online and in-person across the NYC-tristate area, with bus shelter ads, wild postings, social media, influencers, Spotify listener targeting, press placements, and radio spots.

See special moments from The Beatles Pop-up Shop on social media with the hashtag #ShopTheBeatles.

United Entertainment Group – The Bell, A Taco Bell Hotel

Everyone was talking about The Bell — whether they were there or not. With zero paid media dollars, The Bell garnered 4.4 billion earned media impressions and 5,000+ media stories, more than 75% of Taco Bell’s stories for all of 2018 combined.

Over the five days at The Bell, the Taco Shop made over $30,000 in sales.

And the best part? The Bell drove the highest in-restaurant visits for that quarter. Proving that in the end, if you’re gonna win the franchise wars, you need an army of passionate fans on your side.

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Bikini Bottom Experience

The Bikini Bottom Experience was a fan-first pop-up that brought to life the world of SpongeBob SquarePants! With over 6 activations, an exhibit featuring SpongeBob highlights throughout the years and a retail shop with exclusive merchandise, the SOLD OUT Bikini Bottom Experience gave fans a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

• Sold out 3,000+ tickets in 36 hours
• Over 3,177 attendees across 3 days
• Over 1.1MM impressions across social and digital
• Average attendee rated the experience 9 out of 10
• Event coverage included in Entertainment Weekly, The AV Club, KTLA and more!
• Significant CP sales and traffic to new DTC SpongeBob site