Crayola to Double Number of Immersive Experiences

Crayola has entered into a licensing agreement with BrightColors to expand the number of in-store Crayola Experience venues.

BrightColors is working with Kingsmen Xperience, a location-based experience company, to open a minimum of five new Crayola Experience venues over the next five years. BrightColors is an operating subsidiary of Good Vibrations, which owns, operates and finances family entertainment attractions across the United States.

The Crayola Experience originated more than 25 years ago as a family friendly destination for creative play. It has five operations — ranging from 20,000 to 60,000 square feet — located in Pennsylvania, Florida, Minnesota, Texas and Arizona. According to the Crayola, the immersive attractions serve more than 1.5 million guests annually with activities inspired by Crayola's proprietary products and technologies.

Popular activities include naming and wrapping a Crayola crayon, watching how crayons are made, starring in a coloring page and creating melted wax spin art.

In November 2021, Crayola began actively seeking partners to extend its location-based entertainment footprint domestically and internationally. This multi-venue licensing agreement with the newly formed BrightColors marks Crayola’s first step in its global expansion.

The partnership will kick off with a joint evaluation of potential mall venues, focusing on family-friendly markets with a strong tourism and/or residential draw, according to a news release. Kingsmen Xperience will work with BrightColors to help source real estate opportunities, manage licensor relations and provide production and marketing support.

"Crayola embarks on an expansion effort with a best-in-class partner who shares our ideals, and is equally dedicated to high quality guest experiences," said Warren Schorr, Crayola senior vice president business development, global licensing & experiences, in the release.

"We have been providing guests with engaging, people-pleasing experiences for decades. As we researched potential existing concepts with our colleagues at Kingsmen, all other attractions paled in comparison to the guest offering at Crayola Experience," said Robin Turner, president & managing director of BrightColors, and founder of the WonderWorks chain, in the release. "In discussions with Crayola, we recognized we held a shared vision, and we are excited by the potential this partnership has in the expansion of Crayola Experience."