Solving Indoor Playground Homogeneity with Lightweight Education & IP Integration

As the number of indoor children’s playgrounds continues to increase, industry pain points like indoor playground homogeneity are gradually emerging. We analyze the content aspects of playground operations to hopefully address some of these pain points.

Pain Points in the Indoor Children’s Playground Industry

A closer look at today’s children’s playgrounds reveals that the industry’s pain points are quite evident.

1. Severe Homogenization.

There are too many similar children’s playground products. Insufficient innovation from upstream manufacturers has led to downstream playgrounds being largely similar. Sometimes, several playgrounds in the same shopping mall even have severely overlapping products. While individual playgrounds could be profitable, this severe product homogenization intensifies competition, making it difficult for everyone to profit.

2. High Costs of Product Upgrades and Replacements.

This is particularly evident in small and medium-sized children’s playgrounds, as most playground equipment occupies a large area. Replacing equipment involves significant investment in disassembly, renovation, and labor costs. The high cost of updates deters many amusement park operators, resulting in most children’s parks remaining unchanged year after year, lacking innovation and appeal.

3. User Demands.

In the information age, the internet has become an indispensable part of life. Children today are exposed to a wide variety of new and interesting things, making outdated amusement park products and activities unappealing. At the same time, the new generation of parents, born in the 1980s and 1990s, has increasingly higher expectations for children’s amusement park products. If the understanding of children’s amusement parks remains stuck in the past, it will be difficult to capture the hearts of these new consumers.

4. Lack of Professional Operations Personnel.

Although the children’s amusement park industry is developing rapidly, there is a general lack of professional operations personnel, let alone comprehensive operational manuals and systematic operational management systems. This is because most people believe that managing a children’s amusement park is simple and does not require significant investment in operations management. Ultimately, this leads to a shortage of professional talent and weak service in the industry.

Overcoming Pain Points | Enhancing Indoor Children’s Playgrounds with Educational Elements and Top IPs

1. Learning Through Play: Growing Through Play

With societal development, parents have gained a deeper understanding of the importance of children’s education, and their investment in this area is increasing year by year. (According to Grand View Research, the global educational toys market was valued at approximately USD 54 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach USD 118.8 billion by 2030, driven by increasing awareness among parents and educators about early childhood development.) The market is more willing to spend on educational products, with those possessing educational attributes commanding higher premiums and exhibiting greater user stickiness. Compared to mere entertainment, parents naturally hope their children will grow through play. Traditional children’s playground products, limited to entertainment, can no longer meet the demands of the times.

We need to imbue indoor children’s playgrounds with more educational significance, allowing children to grow through play.

Children’s playgrounds with educational attributes can differentiate themselves from other playgrounds, and adding educational elements makes them more attractive to parents, which translates to increased foot traffic and revenue. Take our product—Magic Pen Egg Treasure—as an example: children cultivate their interest in art through doodling; numerous themes broaden their knowledge; and new gameplay elements such as fun puzzles, classification searches, and color matching develop their logical thinking skills. Meanwhile, the product’s content is systematically developed around a teaching and research system, covering modules such as science education, traditional culture education, health education, and safety education, comprehensively developing children’s thinking, motor, and aesthetic abilities.

For example, many children’s museums in the United States include a wealth of experiential content to stimulate children’s scientific interest and literacy. This aligns with the recent trends in children’s holistic education, gamified education, and STEAM education.  This, of course, places very high demands on the educational resource integration capabilities of children’s playground operators.

2. Viewing Products from a Child’s Perspective

After entering the children’s playground industry for some time, we’ve noticed that many children’s playground products and game/amusement product designs are limited by adult thinking, developing products from an adult perspective, lacking understanding and attention to the true users—children. To truly achieve a good user experience, it’s essential to pay attention to user evolution and design products based on the needs of parents and children at different stages.

For example, in product color design, some children’s playground manufacturers use highly saturated colors like bright red and green. Others create a dark environment for children by using large areas of bright light and various dazzling lighting effects. While highly saturated colors and bright areas in a dark environment may immediately catch children’s attention, prolonged exposure to such an environment can harm their eyesight.

According to the national standard GB 50034-2004, the illuminance standard for children’s playgrounds should reach 300 lx or higher, with a uniformity of 0.6 or higher. Areas involving reading and activities should also meet classroom requirements, reaching 300 lx. Internationally, there are also strict standards for lighting design in children’s spaces; the IESNA Lighting Handbook can be consulted.

The IESNA Lighting Handbook states that localized lighting should not be used in a workplace; when it is necessary to increase the illuminance of a specific area or target, accent lighting should be used. It’s clear that creating a dark environment with large areas of bright light in children’s spaces does not comply with the “Architectural Lighting Design Standard.” Besides failing to meet industry standards, such an environment can hinder the normal development of children’s eyes! Insufficient brightness in children’s spaces forces them to stare at bright areas for extended periods, straining their eyes and exacerbating eye muscle fatigue.

As professionals in the children’s industry, we have a responsibility to ensure children’s health and safety. Even seemingly minor issues like lighting and color schemes reflect our concern and responsibility towards children. Truly considering children’s needs and creating scientifically sound products and environments suitable for their long-term eye use is essential to winning customers’ trust and support.

3. Innovative and Diverse Content

Maintaining product freshness is crucial for maintaining popularity, but the high costs of equipment upgrades and product replacements make this a difficult decision for many amusement parks. Fortunately, the high cost of product updates is not an issue for interactive multimedia products. The cost of updating multimedia content is very low. Compared to the equipment, dismantling, and labor costs involved in updating other large-scale equipment in children’s playgrounds, multimedia products can be updated simply by connecting to the internet. This results in low cost, high efficiency, and frequent updates, providing consumers with a constant stream of fresh experiences.

Simultaneously, it’s crucial to focus on content innovation. The industry is developing, and products are evolving rapidly. To keep pace with, and even lead, industry development, companies must enhance their innovation capabilities. The current prevalence of plagiarism in the industry stems primarily from a lack of independent innovation. Blindly copying other products leads to unsustainable business operations. Therefore, maintaining product iteration capabilities and independent innovation is paramount.

Customer consultation: How to do the business plan for indoor playground? >>>

4. Content IP Development: Creating Popularity with Hot IPs

A successful children’s IP boasts a large fan base and can attract significant foot traffic. The same applies to children’s playgrounds; a successful IP can immediately capture children’s attention. Playgrounds can introduce IPs in two ways: creating their own IPs or purchasing external IPs.

Creating your own IP is quite challenging in our industry. It’s not something you can simply design; it requires a systematic approach, long-term accumulation, and significant financial investment in promotion. Only then can you build an IP with a large fan base, and even then, the investment isn’t guaranteed to be effective.

Purchasing existing top-tier IPs is the best option in the industry, but many companies in the children’s industry feel that IP costs are too high. However, we can look at it from a different perspective: the cost of an IP should be determined by the value it brings. If the IP is expensive but brings substantial profits to the park, then the investment is worthwhile. Conversely, if the IP doesn’t increase revenue, then no matter how much money was spent, it’s excessive.

Price-wise, top-tier IPs are certainly more expensive than ordinary IPs. However, in terms of attracting visitors and generating profits, top-tier IPs bring their own traffic, attracting crowds and enhancing the park’s competitiveness, making them far more cost-effective than ordinary IPs. Statistics show that top-tier IPs can improve park performance by 30%-40%. In 2018, our company established strategic partnerships with several popular IPs, including Super Wings, Octonauts, Backkom, Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, and Oddbods, helping parks attract children’s attention immediately.

5. Focus on Quality, Comprehensive Operational Solutions, and Eliminate Operators’ Worries

Addressing the current shortage of professional operation personnel in children’s parks and the limited support services from other manufacturers, we believe it’s essential to provide venue operators with a complete operational solution and comprehensive after-sales service, resolving daily operational issues and concerns for venue managers.

Firstly, regarding equipment selection and quality, we choose the best industrialized and commercially viable systems. Every component is of the highest quality, and we select equipment parts with the highest sustainability. Extending the equipment’s lifespan indirectly reduces the maintenance costs for venue managers. Simultaneously, we provide a complete set of supporting operational solutions to guide parks in better utilizing equipment to better serve customers, leading to more systematic operation and ultimately, better profits. In daily operations, we will connect with all children’s playgrounds using the same products to provide more soft services.

Take our most popular product, the Magic Pen Egg—an interactive drawing and doodling system for children—as an example. The Magic Pen Egg’s touchscreen drawing function and light educational attributes not only cater to children’s natural tendency to doodle but also provide educational entertainment while allowing them to express their natural instincts. After the child finishes drawing, parents can scan the QR code that appears to share their child’s “artwork” on social media. This caters to the younger generation’s desire to share their children’s work, increasing customer loyalty to the playground and indirectly spreading the word about the playground, thus enhancing its brand awareness—a win-win situation. Moreover, the second generation of the Magic Pen Egg is richer in content than the first generation, adding storylines and increasing the educational weight. This maintains children’s interest in the playground’s products while also satisfying parents’ desire for their children to have both entertainment and education.

Of course, interactive multimedia products can only be a part of a children’s playground; it cannot be the entire playground. The most important aspect of a children’s playground is still its play equipment. Interactive multimedia products help children’s playgrounds better serve players and increase customer loyalty.

Looking to the Future

Regarding the future of children’s playgrounds, we believe the trend will be towards educational playgrounds. Educational features can increase parental loyalty in this era. With social development and technological advancements, the new generation of parents has new demands. They want their children to have a head start and are willing to invest in early childhood education, which they consider the most worthwhile investment. Our indoor children’s playgrounds reflect this; educational playgrounds perfectly meet these new needs, making parents feel their money is well spent and encouraging them to keep their children there.

Of course, the biggest reason children come to playgrounds is to have fun, so having fun is essential. By integrating educational elements into play, children learn while playing, allowing the playground to provide better service, a higher-quality environment, and greater playability.

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