I Survived A Night In The Bates Motel

It’s been a week now, and I’ve had time to sit back and contemplate a few days in central Texas at SXSW. The event has had its share of publicity stunts over the years, but I have to say I haven’t really seen one go quite as far as A&E did this year with their fully operational replica of the Bates Motel built at the mega conference in Austin. That’s Bates Motel…as in Alfred Hitchcock’s murderous character Norman Bates, now a TV series on A&E.

Strangely, as over-the-top as this installation was, it was also one of the least annoying PR moves at the event I can remember in recent years. No one wearing tee shirts playing foursquare on the pavement, or offering hugs or getting in your face and the like.

They built a freaking motel.

And they built it largely because of the feedback they received from last year’s event when they hosted a facade-only version in Austin. According to A&E’s VP of Marketing, Elizabeth Luciano, interest from the previous year’s installation, along with other data they have about superfan behaviors, fueled the decision to go all the way with this one and create a fully functional motel.

I spent the night in the Bates Motel because…well, when someone asks you if you want to spend the night in the Bates Motel on Friday the 13th the answer is always “YEESSSS!”

Not getting murdered also helped it be a little more memorable. I did sign a waiver though, so I guess it wouldn’t have mattered anyway and despite one incident with a drunken lady banging on my door in the middle of the night and freaking out when I opened the curtain, the night went off without a hitch.

Believe me, I am aware this is no Plimpton-esque escapade. I was never in danger and merely took part in a marketing tactic. But I spend a lot of my time contemplating marketing tactics, so the concept interested me from the outset and these are my thoughts.

The Experience

I have to say that, on paper and from plain view, it was an accurate motel experience. The building wore the same yellow exterior from the show, had a similar porch overhang, and the interior was complete with wood paneling and a touch-tone telephone. It was the first time I have been in a motel in several years, but it was just like a real one with a few exceptions. The exceptions were some premium services that A&E were delivering to guests and most of these amenities were provided by startups.

Drizly provided the alcohol delivery, Handy provided the cleaning services, and Loom & Leaf by Saatva provided the mattress, which was WAY more comfortable than I expected. I was expecting a stained bed that took quarters, not a $1299 eco-friendly mattress. It was pretty nice and I rested well.

Some local companies like Tito’s Vodka and Delish Bakery also were involved by providing vodka and fake pot brownies (dang it).

ROI And Visitor Response

What the return could be for a stunt like this was something I contemplated often during the week. I could not procure any numbers from the team but this was an actual building with running (albeit non potable) water. I’m sure there were building/safety codes that needed met. Definite work and planning went into it. I’m sure none of this could be cheap.

According to Luciano, part of the marketing strategy from the beginning of this season was to:

“Celebrate the fan and giving them what they want…giving them a lot of the cred and really just giving back to them. And when we looked at how the make them happy (as we started to plan for this campaign) we saw that there were a couple of things that they really, really loved and one of the biggest ones was just getting to see the Bates Motel. We know, actually from the set up in Vancouver, that people like to drop by and visit…even when they are not supposed to.”

This knowledge really helped them to decide to add an immersion experience like this to their roster of marketing activities this year.

From what I could see, there was continuous activity around the pop-up motel during the entirety of the interactive portion of SXSW. As I mentioned earlier, even into the wee hours of the night, people were poking around the building. A&E’s sweepstakes to award winners with a night’s lodging likely helped, but the motel was hard to miss and attracted a lot of attention. The good location on one of the main drags in Austin, I’m sure, contributed.

So when contemplating if it was it worth it, it’s hard to say without being privy to the numbers, but based on the constant flurry of activity and interest it’s easy to think it might have been.

Biggest Takeaway

Let me say that it was fun to stay at the Bates Motel. They really rolled out the red (er, greenish/brownish) carpet. Often during the night of my stay, I wondered if the whole thing was a Candid Camera-style ruse and someone was going to jump out of the closet to try to scare me. (When the drunken person knocked on my door at 3am, that was my first thought). No one did, but maybe it could have been more exciting if some element of show intrigue could have been worked into the experience. Maybe there’s another model there?

Regardless of the level of intensity, is there a future model for superfan immersion experiences here? Possibly. This is exactly what Disney has owned for the last 50 years. Could a concept like this spread to other television networks or entertainment mediums with multitudes of superfans?

What if it were a Mad Men hotel or Walking Dead farmhouse you stayed in? Or what if you spent the night in a faux methed-out trailer park à la Breaking Bad? Would ideas like this resonate for superfans of shows? Do these themes keep the franchise alive at the end of a season or even after cancellation?

I’m inclined to think that there might be enough entertainment junkies out there for some minimal number of destination-style immersion experiences similar to this. However from a business and liability standpoint, it’s tricky to predict if TV brands like this would bring these experiences to real life or just keep them in the realm of special events like SXSW or COMIC-CON.

The thing I keep coming back to is that spending the night in this faux motel was fun and memorable. It was a unique stay. Whatever comes of this model though, I have to say that after a night at the “Bates”, I think next time I’d like to try my luck at upgrading to something a little swankier—maybe the James Bond Hotel. I think I’m OK with concept of being a little shaken and stirred by the experience.