Since 2016, Based on the overall situation of Shanghai's "cultural brand" construction, Shanghai Wenguang Performing Arts Group SMG LIVE has continuously explored the model of the integration of urban cultural tourism and the performing arts industry; starting from the residency performance of the only version of "Sleepless Nights" in Asia, it has opened and witnessed the outbreak of Shanghai's immersive industry from 0 to a blowout; and showed people another possibility for the entertainment industry to expand its boundaries. And that's just the beginning. In December 2021, in order to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Asian residency of the Shanghai version of the immersive drama Sleep No More, the specific field exhibition "MORE ON SLEEP NO MORE", jointly conceived by the Chinese and foreign creative teams, was officially opened in Shanghai West Bund Oil Tank Art Park.
The fifth anniversary of "Sleepless Nights" was unveiled
Take Sleepless Nights as the key to open the door to an immersive industry
The beginning of the domestic "immersive experience" track can be traced back to 2016, co-produced by British theater pioneer Punchdrunk and Shanghai Wenguang Performing Arts Group SMG LIVE, and operated by Shanghai Shangyan Cultural Investment Management Co., Ltd., the immersive drama "Sleep No More, Shanghai" was not performed in Shanghai. In less than 100 hours, 10,000 pre-sale tickets were sold out. This theatrical experience, between authenticity and drama and reshaping the relationship between watching and watching, has set off a pioneering wave of "Immersive" across the country.
Through the evolution of London, Boston and New York, the optimized and improved Shanghai version of "Sleepless Nights" has created a residency record of more than 1,400 consecutive performances from 0 to 440,000 people, an average attendance rate of 95%, and a total income of 380 million yuan. Immersive performance, which symbolizes a sense of experience and participation, officially opened its "golden age".
As a pioneer of urban cultural tourism, "Sleepless Nights" has created unlimited commercial imagination, incubated various special events such as immersive parties and festivals in the past five years, and officially opened a new journey of online performance in 2020: through the "Daydream Salon" and "Douyin Drama Festival" live broadcast, meet more than 200,000 online users; in the immersive live broadcast room jointly created with Tmall, the number of interactions reached 3.84 million, the total number of viewers exceeded 1 million, and the number of exposures on the whole network exceeded 300 million, bringing new to the performance industry "Gameplay".
In 2021, "Sleepless Nights" is empowered by immersive experience, and the new work "Shop Ten" jointly created by Guangzhou Taikoo Hui, and the immersive show "Dream into New Life" and immersive jewelry exhibition are presented in conjunction with luxury brands such as Valentino and Gucci... The integration of art and experience interprets the new idea of cross-border symbiosis between "performing arts +" and commerce, real estate and retail.
Standing at the important moment of the fifth anniversary of the residency, "Sleepless Nights" broke the circle from the drama, and joined hands with art WESTBUND of the West Bund Cultural and Art Season, inspired by the "dynamic" stage effect, combined with the new field space, presenting a subversive "static" anniversary special exhibition, inviting new and old audiences to witness the process of dreaming and voyeurizing dreams. This is also another expansion of the cultural threads in the West Coast from the visual arts based on static display to the performance arts of dynamic interpretation.
"MORE ON SLEEP NO MORE" "Sleepless Nights" Anniversary Special Exhibition Launch Conference
Diversified cross-border continues to lead the Z generation trend business card
In 2019, SMG LIVE and the School of Cultural and Creative Management of Jiaotong University jointly released the "Research Report on the Development of China's Immersive Industry", showing that the immersive industry in China has developed rapidly since 2016, showing breakthrough growth. Offline experiences with the concept of "immersive" such as secret rooms and script killing have become the "new social favorites" of the post-95 Generation Z crowd.
Even today, when immersive works continue to emerge, "Sleepless Nights" still maintains its high popularity. The reputation of being jokingly called "Shanghai's immersive ceiling" by netizens continues to extend, and on social platforms such as Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Douyin, #Sleepless Nights#, #SleepNoMore# and other related topics, it has accumulated more than 110 million discussions and readings, and it has an average of more than 9.2 points in douban, dianping, damai, Maoyan and other platforms.
From the perspective of audience structure, the proportion of foreign audiences in "Sleepless Nights" increased from 45% in 2019 to 54% in 2021. Relying on the power of social networks and new media, the growing cultural tourism attributes have long made this work one of the tourist destinations that more and more young tourists must punch, and this classic immersive work has become one of the purposes of many tourists coming to Shanghai.
In addition, SMG LIVE has successively created many blockbusters, such as "Secret Cinema" (immersive viewing), Kohler Show (immersive shopping), "Alice Fantasy Adventure", etc., to incubate the cultural experience of urban characteristics; and constantly expand the boundaries of "immersive", linking exhibitions, business travel, fashion, retail, music festivals and other diversified scenes, leading the trend of Generation Z cultural trends. Build more dimensions of immersive urban cultural tourism brand, and continue to break through the audience's imagination of the scene.
"MORE ON SLEEP NO MORE" Special Exhibition of "Sleepless Nights"
The future layout and business imagination of SMG LIVE immersive industry
From the "niche concept" to "everything can be immersed", the outbreak of domestic immersive industry has made people see more possibilities for the performing arts industry to expand its boundaries. At the launch of the 5th Anniversary Special Exhibition of Sleepless Nights, special guests Mr. Chen Anda (Chairman of Shanghai West Bund Cultural Industry Investment and Development Co., Ltd.), Mr. Han Yan (Director of Swire Properties Group, Retail Business), Mr. Connor Doyle (Deputy Director of "Sleepless Nights" Shanghai Edition), and Ma Chencheng, President of Shanghai Wenguang Performing Arts Group Co., Ltd. and Producer of "Sleepless Nights" Shanghai Edition, discussed the vision and blueprint for the future development of immersive industries from the perspective of art, retail and cultural real estate.
"Sleepless Nights" fifth anniversary press conference site master dialogue
In addition, Mr. Ma Chencheng shared the case and development direction of immersive cross-format integration in the dialogue, and talked about the next five years, SMG LIVE will continue to focus on the immersive industrial layout, introduce a new immersive show, open the immersive special exhibition "MORE ON SLEEP NO MORE" national tour exhibition, and create an immersive retail format "OVER THERE" dining experience.
It is worth mentioning that SMG LIVE announced in this launch that it will introduce Punchdrunk's most ambitious new immersive mask show, The Burnt City, in 2023, which tells the story of a mythical world of gods and mortals rising from the burning ashes after the Trojan War. According to director Felix Barrett's conversation in the video, "This new work will premiere in London in the spring of 2022 and will go further in terms of scale, immersion, set and experience. We sincerely hope to continue to cooperate with Shanghai Wenguang Performing Arts Group to bring this masterpiece to the eyes of Shanghai and Chinese audiences." ”
Immerse yourself in the future and do nothing.
Source: Orient Net