Meow Wolf's new chief product and technology officer knows a thing or two about personalizing experiences for those seeking an escape and entertainment.
As the senior vice president of product and e-commerce at MGM Resorts in Las Vegas, John Lee implemented a direct-to-consumer strategy that increased revenue and margins by reducing the need for third-party vendors. A key to getting that done was the MGM Resorts app, which offered a “skip the line” check-In feature and digital room key that got visitors to their room and into fun faster.
"Given the size of our resorts, the long line and wait to check-in was a top source of guest dissatisfaction, which we addressed with the new app," Lee told Albuquerque Business First in an email.
Once checked in, visitors received personalized offers for shows and restaurants based on their preferences.
Lee lives in Palo Alto, California. But he plans to spend half his time in Santa Fe dreaming up what technology can offer Meow Wolf when it comes to extending the visitor experience beyond the company's three current locations, and those planned for the future.
Business First caught up with Lee, who will oversee digital, platform and IT aspects of Meow Wolf, via email to learn more about his initial impressions of the company and potential innovations.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Albuquerque Business First: What drew you to this position at Meow Wolf?
John Lee: What drew me to Meow Wolf was its incredible immersive, interactive art exhibitions as well as the company’s commitment to social impact and investing in our communities. But what really closed the deal for me was the company’s focus on innovation. Our people continue to dream up and develop new, unique ways to blend artistic, multi-sensory, tactile, animatronic and technological elements, creating an extraordinary experience with a cohesive story. It’s super satisfying to see how guests interact with and enjoy what we create.
CEO Jose Tolosa said your hire and the team you bring in will be key to taking the Meow Wolf universe beyond its current physical form. What does that mean to you? More than one million people year-to-date have visited our physical exhibitions in Santa Fe, Las Vegas and Denver which is amazing. There is so much to experience in our exhibitions that guests often leave thirsting for more, either because they missed things or get heavily invested in the story. That’s a big opportunity to continue to serve and engage guests beyond the walls of our exhibitions — using digital and new media tech like [augmented reality], [virtual reality] and [artificial intelligence] and let customers go deeper into the story and/or deliver the experience to guests wherever they are. There’s an ambitious vision for the future, but it’s one I’m really excited about enabling with our technology roadmap.
What opportunities exist to move Meow Wolf into new platforms? As a brand, we are always thinking about how we can expand Meow Wolf’s reach via different channels. There are too many possibilities to cover well here, but to start I’d just highlight the mobile app as a channel. We have great feedback and learnings from our past efforts and plan to deliver a reimagined mobile app for consumers next year. We’ll start with dramatically enhancing the in-exhibition guest experience, then extend our reach via the app to enhance the pre and post-exhibition customer journeys and ultimately into the communities we serve.
Can Meow Wolf have a personalized experience? What are some of the technologies that will allow for this? Guests choose their own pathway within our exhibitions, which makes the Meow Wolf experience highly personal. We’re looking into personalization tech to further enrich the base experience; whether it is to provide automated recommendations so guests don’t miss special attractions, emails with targeted content and offers based on guest behavior and data and more.
Meow Wolf is also on a journey to build out our marketing technology stack to enable personalized experiences across the entire visitor journey. We are currently focused on integrating all our data into a 360-degree view of visitors, building affinity and predictive models and segmentation, while ensuring that we strictly adhere to data privacy and security requirements.
Do you see any similarities between a company like MGM Resorts and Meow Wolf? I think there are similarities between companies like MGM Resorts and Meow Wolf. As experiential companies at their core, both are committed to delivering great guest experiences. And both want to use technology to innovate and differentiate the guest experience offered. But at Meow Wolf, we cast a wider net on technology than most other companies — from spatial audio and lighting to mixed reality and information technology — to dream up new artistic, immersive experiences we can create and incorporate into our exhibitions. I think Meow Wolf is unique in our ability to successfully meld multiple disciplines to create [innovative] experiences.
For more on what Meow Wolf's CEO has planned for the company, click here.
