Queenstown Businessman - ‘Business Heroes’ at Awards Dinner

Press Release from Magic Memories
22 March 2012
Queenstown Businessman Joins ‘Business Heroes’ At Awards Dinner

Queenstown businessman John Wikstrom last night shared the stage with Grant Dalton from Team New Zealand and Emma Hill from Michael Hill International to tell his story of growing global company Magic Memories from a small Queenstown base.

The three were invited to speak at the New Zealand International Business Awards ceremony held at the Langham Hotel in Auckland to an audience of peers, media, politicians and partners of New Zealand Trade and Industry, as well as the finalists in nine award categories.

The New Zealand Trade and Enterprise organized awards are designed to build aspiration within the New Zealand business environment and inspire other business people to work through the challenges of establishing successful export businesses.

Wikstrom, a graduate of the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) Beachheads programme, spoke of exporting intellectual property and using existing infrastructure to build the Magic Memories brand. He also spoke of the challenges the company has faced to find success in offshore markets.

Magic Memories was dreamed up in 1994 when he and co-founder and fellow director Stuart Norris scrawled a business plan on the back of a napkin. The pair has since taken the business from its roots in one tourism attraction in Queenstown to seriously big attractions across the world. Magic Memories now employs more than 220 people internationally and photographs more than 15 million people each year.

While a head office in a small town of a small, far flung country provides some challenges, Wikstrom says geographical isolation has honed the focus on what the company does and doesn’t do.

“Living in Queenstown means we have to globalise our business and networks. We consciously develop and hold our IP in Queenstown but have superb systems that push this out to all corners.

“We work to be the very best in our field – and we are – and to know exactly what we do and what we have to say ‘no’ to.”

Clear criteria for growth and innovation and investment in the people who can take the company to those targets with the least possible risk are key to the company’s success.

“We know how we evaluate markets for expansion and we know the best types of attraction for our product. Armed with this knowledge, we set very aggressive growth and sales targets which we consistently reach.”

The company could be defined as a photography company, but, says Wikstrom, that would be a very narrow definition.

“We see ourselves as a company in the tourism experience and marketing businesses – we provide storybook products for guests and marketing channels for attractions as well as capturing images. The guest experience is enjoyable and they buy a product that they cannot create for themselves - storybooks with imagery that can be infinitely shared with family and friends through social media. From our partners’ perspective, Magic Memories is a fully outsourced expert with a track record of high performance delivery. And they enjoy added sales channels through their guests.”

In the past six months, the company has signed partnership agreements with global entertainment giant Merlin Entertainments Group, US marketing company The Kreisler Group and China’s Shanghai Chang Feng Ocean World as it continues to build its unique brand of tourism and marketing on a global scale.

“Our partners understand that our model is very different from any other on the market. They’re impressed with our understanding of the guest journey and how our product adds value at many levels, from the guest through to the bottom line of the attraction”
Wikstrom’s advice for up and coming New Zealand exporters is simple.

“Know what you do and do it well, know what you don’t do and don’t do it. Surround yourself with great people who can speed up the journey, get great governance, manage your cashflow and use NZTE and its networks.”

More about Magic Memories: “We make people smile.” Since Magic Memories opened its doors in 1995, it has been the company mission to turn the worldwide attraction photography business on its head. Magic Memories thinks and behaves like a tourism company and understands that the guest experience is everything. Magic Memories photographers are hosts - they capture, amplify and extend the guest experience in all partner attractions, allowing them to remember the good times years after they visited.

Magic Memories produces photobooks that do more than simply keep the memory alive. The photobooks are designed to actively continue to promote the partner’s attraction and brand as well as encourage return visits and word of mouth recommendations. With the click of a button guests can secure their online version of their photobook and photos of the attraction, other than the personal shots. Guests can share these smiles and the experience on social networking sites, and every view is wrapped in the partner attraction’s branding.

Magic Memories works throughout the world with many iconic attraction partners and are well established within local infrastructure. The company has more than 70 partner attractions in the Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, China and Dubai. Staff number more than 220 people working all over the world who photograph over 15 million people every year.

Visit www.magicmemories.com for more information

ENDS

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