Business
How Escape 60 Pivoted to Digital During the Pandemic
Jeannette Galbinski details the 15-day digital pivot, brand partnerships, and the Volkswagen Nivus launch case study.
Escape 60's marketing director reflects on the strategy to keep the brand top-of-mind with remote games and tailored experiences when brick-and-mortar venues were forced to close.
Jeannette Galbinski, marketing director at Escape 60, detailed in a conversation with Bruno Gimenes on Marketing - The Podcast how the live entertainment company revamped its operations when pandemic lockdown measures forced the temporary closure of its physical venues.
With a corporate structure that at the time consisted of four main partners—a group that later expanded to eight with the addition of junior partners for succession planning—the business had to build a remote alternative in record time. As Galbinski explains in the video above, the transition took place with the support of a technology vendor: "In 15 days we had Escape 60 online, whereas previously we had nothing online."
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Brand Preservation and Free Content
The primary goal of the marketing strategy at that time was to prevent audiences from forgetting the business, which had been on the market for less than five years. "My role in marketing was to make sure companies, people, and schools didn't forget Escape, because we were an entertainment brand that was very young, very new," notes Galbinski. The solution was to sustain continuous content production and roll out several free games aimed at the end consumer.
To maintain appeal and engagement with families and children, the company expanded partnerships with studios and media groups. Virtual versions of themed escape rooms were developed featuring properties such as Paramount's SpongeBob SquarePants and the Detetives do Prédio Azul (DPA) franchise, in partnership with Globo.
B2B Customization and the Volkswagen Case Study
In the corporate sphere, demand shifted toward remote team-building activities designed to foster connections among newly remote workforces. Escape 60 developed customized games aimed at integrating teams and conveying internal corporate messaging throughout the lockdown period.
One of the standout digital initiatives created during this period was the launch of the Volkswagen Nivus. The campaign leveraged gamification to award the vehicle model to participants who solved the challenges in the fastest time. The activation drew hundreds of thousands of concurrent users to the platform without technical downtime—a major milestone for a brand previously focused exclusively on in-person operations.
The experience gained in the virtual landscape cemented technology's role across the business. According to Galbinski, the company successfully weathered the crisis and integrated new capabilities into its permanent in-person venues, including rooms featuring AI tools: "We navigated the pandemic and came out better than we went in."
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