Apple Has the Photo Booth for “Everywhere”

Faceplace Lineup Offers More Than Ever Before

The photo booth, invented about 100 years ago, has greatly changed during the past century. One of its modern makers, Apple Industries and their wide range of Faceplace photo booths, aims to keep the evolution going.

For the nostalgic among us, their photo booths still do the basics – capture a few moments on a strip of paper. But they don’t just offer traditional photo booths that simply take and print pictures. They make interactive entertainment platforms they say can continually adapt to guests, locations, brands and trends.

Through extensive customization, premium licensed content, advanced technology, digital guest experiences and powerful management tools, Apple Industries gives operators the “flexibility to create photo experiences tailored to their locations while maximizing engagement and revenue,” they say.

Scott Avery, who has been with the company for 15 years and today serves as its president and COO, said the work they’ve done recently gives operators more control – and more revenue – than ever before.

“We’ve invested years of development work and millions of dollars on what is possible to be customized,” he said. “Our team’s spent tons of development time on this.” He added that this advancement in technology is designed to create a better experience for guests and operators alike.

For guests, it’s about continually ensuring professional-quality photography, enhanced lighting, interactive displays, augmented reality features, AI-powered content and dynamic backgrounds, he stated.

For operators, it’s back to the customization. They can be as hands on or hands off as they want to be with the photo booth. Those who want to can alter pretty much anything – right down to how the digital buttons look on screen. And for those who aren’t very tech savvy, it’s all drag and drop.

“It’s all about a more entertaining, premium experience for guests and a more compelling revenue-generating attraction for operators,” Avery says.

“We’ve been at this for a long time,” Avery said. “We make one product, per se, but the return on investment and the revenue that these machines are making is something people in this industry haven’t experienced since the days of Pac-Man.”

When he started with the company 15 years ago, he said $300 a week was good for an operator. “Operators with multiple machines on their route are earning $1,500, $2,000, $3,000, even $5000 a week with a Photoma Mini. The product is super-hot.”

He mentioned that TikToks and other social media posts featuring the company’s photo booths have gone viral and continually drive more visits.

“All of our secret sauce that’s gone into everything we do has commanded a higher price for the consumer,” Avery expressed. “That really starts to add up. The cost of the machines hasn’t increased at the same rate. Operators can get their ROI in two or three months, which is completely unheard of.”

Apple Industries has a financing program on the Mini through the end of the year. “We believe in the products, and we want to get them out there. Operators end up trying one and buying a couple more.

“We believe a photo booth belongs everywhere so we make one that can fit in just about every location.”Apple has also dramatically grown its Out of Booth Experience (OOBE), which is their coined term for how guests can continue to “use” the machine after their physical photo session.

“It gives consumers the ability to get digital copies of their photo experience,” Avery explained. “It also takes a candid video when you’re inside the photo booth. That is by far the most popular feature of OOBE.”

Customers get a text and can download their photos and video through a web app. For the candid video, $5 is the typical price, though operators can set their own. There are other products offered through the OOBE store as well, such as stickers and specialty items like Valentine’s Day cards, for instance.

“These are all ways that can drive more revenue into the operators pockets,” he added.

While not in use, many of their photo booths – like their flagship Photoma – act as billboards for the location. Even if it has the generic Photoma wrap, an external screen “gives you a dynamic platform to promote and change what’s happening inside the machine,” Avery noted. “It can become an immersive part of the venue where it’s placed.”

Licenses also help to do that, and Apple Industries has plenty of those and continually adds new ones each year. (Their lips are sealed but expect a couple new ones at this year’s IAAPA Expo.)

“What the content does is it gives the operator the opportunity to increase the vend price because the consumer is willing to pay more to get their photo with that famous IP,” Avery said, adding, “This has been proven through millions and millions of transactions.”

Content within those licenses changes as often as every week. “The more frequently we change that content, the fresher that machine becomes,” he said.

A primary license of theirs is Disney, with its seemingly endless photo opportunities. Other prominent brands a part of the Faceplace family include Marvel, Hasbro, MLB, NHL and NASCAR.

They also have a generic Movie Photo Booth that can accommodate lots of content from new releases. While Avengers is always popular (the latest in the film franchise, Doomsday, is out Dec. 18), they’ve even had success featuring movies from the indie studio A24. “That’s something that wouldn’t normally be thought of, but it worked really well,” Avery said.

Everything the company’s photo booths do can be kept track of on their Back Office platform, which gives operators the tools they need to monitor revenue and so much more.

“This is complete route management,” Avery explained. “It’s all data that’s captured in real time. Some of our operators become obsessed with Back Office. It’s really a great tool. We are improving it every day.”

Back Office offers remote booth management, performance monitoring, content management and access to revenue and usage data. The company says, “Operators aren’t simply placing a machine and hoping it performs – they have access to information that helps them understand performance and make smarter decisions.”

See the Photoma Mini and the entire lineup at www.apple industries.com.