Aaron Pope, and his wife, Sarah, own Ebbing Tides SUP Shop on Shore Drive, ALC Grounds Management company and, as of August 2017, Virginia Beach’s Destruction Room (thedestructionroom.net). Coastal Virginia’s first “rage room” came after Aaron experienced a particularly cathartic destruction of a fridge his landscaping company needed to dispose of. This, combined with seeing ads for a “rage room” elsewhere in the country, inspired him to bring the concept here to Virginia Beach. They had a spare space attached to their store and the rest is history.
How It Works:
Destroy-able items come from the trash, donations, thrift stores, and/or leftover items from their other businesses. Customers can then schedule a “destruction” session and come release stress by “breaking stuff” in a safe and controlled environment. The tagline for The Destruction Room says it all – “you bring the stress; we clean the mess.” Formerly located off Shore Drive, The Destruction Room has had feature stories across several local media outlets including Channel 3 and Channel 13 News, The Virginian-Pilot, a feature in Coastal Virginia magazine, and countless other local media sources. They have over 12,000 likes and 13,000 followers on Facebook, over 7,000 followers on Instagram, over 2,000 followers on TikTok, a 4.7-star rating on Yelp, a 4.8-star rating on Google, and a slew of rave reviews from dedicated “destructors”. While Pope stresses that the activity is strictly for entertainment purposes, the benefits and relief many customers have felt has kept this small business going almost seven years later and now at a new, larger location off Wesleyan Drive.
S.W.O.T. Analysis:
Having had the privilege to have my own personal “Destruction” experience, I quickly realized how impactful this small business could be on our community. A mental health awareness and suicide prevention activist, I envision several opportunities where The Destruction Room can engage and make a mark within the community. My S.W.O.T. Analysis on The Destruction Room (as can be seen through the info-graphic below) revealed the following:
I propose a strategic event for The Destruction Room that will engage the local community and enhance their brand reputation. While they have held a few community events such as their “Destroy to Create” Mosaic experience, their “Destroy your Stress” Fitness Club, and the highly requested Public Car Bash, the events have been sporadic and have had a smaller audience due to lack of marketing and promotion. My event proposal is a campaign-style awareness event I have titled “Mental BREAKthrough: A Destruction Room Experience.” This month-long awareness and prevention campaign would take place every weekend in May to coincide with Mental Health Awareness Month. Fridays and Saturdays would have events specifically marketed to target demographics that are particularly affected by mental health and suicide such as college students, military, and Veterans, the BIPOC community, the LGBTQIA+ community, and young boys/men. Sundays can then be dedicated toward family-friendly “destruction” experiences, team/corporate events, and “destruction” experiences open to the public. Ultimately, the event’s focus would be on “breaking” the stigma of mental health, anger, and rage through awareness, education, and cathartic release.
The event can feature a DJ for the event (could split between a day DJ and evening DJ) for entertainment as well as either food vendors (like food trucks) or local food discounts from any restaurants that would like to participate by creating a special for event participants. The Destruction Room can create special “destruction” packages themed to the target demographics, as well as “black-light paint destruction” packages that would cater to younger “destructors” and families. Marketing the event would entail a heavy focus on social media, word of mouth promotion, and affiliate marketing with nearby businesses. This event lends well to merchandise sales such as customized shirts for the event, which could be purchased as part of the ticket sales for the packages (like campaigns run by marathons) or could be sold separately. The merchandise sales can also help to offset costs for the event. Local nonprofits with a tie to mental health awareness and/or suicide prevention initiatives can participate, along with representatives from local community service boards, high schools and college campuses, military, and other pertinent resource groups with a vested interest.
This campaign event provides several benefits to the community. First and foremost, it engages the community to participate and learn more about what The Destruction Room is all about and what it has to offer. Second, the event provides both mental health and suicide awareness, which could be further enhanced with community education, information on local resources, and the potential to donate a portion of the proceeds to a local nonprofit. This campaign event also allows for collaboration with vendors and those with a vested interest in mental health and suicide awareness.
There are also several benefits for The Destruction Room as well. First, this event would increase community visibility and brand recognition for the business and strengthens the company’s association with mental health awareness initiatives which they actively support. This event being a month-long campaign will also result in increased traffic to the business, with a potential for new customers. This will also be beneficial to nearby businesses who could capitalize on the increased traffic with their participation as a vendor partner. Another crucial benefit is the networking and collaborations, not only with local businesses, but also with nonprofit organizations. Lastly, there is an increased potential for media coverage on the event in tying it into Mental Health Awareness month. The latter two combined could lead to this becoming a recurring annual event for the business.
Reference:
Pope, A. (2017, November). The Destruction Room. The Destruction Room. https://destructionroom.net/
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