The first year we opened, we had a haunt that I genuinely believe was one of the best immersive horror experiences in our market. The set design was meticulous. The actors were trained. The narrative arc was something we’d worked on for months. And we nearly didn’t make it through October because nobody knew we existed.

That was the lesson that changed everything for me. You can build the most terrifying, beautifully crafted experience in your city and still fail if you don’t understand how to reach the people who would love it. Marketing immersive horror is a skill set entirely separate from building immersive horror — and most creators learn that the hard way.

Here’s what five seasons taught me.

The Community Is Your First Audience — and Your Best One

If you’re reading Haunting, you already know this: the immersive horror community is tight-knit, passionate, and vocal. They write detailed reviews. They drive across states for a good experience. And they talk — constantly.

The fastest path to consistent bookings in your first few seasons isn’t a paid ad campaign. It’s getting into the ecosystem of people who are already looking for exactly what you’re building. That means being present on community forums, engaging with immersive horror journalists and reviewers, reaching out to Haunting contributors directly, and making sure your experience is actually discoverable in the places your ideal audience already spends time.

Word of mouth in this community is faster and more credible than almost any paid alternative. But it only activates if you’re part of the conversation before your season opens — not after.

The Media Coverage Problem Nobody Prepared Me For

In year two, we decided to pursue media coverage. We wrote a press release. We emailed it to a list we assembled ourselves. We got one mention in a local event roundup that may have been seen by 200 people.

What we should have done: built relationships with writers who cover immersive entertainment, lifestyle, and Halloween events in our region six months before we needed coverage. Given them genuine access. Offered something that was actually worth writing about — which we had. We just didn’t know how to communicate it.

PR for immersive experiences is genuinely different from PR for other entertainment businesses. The target publications span horror culture, experiential entertainment, travel, lifestyle, and local event coverage. Knowing which journalist at which outlet cares about your type of experience — and what angle will get them excited — is either learned through a lot of mistakes or borrowed from someone who already has those relationships.

What Actually Drives Bookings (In My Experience)

I’ve tried most things over five seasons. Here’s what’s actually moved the needle:

• Targeted community outreach before soft opening: getting 20-30 engaged community members through early is worth more than 2,000 social media impressions
• Review relationships: identifying specific bloggers, Haunting contributors, and local journalists who cover immersive horror and giving them genuine access — no expectations, just good experiences
• Social video, not social photos: short-form behind-the-scenes content consistently outperforms polished promotional imagery with the immersive horror audience
• Experience-first email marketing: our best-performing emails don’t lead with a discount — they lead with a story element or a character reveal that makes the reader want to be there
• Group bookings outreach: corporate team-building and friend-group experiences are where our highest conversion rates come from because the decision to book is made once for multiple tickets

When I Finally Asked For Help

In year four, I made the decision to bring in external PR support for the first time. Specifically, I was looking for a firm that understood the immersive entertainment space — not just general events PR, and not just horror. I needed someone who understood that our audience sits at the intersection of entertainment, experience, and community culture.

After some research, I came across Jive PR + Digital, an agency that works specifically with immersive experience brands — attractions, VR companies, escape rooms, hotels, and experiential entertainment operators. The difference was immediately apparent: they understood the audience, they knew the publications, and they weren’t trying to apply a standard entertainment PR playbook to something that operates nothing like a standard entertainment product.

The season we brought in specialist support was our most commercially successful. That’s correlation, not necessarily causation — but the quality of earned media coverage was measurably better, and we reached audiences we’d never been able to reach independently.

The Biggest Mistake I See New Haunt Creators Make

Building the experience in isolation from the audience. I see this constantly — creators who spend their entire pre-opening budget on set design and props, with nothing left for the outreach that would actually fill those sessions.

The experience has to be great. That’s non-negotiable. But ‘if you build it, they will come’ is genuinely not how immersive horror works. The audience needs to know you exist, understand what makes you different, and trust that the experience is worth their money and their Friday night.

That trust is built through consistent, honest communication with the community — and through coverage from voices they already respect. Neither happens without intentional effort.

What Season Six Looks Like For Us

We’re expanding from one experience to two concurrent offerings next season. The marketing planning started earlier than the set construction. That’s not something I would have said three years ago.

If you are building your first immersive horror experience, or if you have been running one and cannot figure out why great attendance weeks are followed by empty weekends, the answer almost always lives in the gap between what you built and how you are communicating it. Closing that gap is the work that determines whether you get a second season.

Haunting is a resource for immersive theater and horror fans in Los Angeles and across the world, promoting art and community. Want to help us reach even more people, and get some cool perks and experiences? For as little as $1 a month, you can join our Patreon and help us keep bringing content to life.

If you like the above article and want to find more like it, make sure to join our community. If Facebook is your favorite, follow us there and become a part of our groups for Immersive Horror fans and/or Immersive creators. We’re active on Instagram, posting evocative imagery and informative stories to promote our reviews and recollections; follow us there. You can even find us on twitter; click here to follow. And subscribe to our event calendar to get emails for all or specific events (look for the link right under the calendar)!