Feature
Issue No. 36 - August/September 2007
Scare tactics deliver handsome return
by Pamela Brombal
It’s not often business owners delight in seeing customers leaving their business screaming, crying or laughing. But that’s how Lynton Harris makes his living.
Lynton is Chairman and CEO of The Sudden Impact! Entertainment Company based in New York – the world’s leading producers of live, scary entertainment.
Adelaide-born Lynton got his start working for the Surf Life Saving Association as the State Development Officer and in 1986 became national director in Sydney.
He went on to work as Marketing Director for sports firm PowerPlay, where he learned the managerial side of entertainment. In 1989 he left PowerPlay to become the Marketing Director for Sydney’s Wonderland theme park. Later he moved on Radio 2UV.
An accomplished speaker, Lynton in 1988 won a big opportunity to address the US-based Association of Collegiate Entrepreneurs. While in America, he had the idea for his theatre production.
“I saw a brag advertisement in Variety Magazine for the Radio City Christmas Show. It said ‘earn $32 million gross in 3 weeks…’ That is when the light bulbs went on and I wondered if I could do the same thing with Halloween in Australia,” Lynton says.
In 1992 he quit his radio job to focus on building productions under the Sudden Impact brand he had created in 1987.
He approached the Sydney Entertainment Centre with one drawing of a haunted house, with the objective of creating a Halloween show that would give him enough experience and production footage to pitch in America.
What transpired was a 90-minute Halloween musical with a 92-member cast that played for two shows, sold 8500 tickets and lost $250,000. But Lynton had also managed to raise $250,000 in cash sponsorship for the show from Nestle, Dominos, EverReady Batteries & Coke, with no guarantee of television coverage or success.
Despite the loss, Lynton was pleased with the show’s results.
“We got the tape, wh...
