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“Social media marketing has opened up new ways of


Image courtesy Legoland Windsor


parks to market their businesses much more effectively to the general public and in a much more targeted manner. For Ryan Orrell of Webmonster, which specialises in


website design, search engine marketing and social media promotion, technology has massively changed the way the amusement industry markets itself to the general public, as he explaining to InterPark. “It’s simple - the amusement groups that are smart track


everything they can about their customer - their habits, what types of products they are likely to buy, offers that entice them and their families. You’ll see mobile marketing continue to grow where parks send offers straight to customers’ mobile phones. Over 90 per cent of text messages are read within 20-25 minutes and you’ll see more parks use interactive apps to communicate with clients in parks, as well as pushing special and time sensitive offers. There’s a great deal of interactive technology that continues to advance season after season.” Technology has also changed the speed of marketing in


the amusement industry, as it is an industry that needs to be marketing in real-time, especially during the core season, as Prystajko explained. “While it’s still essential to have a calendar of one’s long-term


strategies technology has forced marketers to be much more responsive and flexible to what’s current. Being able to take advantage of immediate opportunities - perhaps even as small as offering a promotion to counter an unexpected weather event - can have a very positive effect on the bottom line.” So has this huge surge in social media marketing


and advancements in technology seen other marketing strategies fall by the wayside in the amusement sector? As far as the Merlin executives are concerned, absolutely not, with television and other above the line media continuing to have a very important role in creating mass awareness and in really showing off the experience. As do promotions and partnerships with high profile targeted third parties, whether that is in the media or with fmcg companies - which are invaluable in delivering new customers.


42 InterPark January–February 2015


doing things,” say Woods and Aspinall, “such as continuing to communicate with guests after they have visited and to understand and target other related experiences to individuals as part of our programme. It also allows us to be more active and timely than ever before in creating memorable experiences which reflect our different brand positioning, whether it is to families with young children coming to Legoland, Alton Towers or Sea Life, or young adults coming to the Dungeons or Thorpe Park.” BPB’s Cox adds to this, commenting: “No marketing


areas have necessarily been dropped at BPB, but social media in some cases has been chosen as the main driver, with other channels simply reinforcing the message, such as our first three Project 2015 campaign teasers. Social media effectiveness is hard to categorise with most revenue associated to social media often going under the radar depending on whether the customer performs a direct click through or not. There are certainly more effective channels, although social media ROI is one of the highest, meaning it is well worth the time and effort we dedicate to it.” For Ryan Orrell, as social media has grown in importance,


there has been a lot more budget shifting in marketing than anything else and it really comes down to the budget of a park or FEC because advertising is all about frequency. “It’s ridiculous to expect a hefty return when you’re only


running 10 commercials a week on radio or television and running the right frequency can get downright expensive using those channels,” he told InterPark. “If you get a firm that really knows what they’re doing, they’ll evaluate your overall budget and make social media advertising an integral part of your strategy. “In many instances, you can reach the same amount of


consumers through social media as you would on radio and/or TV and at a fraction of the cost. The key with social media is targeting the right consumer. Technology has evolved to where I can laser in on my target market to the exact age, sex, township, city, state and country in minutes. “Social media can transform the way the amusement


industry does business but there’s more to it than throwing up a few pictures and ad copy,” Orrell continues. “The world has changed and social media continues to evolve and is here to stay. Now, platforms and different social media outlets will come and go just like Myspace was taken over by Facebook in popularity a few years ago. “To date, Facebook is King where 71 online consumers


out of every 100 have a Facebook account. I see more and more businesses in the amusement industry turn to social


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