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The fact of the matter is, we're well over a month into operation and the park still hasn't shot any non-CGI photography to show off their incredible new roller-coaster. My European counterpart takes incredible photos like this when rides open: Yeah, so if those images don't demonstrate how out of touch their marketing strategy in a world of social influencers and digital advertising, I don't know what does. They have one super photoshopped hero image that tells audiences nothing other then "here's how good our art department is at putting faces in a fake train." But I digress... in regards to this train... "GREATEST THEME PARK ATTRACTION" - like, huh, what? How are you conveying anything more then a dreary PR by-line that no one will actually connect with? It's a fucking massive roller-coaster, just call it for what it is and get people's attention already. "Australia's biggest & best roller-coaster" is a basic start & far more interesting as a simple by-line then something over-workshopped like "greatest theme park attraction in Australia." Furthering this, beyond the dregs of radio hosts with little to no actual online following, where's the social engagement? The best has been a dreary vibrating clip of V8 drivers on it that had criminally bad audio and rigging. Like honestly, why is Clark Kirby letting such out of touch and outdated advertising in a totally evolved landscape is kind of beyond me - having white outlines of the roller-coaster on print artwork in a train does nothing for the general public to convey how shit hot this ride is and to me it's just there to service who-ever's job it was to create the graphics in the first place and nothing more. They should take a leaf out of literally any other park globally. They were nine months behind the global industry median average for marketing an attraction of this magnitude. There should've been construction updates, hype videos, public events, competitions, social influence engagement, ERTs - it makes me so resigned and cynical that they botched it so badly that i'd almost draft up a creative brief just to illustrate the point for those who aren't in the industry to understand just how much potential money they've lost. It's no coincidence brands like Kmart have made such a resurgence into Australian culture and consumer mindsets over the last few years, they turfed their marketing departments and ad agencies for teams of folks who get how to engage with their loyalist followings - going so far as to fly admins of Mum-friendly facebook groups to influence hundreds of thousands of other mums. In 2017, that's where you should be starting your efforts as a head of a brand's marketing efforts, not by slapping stickers on freaking trains that have literally no substance or no actual graphics that show how impressive the ride's sheer size is in the flesh. It's just really simple at the end of the day - TVC's by themselves do not work, and resisting digital does and will hurt your brand, and it's hurting all of Village's brands right now. Their main piece of advertising has maybe five seconds of non-CGI vision, so it's no wonder when I travel to Sydney literally no one has any idea of DC Rivals HyperCoaster. None of this shit connects with real people because none of it is even real to start with. It's a waste of space and money, and to be really blunt, the cost to make, print and run that ad-spot on the train could've paid for a creative like myself to shoot that ride for three days and deliver digital content that would be seen by 40x more people.

I’m sure Alex will reply when he manages to remove the tongue from firmly inside his cheek...

You know what'd be nice? If they put as much effort into promoting a 30+ million dollar roller-coaster as they do two carved pumpkins.

Honestly though - at this point, unless you're a regular visitor, why would you bother going to Dreamworld? Holidaymakers are being seriously cheated here. It's only going to make it worse for them. I totally get that if it has to be closed for safety reasons then close it - but seriously, when your ride lineup looks like that, you should just close the park and refund day-tickets at the gate... or swap them for a movie world ticket or something.

No sooner were the Fright Nights signs down.......! For now at least, the fountain is still a fountain and not yet a Christmas tree.

Tbh, for any guest that complains that there are Xmas decorations up prior to Halloween I would support managements decision to swiftly remove them from Park, on the proviso they be given free Easter themed merchandise on the way out.

@docoaster can you mock one up?

I'm going to optimistically put it down to just poor timing. It's not like they just hire random engineers for a brief busy period - the combination of quite a number of active new projects that would require differing levels of input from that department (Wipeout, Log Ride, Mine Ride are the key three here) combined with ongoing annual maintenance schedules, combined with a few unknowns they're probably still dealing with from earlier in the year (like Tower of Terror's issues) means those guys probably have more than enough to do now to get the park ready before the busiest time of the year hits. In saying that.... all things considered - this is kind of the perfect time where the park should be offsetting any possible or potential negativity from having five plus rides closed with some real quality communications about ride safety and maintenance programs. Because let's face it, the hard and real truth is that anyone would come off as a real bastard, whether that's mainstream news or folks on social media, if they're openly complaining about rides closed and the response from the park is simply "here's 3 videos that are super transparent and great to watch about just how serious we take your family's safety in 2017 and we're totally not sorry about how anal we are right now about it."

I'm still waiting for the Pumpkin POV

This is on Sunday. Construction companies don't work on Sundays. What do you expect?

Few shots from the other week. The first photo is of a chair back so right in front of people the rest are wider shots. It's kinda hard to miss

I was “stuck” on Giant Drop facing the ocean on 25/10/17. Was a little more than 10mins until we dropped (like normal) preceded by a speaker announcement that it was about to drop and to keep your head back. Staff apologised for the inconvenience and gave out bottled water.

^Looks like the spectacular marketing for DC Rivals is working

The discussion has specifically been about the Intamin Giant Drop version. It has nothing to do with the Inferno's ride model. It would be like me saying 'I saw Tweety's cages stop halfway through the ride cycle....' Completely irrelephant.

The weather wasn't the best, but there were still lots of folks visiting AW for Fright Nights. Tonnes of scare actors out this year. Plenty of people swimming despite the cold and the rain. Goliath looked awesome at night and everyone seemed to be having a great time.

That doesn't make it look like they're putting in any effort - not a workman or tool in site, and the ride missing crucial safety devices. Can you imagine how GCB would spin that?