Parkz News Australia's biggest roller coaster is Village Roadshow's share price

[Parkz News]

Australia's biggest roller coaster is Village Roadshow's share price

Operators of Sea World, Warner Bros. Movie World and Wet'n'Wild have had a rough six months but there are hopes for a steady rebound with marketing campaigns and new attractions.

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[Reanimated35]

I've seen the VRTP adds a bit lately on TV and there's one thing that really bugs me with them.

It's like they don't want people to go to Paradise Country.

"visit Movie World, Sea World, Wet N Wild, ...... "and more"". While displaying the Paradise Country logo on screen.

"and more". They're advertising the 4th of their 4 theme parks as "and more". Not as Paradise Country, just as "and more". 

So in their eyes, much like Ol' Pinky, it doesn't seem worth mentioning. 

[Brad2912]

Yeah.. noticed that the other day as well and thought it was strange. Why not just say "and Paradise Country" ?? Are they believing that by just Saying "and more" it will trick people into believing there are more than 4 parks/attractions? 

I don't like the tonality of the ad at all tbh... 

[rappa]

Agree it's weird. And clearly something about it as there is another version of the add where "more" is replaced with "paradise country"

[Slick]

My favourite thing is how there's Superman theme music as the backing track but no shots of Superman or Superman Escape.

[Tim Dasco]

Does anyone fear that by the fact of MW denying their is a roller caster and not announcing it this ride will just be a big bust. People won't come to ride it if they don't know about it. A lot of people I know have already booked Christmas holidays now. So every day the wait to push it is money wasted. At this stage Abyss had news stories on it and had PR stunts happening around Perth and this hyper coaster is a lot more expensive than Abyss.

[Slick]

Blackpool, Liseberg & Disney have all announced their 2018/2019 projects, meanwhile, nothing from Movie World for the park's single biggest project ever opening in months. I literally can't think of a single major theme park project of this magnitude in recent history having no announcement or teaser this far into construction.

Seriously, can anyone actually find a park that has? Because i'd love to eat my words here. I've done probably a quarter hour of research and haven't found anything. As it stands, either VRTP have the greatest launch strategy for this coaster in the history of theme parks, better than anything Disney, Universal, Merlin etc. etc. have ever done, or, they're way off the mark here, and that worries me. It worries me because I want nothing more than for this to be a runaway success for both the park and the company, and from a marketing and PR perspective, having your #1 unofficial source (Parkz) be your guest's primary portal for information is hysterically dangerous. And not because this site is bad, oh contraire, this site is more reliable than any other news source VRTP engages with in terms of getting facts right (7, 9, courier, GCB etc. etc.), the issue is you're not controlling the message, so people who are ZMOT-ing your product are looking at this and not something like this.

[GoGoBoy]

I've probably said it before but I'll say it again - the news articles and editorials on Parkz are so insightful and well written. The bosses of our parks would do well to heed the not-so-subtle advice contained in them. I could not agree more with this article.

What happened to VRTP's formerly excellent marketing department/s? And by formerly, I'm talking many years ago. There was a time when virtually everybody in the country knew about it when a new attraction opened. Everything from the printed collateral, to outdoor, to their TVCs brilliantly drummed home the message that there was something new and exciting going on. That's how the GC parks became such a success story. Now, unless you're a diehard park fan, or maybe a local, you're unlikely to have the faintest idea about some of the recent additions, and would certainly know nothing about anything planned. 

At a time when parks internationally are thriving, led by new attractions and openings and the serious hyping of them, and even smaller regional parks here at home are doing the same, VRL parks have become shrinking violets. Maybe it's time for the big guys on the GC to start taking advice from some of the smaller operators around the country who seem to be getting a leg up? These parks have clued in to the importance of ramping up new-attraction-based marketing and are profiting as a result. As an example, just take a look at this case study from Funfields in Victoria - http://www.theinstituteofwow.com/case-studies/funfields/

Edited April 24, 2017 by GoGoBoy

[SuperV]

Well Busch Gardens Williamsburg pretty much completed construction on Tempesto before announcing and even acknowledging it's existence. The park announced it only just over a month before the coasters opening! Hopefully Movie World doesn't follow Busch Gardens.

[Tim Dasco]

Or CP with Mean Streak.

[Zanstabar]

20 minutes ago, SuperV said:

Well Busch Gardens Williamsburg pretty much completed construction on Tempesto before announcing and even acknowledging it's existence. The park announced it only just over a month before the coasters opening! Hopefully Movie World doesn't follow Busch Gardens.

Take into consideration how Tempesto wasn't even the countries, let alone the parks, most expensive rollercoaster. This is like Disney leaving all marketing of Expedition Everest up to a few weeks before opening

[Slick]

11 minutes ago, Zanstabar said:

Take into consideration how Tempesto wasn't even the countries, let alone the parks, most expensive rollercoaster. This is like Disney leaving all marketing of Expedition Everest up to a few weeks before opening

For BGW, Tempesto might be regarded as a filler attraction. The strategy for the likes of Falcon's Fury (same chain, different park) was wildly different.

As for Cedar Point's RMC Mean Streak conversion, mystery is part of the strategy. They're not being silent, they're being cryptic and feeding the rumour mill, saying things like "We will not mention Mean Streak anymore because it does not exist at Cedar Point anymore." Again, this is park (and a chain) who recognises the brand loyalists, the digital audience, the power of ZMOT and the ROI of digital over traditional advertising. As it stands, Movie World's website doesn't have a mobile portal despite that being ridiculously important and priority one for your digital strategy for this reason alone. 

[Original]

And yet the parks last teaser marketing campaign leading up to their last biggest coaster they built SE I thought was quite cool with 010002 numbers or whatever they said.

With billboards in the park giving the theme away by saying "it's a bird, it's a plane" 

[themagician]

3 hours ago, Slick said:

As it stands, either VRTP have the greatest launch strategy for this coaster in the history of theme parks, better than anything Disney, Universal, Merlin etc. etc. have ever done, or, they're way off the mark here, and that worries me.

I really hope that when they do finally announce something they just go all out and we see and hear about it everywhere, and everyone starts talking about it, because right now, the majority of people are only hearing about it either through here, or through FB pages (and some haven't been reliable with the information they've been publishing). And if they don't go all out, I will be a bit disappointed. Even if the ride is absolutely amazing, it will be sad to think of what MW could and probably should've have done. That said, they haven't announced anything yet so I'm not going to judge until they do. 

The only acknowledgment so far by MW is this on FB: At present we haven't been released information about the new attraction. Keep an eye out on our Facebook page for updates about our exciting new ride.

What did make me laugh is this posted on FB to MW: I think someone is illegally building a big pink thing out side your theme park. Just wanted to let you know.

Plenty of people are posting to MW and asking to them, so there is plenty of interest, just still no announcement.

They do know what they are doing, they have experts in the field and may have some grand plan for the marketing, I just wish they'd do something, even if it is just putting those signs back up, maybe on the construction fencing in the carpark.

[Tim Dasco]

Did they even market DD? All I saw was the it's good to be bad sign. Was there anything else?

[MaxxTheMonster]

Given the location of the completed element...  Its height...  I am hoping that some sort of signage (think billboard) will appear soon alongside an announcement...  

[GoGoBoy]

8 minutes ago, Tim Dasco said:

Did they even market DD? All I saw was the it's good to be bad sign. Was there anything else?

I just remembered they actually did make a really good TVC for it -- I just don't think they actually played it anywhere! Certainly I don't believe anyone in NSW would know about the new ride and area if they weren't park enthusiasts.

Edited April 24, 2017 by GoGoBoy

[themagician]

They first announced it at the end of February, and then had the billboard up in the park. And then a few months later released more details. And then had the advertisements around August (if I remember correctly), and then the banner around the construction fencing about 3 weeks before opening, and then it opened end of September.

This coaster we had an opening date in December, a few statements here and there about the coaster coming. And that's it. And we are less than 5 months from opening 

[Tim Dasco]

So for the rumoured cost of 7 million (for DD and the area) they did not market that at all. (To what they should have done) Which makes it a waste of money if your not marketing a new attraction to bring attendants up. All they need to do is look at how much attendants went up for AW with Abyss and their marketing campaign. I was hoping this ride would do well and we will see more big attraction like this in the future. But if nobody knows about it attendants won't go up and it will be a loss for MW. MW really need to start building hype for this attraction. Which is harder to do now that construction has gone verticals and theirs less stuff to tease.

[RossL]

1 hour ago, themagician said:

They do know what they are doing, they have experts in the field and may have some grand plan for the marketing, I just wish they'd do something, even if it is just putting those signs back up, maybe on the construction fencing in the carpark.

Hahahaha.  Marketing people claim to be experts all the time.  More often than not they're just making it all up!

[CruiseSF]

I know it's already too late for them to get a lot of people because they have either book other holidays or can no longer get leave.  

[Reanimated35]

12 hours ago, RossL said:

Hahahaha.  Marketing people claim to be experts all the time.  More often than not they're just making it all up!

I think you've pretty much just described every job, not just marketing  

I'm really hoping to be blown away by some massive campaign then have lined up for this, or in my opinion, it's time for a new creative agency to get on board and help them out a bit. 

Why they're not even doing something as simple as teasing the theme is beyond me at the moment. Let's say for example the theme is Ironman. (Obviously it can't be but I'm saying that as to not start a theme debate in the wrong thread). They could add in posters around the park with theme hints like the arc reactor, or the iconic eyes etc. Wouldn't need anything else, no text etc, just something that makes people stop and go "I wonder if..." 

[Intimidator305.]

19 hours ago, themagician said:

They first announced it at the end of February, and then had the billboard up in the park. And then a few months later released more details. And then had the advertisements around August (if I remember correctly), and then the banner around the construction fencing about 3 weeks before opening, and then it opened end of September.

This coaster we had an opening date in December, a few statements here and there about the coaster coming. And that's it. And we are less than 5 months from opening 

 

I think that this advertising campaign was well planned, but I don't know if it came across successfully. The only people I'd talked to that knew of the ride, were people who had been to the park and happened to find a new ride. Maybe Doomsday was a trial of one style of advertising campaign, and MW wasn't happy with the amount of hype (ie they wanted more), so now they have decided to use their second style of advertising campaign, and I think it's working. We've already been talking about the coaster more than we had about Doomsday. But hey. Thats just a theory.

[Reanimated35]

21 minutes ago, Intimidator305. said:

We've already been talking about the coaster more than we had about Doomsday. But hey. Thats just a theory.

We're also on Australia's largest (and only?) theme park forum. Of course we're going to be talking about it. 

[CruiseSF]

27 minutes ago, Intimidator305. said:

I think that this advertising campaign was well planned, but I don't know if it came across successfully. The only people I'd talked to that knew of the ride, were people who had been to the park and happened to find a new ride. Maybe Doomsday was a trial of one style of advertising campaign, and MW wasn't happy with the amount of hype (ie they wanted more), so now they have decided to use their second style of advertising campaign, and I think it's working. We've already been talking about the coaster more than we had about Doomsday. But hey. Thats just a theory.

Well the reasons we are talking about it more is because it is a roller coaster, rather then a standard flat ride. Plus is not just a standard Roller coaster but it is by far an Australian first. Also sure we might be talking about it but if MW decided they would rely on us to support the park and the entire investment in the coaster, everyone here would have to go to the park every single day while paying for multiple daily admissions. Literally no one is talking about it in any serious matter except for the theme park enthusiasts.