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Scarefest 2022

Hi everyone, I'm new here and just wanted to join in the speculation for this years Scarefest! I started going in 2019 and have gone every year since (Except 2020 for obvious reasons!). I am actually the person who originally did the opinion poll that started discussion on this years Scarefest! Now onto the speculation: They announced yesterday that they will be announcing the line up soon with "Three returning favourites" and a whole new "scare experiance. I am hoping that the three returning favourites are actually past mazes however I think that may be too costly to do. I think it will be returning mazes from last year (Which is a huge shame). The wording of "Scare experiance" does seem different to the usual adverting of new mazes so I do believe that it may be something different, perhaps along the line of Operation lockdown or simply a much more intense maze such as sub species but all we can do now is wait...!
Welcome aboard! Judging by the construction about the park, it seems that it unfortunately wil be the lineup from last year plus one new maze.

Thorpe had been wiping the floor with Altom when it comes to marketing their scare event. Not to mention the variety of mazes, zones and shows. I can only make it to Scarefest this year, (Thorpe is too far away), so I'm really hoping they make up for the disappointing buildup.

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Welcome aboard! Judging by the construction about the park, it seems that it unfortunately wil be the lineup from last year plus one new maze.

Thorpe had been wiping the floor with Altom when it comes to marketing their scare event. Not to mention the variety of mazes, zones and shows. I can only make it to Scarefest this year, (Thorpe is too far away), so I'm really hoping they make up for the disappointing buildup.

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Not quite' it will be all but one maze from last year, with a new maze replacing the discontinued one.
 
Welcome aboard! Judging by the construction about the park, it seems that it unfortunately wil be the lineup from last year plus one new maze.

Thorpe had been wiping the floor with Altom when it comes to marketing their scare event. Not to mention the variety of mazes, zones and shows. I can only make it to Scarefest this year, (Thorpe is too far away), so I'm really hoping they make up for the disappointing buildup.

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Don’t forget Thorpe only offers and adult level scare experience, whereas Alton Towers offers family entertainment as well as scare mazes. It’s like AT is doing what Thorpe and Chessington are combined._
 
Don’t forget Thorpe only offers and adult level scare experience, whereas Alton Towers offers family entertainment as well as scare mazes. It’s like AT is doing what Thorpe and Chessington are combined._
That's a fair point. I got so focused on what I wanted that I forgot that Scarefest is also for families. They have their shows and, (hopefully), garden of light. That being said, I still think the maze lineup needs a refresh.

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Welcome aboard! Judging by the construction about the park, it seems that it unfortunately wil be the lineup from last year plus one new maze.

Thorpe had been wiping the floor with Altom when it comes to marketing their scare event. Not to mention the variety of mazes, zones and shows. I can only make it to Scarefest this year, (Thorpe is too far away), so I'm really hoping they make up for the disappointing buildup.

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I think that marketing for this years event is subpar at best. Alton towers really need to hire someone like Jack Silkstone ( who is doing the advertising for Thorpe Park) or try and create an actual build up to the announcement, not just silence until the middle of august where they announce the mazes out of the blue.
 
I’m sure the marketing dept will do just fine without a random YouTuber.
First of all I'm in new Zealand on holiday, which is why I am answering so late/early ( just wanted to tell you guys that so you don't think I'm a weirdo who stays up all night). Second of all I do agree with your statement however Thorpe park has done considerably better with marketing with a youtuber. I would love to the short teasers that Thorpe do applied to Alton towers Scarefest, I think it would definitely peak public interest. Also Jack Silkstone is defiantly not a random youtuber, people connect him with Thorpe park, probably why they chose to work with him. Anyway, I'm just saying that Marketing for Scarefest can be improved.
 
I was gonna suggest that they got TPWW involved, but I suppose he has been bagged by Drayton Manor
 
Vloggers represent a tiny niche market versus the overall visitors to the park. Jack Silkstone for example has 30k subscribers, around 1% of Alton Towers yearly visitor numbers.

What’s more, they appeal to the audience who are probably going to book Scarefest no matter what, when or how it gets announced (I.e enthusiasts, most likely that have annual passes).

Towers are far better off putting their marketing resources into reaching the other 99% of their guests, and for those people, theme park vloggers isn’t the best way to do it.
 
Exactly that, by all means invite the vloggers to an event as it’s free exposure, but they have no extra social marketing skills compared to anyone else.

I have no idea who Jack Silkstone is, maybe he has other qualifications that attracted Thorpe Park to use him other than the simple fact they vlog
 
Have any of you guys even seen his documentary of his involvement with FN 2021? I think it’s an absolutely sick with what they did and how they did it
 
They probably used that specific vlogger because he does do content creative stuff which would appeal. He’s probably cheaper than going to an agency, cheaper than using in-house talent, and probably doesn’t have a huge portfolio to warrant charging a high price to produce such content. He’s also invested in the event, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he did it for near enough peanuts.

Marketing is a lot bigger than just using content creators to do your work. It’s also bigger than a few videos and then saying ‘that’s it, we’re done’. The content is great, but it’s how you use that content which underpins how successful your marketing strategy is. E.g. your ability to talk to leads (potential customers), acquire new customers, retain existing customers, etc. You might use the content as a hook, but it’s how you position that content in front of different customer groups (e.g those who haven’t transacted in a while, lapsing customers, new potential leads, etc).

As rightfully said already, getting vloggers to do all your marketing for you would be a very stupid move. But using them to make content which you can then use to promote the event through different communication channels with a good audience strategy is probably quite a cost-effective one.
 
Influencer is generally a term used for someone with a large social media following who is paid to advertise products. It's common in the beauty industry especially. You can tell that a social media post by an influencer is a paid advert because they are expected to put #AD (or similar) at the top of the post. Influencers are a bit different in the theme park world as they usually aren't paid by the parks but can be given free perks such as access to press events, fast track tickets or behind the scenes access. The parks do this because it is free advertising (although they do often have problems explaining to ten year olds with ten YouTube subscribers that they're not influencers), the influencers do it because it's content they can use and get paid by YouTube adverts or by selling merchandise. In general these videos do not require #AD as they are not paid and the parks have no editorial control. As for the word sick, to a lot of younger people it means "cool", this does cause friction with older people who use it to mean "disgusting" (and possibly Jacob Rees-Mogg who would point out that it's Latin for "thus was it written").
 
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