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Instant Escape Week

Eh, have to say I agree 100% with Jordan on this one - I really, really don't like this promotion. It goes against the culture of escapism that should be at a theme park. It's taking a magical place (or at least, a place which used to be magical), and ruining it by running a rather tabloid-ish competition.
 
I think the my day at out video is great, its a bit a alton magic breaking though the surface.
 
At worst this promotion is benign from a magic point of view, certainly better than the Th13teen babes. I liked the video of the cheque going around the park, it was quite funny :)
 
The ice cream stuck on the front of the cheque certainly got a laugh out of me :p
 
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abbsa_D3v5A[/youtube]

Sir Edward called it 'The Nemesis'... He's dead to me.

I prefer the other actor who plays him, with a posher accent!
 
I quite like that guy who plays Sir Edward England, he does normally play Sam Pigeon when I see him around park. I liked the end when they were singing in the skyride :p
 
Instant Escape Week

Really don't like this promotion. It's turned what used to be a day of escapism into a poorly constructed promotion reminiscent of Alison on This Morning. It also screams of desperation to try and win people into the theme park, as if a day out at the nations largest theme park isn't enough.

Also, what was with today's 'joke'? They run a promotion for a prize winner every day, and that's what people were expecting when they went to the park today. But instead it was decided that they won't give £1k away today - which goes against the T&Cs - in order to promote a 'funny' image of the cheque lost on a rapids boat. Yes, I know it's light hearted, but since I don't like the campaign anyway, I don't like this either!
 
Re: Instant Escape Week

EuroSatch said:
Also, what was with today's 'joke'? They run a promotion for a prize winner every day, and that's what people were expecting when they went to the park today. But instead it was decided that they won't give £1k away today - which goes against the T&Cs - in order to promote a 'funny' image of the cheque lost on a rapids boat. Yes, I know it's light hearted, but since I don't like the campaign anyway, I don't like this either!
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They have given away £1000 today, on Nemesis.

:)
 
This is such a stupid promotion.

Nobody will come to the park because of this who wasn't going to come anyway, it just reeks of desperation and a complete lack of ideas.

Couldn't they have just used this to buy a few radio ads?
 
I know it's been stressed that this is a separate, ring-fenced budget, but why? I think it's ludicrous that if another department needed £8000 they couldn't have it, yet Marketing can give it away on a whim that will generate a gate figure increase of a maximum 3 people.

Does anyone have any idea how much it costs to paint a coaster? I'd hazard a guess that £8000 of industrial paint would probably be enough for Oblivion. Obviously I have no idea and wouldn't know the true cost, including labour etc., but surely it can't be much more than that, and I think that would be an infinitely better use of what is a fairly substantial sum of cash.

I quite enjoyed the super-low-budget video of the cheque's day out, but as a promotion it seems completely useless for boosting guest figures, and I agree with the sentiment that it does destroy the escapism illusion (although this is being rapidly chipped away anyway). It may sound like a relatively small sum, but £8000 could go a long way in a department such as maintenance, or even staffing.
 
Rupert said:
I know it's been stressed that this is a separate, ring-fenced budget, but why? I think it's ludicrous that if another department needed £8000 they couldn't have it, yet Marketing can give it away on a whim that will generate a gate figure increase of a maximum 3 people.

Does anyone have any idea how much it costs to paint a coaster? I'd hazard a guess that £8000 of industrial paint would probably be enough for Oblivion. Obviously I have no idea and wouldn't know the true cost, including labour etc., but surely it can't be much more than that, and I think that would be an infinitely better use of what is a fairly substantial sum of cash.

I quite enjoyed the super-low-budget video of the cheque's day out, but as a promotion it seems completely useless for boosting guest figures, and I agree with the sentiment that it does destroy the escapism illusion (although this is being rapidly chipped away anyway). It may sound like a relatively small sum, but £8000 could go a long way in a department such as maintenance, or even staffing.
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It's pointless speculating that the money could have been spent elsewhere - the fact is there is no way Oblivion's potential repaint has been hindered by the giving away of £8000 in a marketing promotion. A single TV advert on primetime probably costs more than that, I don't understand why just because we know the exact price on this occasion it has to be moaned at.
 
Instant Escape Week

A single national TV advert during prime time would cost many times that... £8000 is an absolutely tiny amount of the marketing budget which has provided a great viral campaign on social media to get people talking about the park. It might not directly increase visitors but it gets people saying 'Have you seen that video from Alton Towers?'

The amount truly is trivial. Why people are focussing on it so much I don't know. :)
 
This is a very small amount of money, 8,000 wouldn't even paint just the drop of Oblivion. The days of letting magic and escapism sell the park are gone as Merlin dont believe in those concepts. BUT this is a much more light-hearted marketing scheme than some of the stuff we have had in the last few years.
 
Dave said:
This is a very small amount of money, 8,000 wouldn't even paint just the drop of Oblivion. The days of letting magic and escapism sell the park are gone as Merlin dont believe in those concepts. BUT this is a much more light-hearted marketing scheme than some of the stuff we have had in the last few years.
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I would say it's more light-weight then light-hearted. It doesn't project far beyond one customer each day, and if not done right is likely to garner resentment from other guests who have got diddley squat for the pleasure of not standing in the right spot.
 
You see, I'd argue that this promotion could end up having quite a large reach - £1000 is a LOT of money to win totally out of the blue when you're likely to already be having a hell of a lot of fun, and stories such as THIS in local news will help drum up a lot of interest in the resort.

As much as I understand everyone's criticisms of this, I can't hate this campaign...I think it's a great bit of fun (and Marketing are clearly having a whale of a time with the videos, the cheque's day out was hilarious!) but yes, I do wish they'd kept Pete as Edward England for all the videos, having him suddenly as Sharktooth Jack doesn't really help consistency :p
 
When I was working there, studios quoted £6k to repaint Oblivion.

It may be a light-hearted campaign, but it is so unoriginal, and shows to me how misguided the management are. It reeks of Marketing 101 with no imagination put in, or any thought of what a Premier Theme Park should be marketed as.
 
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