Alton Towers Marketing/PR Stunts Topic

[Joelio]

Saying that "joe public" still thinks that Th13teen is age limited and you need to sign a waiver :/ They've really got to be careful how they target these things...

[Liam]

[quote=""haydn!""]The PR stunts are great for Alton Towers, it's free advertising and gets people talking. The park can't afford to run multi-million pound advertising campaigns all season and things like this really keep the park in the media.

I think Alton Towers marketing has become quite clever in recent years, quickly responding to events in the 'real' world, and despite any negative opinions amongst the fanboys, it's having a great impact on the parks head count and balance sheet!

The insects story has been followed up with some radio adverts too.[/quote]

This post reads like one written by a marketing graduate.
Yes, this tactic can be very effective, but only in the short term.

This kind of stuff continuing over and over again slowly and gradually vandalises the park's own brand. Each little stunt is, in itself, a bit of interesting graffiti for a minute, but eventually the whole wall will be covered in graffiti and you'll be left wondering what colour the wall was originally.

[BigAl]

I can't see how this sort of PR stunt would work. Surely the chance of swallowing loads off bugs would put any sane person off riding Th13teen? It may cause people to talk about the ride but not in the way they would want them to. It will just get people thinking they'll get a mouthful of bugs and put them off riding. Then they will tell their friends and family and so on... It's a daft idea. Yes, people will be talking about the new ride, but, it won't be for the right reasons.

[Blaze]

I think you've over estimated the reaction somewhat anway, it says they got rid of the bug problem, so the chance of not riding for fear of bug eating is actually not going to happen, and no one takes the PR releases serious, they're just a bit of fun we all get too worked up about for no reason :P

[BigAl]

Somebody out there will take this seriously. It made me laugh when I read it but imagine somebody who thought this actually happened on the ride. People will believe anything. Take the age restrictions that were released in the papers. That caused my entire school to think that the rest of their families wouldn't be able to go on the ride for fear of dying of fright. I was powerless. Fools

[cmpunk771]

I can Imagine morwenna sat in her big leather office chair with a white cat on her lap laughing at us getting annoyed.

[Cheese]

I can ignore this sort of thing pretty well now after Thirteen's earlier marketing, particularly as I know it's not aimed at a keen enthusiast in training who has no experience of coasters at other parks!

It's certainly not the way I'd market the park; I'd prefer to see the park advertised on the strength of its rides, the quality of which is probably unmatched in this country judging from what people say about Thorpe, Drayton etc. That said, after watching the Thirteen evening videos and reading the Failbook Q&A she wrote, I have a lot more respect for Morwenna and her team. They certainly care about the park a lot more than you'd ever believe from reading the stuff they come out with! They also have marketing qualifications and experience, something I lack entirely. This leads me to doubt whether my preferred approach would actually work.

[CoasterCrazyChris]

[quote=""?V?""][quote=""Liam""][quote=""haydn!""]The PR stunts are great for Alton Towers, it's free advertising and gets people talking. The park can't afford to run multi-million pound advertising campaigns all season and things like this really keep the park in the media.

I think Alton Towers marketing has become quite clever in recent years, quickly responding to events in the 'real' world, and despite any negative opinions amongst the fanboys, it's having a great impact on the parks head count and balance sheet!

The insects story has been followed up with some radio adverts too.[/quote]

This post reads like one written by a marketing graduate.
Yes, this tactic can be very effective, but only in the short term.

This kind of stuff continuing over and over again slowly and gradually vandalises the park's own brand. Each little stunt is, in itself, a bit of interesting graffiti for a minute, but eventually the whole wall will be covered in graffiti and you'll be left wondering what colour the wall was originally.[/quote]


Most definitely true. Smash and grab marketing campaigns are a very diluted replacment too that of word of mouth, reputation and quality of service/experience.

An experience that leaves you awestruck everytime will continue to draw and satisfy customers. Where as drawing customers but merely leaving them dissapointed will not guarantee a return visit with increased recomendations


V[/quote]

Quite right.

This cheap marketing might have some short-term success, as in getting people talking about Alton Towers and which may prompt more people to visit (because these stunts are keeping the park in the viewers minds) but in the long-term they are rubbing dirt into the respectable brand that the park built up during the 1990s.

In fact these articles are the sort of tat i'd expect Thorpe Park to churn out, after all that's where these PR stunts orginated (remember Say No To BO ) and unfortunately spread to the AT management.

But, at the very end of the day there is no point getting in a huff about this because it does generate interest for the park - even if they are embarrassing.

I do not particularly like Morwenna and her marketing teams style of marketing the park but after watching the 13 evening video, I echo what many others think in perhaps understanding why she does these things. Having said this, if she resigns tomorrow I would hardly shed a tear.

[Nightfall]

[quote=""CoasterCrazyChris""]In fact these articles are the sort of tat i'd expect Thorpe Park to churn out, after all that's where these PR stunts orginated (remember Say No To BO ) and unfortunately spread to the AT management.[/quote] Hate to say it but this style of marketing has been used by the Towers for longer than Thorpe. Other companies have used this free marketing style for even longer. BO was actually a fairly recent one. Most of them you wouldn't really notice except for on Forums like this.
However I was very surprised to hear a quiz show ask "Where in Briton are you banned from wearing Speedos?", to which the answer was Alton Towers. That one got taken a bit more seriously.

[James]

Well, they must be doing something right if they keep making up theses weird and wonderful marketing stunts. Morwenna has experience and qualifications, she knows what she's doing. They have the park figures and I'm sure that after all these marketing stunts if park figures have gone down they would have stopped with these stunts by now. These latest stunts have been a bit more creative and aren't as serious as previous ones(Speedo Ban Stunt).

If I was in Morwennas job I wouldn't personally market the park like the way they are at the moment. But it seems with marketing at the moment that you have to lie to get people talking about products, most companies seem to be doing it at the moment and Alton is just staying 'current' marketing wise.

The current marketing stunts by Alton, while they are silly I'm not really bothered with the stunts, after the Th13teen hype I don't think anything that they do can get as bad as that.

I do admire all the hard work that Morwenna(and her team) do to create these stunts, they do have to think it through and consider whether the stunts will go down well with the public, at the end of the day they are just doing there job, marketing the resort and getting people talking about Alton Towers. Morwenna clearly cares about the park, I doubt she'd have the job if she just didn't care about the place.

[DiogoJ42]

:no:
What was wrong with letting the ride sell itself, like Oblivion did?

[Gloomy Dude]

These 'flies' were probably attracted by the human faeces-encrusted emergency underwear being handed out by staff to 'terrified' riders :P

I love how these little campaigns link together

[JoshM]

Just fount this on my Facebook wall, it was posted by Alton Towers them selves.

Following reports, Alton Towers Resort can confirm the temporary closure of TH13TEEN on Friday 13th August. This is a decision which has taken careful consideration following in-depth research. Findings show 1 in 3 people will change their behaviour on Friday 13th and we feel this is in the best interest of our guests, given the name ...of the ride.

The rest of the Resort will be open as normal.

Do you think this is some kind off advertising campaign, Publicity Stunt or maybe they are really going to close it?

[Vik]

It is indeed another publicity stunt, but a rather bizarre one to claim a ride will be closed.

[henry96]

I think it's a publicity stunt that will backfire on Morwenna. Many people could well not visit because of this. I don't see how this would get them any benefit out of people thinking their new ride will be shut.

And if it is actually shut, unless it's for maintenance but they're trying to put a spin on it, it's ridiculous.

[[Archive]]

Why does everybody keep blaming Morwenna? I am sure she has far more important things to do than this.

This seems like an after-thought from somebody on the marketing team to me. Another desperate attempt to mislead people into thinking it is a scary ride.

[Gloomy Dude]

Or perhaps another scheduled maintenance closure, dressed up as a silly little stunt?

[furie]

Nah, they'll say that overwhelming public pressure has forced them to open it after all, but "on your own heads be it" if you ride it!

That's a triple whammy right there.

1. 13 is closed on Friday the 13th... Lots of talk about it...
2. Public pressure - this ride is popular
3. We DARE you to come and ride it now.

It's pretty clever stuff, unless they really do have maintenance, but it's like Alton announcing on April 1st that Secret Weapon 7 will be a B&M/Intamin hybrid Aquatrax - deserves huge amounts of cynicism...

[BigAl]

Sorry but this wouldn't put me off going on it. A ride is a ride. The name is just a name. The day just another day. It's all just old nonsense and studies have proved that Friday 13th has fewer accidents and injuries than any other day (average). This superstition has no scientific empirical evidence to back it up and derived from people who lived many hundreds of years ago who knew very little about anything.

Just for fun, try and pronounce the name for the fear of Friday 13th the first time around.

Name 1: friggatriskaidekaphobia
Name 2: paraskevidekatriaphobia

[ugswinger_op]

I did laugh when I read this on Facebook! Personally I'm hoping its for planned maintenance, but very well disguised (to the general public) and that maybe/hopefully they have something that will sort out those god awful trims!

we can but hope