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I have to agree about the use of fantabulous in the banner in the Rita queue, it's all very well using these words like this to describe the resort, but not for a major new attraction like this. The banner suggests a dark theme, however fantabulous is anything but that. I just really hope that these words aren't used in any marketing later on in the year, we want words that fit the theme of the ride, not the whole resort.

The sign on park was probably created by in-house marketing teams, whereas any TV adverts or posters will be much more proffesional!

Although Viral marketing seems easy, it is one of the most complex forms of marketing there is....it's very hard to trick the general public (as we've seen with the hoaxes that have been plaguing the internet), and very hard to create something with innocence when you know it's intent.

Alton Towers, however, have succeeded in some great marketing, one that I found particularly of note is Hex. It seems to have been forgotten about, but at the time the Hex minisite was perhaps the greatest minisite any theme park has ever had, and the way the story unfolded over months was fantastic. The TV advert itself was also one of the best ride specific adverts ever made, with the story of the ride being evident in the advert, unlike Nemesis or Oblivion where the actual story was hidden under a very basic façade for the public to absorb mindlessly.

I touch on this often in my reading for university, too many European theme parks treat their target audience as idiots, coming up with elaborate back stories but then not showing them....as if the guests aren't bothered.....of course they're bothered! That's why they're at a theme park as opposed to a fair...for the great stories the rides tell....unfortunately, it's only really Disney that understand that it takes more then a few pieces of disparate theming to tell a real story.... I'm ranting...

I personally want to see something more along the lines of Hex then Oblivion....while good, Oblivions advertising was very blatant, and was basically all aimed at getting the words 'Worlds First' out there as much as possible...it was only on the park that the great stuff went on!

Let's hope the park does use the marketing as a prologue or continuation of the story the ride will tell....and maybe even get a TV advert true to the theme and story like Hex!

I know it's slightly off-topic, and may be considered spam but what type of marketing was used pre-Hex? I had know idea, it had much marketing before it opened.
As far as I'm aware, The oblivion marketing was quite good with the person standing outside of the construction-site just telling people to go away. If there was a guy standing outside saying "Stay Away, it will all be tall much for your small minds" would seriously freak people out and get a feel for the new-coaster.

If memory serves me correctly, Alton did relatively little marketing during the 1999 season to promote hex, other than announce the code name 'Project Les' and that it was a dark ride. I believe the first time it was announced was at an ECC trip to AT in January 2000, then a few bits of concept art popped up online, but I may be wrong!

[quote=""Ryanfuk""] I personally want to see something more along the lines of Hex then Oblivion....while good, Oblivions advertising was very blatant, and was basically all aimed at getting the words 'Worlds First' out there as much as possible...it was only on the park that the great stuff went on![/quote]

If you've seen the BBC programme "The Magic Factory" based around Alton Towers, which focused on the marketing and construction of Oblivion, you'll know that the "Oblivion marketing team" had created an abstract and slightly obscure back story to the ride which left people guessing and reeling. However, when tested on a focus group they said said they just wanted to be shown the ride, they just basically wanted it there in front of them on a plate.

Surprised this hasn't been mentioned. Dr Rockwell has updated the YouTube channel description.

-UPDATE- 29th April 2009
It has been brought to my attention that speculation has arisen through my channel about a new rollercoaster they have started constructing at Alton Towers. Please note that this channel is in no way affiliated with Alton Towers, nor is it a way of promoting their new rollercoaster.

However, I am still going to continue with my research on the Night Watchman. Following the message posted in my last video, I am going to the woods tonight to see if I can find anything of any worth. I will post my findings for all to see tomorrow evening.

Can we now totally discount Dr Rockwell? Or is there still some small shred of something interesting going to happen?

Hi I'm new on these forums and the SW6 topic has had me iterested for a bit of time now. Although rockwell says that he is no way linked to the new coaster, but think about it this way, what would he say if he was part of AT? Also why has he turned up so recently with vidio's about 'the night wach man' who's statue is going to be placed on the front of The SW's station, I think that, what he said, was just to throw most people of his trail.

Welcome kingda dude... and yes, Dr. Henry Rockwell can be discounted as part of an AT marketing campaign...

I'm not sure that we shoule be discounting him quite so quickly. I mean with the vast expansion of the internet comes many new ways to advertise. I mean how many compnaies are you seeing with Facebook pages and Youtube Channels?

The answers loads. Even Compare the Market.com has a Facebook page about the Meerkat that they are using in their new adverstising campaigns. To be honest, Alton Towers could be using YouTube in the same way that Thorpe Park did, but not so Directly. I mean there are so many different ways to market things like this and to be honest, what will make or break this ride next year will be the marketing that goes into it. It's all well and good having TV adverts and a couple of Banners at the park, but things like this don't tend to make a member of the general public want to spend money on a entrance fee. You need to make sure that there is a foundation to the adverts. That there are other resources for the public to look at.

You see an advert for a new coaster on the telly and you've not heard or seen anything about it? If your even going to consider going to ride it you'll want to look at it first and if you google it, YouTube video suggestions are straight to the top.

I think to be honest most people are looking at this with no real imagination, and I don't mean to be insulting but you need to open your eyes. Not only is the park pretty damn good when it comes to advertising and enticing members of the public to come to the park, but it now seems that they have stepped it up a notch.

I mean how else would this Dr. Rockwell know people were believing there was a link between the Watchman and Alton Towers' new ride without being directly linked?

In my opinion the only reason I think that has been put there it to have the word Alton Towers listed on the page to help his channel become more public. I mean if Google finds that word there then it's going to be linked with that channel when someone search's it. So it's gonna stand out a bit...

Kind of a coincidence if you ask me...

[quote=""kingda dude""]Hi I'm new on these forums and the SW6 topic has had me iterested for a bit of time now. Although rockwell says that he is no way linked to the new coaster, but think about it this way, what would he say if he was part of AT? Also why has he turned up so recently with vidio's about 'the night wach man' who's statue is going to be placed on the front of The SW's station, I think that, what he said, was just to throw most people of his trail.[/quote]

It may be that Alton Towers have threatened to proceed to recover damages from him if he didn't clarify he was in no way affiliated with the park.

WOAH news from Dr henry rockwell!
[url=http://www.youtube.com/user/drhenryrockwell" target="_blank]http://www.youtube.com/user/drhenryrockwell[/url]
if you go on this link you go to his sub site and if you look at his updates It says that a detective has hacked on and it says that Dr henry rockwell has disappeared, it also has a link to one of thenightwatchman 2010's videos
This has turned many speculations on their heads!

[quote=""kingda dude""]WOAH news from Dr henry rockwell!
[url=http://www.youtube.com/user/drhenryrockwell" target="_blank]http://www.youtube.com/user/drhenryrockwell[/url]
if you go on this link you go to his sub site and if you look at his updates It says that a detective has hacked on and it says that Dr henry rockwell has disappeared, it also has a link to one of thenightwatchman 2010's videos
This has turned many speculations on their heads![/quote]

I'd still take it with a pinch of salt, but the name "Machin" seems very very familiar for some reason. Can't remember why though.

Still taken with a pinch of salt at the moment, but its quite fun watching. Even if this is a fan effort, its nice to see that a lot is going into it, and it seems to have a storyline!

It's a fan effort, it's nothing to do with Alton Towers, as they have confirmed.

[quote=""And.""]I'd still take it with a pinch of salt, but the name "Machin" seems very very familiar for some reason. Can't remember why though.[/quote]
Machin is my surname, could possibly be that. After having 2 different people ask me tonight if 'Dr Rockwell' is me, I can 100% guarantee you that it is not me.

[quote=""Tom""][quote=""And.""]I'd still take it with a pinch of salt, but the name "Machin" seems very very familiar for some reason. Can't remember why though.[/quote]
Machin is my surname, could possibly be that. After having 2 different people ask me tonight if 'Dr Rockwell' is me, I can 100% guarantee you that it is not me. [/quote]

Nah, it's not you - with all due respect, I don't really know you :P

The name Machin just seems familiar - perhaps its with having lived in Staffordshire for a few years and it's a common name? Its familiarity is really bugging me though lol

I'm suprised that nobody has thought of this already...

If the thing about having the second coaster in the Blackhole tent and the full Rita retheme and repaint is true, (which I'm not saying it is/isn't) Alton could have a great marketing opportunity. It could go something like this:

"Join us in 2010 at the fantabulous Alton Towers resort where we are celebrating our 30th anniversary, and what better way to celebrate 3 decades of thrills than with 3 new coasters!"

or something along those lines?

I really hope they go all big with the marketing for SW6 across the park and outside the park.

This is what I would want to see over the next few months:
- A big construction fence surrounding the site advertising the ride itself, inspired by the Oblivion one really. My little idea would be that there is a wooden fence around the site with vines coming out of the ground crawling up the fence, a statue like the one on the station building could also go near there and there can be a sign on the fence saying something like 'watch the statue, it's coming. 2010', obviously this could be different as we don't know the actual theme of the ride. Then the poster that is currently on the fence surrounding the area could go at the entrance of UG Land to showing that there is more coming for 2010.

- Posters scattered around the park, giving very vague clues to what the ride will actually be about.

- Have actors or a actor around the UG Land area running up to guests saying something like, 'Don't go to the woods, it's not safe, it's back from the dead' blah blah blah...

- Start a viral marketing campaign, They could make their own YouTube account but keep it not revealing too much but making the point that there's something coming and showing that it is Alton’s own thing.

- Use billboards, radio advertisements, TV teasers, this will be Alton's big comeback for creating world class rides; they need to show people that they mean business.

- If they really want to go over the top with marketing create something like a chocolate bar just for the ride and attach a half price voucher to it.

Obviously all this depends on how big Alton's marketing budget is for this ride but they haven't had a ride of this scale since Air in 2002, they really need to go out with the marketing and get the word across that they are still the big boys in the UK. If they go well with the marketing they could create a lot of hype of this ride.

Thanks if you've read all of this, what does everyone think?
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Sam, I do agree with you there and think it would work. Disney can do it so Alton will be able to, I'd think it would be best if at the start of the season they have all the focus on SW6 then they can show what else they've got to offer.

They could do the adverts like this:
- 2 adverts for SW6 (1 short, 1 long)
- 1 advert for the Resort as a whole mentioning the new attractions and showing that it's their 30th Birthday.
- 1 advert showing all the new attractions for 2010.

Thanks if you've read all of this, the longest post I've defintaly done on here.