You’re listening to the Marketing Attractions podcast. Conversations on how nonprofit attractions
are increasing attendance and sharing their missions through marketing. Your hosts are
Ryan Dick and Jenny Williams of Attend Media.
Jenny, today’s topic, how events drive visitation. And we got a special guest, Jack Stevenson.
He’s the corporate producer of festivals and events at Cedar Fair Entertainment. Jack,
thanks for joining the show. Thank you for having me.
Jenny, I know you and Jack go back in the day, but why are we bringing in a kind of a
for-profit guy into our nonprofit attraction show? Which Jack can talk about?
Well, I think Jack’s going to be able to share a lot of really great information about how
attractions can make money, right? With something that whether you’re for-profit or nonprofit,
I think it’s still important to drive revenue so that you can spread a mission. And Jack is
kind of the king of being able to figure out all kinds of different ways to be able to
do that. Jack and I had the pleasure of working together back in the Dollywood days and
there’s so much from him and his team is really kind of my introduction to working with
attractions. So super excited to have Jack today. And Jack, why don’t you go ahead and give
everybody a quick little intro and background about yourself? Well, thanks. Thanks for that,
that intro, Jenny and Ryan. Thank you for having me on today. I’ve been looking forward
to this a little bit about myself. Currently I am, as you mentioned, I’m over at the Cedar
Fair Entertainment Company, working the work out of the corporate office in Charlotte,
North Carolina. So I am the corporate producer for our festivals and events that currently
that oversees initiatives for 11 theme parks across North America. And so as my current
with this current position, I have the opportunity to work with our corporate leadership team
as well as park leadership teams to identify events and potential events based off the market
and the parks and what’s going to really help resonate and drive attendance revenue to
these different parks. And so across the course of the year, our team here working in conjunction
with the parks will produce over 50 events across the platform. So it’s a lot of fun,
a lot of work, but yeah, so that’s what we’re doing right now. And as Jenny mentioned,
you know, back at we had the opportunity to work together at Dollywood on the account.
Gosh, Jenny, it’s I think it’s coming up on 10 years. Can you believe it? But sort of
segue what I did up until now. I’ve had the experience both at Dollywood, at Caravan’s
theme park, which is one of our parks right down the street here in Charlotte, Merlin
Entertainment’s where I was primarily in marketing. So I’ve served as marketing managers, marketing
directors for a plethora of different attractions with a very focused on the consumer demand
portion. So as that, where as we talk about that gets us into the ticketing initiatives
and the promotions of Jenny, what working with her with advertising. So it’s been a, so it’s
kind of a that consumer facing platform that I have traditionally worked with for the
last 15 years or so. Okay, I did some math here. 50 events across 11 parks that will keep
it busy. It certainly does. And it’s, you know, there, we’re, and even now it’s, it’s the fun
part about this is we’re working on this year right now, getting everything ready to, to
head out the door, but also conceptualizing new things for the next couple of years. So
yes, there’s always definitely something to work on. What a great segue to my first question
here. So, you know, what does the process look like for creating and promoting like a brand
new event, maybe as opposed to a reoccurring event, like kind of talk about that ideation
of creating something new? Yeah, absolutely. So it, you know, it really goes back to when
in conceptualizing is really defining their purpose, you know, what really answering first
asking the question, you know, what is it that that what’s the, I guess, the problem? What is
the opportunity? And what, what does incorporating a, an event? What are we looking to achieve with
that? And so, so for really it’s based off looking at that strategy, working very closely
with our executive leadership here, Cedar Fair, working with our brand marketing team to
determine in with each, each of these parts that live within these markets. What, what is
the opportunity and what, what are we trying to achieve? And as soon as we establish that,
that sort of kind of lends into our world, my team’s world, where we can sort of, we start
recommending potential content. What, what are the things that when we make these events,
what are those things that will resonate with the markets? And so again, working with our
brand team, our marketing teams, looking at consumer insights and data that we’ve collected
over, you know, the course of some time, we start to kind of get a little bit of a baseline.
Okay, so what, what, what could this potentially be? And then bringing over into our, our initial
chats with getting some sort of an identity around this, around the event there, you know,
how we do events here, Cedar Fair kind of a little bit too full. I mean, there are those
one individual, what I call part branded events, for example, in the past at Carrowen’s beef,
we, we, we, we, we, we launched in the event a couple of years ago called the state line
festival. So that was very specific to Carrowen’s. And then there is our, our pillar,
events that, that we run across the park. So that’s where you, you, comes into your Halloween
haunts, your, your winterfest during, during holiday time, Grand Carnival, that, that we’ve
done now for several years across the platform. So really identify the, the identity from,
from there, we will sit down with our, our, our, our, our marketing teams. Normally,
we, these events will have a food and beverage culinary component. So we’ll bring in our
corporate leadership there. We’ll bring in, start talking about design. So okay. So what
does, what does this event, what, what, what we need, we need to come up with a name,
we need to come up from the name, we need to come up with a logo, we need to come up
with a color palette and start is start building what the event is. And, and the, the concepts,
we come up with the concept, DAC, it, we start working with the parks, we develop the
footprint, all those little nuances that will sort of be able to bring the, the event
to life on paper. And then we start, we start rolling it out to, to our parks. And so that
process takes, you know, sometimes that takes place months and months and months before,
the local park team’s even announced it to the public. So we’ll start having calls with
the parks general managers, the park marketing teams, the park food and beverage team, park
live entertainment, keeping everybody integrated and sort of all together as we start piece
mealing the, the project together. So, and a lot of times from the live entertainment
side there are, we’ve contract out directors, choreographers, if there needs to be music
created, that’s during that time frame where where this happens. And so really, you know,
where it gets a sort of our major milestone is that, that, that, that, that, that, that
official go to market announcement with, with, to, to the general public. And then from
there, we’ll start to, to go into a more of an execution mode, that’s where you start
seeing the marketing, the promotions and then things start to come alive at, at the, at the
park site. That leads you all the way up to, to then opening.
So one reason why a lot of events might not be happening is just because it’s so hard when
we think about cultural attractions and having to invest the time, the money and the energy
it really is. And so, I mean, it just, and, and, and, you know, being on the marketing side
for so, so long and then coming to, to this particular spot now, the, there’s a lot of, lots
of details, lots of details that start taking place. Way, you know, like I mentioned, way
back, you know, and for time’s sake, and we’re trying to get it further ahead as we can,
you know, ideally, aspirationally, we want to be about two years ahead here at, at the
corporate level, you know, right now we’re, we’re, we’re not quite there, but we’re a lot
further along in the, in the lead time, then, then we have been in the past. And so, you
know, it’s, it’s been a great journey with our team to sort of figure it, kind of figuring
out that process and, and, and getting, identifying our key stakeholders and, and really, you
know, make out that timeline, that plan, and check-ins and just ensuring that deliverables
are, are starting to piece mill together as we move towards, you know, that desired date.
I can just hear our audience going, oh man, I wish we had a jack on our team, like, two
years, sounds, you know, and admittedly, you’re saying like, it’s not in white reality, but,
like, you just got to think about the lift, what it takes for organization like y’all,
you know, thinking about our world, you know, the local zoo, it’s just the resources aren’t
as plentiful.
Right. And then there’s things outside of our control even on our level is, you know, if
the, if half the parks, we have to, they get whacked with bad weather for, for several weeks
at a time, which has happened before, you know, there’s adjustments made in, you know,
we approach our, our experts, our op-ex, so, and that sort of, that, that can affect our contents.
So, being able to make those adjustments, it’s is very, I mean, honestly, transparently, is
very rare that what exactly comes out in the concept deck, what translate to what, what
we actually do on the park, but that’s, that’s, that’s, that’s part of the fun, right?
So, you know, as we continue to adjust along the way, it definitely takes a, a team, but, but,
you know, really just, it’s not necessarily a team of numbers.
It’s just a team of, of individuals who are quite passionate about, about, you know, the, why
we’re doing, what we’re doing, what, what sort of, um, result that, that these events, um,
produce, um, for, for these parks, for, and for, and ultimately for, for the company and our
guests. So, um, it, it, you know, we have a, it’s a small, like I said, it’s, it’s truly a
small, but mighty team, but it just takes the folks who, you know, want to get, being able
to take the time, get in the same room and, um, and, and ideate, you know, that’s really
kind of where it starts. And then, um, we start peace, me, and the, the, the puzzle together,
and, um, you know, something, it’s going out in the midway. So, um, and then of course, you
know, once, once we open a brand new event, we, we take, uh, we take guest feedback, certainly
on, and, and, um, the data and we optimize, um, you know, if we can along, along the way.
So, there might be one, one opening weekend, you may see, uh, a stage located in, in one
spot, but we didn’t think about where that sun, that sun’s going to be at four o’clock in
the afternoon and, and on, on July and it’s beating down on our guests. So the next weekend,
you might see that same, that same stage, um, moved slightly altered. So, so we, um, you
know, we continue, um, just because we, we put an event out there, doesn’t necessarily
mean that it’s, it’s there. Um, you know, that, they’re always, um, room for, we, we,
we seek, um, desire, improvement and, um, continue to make everything the best that we
possibly can, um, even throughout our run. All right. So, you know, my question is why,
but why would, you know, an attraction go through all that effort to create an event? Like,
are there kind of KPIs or measurables that you’re looking for to say, hey, this was absolutely
worth it, you know, our audience, they want to spread the mission, right? We want to
get new people in, I think it all makes sense, you know, from the marketing, nerds like Jenny
and I would think, and okay, we can sell some season passes, we can measure first time
visitors. Like, what kind of things are you all looking at to say this was a success?
Right. Okay. Well, obviously in our world, um, in, in those secrets, it’s, it’s, it’s
the financials, it’s the attendance, um, in that that even breaks down to even from,
uh, you know, what are you trying to achieve from a ticketing, your ticketing goals? Obviously
sees a form an event, um, standpoint season pass is, is a, is a huge jug or not, um, because
with each event provides those pass holders yet another reason to visit that they did not
get, um, the, the, the time before. And as our data shows, the more times, there’s certain
times like a, a pass holder needs to visit, they hit those, those visit numbers, um, a certain
target, then the likelihood that they’re going to renew for the next year, uh, jumps up
quite significantly. So that’s a, it kind of, um, that’s a little bit, a bit of the sort
of our, our, our approach, um, to as, as, as sort of the why, um, why, why, you know, these
events will, you know, produce, um, really positively impacts our season pass program.
So in unique visitation, maybe there is a, there’s these, these niche events, I mean, of course,
um, you know, our, our primary target is, is mom with, with, uh, children in the family,
um, what we’re seeing though is like, you know, we roll out our Halloween, honn event, our,
you know, our scary Halloween event, nighttime event, um, that, that speaks to a slightly
different, um, audience. And we actually have pass holders who, who purchase, um, season
passes, um, for that value proposition, just to visit, um, to visit Halloween hot. So we’re
a big, being able to capture, you know, uh, additional audience, um, all, all for that.
And like I said, even from a one day perspective, um, these, these events give, uh, provide
this, the, the value, um, perception that these events, we’ve, uh, started going into,
I know we’re going to talk about the variable pricing here, um, but, you know, aside from
that, um, especially with the commerce abilities now, it enables us to take like an event and
bundle it with an admission. So maybe we’re doing a, a, a, a, a meal bundle, if it’s a food
event, um, maybe there’s a tasting card and admission bundle, um, that, that guest can
purchase for a limited amount of time or during, um, this event and sort of really search
driving, um, you know, not only awareness for the event, but it really gives incentive
for guests to attend. So you’ve got all of these events all throughout the year, um, and I mean,
with you, you’ve got, you said 11 parks that you’re managing or overseeing that for, um,
I talked just a little bit, you know, I think the, the kind of hot, hot topic out right now is
pricing for all of these events. So we know a lot, a lot of attractions are coming out more variable
pricing, whether that’s a weekend versus a weekday, uh, how are you incorporating that or
you look at kind of some unique price points and does events help you drive maybe a different
price point versus general admission or maybe it’s easier to create that kind of different
ticketed price versus a, hey, a general mission on a Saturday and a Monday, you might get complaints
from your guests, but how does that work with it? Yeah, it’s special event. Yeah, so, you know,
it’s really taking your, you know, we, and we all know, um, at the park level, we know our tenant spread
across across the course, um, of the year, of course, of a month, of course, of a quarter,
and, and really what these events are able us to do, well, actually, you know, that’s high from
events, but, but the pricing is able to do us help spread, um, that out of course in our industry,
there’s no secret that Saturday is, is, is the big day is because everybody, you know, for most, most,
of the country and the world, their Saturday is, people are off of work, and, um, and so that’s,
that’s their ideal day. Um, so, so for what, um, you know, we’re able to, uh, what variable pricing,
as, as, as allowed us to do now is by offering, um, a, a, a more, um, economical price point, um, to
sort of capture some incrementality, um, mostly incrementality, some shifting, um, into a weekday,
or two, a Sunday, or maybe even a time frame, um, that does not have, um, historically, um,
had, had, had the attendance volume that, that we’ve had, that we have the potential to, to capture,
for an example, um, just take Halloween for example, for, just to say it’s, um, the Halloween
hon, everybody associates Halloween in about mid to late October, where, um, it’s, it’s,
because that’s, it’s on everybody’s mind, but there’s a slew of our parks and across the industry,
and even at other other companies as well, Halloween starts, can start as early as September 12th,
right? And so, um, and for us to be able to incentivize, um, early visitation, you know, it’s,
it’s, it’s very customary that you’ll see an online web price, um, you know, significantly, uh, you
know, discounted during the early part of September, as you would see, um, chances are, you know,
trying to get a discounted ticket to a Halloween event on Halloween night or the Saturday before
Halloween is, it’s, it’s gonna be, it’s gonna be pretty tough, um, but the value, you know,
for commonancy and some Halloween at a nice price might be 90 degrees outside, but, uh, but,
but at least it helps incentivize guests to, to get in the door. Also, with a vet, um, pricing,
what it allows us to do is to sort of, um, in our industry, it’s, it’s, I’ll say it’s an excuse,
but non-excuse is our, is our weather and how it, it, it impacts performance. And so, with our
vets by being able to get out into the market, you know, a couple of weeks before, before the event
to start getting that excitement and that’s a, maybe a great opportunity to, um, you know, go out with a
ticket promotion for that event. Um, it helps us fill that funnel and it, and it, commits people to
visit, um, before, you know, waiting at the, in the very last minute, checking on weather, um,
so it just really helps fill that purchase funnel for us for, for, for, particularly for events.
And it gets, um, that message out, out into the market.
Yeah, we always talk, there’s, there’s always going to be a group of people who want to come when
nobody else is there, right? Right, right. That’s, that’s, that’s, that’s definitely true. And, um, in,
what we’ve been able to see, um, over our course of the, our, our, uh, years is, is really the,
that consumer behavior and, um, you know, being able to just, just really take advantage of a lot of
perceived value by purchasing early, you know, and it’s really, you see that across season pass
initiatives across one day ticket initiatives and then the online component really just allows us to
keep a nice guardrail on, on that, um, you know, on what we can do because it might be, you can purchase
now, but the ticket’s not valid to, um, maybe a couple more weeks or maybe it is valid now. So, um,
what we’re able to do with that can really help influence sort of that price point and, um,
and, and sort of give the guest, you know, the most, um, um, ideal, um, the opportunity for their visit.
And I would imagine that those advanced ticket sales online are also kind of helping you determine
staffing for that weekend, right? You’ve got that super awesome, amazing day in the fall that’s sunny
and everyone wants to get out. Right, right, right, right, right, right, right,
um, it’s not cold yet, um, but, uh, just kind of being able to see how many tickets are being sold
in advance online to know how to prepare for that. That’s good to you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know,
I love this, I think in our space, there’s, there’s definitely a spectrum. There are some way more
sophisticated attractions that do the value of pricing. I love what you said about getting out early,
you know, the holiday event, you know, it may be in November, it’s price A as we get closer to
Christmas, it’s price B or price C. But I think a big challenge that our space to see in Jenny is
some, some outfits, the ticketing system isn’t quite there yet. It’s a little bespoke. It’s,
there’s the walk-up price and then there’s the online price. So I think we’re seeing more consolidation
and in the ticketing system to become more powerful and more flexible that, you know, the
for-profit world’s been doing for years. But I think that’s a nice takeaway for our audience is
here are some of the other benefits of, you know, upgrading that ticket system, that ticketing
system to be able to have the capability to do exactly what you’re talking about, Jack.
Absolutely, absolutely.
You’re listening to the Marketing Attractions podcast. Conversations on how non-profit attractions
are increasing attendance and sharing their mission through marketing. Your hosts are Ryan Dick
and Jenny Williams of attend media. Attend media is a media planning and buying agency, specializing
in zoos, aquariums, gardens and museums. For more information, please visit attend.media. Now back to Ryan
and Jenny. Well, let’s talk about kind of pricing when it comes to messages. So you’ve got a lot of
different permissions that go on, you know, you’re the variable pricing throughout the year and then
also all these events. Like, is there anything left in messaging for actual brand anymore or is
really everything a bit focused, seasoned past focused or some other kind of multi-part, multi-day
kind of visit or a promotional point? Yes. Yeah, that’s it. So, so, you know, really kind of,
you know, brand, the brand is our brand and that’s always going to be on the first, you know, when
we’re talking about seasonality, when we’re talking about as an event like, you know, with Carnival,
Grand Carnival, which is again, our summer, a lot of our summer, Marty Gral,
talk, ask event that we rolled out at several parts and still continue to do so.
It’s it’s it’s it’s also incorporated is it is an event that is incorporated in what we call our
key season, our summer season. So you’re it’s it’s about okay, hindsight high level, you’ve it’s
the theme park, the water park, the event. So it all these things take sort of together, sort of
makes up. Okay, what is what is our brand? You know, it’s it was some parts issues is, you know,
this theme park, water park together, two for one, sort of that, you know, that holistic day of fun,
you know, and that’s really, you know, at the end of the day at Cedar Fair, you know, our our
brand is that we make people happy. And and sort of that is when we want people to think about what
who we are and what we what we do, our creative does convey that. Obviously, once,
when there’s events and timeliness, when those those moments where we want to drive urgency,
that’s when you start to see a little bit more of that, that promotional messaging come through,
really, you know, you know, and it does a few things for us, it does we go, we it you see brand,
you know, accomplishes brand is it sort of drives that FOMO, you know, we want to still a sense of
FOMO, so when people see these, this is creative and the messaging, got them make some want to,
okay, what it’s it’s, you know, I want to be there, I don’t want to mess out on this. And then,
of course, the timeliness is that sense of urgency to sort of push, you know, this this great value
offer, you know, before for time runs out. So, so really when we think about like what we’re,
how we’re communicating and what we’re messaging, we take those components and really sort of,
and merst those together to ensure that we’re, you know, we’re achieving the urgency, the FOMO and brand.
Brand is still in everything, just always kind of lead into several other avenues as well.
Right, you know, in our world, it’s, it’s, I think we still get a lot of, I don’t want to,
I guess I’ll use the word pushback, but the emphasis has always been on spreading the mission, right?
What is this attraction? What is this, this institution doing for the local community? And I feel
Jenny and I are sometimes, you know, Jack, we’re on your side where, hey, the event, we need people to come,
we can spread our mission once they’re in our gates, once they’re in our doors. So it’s always that kind
of that arm wrestle between, we have limited resources, we don’t have the unlimited budget to do both
at the same time. So where is that, that balance? And I think that’s a continual struggle that
we’ll be talking about in 10 years. My direct experience was that sea life. I mean, we were,
believe it or not, we were a very, very, very small team and we had, they’re a very low paid
budget. So that first year, we relied heavily, heavily on a lot of earned and organic opportunity.
And so by doing that, we would do our own sort of milestones, so like if it’s in the aquarium,
for example, of course you have the ground breaking, but then, you know, you have like a,
we had, we brought the media out quite a bit when the water, when we filled the big ocean tank
with water, we partnered with the local, the towns fire department and they ran in a big hose and
they shot the water and they had the siren. I mean, it was really cool. When we, then when the fish came in,
you know, we brought the fish up from, I think it was some destined or something. So, you know,
the whole journey from the first fish that arrived into the aquarium, then I’ll ultimately up to
to the big day of grand opening. And so by doing that, you know, really cost us nothing from,
you know, from a, from a media standpoint, everything that we got was, was a 100% earned for those events.
And it was just simply, you know, just coming up with some thinking outside of the box,
aside from just your traditional, you know, paid media plan approach.
I like that a lot, Jack. I’m actually going to steal that. I just had to, I just had to think about it.
That’s perfectly because, okay, so paid media, you got to pay for it. It’s expensive, right? Yeah.
We don’t have Cheerio’s budgets. Right. So let’s use our paid media to focus on our events, our promotion.
But really leaning into our earns and in our own media to make sure that is
mission-based, spreading that mission. Let’s forget about, hey, we got this super event coming on.
We don’t need a PR push for that. Yeah, because that’s what captures the human interest in it all.
I mean, people are, the people are interested. And you know, and it’ll be surprised the following,
when we were, you know, when we were bringing the fish up from, from Florida, it was happened to be
during, it was 2000, it was 10 years ago, 2000, 2014 coming up. It was that we had that, I don’t know if
you guys remember, but it was I really, I remember it was a really, really bad ice storm down in Atlanta.
Area. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We remember that. I was there. Well, our fish ran that traffic.
Nightwear. Taco, when they’re delaying everything. But what it did, you know, because we had to push back
our media of it for it, I believe. And, and so as they were, you know, looking into that, you know,
the human interest, like, okay, because it was in one of these trucks that, you know, it was very,
I mean, that they were like, the animals were treated like rock stars. I mean, it had, it had all the
life support in there. It was this really nice decked out, you know, their own personal limousine
coming up, coming up the Charlotte. So, you know, there was a lot of interest. I mean, we were getting
hits like out in Washington, state, I believe, you know, about, okay, so there’s these fish are on
their journey. How are they they’re having to they’re going to be hitting Atlanta traffic. How are
they? How are they? How are they kept safe? And so it gave us like great opportunity to showcase,
you know, what exactly, you know, the care and the, the initiative that the company and has had
already thought about already taken in place, we’re able to showcase that. Just due to that sort of
what, what was very high, well, very highly news, worthy at the moment with the, with the ice and
the traffic that it turned out to be a very nice positive hit thrust. That’s, that’s lemonade out of
lemons right there. That’s exactly. So, so yes, that was, that was an early day like just jump right
into the right, right into the deep ends. Well, Jenny, I know you had a conversation with Jack,
kind of going into some of the media stuff, TV versus no TV. Would you guys talk about? Yeah. I mean,
well, and I think, you know, for time off, you are here, right? So let’s talk about to just what,
I think, what you need to do to be able to actually build those relationships with that local
community and so for cultural attractions, whose primary market typically is obviously their local
market and building those relationships is so important. You know, I think it’s hard for a lot to
shift away from traditional media and traditional media outlets like TV to radio provide so much
additional support, but it’s just lots and dots and I’ve got to imagine for your parks that’s the same.
But yeah, touch us a little bit. You’ve done some testing where maybe 2020 sort of drove everyone
in a slightly different direction. What happened then? What happened? What do you mean?
What do you mean? I’m going to go now. No, absolutely. So obviously, you know, we, we had,
what we, what we, we sort of seen here at the theme park world over the course of now the last five
years, you know, but prior to pandemic, it was a very well, I would say a well-oiled machine as it
was approached to the media, you know, really, even as digital was coming on, there are still that,
there were still that respectful mix between both the traditional and new digital at the time.
And so, Jenny, as you probably remember, you know, how we, how we orchestrated at, at Dollywood over
those years, you know, it was a very, it was a very standard sort of process. And so after, after
2020, of course, you know, just if no, no secret financial impact across our industry and more,
it was okay. So taking that into consideration as parks were starting to come back on, we needed to
talk about it, right? So, it, we, you know, to kind of took the, the approach with my, our senior
leadership, you know, and other, and I know other companies as well is to gravitate off of that
more traditional platform, such as your television radio. And there was, you know, we had, I mean,
I mean, I don’t want to, I was over here on this team at the time, I don’t want to speak so much
for Brand, but I believe I had 100% was all digital at the moment at that time. And so, because when,
you know, what we saw once the, the, that first year at back out when the market was very excited
to be able to get outside and do things, we did, if we’re all sorry industry, we saw great performance
in terms of our season pass sales, our, our admission. And particularly too, during that time period,
even a little bit before, when we opened our parks, we had a, we had, there was, there was restrictions,
do you remember those restrictions? So, there were restrictions on attendance, there were restrictions
on, you know, what, what guests can and can’t do at, at the park. So, you know, we wanted to kind of
make sure we strike that balance of, okay, hey, we’re open, but hey, you know, we got to keep it,
we got to keep it modest and so, and that was a complete paradigm shift in our world, because
up until 2020, it was all about get as much people in the gate as, as, as you can. So, so by pulling back
on that, we, it, it able us to sort of put sort of level out that modest level of volume, that,
and at least until that demand, because we was just wasn’t sure of what demand was, was, was going to be.
Now, what you’re starting to see as we’re starting to feel, feel more normal in the new normal, I guess,
is you know, we’re starting to see a lot of things sort of returning back to, to those, those pre-prep
pandemic days and, and, and, and, and, and, and we’re appropriate, particularly, you know, to drive
the urgency, forth, with the cross, with radio, with frequency, with radio, visibility, with tv. So,
there are, there is starting to, what you was seeing, I’ve seen around Charlotte, there’s some, you
know, there’s actually some carewins commercials, though, we’re, we’re back into the, you know, out of home,
back into out of home campaigns, I know, to drive, you know, we have, we’re in season pass,
campaign right now, so, so we have that going on. But one thing that going sort of going back to
that traditional, then, particularly with radio, it, it, it enabled, is enabling us to re-engage
with our media partners again, and so, with that, you know, you know, just aside from your, your
traditional buy, one thing I, I still love and will always love about radio is, is the relationships
that you, that you work with with our local, our local radio partners, and so,
and it, it, it was a great for the, for the theme park world, because, by being able to,
a secure, all added value, traditionally our, our partners have always come to, to come to bat for us,
help supplement, you know, dark periods, Jenny would know this, dark periods in, you know,
a schedule, can supplement that either with spots, or it can help provide value to one of our events.
So, that’s one thing, you know, and really, you know, it, working on these, those added value things,
your relationships is really just a cost of our relationship, right? So, it’s, it’s stuff that,
you know, it’s very low cost to us, and, you know, from out of pocket, from an out of pocket perspective,
and, you know, really helps amplify, amplify our voice.
Yeah, it’s, it all works together, right? So, you just can’t, you can’t get that type of same value
with, you know, the streaming platforms that are out on both TV or radio, but,
but they’re an important part of a plan too, right? So, it’s, it’s good to see, I think a lot of people
think that the, the big guys are all digital, and it’s not quite true yet. Right, right, and, and,
particularly, and now, one thing we’re also seeing aside from, from, just like, added, media added value,
is going back to those partnerships, you know, the local partnerships, whether we’re partnering,
you know, with the, you know, if a local fast, a fast food restaurant for like, like a McDonald’s,
for example, is, you know, you know, I know we are in the digital age now, and the ticketing is,
is, is, yes, it’s on our e-commerce. So, you know, back in the day, you know, you would go to your,
local McDonald’s, pick up your caravan’s coupon and come in. You know, and while, you know,
e-commerce has taken the fair majority of that, but what it still allows us to do is, like, when you
partner with somebody like a McDonald’s, it, it helps as, for, for once, for it, I mean, is that
reach, right? Is the visibility is people, people going in to get happy meals, and they’re, you know,
and, and they’re seeing your brand. It gives us then to even latch onto, you know, co-op partnerships.
Here’s the Ronald McDonald house that, that we could, that we could make those connections with. So,
and again, and, and, and when we have, like, even those larger QSRs, it, it’s really just the price of,
you know, some, some, you know, POS and, you know, for pay for the coupon, pay for the,
whether it’s a Yard sign or a window-cling, and, you know, normally, there’s, there’s co-op opportunities
with, even with the media, traditionally even, you know, we’ve, we’ve, we’ve tagged, we’ve, we’ve been able
to tag, you know, eat the partner on our media and us on, on their media. So, just, just a vast
array of opportunity, that, that you can achieve through partnerships that would be very little
out of pocket cost to the organization. Yeah, that’s, that’s something I think everyone can,
and really benefit from, no matter the size, right? So, if it’s, especially if it’s cost-effective
to do something like that, it makes it all more worth it. All right, Jack. So, put your nonprofit
marketing hat on. Okay. What do you think nonprofit attraction should be doing more or less of
in their marketing? You know, I just kind of going back to the last, the last discussion,
the value of partnerships. I mean, especially from a nonprofit perspective, they’re,
there are people out wanting to work, to work with you. At least, I know if me coming from a profit
organization, you know, when we have those opportunities before, I mean, we’ve worked with
the plethora of organizations around the Charlotte market at Dollywood and, you know, whether it’s
a spare bill or an art spill market, being able to, to watch on to those initiatives is, is the co-op
opportunities can really help magnify your voice, expand your reach. And then looking at,
you know, even finding ways that, you know, through these partnerships, could it, could it, could it,
could, where is the incremental, the incremental opportunity there, you know, whether maybe it is,
you know, testing out a ticket promotion. And, you know, and it, maybe, you know, it doesn’t have to be
like a grand McDonald’s. It could be, you know, it could be a local partner, you know, something that,
that is very sort of, you know, kind of tied, tied into, you know, just to, just to the local market,
just to get things, to kind of get things started. And then as that, the first year process kind of
goes through is just kind of, you know, adjust and, and, you know, as you go. And then like, from,
from an end, from an end, then you perspective, finding those unique outside of the box opportunities
that, that could drive incremental, incremental dollars inside your venue, you know, whether that is
some sort of, you know, an up sale or maybe it’s a, maybe it’s, if you can execute a dining plan,
or, you know, or maybe it is a ticket bundle, looking at different initiatives, maybe it’s,
you’ve made, maybe it’s a, it’s a, going to events, maybe it’s a, you know, for mom and dad,
maybe it’s a beer or a weekend, you know, where you partner with several of your local, local beers,
and maybe there’s a, with a, a, a ticket, our dollar bounce back on an admission ticket,
so find an organization, a partner with another organization. So every ticket sold for this, you know,
you get, you can get this inside the park, but every dollar you sell, we’re going to send it back to,
to the organization, then hey, you got a P, you got a PR event that, that, that you can schedule in
a couple of weeks, we know with the big check and everything. So, yeah, it’s, it’s so, it’s so, it’s so,
you know, we can talk about this, you know, way, way on end, it’s just, just, just to keep, keep it up,
don’t, don’t give up on, don’t give up on things too quickly, you know, things like things,
bike partnerships and all it takes time. I mean, you know, I, I was at care wins, I was even at
care wins prior to go into the Hollywood, Jenny, and so it was still, I, when I count back, I was still,
it, there’s a lot of instances where I went right back to those partners and we’re picking up and
still continuing to develop and improve as, as we’re going just until we, you know, until we kind of
crack that, that, that nut. So, yeah, partnerships, outside the box opportunities that, what’s, what’s
going to appeal, you know, what, what, what can you do that the other person’s not doing? Like,
you know, I was going to say, like, what, what’s something that, you know, you guys can do that, maybe
the, the bigger the, the for profits aren’t, aren’t doing, you know, what, what makes you different
and just latch on to that will certainly, certainly help.
Jack Stevenson from Carol Cedar Faire Entertainment. Thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Jack. Thank you.
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