Driving Sales for Aqua Park
Challenge
To drive ticket sales across three sites: Aqua Park Cardiff, Aqua Park Suffolk and Aqua Park Rutland using PR, social media and influencer tactics.
It was vital we expanded reach amongst young people and drive sales amongst parents specifically.
Another key objective was to grow social media to 5,000 followers from scratch for Aqua Park Rutland.
Solution
We knew from carrying out extensive research that the theme of ‘the place to be’ was resonant with our target audiences. We identified key opportunities to bring this to life across social and PR:
- Spotting the increasing appeal of Joe Swash and partnering with him to visit the park and surprise newly qualified lifeguards to test the new park layout
- Curating a newsjacking opportunity around the World Cup by live tweeting and developing freestyle football video content with Guinness World Record Holder Ash Randall
- Leveraging the World Cup to make it more accessible to Aqua Park’s family audience and differentiated it in a saturated market
- Devising a clever paid media strategy to drive conversion and clicks to website
We built social media profiles and audiences from scratch, and developed a social media plan featuring a variety of content styles, including video, photography and bespoke graphics.
Impact
Awards:
- We won two PRCA Dare Awards for our PR and social activity with Aqua Park Rutland and Aqua Park Suffolk
Ticket sales:
- For Aqua Park Rutland we sold over 21,000 tickets in year 1
- By year 2, this rose to a whopping 40,000 – a record number of attendees and sales for the brand
Social:
- Grew the social following by 38,471 from zero over three years on Aqua Park Rutland’s Instagram page
- Acquired 6,886 social media followers for Aqua Park Suffolk over a few months – smashing the KPI of 5,000
- Average monthly engagement rate of 139% on Aqua Park Rutland’s Facebook page
- 1,350 average monthly engagements on Aqua Park Rutland’s Instagram page
PR:
- 223 pieces of coverage across print, broadcast and digital platforms across all three parks:
- 13.6 million reach
- Segment on ITV News Central
- Piece on East Midlands Today
- Coverage in The Guardian, Daily Mail, Mail Online, The Independent, Yahoo!, ITV Wales, BBC Radio Suffolk and Leicester, to name a few
Influencers:
- 108 influencers attended the launch of Aqua Park Suffolk
- 216 influencers attended the launch of Aqua Park Rutland