So if it hasn't been clear by now, something has changed between BGWFans and Busch Gardens Williamsburg.
Throughout BGWFans history, we have never really had a cordial relationship with the park. There have been a few small windows of time in which we have successfully worked together, but relations have never been particularly pleasant. In more recent times, things had become even more strained. Until roughly a month ago, the only communication we had with the park for approximately two years was in the form of legal, content take-down requests. That changed dramatically just recently.
On February the 22nd, BGWFans reached out to Dan Dipiazzo, Vice President of Marketing at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. We offered to work together with the park to figure out how to move forward with the incredibly unfortunate Colonial Pipeline clearing story. We knew we planned to write about it, but, considering the clear-cutting was no fault of BGW's, we wanted to make sure we didn't conflict with whatever the park had already planned to address the issue. To our surprise Dan wrote back.
This story, run the following day, was the result of that collaboration. The source cited inside the post as stating that the landscaping team already has a plan of attack in place, is, in fact, Dan Dipiazzo, VP of Marketing.
Following the opening of this new line of communication, we proposed a behind-the-scenes pre-opening tour of the park to Dan. He instructed us to email Emily Phillips, Associate Manager of Communications. We worked with Emily to iron out availability and a list of what we were interested in seeing. On Thursday, March 10th, BGWFans was welcomed into the park on a private tour by Emily who had set up exclusive, private meetings with both Tim Smith, Busch Gardens Williamsburg's new Manager of Zoological Operations, and Larry Giles, Vice President of the park's Engineering department.
Following that behind-the-scenes look, we have published two articles centered around information we gleamed from that tour. The first, The Resurgence of the Zoology Department, was a story about the new head of the Zoology Department and where he plans to take the department moving forward.
The second, How We Learned About "Carl Lum Blue", was published today and contains a selection of pictures and a wide variety of information regarding what's coming to BGW in 2016. There's a lot of good, new information there that everyone should check out.
Our last article is going to be a real blockbuster as well. Larry Giles gave us the inside scoop on Le Scoot's multi-year renovation project. There is some information in there regarding the history of the ride and the rational behind its renovation that I think all of you will be very interested to read. Stay tuned for that article this week.
Overall, the tour went brilliantly and all of the communication we have had with the park since our first email regarding the Colonial Pipeline has been happy, pleasant, and most importantly, forward-facing. A lot of things have been changing inside the park lately and it seems as though marketing is one of them. In a post published on Febuary 11th to the park's blog, Dan Dipiazzo told the world that the marketing strategy behind Project 2017 was all about taking a risk. All of the action I have seen since that point appears to support that claim entirely.
Moving forward, this thread will house discussion and updates regarding BGWFans's relationship with Busch Gardens Williamsburg. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to share 'em below!
tl;dr: Hell has frozen over, BGWFans and Busch Gardens Williamsburg are working together, you should read these posts: The Resurgence of the Zoology Department and How We Learned About "Carl Lum Blue", and stay tuned for another story this week.
Throughout BGWFans history, we have never really had a cordial relationship with the park. There have been a few small windows of time in which we have successfully worked together, but relations have never been particularly pleasant. In more recent times, things had become even more strained. Until roughly a month ago, the only communication we had with the park for approximately two years was in the form of legal, content take-down requests. That changed dramatically just recently.
On February the 22nd, BGWFans reached out to Dan Dipiazzo, Vice President of Marketing at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. We offered to work together with the park to figure out how to move forward with the incredibly unfortunate Colonial Pipeline clearing story. We knew we planned to write about it, but, considering the clear-cutting was no fault of BGW's, we wanted to make sure we didn't conflict with whatever the park had already planned to address the issue. To our surprise Dan wrote back.
This story, run the following day, was the result of that collaboration. The source cited inside the post as stating that the landscaping team already has a plan of attack in place, is, in fact, Dan Dipiazzo, VP of Marketing.
Following the opening of this new line of communication, we proposed a behind-the-scenes pre-opening tour of the park to Dan. He instructed us to email Emily Phillips, Associate Manager of Communications. We worked with Emily to iron out availability and a list of what we were interested in seeing. On Thursday, March 10th, BGWFans was welcomed into the park on a private tour by Emily who had set up exclusive, private meetings with both Tim Smith, Busch Gardens Williamsburg's new Manager of Zoological Operations, and Larry Giles, Vice President of the park's Engineering department.
Following that behind-the-scenes look, we have published two articles centered around information we gleamed from that tour. The first, The Resurgence of the Zoology Department, was a story about the new head of the Zoology Department and where he plans to take the department moving forward.
The second, How We Learned About "Carl Lum Blue", was published today and contains a selection of pictures and a wide variety of information regarding what's coming to BGW in 2016. There's a lot of good, new information there that everyone should check out.
Our last article is going to be a real blockbuster as well. Larry Giles gave us the inside scoop on Le Scoot's multi-year renovation project. There is some information in there regarding the history of the ride and the rational behind its renovation that I think all of you will be very interested to read. Stay tuned for that article this week.
Overall, the tour went brilliantly and all of the communication we have had with the park since our first email regarding the Colonial Pipeline has been happy, pleasant, and most importantly, forward-facing. A lot of things have been changing inside the park lately and it seems as though marketing is one of them. In a post published on Febuary 11th to the park's blog, Dan Dipiazzo told the world that the marketing strategy behind Project 2017 was all about taking a risk. All of the action I have seen since that point appears to support that claim entirely.
Moving forward, this thread will house discussion and updates regarding BGWFans's relationship with Busch Gardens Williamsburg. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to share 'em below!
tl;dr: Hell has frozen over, BGWFans and Busch Gardens Williamsburg are working together, you should read these posts: The Resurgence of the Zoology Department and How We Learned About "Carl Lum Blue", and stay tuned for another story this week.
