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Dec 23, 2011
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About Marketing & Public Relations


Marketing and Public Relations is a major part of most businesses. In fact, when starting a business it is crucial to have a great marketing plan. Marketing and Public Relations mainly works as any official response you get from the park in general (not from team members individually) or anything advertising the park in any way. So this includes, television advertisements, website advertisements, billboard advertisements, radio advertisements, social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Youtube, etc.), social media special events, and so forth. This department at the park also controls the admission prices and the various deals and discounts offered and they have full control over the passes and their benefits as well. Essentially, this is the thread to discuss about all of that wonderful stuff. Keep in mind per Shane's request all social media discussion specifically should be kept in the Social Media thread.
 
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RE: BGW Marketing

I predeict that this news will be super important to the future of the park. Let's discuss!
 
RE: BGW Marketing

Unless the marketing director totally cleans house of the old influences and practices, it'll be the same old crap in 2013.

Glad to see my potshots on Twitter made a difference though!
 
RE: Marketing Department

FYI- As a former marketing coordinator for a similar sized tourist attraction, typically this position is very entry level. Don't expect anything grand.
 
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RE: Marketing Department

Just something to dawdle on but the park has been posting marketing jobs on and off the past few seasons. I will say that I had a friend interested in joining their marketing team until he saw the pay rate. He said he did not go to college for a degree to earn a pay rate that low.

Perhaps marketing is just extremely unexperience and unmotivated to actually work.

Also, quick fact, the call center that you would call for BGW is now being used as the main hub for Marketing, ever since they switched to the 1-800 number that takes you to Florida.
 
RE: Marketing Department

I updated the OP to be more uniform. It gives some background into the department and it's goals as well as the perception of the department from a general point of view.
 
Here are just a few radio stations the park will be using to play ads: 107.7, 102.9, Z104, and 101.3. The main focus right now is more on getting areas like Washington D.C. and Baltimore, and New York for tourists. That seems to be their main goal and they really seem to be pushing marketing hard up there.

One of the biggest things they are really pushing for is the 1-park pass. It is assumed that $10 a month is a great deal for all that Busch Gardens has to offer and that many people have $10 a month they can give away.
 
They better push harder for up north. Here in NOVA, haven't heard (or seen) a single commercial. (I have seen a few married ones. though! :p Sorry, I had to)
 
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I saw a few BGW ads last year, here in Arlington. But I generally don't watch live TV or listen to broadcast radio, so who knows what I missed.

The only discount coupons I have seen are for Hershey and I think KD (?).
 
My mother and most of my extended family actually lives in Washington County MD and they are ALWAYS seeing Busch Gardens ads (at least for the past couple of years). Maybe it has to do with your cable provider (they have DirectTV I think).
 
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Good point. We have several different providers up here. I actully have Verizon Fios. Maybe Time Warner or Comcast run more ads? Or maybe I just miss them, since I tend to watch BBC News, my DVR, and On Demand.
 
Posting this here since these people are the ones who control such things.

The park's mobile app has been completely redesigned for iOS 7.0 and is not compatible with iOS 7.1 yet. Looking back in the app store and at their time table of updates, they went from version 1.8 to 5.0. Most of those updates being bug fixes and special event updates.
 
^In case anyone was wondering, the Android version still sux and has not been updated from CT.  Probably in a few weeks I suppose. Still not enough for me to go Apple. ;)
 
Woke up to the Android BGW app update this morning. Pleasantly surprised at the timeliness of it. Will have more to say about it in the appropriate thread.


EDIT:
Is there a thread for BGW's app? Don't really need one I suppose.
Well let me just say that the newly designed app is a mighty good step up from its previous incarnation. If it is like the iOS app then it suffers from the same problems Evan mentioned. Still nice to see improvement though. ;)
 
I just downloaded and played around with the app and tried out most of the features. So far, I think this is a great start to an app, but it seems they got lazy halfway through. I can tell because I've seen things that I would have done if I got lazy. One of the key problems is menus where they just got lazy. Some menus show a plain list, while others give you the generic copy and paste description. Also, would it kill for some decent menu formatting instead of just plain text? I noticed they have no nurseries added to the map, and the ATMs are only located in the previous areas and does not reflect the current locations. Also the calendar only goes so far as the first week of May and I would at least like the opportunity to click on closed days to at least see a closed notice instead of the faded calendar days, or most preferred both.

However, despite the app's problems and faults, it has encouraged me to do some more work.
 
Evan said:
It sucks for iOS as well. Its missing key elements. Horrible designed and it is extremely hard to navigate.

I think it's a big improvement from the previous version. There are definitely some quirks and it obviously isn't laid out in the way I've done the BGWFans app, but for the standard person visiting the park, it will probably be sufficient.

I think it's a good thing, it means people looking for an alternative to the official app (due to it sucking) won't download mine expecting features that could only be implemented with help from the park (like wait times) and then leave one star reviews. My app can be what I want it to be, a reference tool for the community with a focus on content, news & discussion. It seems like the new park app is putting a focus on selling tickets & up sell products from the app rather than making content the main concern.
 
So I had the TV on some random Law & Order cable station last night as I was doing laundry, and I saw both a SW and BGW ad over the course of two hours.

The Sea World ad was about the Sea of Surprises 50th Anniversary Celebration. I don't recall the BGW one, since I wasn't really looking at the TV. I think it was just you typical "here are cool things at BGW; come spend money." But least it was there on TV.

I also saw a documentary on the making of Antarctica. The penguins were hilarious. It seemed like positive marketing that SW could use right now, even though is obviously a few years old. The same Sea of Surprises ad came on.
 
The department recently go a new team member on their content marketing team. He will primarily provide his experience video production, writing, and marketing.
 
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