Success Story: Zoombezi Bay
The Challenge
- Zoombezi Bay’s Halloween event, ZOMBIEzi Bay, presented an exciting opportunity to create both widespread awareness and targeted campaigns.
- The goal was to shine a spotlight on this innovative event, driving increased ticket sales, higher attendance, and boosted revenue.
- Successfully achieving these objectives would not only validate the event’s transformational impact on the park but also contribute to its ongoing success and popularity.
The Solution
- Watauga Group differentiated the event from other market competitors by building brand, competitor, and audience insights to refocus event messaging and targeting on a broader Halloween experience beyond just the scare. This strategic shift identified an opportunity to capture a wider audience while standing out in a crowded market.
- To drive early awareness and excitement, Watauga Group conducted a flighting analysis to reprioritize media budgets earlier in the season, aligning with key decision-making windows ahead of Halloween.
- Leveraging historical sales data, Watauga refined the geographic targeting radius to maximize ad spend efficiency and boost conversions.
- Reached a younger audience by emphasizing proven and more effective digital and social media channels as well as through immersive storytelling ad formats.
- By streamlining media buying through a single source, Watauga achieved greater frequency control, consistent creative delivery, precise targeting, and a cohesive KPI tracking and measurement framework — delivering both cost efficiencies and measurable results.
The Results
- 2023 attendance was the highest in ZOMBIEzi Bay’s three-year history.
- Despite having 10% fewer days of operation, attendance showed a 33% year-over-year increase.
- The event showed a 100% increase in online ticket sale revenue.
- Improved return-on-ad spend by 56% across all conversion-media tactics.
