3122007 163040 london zoo marketing project

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ZSL LONDON ZOO GORILLA KINGDOM OPENING

Winner of Best Marketing Project at the BIAZA awards 2007

SUMMARY

Gorilla Kingdom is one of the most ambitious projects ever created by a UK visitorattraction. Opened Easter 2007 by HRH Duke of Edinburgh the exhibit has been supportedby an extensive marketing campaign which began back in the summer of 2006.

The marketing campaigns main focus was on a high presence in outdoor media through a4-sheet poster campaign on the underground. This was heavily supported our continuedstrong relationship with Magic FM through travel and transport sponsorship, spot advertsand co-promotions.

We also advertised on Heart FM and Capital FM for the first time. Our key aim was toensure frequency of the message.

These activities were backed by a strong internet presence through Google adwords, aninteractive downloadable game, an extensive travel trade strategy, guerrilla marketingactivity, lamppost banner advertising and through tourism press.

The Marketing Department made a commitment to ZSL directors to increase visitor incomein 2007 and as a result were awarded an increase in our budget for the year. This allowedus to undertake a number of new initiatives and to reach further audiences than in pastyears.

ZSL London Zoo is currently experiencing its best visitor figures for a number of years withover 1 million by the end of the year. It has achieved the best Easter since 1989, the most

successful June since 1982 and the most successful July since 1992. We are also scoringexcellent key performance indicators (KPIs) and achieving enjoyment levels higher than inprevious years.

PROJECT AIMS AND TARGET MARKET

The aim of ZSL London Zoos marketing campaign in 2007 was to promote the opening ofGorilla Kingdom. A 5.3 million investment by ZSL which was the biggest exhibit to open atthe Zoo for 20 years.

The main messages that we wished to communicate were the up-close experience visitorswould receive to our Western Lowland Gorillas when they visited the exhibit, the overall

immersiveness of the exhibit, and that ZSL London Zoo is a green oasis in the middle ofthe capital.

The objectives for this campaign were: To increase visitor figures from 883,092 in 2006 to 950,000 in 2007 Achieve 48K internet ticket sales over the year To increase turnover from 7,576,929 in 2006 to 8,979,518 in 2007 Achieve 520% Return on investment in ticket revenue and 820% Return on investment

in overall revenue For the groups travel trade sector, the objective was to increase total visitors by

25% in 2007 to 110,000 generating over 1,000,000 in terms of revenue. Increase e.news subscribers from 12,000 20,000 Improve on the Key Performance Indicators achieved in 2006. Achieve 50% of visitors to ZSL London Zoo to have seen or heard an advert about the

Zoo


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Achieve 60% of visitors to ZSL London Zoo to be looking forward to seeing GorillaKingdom

Our target audience for this campaign was:

Primary

ABC1 families consisting of adults age 25-44 with children under 15years of age, who live in London and the surrounding counties.

Secondary

Overseas tourist

PROJECT METHODS/DESCRIPTION

The first stage of this project began in the summer of 2006 when we had to develop aname for the new exhibit due to open Easter 2007.

Name development was the responsibility of the marketing department. Initialbrainstorming sessions were held in order to develop a number of options for the name.These were then researched with our visitors in order to decide on a final name, askingthem questions such as what these name conjure in your mind, do you think these aresuitable for the description of the exhibit etc.

The final name was then taken through to brand development and a logo design andguidelines were produced. This branding was carried through into many areas, such asmerchandising, exhibit design, interpretation and marketing literature.

The overall creative for this campaign was developed in December 2006. This when then

carried through in all activity that was undertaken throughout the campaign.

We wanted to develop a creative which communicated the wonder of the Gorillas, as wellas the feeling of a green oasis within London, where visitors can escape and experiencesomething close to the real African rainforest.

Our USP of animals allowed us to achieve stand out within the London market. Weapplied for additional budget from the ZSL council in 2007 to enable us to up weight thesuccessful strategy that we had followed in previous years.

As well as the main activity outlined in the marketing strategy we undertook a number ofnew elements in 2007 which added to the success of the campaign.

These included:

Branding

To coincide with the opening of Gorilla Kingdom ZSL re-branded its two Zoos.March the 1st saw the launch of ZSL London Zoo. We were able to piggy-backthis re-brand on the Gorilla Kingdom marketing activities as they provided anexcellent platform for the new brand to appear. All marketing activity and creativetook the new brand guidelines into consideration and these will continue to befollowed in all future marketing activity. By introducing ZSL into the name of theZoo we are able to communicate our conservation work and begin to increaseawareness of the ZSL brand.

Travel Trade


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Extensive marketing to the groups and travel trade industry was undertaken. Thisbegan in June 2006 when we developed a themed, high quality mailer anddistributed this to an extensive list within the industry. Updates were thencommunicated through our newsletter Monkey Business which was distributedthrough prominent group travel magazines and to the trade and group traveldatabase. We offered hard hat tours to interested parties of the exhibit beforeopening and organized exclusive deals with a number of European Partners ontickets to Gorilla Kingdom for their clients. Further promotion was undertaken athigh profile trade shows such as British Travel Trade Fair. Not only was a gorillamascot walking around the show, but the official launch and publicity shots for theshow were taken at ZSL London Zoo, again with the gorilla mascot in the photosaccompanied by ZSL staff and the BTTF event organiser. This made it into a highnumber of trade press. This was finished off with a joint travel trade and corporateparty with over 600 industry members having the opportunity to come andexperience the exhibit once it had opened.

Web/Email

In July we launched a gorilla game which allows people to download a gorilla to

their desktops and look after it for three weeks. The top three people who lookafter theirs the best and therefore score the highest will have the opportunity tomeet our gorillas behind the scenes. We received extensive PR from this launch,including a 7 minute slot on Chris Evans drive time show on Radio 2.

A microsite was developed for Gorilla Kingdom on the ZSL website. This consistedof video footage of interviews with the keepers, information on the Gorillas andphotography of the exhibit in process and on completion.

Email banners were designed and all members of staff at ZSL were asked toinclude them within their auto signatures. These consisted of Opening Soonversions and Now Open versions

Radio

Live recordings of children at the Zoo and their reaction to the exhibit were playedthrough Magic FM during the Easter Holidays. We also chose a ZSL voice whichwas on brand and this has been used in all radio adverts produced through theyear in order for us to create continuity. Along side the radio promotion Magic Fmsent out a GK themed e-newsletter to their online subscribers.

For the summer we sponsored both the Travel and Transport element of MagicFMs daytime shows and the internet radio player.

Partnerships/Promotions

In order to encourage visitors from outside London we were part of the ATOC 2 for1 train promotion offer and appeared in all of their promotion activity. We also

offered a VIP animal experience and tickets to the Zoo competition prize for themto offer their customers.

Developing a destination marketing project with colleagues in the Regents Parkarea. ZSL London Zoo instigated and coordinated this project, which saw uscreating joint partnerships with Madame Tussauds and the Open Air Theatreamongst others. This marketing campaign is due to run for the whole year and issupported by its own website visitregentspark.co.uk

We developed a partnership with UKTV in relation to their tropical documentaryseason. This involved cross promotion through both of our websites and acompetition provided by us of a gorilla encounter, visit to the Zoo and overnightaccommodation in a London hotel. This competition, which was ZSL London Zoobranded, attracted 4258 entries.

All visitors to ZSL London Zoo in 2006 received a price ticket to return to the Zooin 2007 in order to see Gorilla Kingdom. Since Gorilla Kingdom has opened wehave had 1905 people take up this offer. This was to acknowledge the fact that


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through 2006 ZSL London Zoo was a building site with all our new developmentstaking place.

Television

An 8 minute feature on Gorilla Kingdom was recorder by Blue Peter and went outon the day of opening.

Events

Visit London held their annual summer party at ZSL London Zoo within the GorillaKingdom area. This bought the most influential people within the London tourismindustry into the new exhibit for the evening.

We also held a number of events for other stakeholders. These included:

ZSLs 180th Anniversary Gala on the 21 Sept 2006 which was a fundraisingGala to promote GK and related gorilla conservation work to a high levelaudience, including HRH The Earl of Wessex.

Meet the Gorillas members event on the 26 April 2007. This was anevening private view of Gorilla Kingdom open to all Friends and Fellows ofZSL.

Gorilla Kingdom showcase event for potential and existing corporatesponsors was held on 19th April 2007.

On July 27th we held Zoo Nights at ZSL London Zoo. This attracted 4922 peopleand allowed them to see the Zoo by night. The marketing creative for this eventwas based around the Gorillas and again promoted the new exhibit.

Research

We have an extensive Market Research strategy in place which consists ofquarterly exit surveys, creative research to monitor the awareness and success ofour marketing activity, and focus groups with visitors and none visitors.

Other

The Gorilla Kingdom project was partly funded by the GLA. This allowed us toliaise with them regarding marketing and offered us opportunities that we would notusually have been able to access, such as leaflet distribution throughout allunderground stations for the whole of August and an advert within the Metronewspaper during July.

The creative was continued through 45 lamppost banners in Camden, leadingpeople to the Zoo. This has improved visitors opinion on ease of finding the Zoowhen they travel here by public transport.

Guerrilla marketing activity out on the streets in high tourism spots was undertaken.This consisted of Gorillas handing out postcards around tourism sites in Londonand the aim was to create word of mouth

We have placed a number of adverts within tourist publication both here andabroad, for example the Visit London City Guide and the Dutch version of the VisitBritain guide

We worked with the British Waterways and ran a Gorilla driven boat bringingpeople to the Zoo and a competition within the Metro. This resulted in one of themost successful competitions ever recorded within the Metro.

The production of Ikyps, a Gorilla Kingdom themed information leaflet available onsite. These allowed us to undertake further data capture of our visitors on top ofthat which we already obtain through our on site day planners

ZSL exhibited a Gorilla garden at the Chelsea Flower Show in May 2006. This notonly promoted Gorilla Kingdom but the conservation work of ZSL within the fieldand our consideration of using sustainable resources on site.

A School Visits Brochure which was circulated in October 2006 to 7,000 PrimarySchools promoting the forthcoming Gorilla Kingdom.


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RESULTS

Visitors Figures at the end of July 2007 were 686,473 which was 17% above currentbudget. Launch weekend, Easter we received 48,784 visitors which was the highestEaster weekend visitors for 18 years, June saw the highest figures for 25 years, despite itbeing the wettest June on record and July was our best 14 years.

We achieved 601% Return on investment in ticket revenue and 946% Return oninvestment in overall revenue within the first 6 months of 2007.

74% of visitors had seen the Gorilla Kingdom underground campaign and 42% of peoplesaid that the advert had influenced their decision to visit the Zoo.

At the end of June travel trade and group visitor numbers were 33% above budget for theyear.

Education has also had a fantastic year with over 57,000 children attending the Zoo andover 25,500 of them being taught. This is a 36% increase upon last year.

Merchandise, which incorporated the Gorilla Kingdom logo, has proved incrediblysuccessful with the first three months worth of themed merchandise selling within 1 monthof opening of the exhibit.

3122007 163040 london zoo marketing project

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