- Universal Studios: Toe-to-Toe with the Mouse
THE CHALLENGE:
Universal wanted help generating marketing and hotel concepts for the exciting new theme park under construction at Universal Studios Florida–ideas that would guarantee the success of their exciting ‘Islands of Adventure’ attraction.
An entertainment company built on a solid foundation of innovation, Universal knew that it needed bold ideas to achieve its goal, they asked Synecticsworld to help its marketing people think imaginatively about ways to capture the minds and hearts of people.
THE PROCESS:
In total, Synecticsworld’s facilitators helped Universal with three separate projects:
- Encourage the Orlando theme park marketers to come up with names for the new destination, which expanded from a single, one-day park, to an attraction people might base an entire vacation on, starting with two separate parks, a shopping district and several hotels.
- Create theme hotel concepts.
- Generate marketing activities to drive attendance in the first three years of the park’s opening.
THE RESULTS:
Among the ideas created by the Synecticsworld-led team of Universal employees were:
- The destination’s new name
- The brilliant customer-service concept of allowing hotel guests to use their door keys as a credit card for purchasing goods and services anywhere in the park, and having purchases delivered right to the rooms so visitors didn’t have to lug them around all day.
- Encouraging schools to take educational tours and classes on such topics as dinosaurs (since the Orlando park features Jurassic Park).
In all, the Synecticsworld-led sessions generated eighty ideas.
Two years after the new theme park opened, Amusement Business magazine reported that 5.5 million people streamed through the turnstiles at Universal’s ‘Islands of Adventure’, snaring the popular entertainment destination an unbelievable 17% market share from its major competitor, Disney’s Orlando attractions.
