Bemusement - The Attractions Industry Blog

Tuesday, May 25, 2010 Will the FIFA World Cup also bring visitors to uShaka Marine World?    The long awaited 2010 FIFA World Cup (11 June – 11 July) is almost upon South Africa. After some three years of building stadiums, upgrading roads, indabas (traditional meetings) and arguments, celebrations of every shape and form......View more

Thursday, August 20, 2009 Museums: Tills at Britain's Museums ringing as if it's Christmas    Interesting feature today about how the UK's museums and stately homes are seeing a huge increase in "cultural retail sales" as stay-at-home-holidaymakers splash out on cultural keepsakes and mementos. London's Natural History Museum has seen a 21% increase in gift shop sales and the National Trust's 220 shops have generated over £36 million...
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Tuesday, July 28, 2009 Amusement Parks: Freestyle Hairloss.    The London Bridge Experience is looking for a zombie on £30k a year . Great PR/marketing stunt very similar to the recent “Best job in the world” PR campaign run by the Queensland Tourism Authority......View more

Friday, July 10, 2009 Attractions Marketing: Twittering and 100 million Marie Celestes.    Blogs are so 2008 aren’t they? Just 12 months ago it seemed like every man and his dog had their own blog. Millions of stream-of-consciousness online journals were launched and the blogosphere had developed into a virtual world where everyone and their opinion was important. It was a free for all - everyone’s opinion could be heard. The traditional media, newspaper, radio and television, was so old hat, with their so-called “experts” and their interesting, clever and well informed people......View more

Sunday, May 17, 2009 Amusement Parks: Going for a Thong    The themed entryway into a Disney park, Universal’s Islands of Adventure, SeaWorld, Alton Towers or indeed any well-designed amusement park property contains images, signs, sounds and symbols that promise thrills and high adrenaline experiences and build a heightened sense of anticipation in the visitor. Guests at Love Land, “China's first sex theme park,” will be greeted by a pair of huge, disembodied legs...
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Saturday, May 09, 2009 Special Venue Media: Musings on the Fulldome Market    "So, what's the fulldome market like these days?" That's a question we hear at Loch Ness Productions pretty often--and it's a serious topic of conversation any time two or more fulldome theater folk (or those who want to be in fulldome) get together. In the past year I've had conversations with several media producers at various meetings who expressed some interest in "getting into the fulldome market."...View more

Sunday, February 01, 2009 Social networking : The Accidental Network    I clicked “Send” and in the moment of clicking, realized I had done the opposite of what I had intended. I had invited the omitted names instead of the selected ones......View more

Sunday, January 25, 2009 An Amusement Park? Good Night Bush - A Marketing Story    An interesting piece of guerrilla marketing showed up in some industry inboxes shortly before the inauguration of President Obama. On first glance it appeared that an architectural firm was sharing an interactive site plan for a commemorative educational venue themed on the GW Bush administration......View more

Wednesday, January 07, 2009 Marketing and Customer Service: What are You Really Selling, and to Whom?    I spent nine years running a small retail music store with my husband, and an ongoing concern was the physical layout of the space. I watched closely how customers moved through the store, what caught their attention, how they handled merchandise and how their behavior indicated comfort or discomfort....View more

Tuesday, October 28, 2008 The Attractions Industry Press wants to be your Marketing Partner    In the age of electronic media, the industry press has a different format but its role is essentially the same as before: facilitate the exchange of information, report on trends, projects and people, and help you connect with customers....View more

Friday, September 05, 2008 Amusement parks: Just the Ticket    The best marketing is generous marketing. It works on multiple levels, reinforcing relationships in a way that benefits the whole amusement park indsutry . It sells the uplift while positioning the product, and leaps over obstacles, objections and even rivalries. And, it’s easy to understand. Amusement Today’s annual Golden Ticket Awards is a fine example....View more

Tuesday, June 03, 2008 Focusing on Families    Hi. It’s Will again. I said I’d try to share the benefits of what I’ve learned through a life lived in and around a theme park, Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari. I’d like to kick off with a lesson I learned nearly 20 years ago about focus. Twenty years ago (OK, 25 if you’re keeping track), we were a smaller family park called Santa Claus Land. ...View more