Give Them Another Reason to Buy

At the time when I joined Ocean Park Hong Kong in 2000, the park was in a very difficult position.   In my earlier articles, we discussed this and the dire need to rejuvenate the park.  It needed to change course from sliding further in deficit to profitability.   While Ocean Park is solely owned by the Hong Kong government, it never had to rely on the government for subsidies.  It had always been financially self-sufficient. 

The goal of this new team was to ensure the park continued to be self-sufficient and never became a burden to the government and Hong Kong taxpayers.

Following the Halloween event in October came the Christmas event.  These two events already represented two new reasons to buy an admission ticket.  How many more reasons could be created during the year?  These special events performed so well that we were confident it was the way to go.   Thus, we looked for every holiday or festival during the year to create an event, “another reason to buy.”  Ultimately 5 special events were created for each year.  When one was completed, the very creative entertainment team prepared for the next one.   Each event ran from 3 to 6 weeks. 

Throughout the year, the team was always planning, preparing, building, and delivering an event.

If you visited the park for one of the events, it was once more than previous when you did not visit at all.  If you visited all the events, that is 5 times a year, thank you very much.

The Lunar New Year (known as Chinese New Year, “CNY”) is a very special time of year for the Chinese community. It is bigger than any other holiday or festival. In most Asian countries, it is celebrated as a holiday for up to three days. In mainland China, the holiday is known as Golden Week, when virtually the entire country is on vacation. It was obvious that CNY was ideal for an event.  

Similar to the other events, CNY offered spectacular entertainment, color, pageantry, noise (lots of noise), and above all FUN.  

There was always an anchor show, very traditional Chinese entertainment, that included music, dance, drums (lots of drums), and fanfare.   Perhaps the most successful shows were the Chinese acrobats, drum troupes, and the awesome Face Changing performance originating from Sichuan opera. If you are not familiar with this art form, google “Face Changing” and experience some of this on YouTube.   You will not be disappointed.

Give them what they want and chances are they will buy!