Jarrett
Most Obnoxious Member 2016
We recently had an announcement at my home park Kings Island regarding an old ride becoming new again, and as with any upcoming announcement, there was a ton of speculation going on. Some were keeping their expectations low, some expected a massive RMC despite no construction on site at the time. Well they announced it...and it was a small family attraction. Those with low expectations were content with it, those wanting the RMC got social media saltier than a can of Campbell's soup. There were all kinds of accusations of having overhyped this announcement, how it's #WhatsInTheShed all over again, all kinds of backlash.
This "hype" they were talking about was referring to a few chunks of wood and fake flowers on the Son of Beast grave, a single poster reading "Number 5 is Alive" at Cedar Point, a few small outlets running wild, and a news story in which Kings Island said they had nothing to do with any of it. A nostalgic Coney Mall scrapbook was also sent to the press teasing the announcement promising that "something old will be new again." The flowers could easily be taken out of the equation, as I personally know one of the Banshee ops that did it and this person had owned up on multiple public Facebook posts to having done it. This "hype" was apparently too much for what we got, however, it was nothing compared to the summers that lead up to Banshee and Mystic being announced. We had giant teaser fences, ominous posters, several vague social media posts, props showing up in the areas, strange objects mailed to media, oh and large plots of construction. It may not have been a Merlin-style "project the Mystic Timbers tree onto the Cincinnati Bell building" viral campaign, but what we saw for those couldn't possibly be compared to the mass hysteria conspiracy garbage that was buzzing around social media around the 16th.
So the question in this thread is: where do you draw the line? Tony put up a small poster as an easter egg at Cedar Point, but how big or numerous do those posters have to be before they're actually hyping something? How many more Son of Beast references would have had to pop up around the park before we could tell it was to be taken seriously? Where does an easter egg or some ride ops screwing around get to the point that it could fairly be mistaken for an actual marketing campaign for something?
Off on a tangent: The whole #WhatsInTheShed controversy of spring 2017 comes to mind here as well, as some felt that Kings Island's beautiful new GCI fell flat as they overhyped the shed-themed show building at the end of the ride. Personally, I don't believe this was the case. The shed was the ride's hashtag, yes, but beyond that, it actually didn't play that large a role in either the marketing or construction coverage of the ride. Many of the images shown on social media were marketing the ride or the theming, not the shed. To me it was something fun to add a uniquely mysterious twist to what would otherwise be a familiar campaign and keep it somewhat unique. Now, this was asking to be made into meme material and I think all the jokes enthusiasts were making about it (Alvey's in the shed har har har, Harambe's in the shed har har har, Don Helbig's hair is in the shed har har har) are why it got so much visibility, but it was clear that the park wanted to market much more in the experience than just the show building. Should it have been dialed back?
This "hype" they were talking about was referring to a few chunks of wood and fake flowers on the Son of Beast grave, a single poster reading "Number 5 is Alive" at Cedar Point, a few small outlets running wild, and a news story in which Kings Island said they had nothing to do with any of it. A nostalgic Coney Mall scrapbook was also sent to the press teasing the announcement promising that "something old will be new again." The flowers could easily be taken out of the equation, as I personally know one of the Banshee ops that did it and this person had owned up on multiple public Facebook posts to having done it. This "hype" was apparently too much for what we got, however, it was nothing compared to the summers that lead up to Banshee and Mystic being announced. We had giant teaser fences, ominous posters, several vague social media posts, props showing up in the areas, strange objects mailed to media, oh and large plots of construction. It may not have been a Merlin-style "project the Mystic Timbers tree onto the Cincinnati Bell building" viral campaign, but what we saw for those couldn't possibly be compared to the mass hysteria conspiracy garbage that was buzzing around social media around the 16th.
So the question in this thread is: where do you draw the line? Tony put up a small poster as an easter egg at Cedar Point, but how big or numerous do those posters have to be before they're actually hyping something? How many more Son of Beast references would have had to pop up around the park before we could tell it was to be taken seriously? Where does an easter egg or some ride ops screwing around get to the point that it could fairly be mistaken for an actual marketing campaign for something?
Off on a tangent: The whole #WhatsInTheShed controversy of spring 2017 comes to mind here as well, as some felt that Kings Island's beautiful new GCI fell flat as they overhyped the shed-themed show building at the end of the ride. Personally, I don't believe this was the case. The shed was the ride's hashtag, yes, but beyond that, it actually didn't play that large a role in either the marketing or construction coverage of the ride. Many of the images shown on social media were marketing the ride or the theming, not the shed. To me it was something fun to add a uniquely mysterious twist to what would otherwise be a familiar campaign and keep it somewhat unique. Now, this was asking to be made into meme material and I think all the jokes enthusiasts were making about it (Alvey's in the shed har har har, Harambe's in the shed har har har, Don Helbig's hair is in the shed har har har) are why it got so much visibility, but it was clear that the park wanted to market much more in the experience than just the show building. Should it have been dialed back?
