The creative marketing team at Liseberg took a gamble when they chose to stray from traditional facility ad campaigns and opt for a more emotive, yet predominantly interpretive 2002 advertisement. The visual print features two sleeping children in the backseat of a car on their ride home from the amusement park in Göteborg, Sweden. Although it does not include any written verbiage or an overblown headline to guide the reader’s thoughts toward the year-round attraction, the ad strikes a universal chord with its timeless humanistic appeal and relativity. The team’s hope was for readers to pick up on visual cues within the ad and draw their own positive deductions about Liseberg park. And guess what—they banked.

For its efforts, Liseberg park swept its nominated categories at the 2002 IAAPA Brass Ring Awards, racking up first place finishes for the print advertisement, outdoor advertisement, and brochure categories; a second place finish for best television commercial; and, most notably, the esteemed “Best of Show” award for its poignant print advertisement. “[The creative team] talked a lot about emotions and feelings as a result of a park visit,” says Pelle Johannisson, marketing director and vice president of Liseberg. “We are showing a situation that most of our guests can relate to.”

Johannisson explains that the process of creating an award-winning ad involves the input of many individuals. At the time of the ad’s creation, it was the off-season and Liseberg would not debut any new rides or coasters for several more months. Therefore, a different promotion angle needed to be explored, Johannisson says. The Liseberg marketing team met with a creative group from Shout, the park’s veteran advertising agency, and discussed the creation of an ad campaign that would convey happiness, sympathy, and emotional appeal. Given the park’s desired platform, the Shout group developed a vision and a preliminary sketch for the eventual ad. The idea was then circulated internally through the Liseberg offices for an informal approval process. Once the idea was endorsed, a studio photograph was staged and the ad vision became reality.

“[In the ad], it doesn’t say anything in the headline; it’s just a picture,” Johannisson explains. “You see the wristbands on the arms of the kids. You see the rabbit ears have fallen a little bit to the side of the girl’s head, and you add the last part of the communication for yourself, by yourself. We’ve never gone that far before. It’s a form of not telling people that Liseberg is the best, the biggest, the nicest—you are left to think that for yourself, without [the ad] ever saying it.”

Aside from the strength of its marketing and advertising strategy, Liseberg has been busy cultivating its third consecutive off-season hosting Christmas at Liseberg events, which ran for 26 days in December. The yearly holiday celebration is centered on a light experience that encompasses the entire park. Millions of lights are placed in most of the big trees throughout the area to create a Christmas ambiance. A water fountain at the center of the park is converted into a full-sized skating rink, and Liseberg also offers skate rentals, Johannisson says. Merchants from across Scandinavia come for the winter season and rent out 70 red cottage shops to vend their products, which “creates another level of park experience,” he says. Large rides and coasters are closed due to unreliable operation during cold weather, but the park continues to operate small children’s rides. The park comedy theater and its concert hall remain open to continue drawing in guests. “I’d say 75 percent of our guest structure are Götenborg locals and 25 percent come traveling to the Christmas market,” Johannisson says, “but that will change in time. We feel that this has been some kind of national interest now to come see the Christmas at Liseberg, so we are just at the beginning of something that is already well established.”

To spread the word of Liseberg’s recent off-season operation, the park has advertised mainly in daily local and national newspapers. Liseberg has had to rely more heavily on publicity this season than it does during its summertime operation, but feedback has been positive. Notably, the addition of the winter festivities to Liseberg has had a great impact on the park’s yearly operation, Johannisson says. “We reach about 550,000 people coming here during [our winter season], so it’s even more people here during Christmastime than on peak days during the summer. That’s meant a lot to us.”

Liseberg is currently the biggest park in Scandinavia. With a yearly turnover of 3 million guests, it has equaled the ranks of such European parks as Efteling, the Netherlands; Port Aventura, Spain; Gardaland, Italy; Tivoli, Denmark; and Europa Park, Germany. Having a strong advertising campaign has helped propel Liseberg into international recognition, and little by little it constantly seeks to mature and develop. “We tried to build this park with small bricks like you build a wall,” Johannisson says. “We add to certain areas during certain years and then at times we try to add to other areas, just to improve the quality of the park. That is our goal.”