Feb04WaterparkReport

Last year, in its sixteenth season of operation, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho’s Silverwood Theme Park underwent an unprecedented expansion, adding a 12-acre waterpark. Conceived by general manager David Norton, son of Silverwood owner Gary Norton, Boulder Beach was designed by Whitewater with a Northwestern theme and included areas called Big Moose Bay and Elkhorn Creek. For a park that hadn’t added a new attraction since 1999, it was an extraordinary event. But what’s most extraordinary about the addition of Boulder Beach is how Silverwood took advantage of the opportunity to promote itself in areas it had not before, and the undeniability of the results.

Three hundred and fifty miles east of Seattle in the wooded, mountainous panhandle of Idaho, Silverwood had long relied on a core demographic of kids and families within a few hours’ drive from the park, according Sales and Marketing Director Nancy DiGiammarco. When they added Boulder Beach, they decided to extend their advertising sights to Seattle and its million residents.

“We aggressively went after the tourist market as well as the local regional market to create new interest and excitement in the park,” says DiGiammarco. “The waterpark allowed us to expand our demographic geographically, and to reach teenagers and people in their mid-20s.”

To this end Silverwood chose a variegated approach. There were coupon partnerships in May and June with Washington Burger Kings, and in July and August with Seattle-area Subway sandwich shops. The park began selling tickets through different outlets, such as AAA and Seattle-area Costco stores, through which more than 70,000 tickets were sold. There were also Pepsi-can promotions in a few outlets, TV and radio bits, and a Christian event. And there was Butt’s On.

The promotion, in conjunction with local rock station 94.5, was, in DiGiammarco’s words, an “endurance challenge.” The idea was to have participants come to the park from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and try to outlast one another. “Their butt had to be on whatever we designated,” says DiGiammarco. The upshot of Butt’s On was a lot of free on-air publicity, with the outcome being closely followed and discussed on the air from the time the djs went on in the morning until the participants went home for the night.

“The promotion really captured the feeling of guys and girls here at Silverwood having a good time,” DiGiammarco says.

In the age of Survivor and Fear Factor, Butt’s On was a conscious effort at aiming toward an older demographic, all the way down to the prize Silverwood (and the radio station) offered for the winner: a weekend at the Playboy Mansion in L.A.

Success, Success
According to DiGiammarco, “With success comes more success.” She cites three factors to Silverwood’s success this season: “the new waterpark, moving forward with out-market advertising, and great weather.”

When the Tacoma airport announced that it was beginning a shuttle to Spokane, it used Silverwood to promote it. There were articles in local media outlets, “everything from the park’s economic impact on the area, to a profile of Gary Norton, Silverwood’s owner,” stories which were picked up by the Associated Press. During the season, the director of the Department of Tourism for Idaho announced that Silverwood was the most-attended attraction in the state.

The Cold, Hard Facts
With the addition of the pay-one-price Boulder Beach, the park had anticipated an approximate 10 percent increase in its attendance. Before the waterpark debuted, there was a 2 percent increase in attendance from 2002. When it did debut, on July 4, the park saw a 69 percent rise in attendance. When the waterpark closed after Labor Day, Silverwood, for the rest of the season, maintained a 14 percent increase, a net increase of 45 percent for the entire season. This adds up to one thing: When normally the park would have only attracted about 335,000, its announced attendance for 2003 was 483,000. “It’s fairly amazing what happened,” says DiGiammarco.

The only difficulty that came with increased attendance was the increased wait times for popular rides, a problem DiGiammarco says the park intends to address this year with the addition of a new high-speed slide complex, which will accommodate 1,000 people per hour. It will also add some new food vending areas and infrastructure improvements.

DiGiammarco says that she knew the increased advertising had worked after watching a family being interviewed by a TV reporter at the park. The reporter asked the family why they had come for the day. One of them answered, “Well, first we saw the park on TV, then we heard about it on the radio, then we saw coupons for it on Pepsi cans, then we saw they were selling tickets at Costco...”