Funworld November/December 2010

SPECIAL EVENTS

More Creative Than Just Candy Hearts

How attractions can diversify Valentine’s Day offerings to all guests
by Marion Hixon

Valentine’s Day isn’t just for couples. As evidenced by attractions across the globe, it can be enjoyed by the whole family and provide additional incentives for visitors after the winter holiday season dies down. A few attractions—whether featuring flowers, animals, or the latest arcade games—have personalized the holiday and made it their own.

Baton Rouge Zoo
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
What they do: “I (Heart) My Zoo”
Price: Free with zoo admission

The Baton Rouge Zoo (http://brzoo.org) in Louisiana holds an annual “I (Heart) My Zoo” event involving craft activities and Valentine-related enrichment exercises for animals. Young visitors are encouraged to make their favorite animals personalized Valentine’s Day cards, which are posted to a display board throughout the day then moved to the animals’ habitats.

“Our volunteers and education staff also make various heart-shaped items for some of the animals that the public really enjoys,” says Jennifer Shields, education curator at the Baton Rouge Zoo. “We had several families that took the schedule and planned their day around it so they could see almost every one.”

How they pull it off: For many zoos, the education department is the planning committee behind special events, and that holds true for “I (Heart) My Zoo.” Shields and her team contacted other curators to brainstorm ideas for enrichment items in different areas of the facility and then worked out an activity schedule based on zookeeper availability.

Designing and producing the enrichment devices took the majority of their preparation time. “The biggest obstacle is finding enough time to do all the preparation, especially since much of it has to be done the day of the event,” Shields says. “The day before the event we prepared treat foods and put them in the devices, and then the morning of we distributed them to the various areas.”

Besides using traditional marketing techniques and posting information to the zoo’s website, Shields appears on local news programs with an animal to talk about “I (Heart) My Zoo.”

Como Park Zoo and Conservatory
St. Paul, Minnesota
What they do: Valentine’s Dinner in the Gardens
Price: $165 per couple
February marks the dead of winter in an often-frigid Minnesota, and it’s the perfect time for visitors to the Como Park Zoo and Conservatory (www.comozooconservatory.org) to be transported to a more exotic locale. In the heated comforts of the conservatory, guests dine on five-course dinners in three locations: the Sunken Gardens, which showcase beautiful oversized flowers; the Palm Dome, with giant palms looming overhead; and the North Garden, which features tropical plant life and climate.

After several sellout years, Como Park officials decided to expand their seating options and offer four reservation times—two apiece on Feb. 13 and 14.

“The dinner is our biggest hit of the year,” says Matt Reinartz, marketing and public relations manager at the zoo and conservatory. “Every year we get e-mails and cards saying what a great time people had. We have so many returning customers and receive calls year-round asking when tickets will go on sale. The uniqueness and special setting of the event are the selling points. It’s the best winter escape— to sit among the flowers and tropical plants in such a beautiful setting.”

How they pull it off: Reinartz says for such a sought-after event, coordination and communication are key. Planning for dinner in the gardens begins around November of the previous year, on-site caterers help set the menu in December, and reservations open to the public in early January. “It’s all about the pre-planning and getting a good team together to share ideas,” he says. “Communicating with our vendors— like the horticulturists, gardeners, and caterers—is really important. For instance, we have to make sure the gardeners aren’t scheduled to spray pesticides in the garden the night before the event.”

To market the event, the facility places strategic ads and posts notices on its Facebook site—which has drawn more than 17,000 fans—and Twitter page (more than 1,000 followers). While the dinner doesn’t need excessive promotion to become a best-selling event, the zoo side of the facility, which does not charge admission, still realizes the value of using social media to promote its exhibits.

“We recently opened a $15.35 million polar bear exhibit and all our Facebook fans and Twitter followers got a special preview before we opened up to the public,” says Reinartz. “We did the same for our ‘Blooming Butterfly Exhibit’; we put a secret password out the day of our preview. Fans would come up to the gate the day of the event, give the password, and gain access to the exhibit. It was a way for them to spread the word a bit, too.”

Boomers Family Fun Centers
Locations in California, Florida, and New York
What they do: Singles Awareness Day (S.A.D.) Party
Price: Discounted group rates—the more they bring, the less they pay
After finding it hard to compete with romantic attractions for the attention of couples, Boomers (www.boomersparks.com) will appeal to the rest of the population in 2011 with the humorously themed S.A.D. party.

“S.A.D. parties have become very popular in recent years where singles are encouraged to hang out in a fun, party-like setting,” says Stuart Takehara, director of marketing for Palace Entertainment, which owns Boomers.

Valentine’s-themed backdrops for group photos and free pictures for guests provide a takeaway from the event. Boomers makes event photos available through download on its website.

“Groups of three, four, or even five single friends participate in celebrating their singleness instead of the romantic hearts and kisses expected on Valentine’s Day,” Takehara adds. “Our hope is to fill a niche for single high school students, single parents, and others who are typically overlooked on this holiday.”

How they pull it off: Takehara says six to eight weeks is an ideal amount of preparation time for a special event, with promotion of the event beginning no later than Jan. 14 for Valentine’s Day activities. “When looking at lead time, I always start from the event date and work backward,” he says. “In this case, we will begin promoting our Valentine’s event at our New Year’s Eve event, allowing us to sell advance tickets to that crowd.”

Takehara’s advice to event planners and attractions managers is simple— target niche markets. “You can’t be all things to all people,” he says. “In this case, while everyone is going after the couples market, we can provide something for singles to do. It will separate you from the competition and be something different to stand out from the crowd.”