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Great Wolf Lodge: Making a Splash in California
Great Wolf Resorts is North America’s largest family of indoor waterparks. With most of its locations throughout the Midwest and East Coast, the company prepared to open its first property in California. Allison+Partners was engaged to develop a public relations campaign that would make a splash to launch the new property and introduce people to the brand.
The task was not without challenges. First, the concept of an indoor water park was foreign to those in sunny California. The new resort was also opening in a highly saturated and competitive theme park market – just three miles from Disneyland in Orange County – and during one of the greatest droughts in California history.
In order to convince people to take their water play inside, Allison+Partners had to make sure they understood everything Great Wolf Lodge has to offer and the benefits of going to an indoor water park, while addressing potential drought concerns. From hard hat tours and events with media and influencers, to social media contests and content marketing, our campaign used a variety of integrated tactics to help bring the Great Wolf Lodge experience to life, generate broad awareness and drive bookings.
Results:
- 100+ journalists and influencers attended the grand opening media events
- Message penetration that Great Wolf Lodge uses less water than an Olympic-sized swimming pool
- 37 million social media impressions and 8 percent engagement on Facebook during the grand opening week
- 600 rooms booked in 24 hours following the media grand opening event, and $500,000 in revenue directly attributed to PR campaign-produced coverage
- 698 unique media placements across broadcast, print and online news outlets, garnering 454 million media impressions (200+ impressions more than the goal)
