Converge Weekly

A Hong Kong theme park called for public participation to refresh its Halloween party as the seasonal event entered its 9th year.

Background
Ocean Park, a local theme park that competes with Disneyland in Hong Kong, is staging its Halloween Bash for the ninth consecutive year. The event accounts for a high percentage of the park’s annual revenue and plays an important role in attracting teenage visitors, as well as offering variety to regulars. While attendance has risen each year since the event launched, 2009 presents a particular challenge due to the economic downturn.

Aim
The main aim of this year’s campaign was to persuade teenagers who experienced the party in previous years to return while giving new customers a good reason to leave the house and enjoy a spooky evening.

Execution
A survey conducted immediately after last year’s event revealed that the park’s target youth segments (aged between 16 and 22 and 23 to 44) related to local ghost stories and hoped to relive elements of the tales at the Halloween Bash. They also indicated a desire for an ‘immersive experience’.

With this in mind, in March Ocean Park invited the local community to shape its own Halloween experience through a Haunted House Design Competition that would see the winning team’s concept realised as one of eight new haunted houses in the 2009 Bash.

In addition, the park enlisted Hong Kong horror movie directors The Pang Brothers to help create a house in line with that in the hit movie Recycle.

The supporting campaign used the pVideo social platform to enable guests to send personalised ghostly videos by email to create viral buzz; a series of web-based local ghost stories hosted by celebrity feng shui practitioner Master Szeto were broadcast on YouTube, Facebook and Roadshow; and Michael Tse was recruited in his role as Laughing Gor, a character in a popular local drama series, to recruit ‘moles’ to scare friends when visiting the park.

Themed TV, magazine, newspaper, radio and outdoor ads were running to maintain awareness of the Halloween event and interactive promotions.

Results
The campaign yielded promising results. Over 380,000 people have watched the pVideo, while traffic to the website  exceeded 660,000. The TVC and Master Szeto’s video have attracted 40,000 and 75,000 viewers respectively.