Case Study: Can a targeted postcard drive theme park visits?

Busch Gardens, part of SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, wanted to find out if an inexpensive postcard mailing could drive more park visits and sales.

So they reached out to J.Schmid to craft a test series of geo-targeted postcards with an offer. We started by analyzing their buyer file, and determined that we could target specific areas in New York City that were not only within a one-day drive of the park, but also had high brand awareness. Busch Gardens’ in-house team designed the postcards, which were dropped on three different mail dates throughout the season. Keycodes and matchbacks measured postcard performance, while existing analytics measured web traffic, park visits and sales.

  • Deliverables
  • Testing Strategy
  • Contact Strategy
  • Post-Campaign Analysis

The tests performed well, with the the top list in the spring mailing bringing in $1.51 per postcard. Four other lists out of a total of 14 combined to produce $1.69 per postcard, soundly beating industry prospecting averages. The summer campaign saw a 38% increase in demand, and a 70% lift in AOV over spring, partially due to seasonality. A custom landing page produced a 2.84% conversion rate for over 3,000 visitors and 22,783 pageviews. So…can a targeted postcard drive visits to a theme park? A resounding yes!

+70%

Increased AOV

 

+38%

Increase in demand

 

2.58%

landing page conversion rate

The tests performed well, with the the top list in the spring mailing bringing in $1.51 per postcard. Four other lists out of a total of 14 combined to produce $1.69 per postcard, soundly beating industry prospecting averages. The summer campaign saw a 38% increase in demand, and a 70% lift in AOV over spring, partially due to seasonality. A custom landing page produced a 2.84% conversion rate for over 3,000 visitors and 22,783 pageviews. So…can a targeted postcard drive visits to a theme park? A resounding yes!

+70%

Increased AOV

 

+38%

Increase in demand

 

2.58%

landing page conversion rate