The Business
The southern hemisphere’s biggest collection of over 120 thrill rides, slides, shows, and animal experiences, Village Roadshow Theme Parks, hosts over 3 million visitors per year. Their attractions include Warner Bros. Movie World, Sea World, Wet’n’Wild, Paradise Country, Australian Outback Spectacular, Sea World Resort, and Topgolf. Village Roadshow Theme Parks is based on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, and is one of the premier amusement companies in the world. Known for their diverse attractions, Village Roadshow Theme Parks offers annual passes, resort packages, and night events such as White Christmas, Sea World Spooky Night, Carnivale and Fright Nights, aiming to deliver memorable guest experiences year-round.
The Challenge
As a leader in the entertainment and leisure industry, Village Roadshow Theme Parks faced the challenge of enhancing customer loyalty and driving repeat visits in an increasingly competitive market. They needed to deepen their understanding of guest behavior, personalize their marketing efforts, and optimize their omnichannel strategies to maximize conversions and enhance the guest experience.
“We were really impressed with the SAP Emarsys customer service overall. From that initial sales call, we felt listened to and understood. They were dedicated to finding some solutions to the problems that we were experiencing. And, then through that implementation phase, we were well-supported that entire time. And now our customer service team is always coming to us with insights, with improvements that we can make. It's really very much a partnership. It's not just a client/supplier relationship.”
The Solution
Village Roadshow Theme Parks partnered with SAP Emarsys to implement a data-driven, automated marketing strategy designed to meet these challenges.
Data Integration for Enhanced SMS Communications
Village Roadshow Theme Parks began by integrating real-time data and optimizing their use of relational data. They had extensive first-party data, including sales data from ticket purchases and event bookings across their various theme parks and events. They also had access to reservation data from the Sea World Resort and Paradise Country Farm Stay accommodations, as well as donation data through the Sea World Foundation. Additionally, they have annual passholder data and Topgolf gameplay data, as well as data on social media engagement. This data was siloed and needed to be matched up and acted upon to create a comprehensive strategy.
Their insight into their ticketing platform allowed them to track guest interactions from the moment they entered the park. Once this data was integrated within SAP Emarsys, it allowed them to create SMS automations, tailored to ticket types and guest preferences, allowing the team to upsell experiences like animal adventures or dinner buffets in real-time.
For instance, if a guest had already booked a helicopter tour, they would receive a personalized message about another relevant offer instead of redundant promotions. This granular segmentation ensured a smooth and engaging customer journey, avoiding unnecessary overlaps in communication.
Additionally, Village Roadshow Theme Parks enhanced their reporting to better classify conversions, from room bookings to corporate event inquiries, providing a clearer picture of guest behavior and enabling precise targeting.
Personalization Connecting Web Extend and Email
Personalization became a cornerstone of Village Roadshow Theme Park’s marketing strategy. By analyzing demographics, purchase behaviors, and engagement levels, the team identified trends such as locals visiting multiple times a year or travelers preferring resort packages. This data informed campaigns like the “Sea World Resort Ultimate Sale,” where past resort guests received exclusive early access to deals, fostering a sense of loyalty and driving repeat bookings.
The introduction of SAP Emarsys Web Extend further expanded their capabilities. For example, if a user browsed general admission tickets multiple times without purchasing, an automated email with a discount offer would be triggered, converting indecisive visitors into buyers. This proactive use of automation and personalization allowed Village Roadshow Theme Parks to connect with guests at the right moment, delivering offers tailored to their specific needs and behaviors.
Omnichannel experiences at scale
To ensure a seamless experience across all touchpoints, Village Roadshow Theme Parks prioritized consistent branding and messaging. From email campaigns to SMS and digital ads they worked to align the tone, visuals, and calls-to-action across platforms. For example, if a guest received an email promoting a special offer, the same offer would be reflected on the website, avoiding the disjointed experience that often leads to disengagement.
Village Roadshow Theme Parks also expanded its use of first-party data to inform advertising efforts on platforms like Google, LinkedIn, and TikTok. By sharing relational segments across these channels, they reached diverse audiences, including younger demographics through TikTok campaigns for Wet’n’Wild. This cohesive omnichannel strategy reinforced their brand message and extended their reach. By deep diving into their analytics and the information available in their SAP Emarsys dashboards and monitoring the performance of their campaigns and automations, they were able to iterate their efforts to continuously scale and improve them.
“Automation is key for the customer journey, and for efficiency and engagement. If you don't have any automations, start small. Have one or two set up, whether it's basic abandoned cart or welcome email. And then as you grow and as you scale, you can go multichannel across all the different workflows, SMS, mobile, push. Currently, we have nearly 100 automations live at the moment. But a year-and-a-half ago when we started with SAP Emarsys, we started with 1 or 2. We built it from there. So you can scale up as much or as little as you like. Automation is key.”
The Impact
The partnership with SAP Emarsys transformed Village Roadshow Theme Parks’ marketing efforts, yielding enhanced data integration, more precise personalization, and a more cohesive omnichannel strategy. By integrating real-time data and leveraging advanced automation, the team significantly enhanced the guest experience. Personalized, timely communications not only improved engagement, but also drove higher conversion rates across multiple channels.
Campaigns like the “Sea World Resort Ultimate Sale” saw substantial success, with early access offers encouraging repeat bookings and fostering guest loyalty. The use of Web Extend to identify and target indecisive buyers with tailored discounts further boosted ticket sales, demonstrating the power of strategic automation.
Their commitment to an omnichannel approach ensured consistent messaging and branding, reducing guest friction and enhancing trust. This alignment, combined with data-informed advertising on platforms like TikTok and Google, allowed Village Roadshow Theme Parks to expand their reach and attract diverse audiences while easily leveraging data from various touchpoints within the SAP Emarsys platform.
By embracing a scalable and iterative process, starting with just one or two automations and growing to nearly 100 active workflows, Village Roadshow Theme Parks optimized their marketing infrastructure. The emphasis on continuous reporting and analysis enabled them to celebrate wins, learn from challenges, and refine their strategies. Ultimately, their collaboration with SAP Emarsys established a foundation for long-term success, setting a new standard for guest-centric marketing in the theme park industry.
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"membership expiring" emails
“That demographic data is really important for us. We're always looking at ways to make that experience, communication, and personalization possible.”