| Title | THE SUMMER GAMES |
| Brand | VILLAGE ROADSHOW THEME PARKS |
| Product / Service | WET 'N' WILD |
| Category | A04. Ambient/Alternative Media |
| Entrant | ISOBAR AUSTRALIA Melbourne, AUSTRALIA |
| Entrant Company | ISOBAR AUSTRALIA Melbourne, AUSTRALIA |
| Advertising Agency | ISOBAR AUSTRALIA Melbourne, AUSTRALIA |
| Advertising Agency 2 | APOLLO NATION South Melbourne, AUSTRALIA |
| Name | Company | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Apollo Nation | Activations Agency | |
| Matt Byrne | Visual Jazz Isobar | It Support |
| Nathan Gordon | Visual Jazz Isobar | Front-End Developer |
| Matt Coffey | Visual Jazz Isobar | Front-End Developer |
| Tim Clifford | Visual Jazz Isobar | Developer |
| Mick Wingert | Visual Jazz Isobar | Development Lead |
| James Cook | Visual Jazz Isobar | Art Director |
| Pascal Van Der Haar | Visual Jazz Isobar | Art Director |
| Emma Park | Visual Jazz Isobar | Copywriter |
| Rob Barnett | Visual Jazz Isobar | Associate Creative Director |
| Erik Hallander | Visual Jazz Isobar | Technical Director |
| Gavin Heron | Visual Jazz Isobar | Executive Creative Director |
Our brief from Wet ‘n’ Wild required us to solve two key challenges: 1. Keep customers returning to Wet 'n' Wild over Summer. With so many competing theme parks in the area, Wet 'n' Wild's customers were visiting once, then moving onto the next. 2. Help customers feel comfortable with NFC Technology. Currently being used in-park as a water-proof form of payment, customers were unfamiliar with NFC and as a result, add-on sales were dropping. Our strategy was to leverage customers’ instinctive competitiveness and rally those already loyal to Wet ‘n’ Wild to spread our message.
By making NFC central to the creative, not only did we create an Australian theme-park first, but our audience became comfortable with the technology, maximising potential add-on purchases like food and drink in-park. Secondly, the Summer Games involved thousands of people and rewarded them all, giving people a clear incentive to visit Wet ‘n’ Wild over competing theme parks and in turn, creating thousands of brand advocates – this was especially relevant given the park’s slogan is Biggest ‘n’ Best.
We created the Summer Games – 2 teams, 10 days, 2000 competitors. We called on our already-loyal customers to claim their place in either the Red or Blue team. They were then encouraged to rally others to join their team, take part, and share in the prizes. As for NFC, the problem became our solution: every player received a team wristband. By scanning it at specially created stations, they could earn points for their team. The wilder the ride the more it was worth. Our aim: • Drive return visits (1/5 people) • Improve NFC familiarity (3 scans p/person)
In just 10 days, we exceeded all objectives and inspired long-term change in the business. • A single day out became a 10-day event, driving people to visit again and again. • 1 in 3 people returned to Wet ‘n’ Wild multiple times • All 2,000 competitors scanned their wristbands over 5 times each • Customers’ comfort with NFC grew, leading to an increase in add-on purchases • Time spent on wetnwild.com.au increased to over 8 minutes • Facebook fans and social conversation around the brand grew over 20% • The Summer Games was covered on prime time news