Responding to a Clients Brief ‘The Deep’ Unit Title: Agency Life Unit Leader: Scott Bambrick Name: Bethany Green Student I.D: 12087726
Contents Page
1.0 Introduction 1.1 Brief overview of The Deep 1.2 Threats and Opportunities 1.3 The Deeps Competitors 1.4 Target Audience of The Deep 1.5 How to target these Potential Customers
1.0
Introduction The main aim of this report it to address the most effective way in which to target the audience of ‘The Deep- Twilight Zone’ taking into consideration what media channel best suits the given demographic 1.1
Brief Overview of The Deep ‘Twilight Zone’ The deep is an education and conservation charity that offers visitors the opportunity to learn about the world’s ocean and the challenges sea life creatures face in order to survive. The under water sea life centre launched in Hull in 2002. It is home to 3,500 fish including Gentoo Penguins, sharks, rays and Europe’s only pair of green sawfish. Closely working with schools and organised groups, The Deep is a popular place to visit to educate those throughout their key stage years. Sponsored by KC, the learning centre within The Deep is facilitated with the best software to help improve the quality of pupils IT skills and learning experience. The Deep continuously runs schemes that help towards research, to raise awareness and to preserve natural habitats. (The Deep 2014)
Other facilities offered at The Deep include function rooms for corporate events, weddings, birthday parties and special events. The venue also has its very own ‘two rivers restaurant’, which is located in the heart of the aquarium. The ‘Twilight Zone’ is the most recent attraction, by expanding the centre it now reaches depths of 1000m and boasts 2.5 million litres of water, making it Europe's deepest viewing tunnel aquarium. The creatures featured within The Twilight Zone have been shipped from all over the world (Lexis 2006). The Millennium Commission distributed an enhancement grant to provide The twilight Zone with a new entrance and unique display to help develop the attraction. (online:gov.uk) 1.2
Threats and Opportunities
An opportunity for the launch of The Twilight zone would be that it would encourage a rise in tourism to the area. ‘The £4.6m “submarium” attracted 100,000 visitors in the first month of opening’, a leisure attraction that has boosted consumer spend within the area, The Deep, is now a tourist hotspot and is ranked in the worlds ‘100 best visitor attractions’ by a Japanese guide (Business Source Premier 2013). By improving the attraction with the new Twilight Zone, will help to attract both new and returning customers. As a refreshing take on the aquarium, customers will be able to experience sea life at depths of up to 1000m below the surface. Giving the centre a competitive advantage as it offers more than the average wildlife or sea life centre. The Deep has already admittedly attracted a 100% increase of visitors to local museums during the summer months. The centre develops the cities potential even further, therefore Hull Tourism has insisted to work closely with The Deep to encourage additional visitors from across the UK and overseas. (Lexis 2012) Being the only aquarium that facilitates such depths will improve the research conditions for marine biologists to help better reserve the marine environment.
Another Opportunity is that the centre offers a hand on experience to educate groups of pre-school and post sixteen pupils. The tour guide of the new Twilight Zone will allow pupils to get up close and personal with sea life from all over the world, what many never would have the opportunity to see otherwise. This will be beneficial as it will impact pupils learning as experience is a much more memorable way of absorbing the knowledge gained from the visit. Something that competing aquariums would not be able to offer as it is the only deep facility in Europe. Animal Rights Activists can pose as a potential threat to The Deep. The new twilight zone has imported different species of fish from all over the world, which are then kept in captivity. Regardless of how ethical The Deep may be and how much it prides itself as a conservation and education charity, activist will argue that the marine animals have a right to be free of human exploitation. This can lead to protests and bad press for The Deep. Merlin Entertainments has a strong brand presence across the Uk and Europe, it is the operator of competing brands such as Alton Towers, Sealife, Thorpe Park and other recognisable brands. It is very powerful and could pose as a threat to The Deep as it is the only Deep against its large variety of attractions.
2.4 The Deeps Competitors Popular tourist attractions can pose as a potential threat to ‘The Deep’ these include local museums in Hull and East Yorkshire such as The Street Life of Transport, Dinostar and the newly launched Mary Rose museum; these particular visits will attract educational trips from schools and other organised groups that attract the same target audience as The Deep. According to Mintel, Museums and historic buildings are the most common attraction types, because of the large number of free national museums that the UK has to offer. Visits to these particular attractions have rocketed, since the economic downturn therefore this option has become more favourable for
families. In 2012, museums were the fastest growing category with a ‘5% increase in value sales’, and is still the fastest growing tourist attraction to date, especially during the wet summer months. (Euromonitor 2013) Merlin Entertainments is another competitor of The Deep. It is a British Operator of visitor attractions around the UK, familiar brands include; Alton Towers, Legoland, Sealife, Madame Tussauds, The London Eye and various other well known attractions. Merlin Entertainments offers a wide variety within its business portfolio, attracting a larger customer and cultural base. It is the leader in both the UK and Europe and second worldwide after Disney, in terms of visiting figures (Euromonitor 2014). Visitor numbers show an increase of 10.7% to almost 60 million at Merlin's attractions, which include some of The Deeps main competitors; Thorpe Park, Alton Towers, Legoland and Sea Life Centres. Group revenues rose by more than 10% to almost ÂŁ1.2 billion in 2013. (Business source premier 2014) Theme parks can be seasonal dependent and weather sensitive, The Deep is popular throughout the year as visits during term time are still moderately high due to school trips and the indoor activities are not affected by wet British weather. Local wildlife parks include; Bridlington Birds of Prey and Animal Park, RSPB Blacktoft Sands Nature Reserve, Childrens Zoo at Sewerby Hall and Gardens all attracting the same target demogprahic of families and educational visits. 2.5 The Target Audience of The Deep The attraction market focuses around pre-/no family and family life stages, although historic buildings have an older visitor profile. When looking at animal attractions in particular, for example zoos, wildlife parks and aquariums, they are all predominately visited by nuclear families. 30% of families visit animal attractions, 60% of which are families with children under 15. Children are the motivation of most trips, particularly those aged 5-15, belonging predominantly to the AB and ABC1 socio economic group. (Mintel 2013)
Schools have a growing connectivity for attractions, with the opportunity to develop learning programmes that can be accessed via their websites (before and after a visit), this can then be extended to other youth groups. (Mintel 2013). The Deep practises this as they have downloadable resources online; these help prep pupils with worksheets containing information and objectives prior to workshop visits. There are 15 primary schools located within a 2mile radius of The Deep, the closest is St Charles Roman Catholic Primary School that is less than a mile away. (Google maps 2014) ‘Connecting With Our Primary Role’ project was designed to reconnect The Deep with primary schools on the theme of The Past, The Present and The Future, this was supplemented with a schools audio tour. This was done via ‘The Millennium Commission’, which distributes funds from the National Lottery to projects, investing in projects to improve visitor attractions (Gov.uk 2005). This improved the facilities for educational trips and organised groups. 2.6 How to target these potential customers Media channels used to target families, could include cereal boxes that contain promotional offers, a great way to communicate as a family during their morning meal. TV advertisement is a popular interactive way to connect with the audience, ‘95% of households own a television’ (Mintel 2014) this is an ideal way to link with a larger audience. With actual footage the viewers are able to experience a taster of what The Deep has to offer. Prime time would be around popular children’s programmes that are aired after school hours; usually 3pm onwards. A particular channel that may prove to be effective is CBBC, ‘cbbc achieving near total awareness at 94% of all children’. It is the most wide-ranging brand that is particularly admired by rural children aged 7-15, having an educational impact over-all. (Mintel 2013) fitting well with The Deeps’ target demographic. The channel reached 565,000 viewers in January 2014 (BARB 2014) Families also seek popular attractions to visit via tourist points. ‘Raring2go’ is a free guide for families and children aged 0-11 years,
placing an advertisement within this guide will help attract the right family demographic. Other print media could include magazines such a ‘First News’, targeted at 7-14year olds. Priced at £1.50, it is a credible magazine that is encouraged for those to read at home and school as a valuable resource for class. Combining an element of both audiences, families and schools. (Brad 2014) According to Mintel 43% of all consumers chose a tourist attraction purely because friends had recommended it. The Internet plays an essential role in tourism; social networks such as Facebook has become a leading tool connecting people and businesses. The volume of active users daily opens up a large opportunity to connect with customers. ‘42% of stories shared on users facebook timelines were about visitor attractions’ (Mintel 2013). Word of mouth has a powerful impact on consumers decisions, by creating an online profile via this network and placing on going updates to keep people in the know of current promotions, latest advances and anything else the centre has to offer will help attain returning customers and expose to potential new customers.
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