Alton Towers: Presenting a limited-period offer

The web enables special offers to be mounted quickly, ay low cost and to a targeted audience.

The Site

Alton Towers, part of the Tussaud Group, is the UK’s leading theme park with attractions based around its core high-tech ‘thriller’ rides such as Nemesis and Ripsaw.

The site’s home page is currently given over to four special offers, including two that play on the obsessive interest in England with the sporting fortunes of the national football team in the European championship and of tennis player Tim Henman at Wimbledon. People looking for an escape from the world of sport can download a “Miss the match” voucher guaranteeing a one-day entry to the park for £10 between 21 June and 4 July, a saving of £17 on the advertised ‘standard season’ price. Sports fans who want to pack their day with thrills can click on the alternative “Don’t miss the match” offer, which allows advance credit-card booking at £15 per person and includes exclusive early-morning entry to the most popular attractions so that visitors can be back home before the sports action hots up. Both offers are exclusive to the site.

The Takeaway

Headlines during the current European football tournament such as “Late night shopping centres deserted” indicate the power of high-profile one-off events to pull consumers away from other activities. Rather than try to compete directly, Alton Towers deploys a dash of topical humour to a web-based marketing initiative that aims to limit the damage.

The marketing deals themselves are standard discount-based offers, but the web enables them to be mounted quickly (in response to England’s progress in the championship, for example) at relatively low cost and to a targeted audience. Similarly, advanced booking is a common website feature and vouchers, while less widely used, are an established tool. What Alton Towers does is show how these ‘given’ elements can be brought together in a customised marketing package.

First published on 22 June, 2004