About & Around

Monday, March 12, 2012

New Mini Golf at City Walk: Hollywood Drive-in

http://www.universalorlando.com/Rides/New-Attractions-2012.aspx

Today was the grand opening of the two separate horror/science fiction themed mini golf courses: “The Haunting of Ghostly Green” and “Invaders from Planet Putt." Each course is 18 holes making the entire Universal Studios City Walk Mini Golf experience 36 holes. Each course is based upon horror and science fiction Drive-in movies from the 1950s era. This is how the course got its name: Hollywood Drive-In Golf.

You can play one or both holes:
One course- Adults (9+) $13.99
Children $11.99
Both courses-Adults (9+) $24.99
Children $20.99
Florida residents receive 10% off with proof of residency. For more information please see links below. (Universal Studios Orlando has not updated their City Walk page for today's grand opening).

Construction started last year to develop more activities in the City Walk area. Many of the attractions include restaurants, shops, clubs and bars. Unlike, Walt Disney World Resorts Orlando who have multiple mini-golf courses, this is Universal Studios Orlando's first attempt at creating an interactive golf course. As a fan of Disney's Fantasia themed mini golf course near the Swan and Dolphin Hotel, I have been anticipating this opening. It appears, while watching different aspects of the two courses, that there will be lights and sounds triggered by the golf ball movements. There are spaceships and a haunted house filled with cartoon aliens and ghouls. The characters are cute and fun. Perfect for children.

Links to related articles:
http://www.universalorlando.com/Rides/New-Attractions-2012.aspx

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/features_orlando/2011/05/universal-orlando-miniature-golf-courses-set-for-universal-citywalk.html

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/features_orlando/2012/03/universal-citywalk-hollywood-drive-in-golf-now-open.html

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Did NASCAR make a good decision to change the date of the Daytona 500?

Photo taken by Lyndsay Fuller

The Daytona 500, also known as the Super Bowl of NASCAR, has always been on the Sunday of President’s Day weekend until this year. Fox Sports, who televises this race, had asked a favor of NASCAR to move the race so that it no longer followed Super Bowl weekend. This favor lead to the first time in 54 years that the race had to be postponed to the following day. Unfortunately for most fans who had traveled to Daytona to see the Great American Race were disappointed to see nothing but people in rain gear and raindrops the day of the race.

For 17 years, I have attended all of the Winston Cup, now the Sprint Cup series races at Daytona International Speedway including the Daytona 500, the Firecracker 400, now known as the Pepsi 400, and the Gatorade Duels. I have sat through the rain in my seat waiting for a race to start, but never have I been so frustrated with the series of events that unfolded last Sunday. Knowing that it was going to rain all day Sunday, NASCAR was extremely hesitant to call the race. Instead of allowing fans to be able to reschedule their Monday plans, NASCAR waited to make the final call to move the race to 12pm Monday. The race finally ran on Monday night at 7pm with 2 hour delay because of a jet-dryer accident in turn 3.

In a time were you can get all the information you need on your smartphone device, NASCAR should have utilized new technology to be able to communicate with their fans. People waiting for the rain to stop on both Sunday and Monday afternoon kept checking their weather channel app for the weather radar for the rain forecast in the immediate area. If the rain was the problem, how did NASCAR know more about the rain than the fans waiting in the stands? They probably didn't. Instead of fans interacting with NASCAR media, many listened to the radio. The most Internet media any of the fans received all weekend was from a Sprint Cup driver that was tweeting while under the red flag on Monday night. NASCAR needs to get up to date and evolve with advancing technology. Then maybe more people would tune in to watch the race on Sunday.

Photo taken from http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/daytona-circus-not-even-counting-500-153608580.html

All of this was caused by rain clouds that just wouldn't go away, but also NASCAR's need to compete with other sporting events like the Super Bowl. NASCAR fans are going to watch the Daytona 500 regardless if the Super Bowl was the weekend before or the day before. The idea to market NASCAR's biggest race of the season for an additional week backfired. Because of the postponement of the race, this was the first race not to sell out in the history of the race.

Links:

http://www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com/Articles/2011/02/2012-Daytona-500.aspx

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/daytona-circus-not-even-counting-500-153608580.html

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Internet Marketing

Theme Parks taking online surveys/suggestion is not a new concept; however, it is a valuable one. I do not know if you buy consumer goods from Macy’s or Coach. If you do, you may notice that you get a survey after every purchase you make from these stores. Coach actually sends you an email with the picture of the item(s) you bought and suggests other accessories that would “go well” with it. Other retailers, like JcPenny have redesigned their company to be more costumer-friendly to try and compete with stores like Macy’s and Dillard’s.

Universal Studios, compared to other theme parks are extremely costumer friendly in that they send an email survey after every night your attend Halloween Horror Nights or attend a Mardi Gras concert to the ticket or annual pass holder to “see how they did?” in your opinion. This article I found discusses how survey, especially for theme parks, can give the owners a bird eye view of how people are experiencing their parks. Though this article is from 2004, and Internet marketing has changed since then, the same principles still apply:

"Our guests offer an extremely important perspective that managers can use to inform their own thinking," said Mark Kupferman, Charlotte, NC-based vice president of research and interactive marketing at Paramount Parks. "It allows us to test assumptions before acting on them and it gives us the opportunity to be able to better understand the implications of the decisions that we make."

Universal Studios Orlando does not only do surveys by email, they also ask for costumer feedback in the park, especially at separately priced special events, and on their website. Their website actually has a plus sign graphic that spins and asks you for feedback while you are navigating through the site.

As someone who is interested in working for a theme park one day, I find it interesting that surveys or feedback is asked for at Walt Disney World owned theme parks, hotels, restaurants, entertainment, etc. I visit Disney owned property and I have never been asked to fill out an on-line survey. Asked about my stay in one of their hotels, absolutely; but not asked to fill out a survey or give feedback while in the parks. Why is that?

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Mardi Gras: Kelly Clarkson

Being a fan of the Mardi Gras concert series at Universal Studios Orlando, Kelly Clarkson’s performance last night left the audience something to be desired. Being present at her performance three years earlier, I was not as impressed by this year. Kelly Clarkson is one of Mardi Gras most well known artists playing in their concert series this spring. From a marketing standpoint, it was important for her concert to be larger than life and draw in a large crowd. Though the park was crowded with females eager to see Kelly Clarkson play, I have seen other artists like Pitbull bring in a larger crowd. I believe the first time I saw Clarkson live; she had something to prove to the audience. Back in the spring of 2009, Clarkson had stepped out of the limelight and the Mardi Gras concert was one of her first appearances in a while. Twenty pounds heavier, her performance was unexpected. I actually bought one of her albums the next day. This year I did not get the same feeling.

Clarkson, who currently has two hit singles, sang her most popular songs from her five albums and four cover songs including Skyscraper by Demi Lovato. Personally, I feel that if Clarkson was going to sing covers she should have considered singing a Whitney Houston song since Houston’s funeral was earlier that day. There was no mention of Whitney Houston during the 1.5 hours Clarkson played. Perhaps the band made the conscious decision to not recognize the events that took place earlier that day out of reverence for Houston’s family; however, there was an expectation amongst the crowd for Clarkson to sing a Whitney Houston song. I thought Clarkson has the talent to be able to do justice to one of Houston’s song like Jennifer Hudson had last Sunday at the Grammy’s. Jennifer Hudson being another artist, like Clarkson, who has done extremely well with her music career after leaving American Idol.

Clarkson was much more personably compared to when I saw her concert at Mardi Gras in 2009. Though she did not tell jokes or childhood stories like other artists I have seen, instead she spoke about her music, her family, and her band members. She encouraged audience participation in almost all of her previous hits. She even gave one of her fans credit for suggestions to songs that have been successful. One fan, she stated suggested turning Never Again into a piano variation and now she plays on a regular basis. She pushed for more suggestions for her music to encourage growth. Mardi Gras Orlando was a stop on her new Stronger US Tour.