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(Universal Studios Beijing's new winter experience, a total duration of 2 minutes and 51 seconds)
A new winter experience at Universal Studios Beijing
Recently, Universal Beijing Resort's "Winter Holiday" theme activity was launched. As one of the park's most popular seasonal themed events, the winter holiday experience has received multiple upgrades: a new festival-themed town was unveiled, and a winter limited performance was staged for the first time, attracting families and couples from all over the country.
How to improve the efficiency and influence of the festival, and even turn the off-season into the peak season? International brands led by Universal Studios can provide a lot of experience and inspiration.
Create a festive freshness
Double Day is approaching, and all theme parks have "made moves" to attract visitors.
Disney, for example, has unveiled the "Magic Snow" theme park in Hong Kong and the "Zootopia" theme park in Shanghai, which has greatly enhanced the attractiveness of the park by adding new ideas. Qunar big data shows that after the news of the opening of the new Hong Kong Disneyland park was released, the search volume for Hong Kong Disneyland tickets increased by 275% compared with last week.
However, the construction and opening of new parks means high investment and a long return cycle. In contrast, making good use of the "festival economy" and creating a festival-only experience has become a more ingenious source of freshness.
Universal Studios Beijing is a prime example of this.
For theme parks, winter is often the off-season, especially in the north, which brings challenges to park operations. But on the other hand, low temperatures also bring opportunities for the park: the ice and snow season is easier to create a festive atmosphere, and it can also give birth to a series of warm products, which is of positive significance for promoting secondary sales.
Universal Studios has achieved "playing to its strengths and avoiding its weaknesses". For example, around the theme of the winter festival, a new Starlight Christmas Town in the form of a market has been launched, which has new areas, scenes, new performances, parades and performances based on new themes, and even catering and accommodation elements in terms of product form.
For visitors to the south, the natural climate difference adds to the park's appeal, especially during limited festivals. Kiki, a tourist from Guangzhou, said that the unique Christmas atmosphere was an important reason for her to come.
Lin Huanjie, president of the China Theme Park Research Institute, pointed out that festival income is an important component of theme parks' annual operating income. This is due to the increase in the number of tourists and the increase in ticket revenue, and the increase in secondary consumption: the proportion of income including food and beverages and souvenirs has further increased.
In fact, mature theme parks will pay attention to the investment in derivatives when creating a "festival economy". For example, Universal Studios Beijing has launched a series of limited theme products for this winter Christmas event, combining winter and Christmas atmosphere with special IP, such as the well-known IP Harry Potter's Wizarding World, Kung Fu Panda and Transformers series have launched new winter products, including knitted scarves, backpacks and other products that are both beautiful and practical.
The reporter observed that doll-shaped hoods and scarves have especially become popular models. Almost every visitor in the park wears at least one commemorative product, and the price of each product is basically more than 200 yuan. Even from the perspective of product sales alone, it is already a lot of money.
Comply with the needs of tourists for the holidays
This is not the first time that international theme parks have achieved a "festival effect".
In fact, on the first Spring Festival (2022) after the opening of the park, Universal Beijing Resort launched the "Universal Year of China" themed event, which received a lot of positive feedback and voices. After market testing, the "Global Chinese Year" in the second year (2023) has become an ideal check-in spot for the Spring Festival in Beijing in the hearts of tourists by virtue of the popular label of "New Year and New Year customs with global characteristics". During the "Global China Year" in the past two years, the average satisfaction rate of tourists has reached more than 80%.
In recent years, more and more domestic theme parks have also begun to rely on festivals to launch a series of their own activities and brands. One of the best is Chimelong Tourist Resort, a series of activities based on Halloween have lasted for more than 10 years, with years of accumulation of huge scale and top content, not only to achieve a double harvest of passenger flow and turnover, but also to form a wide range of brand influence, radiating from Guangdong to the whole country. During the 2018 event, the total number of visitors to Chimelong Paradise exceeded 1 million, and the cumulative number of visitors reached 6 million.
However, there are many parks that "engage in atmosphere", and there are still very few that really stand out like Chimelong and Universal Studios. Lin Huanjie pointed out that the key lies in the location of the park and whether it is willing to "spend money" for the event.
"Why are some parks not doing well? First of all, the location of the area may not be good, in the suburbs or the traffic conditions are relatively weak, although there are tourists, but it is difficult to form a large flow of visitors. "There are also companies that lack a vision of the input-output ratio, and only think about adding lighting decorations at low cost, floating on the surface and ignoring the most fundamental needs of tourists.
For tourists, choosing to spend the festival in a theme park is to feel the festive atmosphere on the one hand, and on the other hand, they also want to be a part of the festival and a participant. That's why immersive, interactive programs are especially important when creating festivals. "In addition to the surface decoration, we also have to redesign and launch projects such as performing arts and parades. ”
In addition, when international brands operate, they often plan holiday activities long in advance, which is also something that domestic brands need to learn Xi. Including planning what content to implant and how to implant, "it is necessary to capture what tourists expect and love, and present it to tourists through festival packaging." Lin Huanjie emphasized. For example, Disney's very popular castle light show gathers movie images such as Frozen, rather than just showing the splendor of lights and fireworks.
Universal Studios' new "Winter Holiday" also shines a spotlight on its own movie characters, repackaging them with a Christmas theme.
"This is also the hallmark of an international park: it has a very convivial atmosphere. He pointed out that they will present the content of the entire park-themed category in a very short concentrated time, "which is very attractive to tourists, and it is also what domestic brands need to learn from and invest Xi." ”
Southern + reporter Ye Qihan
[Editing] Southern + reporter Xu Lei
【Authors】 Ye Qihan;Xu Lei
[Source] Southern Press Media Group Southern + client