The Marketing Attractions Podcast

One of the pain points for marketing teams always seems to be their organization's ticketing system. They can't get the customer data and/or they can't attribute back online ticket sales to online advertising. We brought in Michelle Paul from BackOffice Thinking to get her thoughts on how marketing can get the most out of their ticketing system.  We cover: A few good and not-so-good...

Scott McPherson takes a 'noses-in-roses' approach to selling tickets and weddings at Royal Botanical Garden.  Scott joins us to talk about creating and marketing events to bring new, diverse audiences to the garden. We dive into how and why he uses influencer marketing in his advertising strategy. Scott shares... Tailoring Content to Audience Segments : Scott explains the importance of d...

Google wants to give every nonprofit attraction $10,000/month in free advertising. But, some zoos, aquariums, museums, and gardens don't maximize this program...or... don't utilize it all. Jenny and the team cover these 10 questions about the Google Ad Grants for Nonprofits program: What is Google Ad Grants What’s the catch? Can I use it to sell tickets? What are the rules to ensure I ha...

Recently one of Jenny's marketing clients - a large botanical garden - invested in creating an online map. So, we asked Anna Busby from Engage by Cell to help us understand the pros and cons of creating an online map for non-profit attractions.  We discuss... Costs - time and financial - for developing an online map  Ideas on getting your visitors to use your maps  Customizing maps for your s...

Tim Morrow shares his perspective on how ticket revenue can help spread the mission for non-profit attractions. He aims to make San Antonio Zoo not just the top zoo in Texas but the top attraction in the state. He spent 18+ years with SeaWorld and talks what he's brought from the for-profit side to the non-profit side.   We talk about... How zoos can learn from how theme parks are marketing a...

We talk with Alyssa Fagien from ATL Bucket List to learn some best practices on how influencers want to work with nonprofit attractions. We talk about what makes a good brief for a creator, sharing your attraction's 'hidden gems,' and whitelisting creator content for ads.   This podcast is produced by Attend Media. Attend helps nonprofit attractions drive visitation through paid med...

Jack Stevenson from Cedar Fair Entertainment Company produces 50+ events at theme parks. He shares his ideas on how non-profit attractions can increase attendance by focusing on events.  We discuss... What goes into creating an event from scratch Using variable pricing to generate value for events  Selling memberships (or, season passes as they call it)  This podcast is produced by Attend Media. A...

Jenny shares strategies and ideas to help zoos, aquariums, gardens and museums plan their advertising for their 2024 holiday events. Political ads will flood the media market which will drive up ad costs.  And, many attractions are looking to increase attendance after record-setting years further.  We discuss... Buying non-preemptable ad inventory on TV and radio  Using programmatic out-of-home to...

Jim Bartoo from the Nashville Zoo joins the show to talk marketing.  We discuss... The value of relationships with local TV, radio and newspaper outlets  His approach to getting earned media A plan to spend ad dollars outside the Nashville market  This podcast is produced by Attend Media. Attend helps nonprofit attractions drive visitation through paid media. Download our free guide to media plann...

We bring in attraction industry veterans Matt Heller and Josh Liebman to discuss the intersection of guest experience, employee retention, and marketing. About our guests... Matt Heller - PerformanceOptimist.com After 20+ years in hospitality leadership and human resources, Matt Heller founded Performance Optimist Consulting in 2011 with one simple goal: Help Leaders Lead. Matt does this through t...

Crafting a media plan is a little like building a house. The architect is like the media planner. Their job is to create plans that are clear, detailed and easy to follow. Just like an architect can't say "build a roof" a media planner can't just say "run ads on connected TV." More detail is required.  In this episode, Jenny shares practical tips on what buying guidel...

Jenny dives into her: "Media Planning Guide for Nonprofit Attractions." It outlines 4 rules to help marketers plan their annual paid media budgets.  The rules are:  1. The Bucket Rule - all media channels (TV, radio, social, etc.) should be bucketed into either Opportunistic or Impactful.  2. The 60-40 Rule - spend 60% of your budget on Impactful channels and 40% of your budget on Opport...

Jenny gives examples and ideas on when and why zoos, aquariums, museums and gardens run ads on social media platforms other than Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.  We talk about... Pinterest = wedding planning, holidays, fashion and art  Reddit = really niche audiences like sneakerheads  LinkedIn = corporate audiences for meetings and events, donations Snapchat = not worth it unless you have a large...

We talk with a DSP rep to get the most up-to-date approaches on how to use a DSP to plan your next programmatic ad campaign.  We discuss... What media channels attractions can really buy programmatically in 2024.  A few tactics to buying streaming TV and radio on a local level.  What you can't buy with a DSP (Meta, YouTube)  Why it's important to communicate with your DSP rep and/or camp...

Most nonprofit attractions aren't allocating enough of their marketing budget to paid social. Paid social now rivals television in terms of reach and impact. Yet, we see TV budgets increase while paid social budgets stay flat.  We discuss... How paid social can be used to both achieve your Impactful and Opportunistic goals. (See our Media Planning Guide for Nonprofit Attractions for more.) Wh...

Jenny shares her 5 steps to launch - or double-down on an existing - social media influencer campaign. Most nonprofit attractions are doing some sort of influencer marketing now.  We suggest doing more. Our plan uses 'nano influencers' to quickly build a library of user-generated content...without breaking the bank. We discuss why TikTok is the best place platform to find, pay, and promo...

Should zoos, aquariums, museums and gardens move their TV advertising dollars away from broadcast TV and into streaming TV? Jenny makes the case for keeping broadcast television in your marketing plan. She also dives into best practices on planning and buying streaming TV (OTT, CTV).  We discuss... Look at TV and Online Video as two different tactics in your marketing plan The reasons why not to a...

Jenny shares how she would build an in-house media buying team at a zoo, aquarium, museum or garden. She takes on the challenge from the perspective of a 15-year ad agency pro.  Her steps are...  Get the attraction's visitation numbers in a place where she can see them weekly  Get access to all ad buying platform - Google Ads, Facebook, etc. And, start paying all the media bills directly.  Hi...