Chessington World of Adventures Resort invested £4 million in a new attraction, Zufari: Ride Into Africa. However, the public was not convinced. Reviews were less than positive, online sentiment on social channels poor, media reports distinctly lacking and Zufari wasn't succeeding at driving traffic through the gates.

The Resort brought us in to:

1 Combat the negative sentiment

2 Generate media exposure

3 Deliver Resort key messages

4 Affect Chessington's bottom line

Harnessing animal insight and combining with the latest Spring/Summer fashions, we worked exclusively with a few select media, online influencers and news agencies, to hint at the upcoming announcement from Chessington:

A Zero-Tolerance on Animal Print Clothing

We banned animal print at the resort as it was confusing Zufari's residents.

Results:

1

- As media touted the ban as "great publicity" (This Morning), "PR genius" (LBC Radio) and "the story of the year" (The Guardian) positive online sentiment doubled

- Search engine optimized content pushed negative conversation down Google rankings

2

- Over 600 pieces of earned media including: 60 TV hits / coverage in every national daily news outlet / aspirational hits in Vogue, Time Magazine and Harper's Bazaar

- Twitter brand exposure soared to 16 million impressions in just one day F

3

- 90% key message delivery for the resort

4

- A record-breaking week at the resort

- 60% week on week growth in website visitors

- 16% increase in site traffic on launch day

- 15% increase in online sales revenues from launch

We worked exclusively with a few select media, online influencers and news agencies, to hint at the upcoming announcement.

Imagery of 'unsuspecting' (and leopard print-wearing) visitors being apprehended by Chessington's animal print bouncers and being issued with a regulation boiler suit for the duration of their stay were prepped and ready to go following our announcement.

As the press went wild for the story, we prepared Chessington's 'official' announcement for its owned and earned channels; tee'd our spokespeople up for broadcast and national print interviews from London to Lombok; and readied the resort to host the world's media. All press materials were cleverly optimised for search in order to combat the existing negative online sentiment. The plan went like clockwork.

Results:

Positive online sentiment doubled,

Search engine optimized content pushed negative conversation off the first page of Google.

Over 600 pieces of earned media including:

Over 60 TV hits from BBC Breakfast to America's today show, to live reporting with ITV's daybreak for three hours!

Coverage in every national daily news outlet (Guardian front page and the most read story on BBC News for 12 HOURS)

Interviews with BBC Radio Five Live, Sky News, CBS America and more aspirational hits in VOGUE, Time Magazine and Harper's Bazaar,

16 million twitter impressions in just one day,

Online coverage was shared via social media nearly 20 million times,

50 YouTube videos dedicated to the subject,

90% key message delivery,

60% Key Message Delivery for 'ZUFARI' across all exposure,

60% week on week growth in website visitors,

16% increase in site traffic on launch day,

15% increase in online sales revenues from launch.