The Torin Douglas Interview: Jason Wills, Merlin
Torin Douglas speaks with Jason Wills, marketing director at Merlin Entertainments, about selling the dream on TV, ‘always on’ marketing – and why he gave Mumsnet users free tickets to Thorpe Park.
Anyone who once had Digital Rock Star as their job title – and still lists it in their LinkedIn profile – has a lot to live up to but, in the case of Jason Wills, the Heineken hype (should that be Hypeken?) is probably justified. At the drinks giant, he was one of the pioneers of digital and social media engagement, when marketing people were still trying to work out how to make the most of Twitter and Facebook.
“The thing I like about digital and social media is they allow you to target very specifically and in a very timely way,” he says, in the latest of my interviews with marketing leaders about their use of media in the digital world.
After launching Desperados, the tequila-flavoured beer, with a digital-led strategy and turning Tiger Beer into a credible choice for 18 to 30 year-olds, Wills became the UK representative on Heineken’s Digital Rock Star network, which was set up to share best practice and the latest innovations globally.
People had used experiential activity at music festivals, and also in pubs and bars, but nobody had really put the two together before.”
Now he’s in the theme park business with Merlin Entertainments and, for the past 18 months, he’s been applying the social media and experiential lessons he learned in the drinks world to Thorpe Park.
Wills says the key to the success of Desperados at Heineken was understanding the role that platforms like Facebook and Twitter could play in a traditional marketing sense and how to scale social media towards a very specific 18-to 24 demographic.
“People had used experiential activity at music festivals, and also in pubs and bars, but nobody had really put the two together before,” says Wills.
“We recruited them into Facebook with paid-for advertising on Facebook and Twitter, and then got them to enter into a competition to go to the festival. Once they were at the festival, they had an experience focused on live tweeting – and once they’d been to the festival we’d retarget them on Facebook to go to an event at pubs and clubs in their area.
I did some paid-for activity with Mumsnet, and got 50 of their forum members to come to Thorpe Park and then write within their forums.”
“So it was about connecting bits of activity which had been in silos before and the most pleasing thing was that it absolutely moved the dial in terms of traditional marketing measures. Brand saliency, top of mind awareness, trial and frequency all moved significantly without any TV advertising.”
Until his arrival at Merlin, Thorpe Park had concentrated on traditional media, such as television, local press and doordrops. It still uses television heavily – we have to “sell the dream” he says – but it obviously can’t afford TV all year round. He says that using social media means that Thorpe Park can be “always on”, addressing those who are in the market for a day out throughout the year.
He is also using other social media platforms, as well as Facebook and Twitter.
“One of the things I’ve done at Merlin is to reposition Thorpe Park to more of a family audience, and I’ve had to reassure parents that it’s OK to bring their children of 9 and upwards,” he says.
“So there I did some paid-for activity with Mumsnet, and got 50 of their forum members to come to Thorpe Park and then write within their forums. I’ve also worked with parent bloggers to get that relevant type of content out there.”
It may be no disadvantage that his wife is a parent blogger!
You can hear more of Jason’s views – including his personal use of social media, and his relationships with YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and the Capital Breakfast Show – in the ten-minute interview above.
The Torin Douglas Interview is sponsored by Sky IQ – to find out how Sky IQ insight can help improve your TV advertising effectiveness and maximise your return on investment, click here.
The Torin Douglas Interview: Paul Davies, Microsoft
The Torin Douglas Interview: MORE TH>N