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Re: Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Project 2017

I think it's clear if it's anything near what we're expecting, it's going to usher in a very sunny future for the park!
 
Re: Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Project 2017

If BPB advertise it enough, it will bring people in. As for being the only multi-launch in the UK, that depends on whether you count Revolution.

That being said, I still think it's worth waiting for an official announcement from BPB before we start expecting a Mack launched coaster, as they haven't actually confirmed it yet.
 
Re: Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Project 2017

GuyWithAStick said:
Pokemaniac said:
Come to think of it, truly bad coasters seem to be a rarity these days...

52950.jpg

From RCDB

I said they were rare, not that they were extinct. Back until the early noughties, coasters that tried to shake your spine out through your ears seemed to be popping up at every other park across the world. For every Thunderbolt being built today, the eighties and nineties could point to a dozen Goudurixes or Mean Streaks and Loopens and other such "fun" rides. I believe the rate of truly bad coasters has been steadily declining, and the number of truly good ones steadily rising in recent years. Though that's maybe a topic for a thread of its own?
 
Re: Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Project 2017

Lofty said:
A launch coaster for Pleasurebeach will be easy to market for them. Their marketing teams are exceptional and this new investment will have the Blackpool tourism board involved, therefore the Lancashire tourism board and the Fyle tourism board, not to mention the benefits it'll do to Northern Rail and First Trans Pennine in which they'll promote the **** out of it, so in other words, a LOT of avenues of promotion.


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Their marketing teams are exceptional? Really?

They must be being hugely restricted from above in what they can do then because their marketing has been a sore point for a while now; inept would be a compliment. The actual content itself may be great, the staff may be brilliant, but the end result and strategies are piss poor. Someone over on PBE linked their advert for £20 wristbands that was released with no fanfare or television placements and after a week it had a grand total of 400 views, they'd have been better off recording themselves opening up a Loot Crate.

Ben said:
Oh Smithy, you think like the marketers at Merlin.

Precisely, because that's what works, sadly. Even the smaller parks have used it when they've not got a brand ip they can rely on, Mumbo Jumbo was worlds steepest, Speed before that.

Helix drew people in - a good quality ride is practically its own marketing. And then just show everyone it will be a great, new, huge, brilliant roller coaster and people will come.

And then pray to God it'll make Merlin go "huh. Probably should build an RMC".

In Sweden. Where they're slightly more educated and a lot less impressed-by-gimmicks than the public over here. Word of mouth marketing after people have ridden your world class ride? No problem at all. Actually convincing them to come and ride it without selling it as tallest, fastest, longest? Massive challenge in this country.

I know they tried to push Smilers opening year marketing without focusing on the world's most inversions element to try and prove it could be done and I may be talking out my arse but I swear it's lukewarm reception meant the next season they resorted to hyping it as a worlds first. There's very few successfully marketed rides in recent years that haven't relied on either a strong branding IP or a "unique/first" marketing hype.

It's similat to the woodie at Alton argument; you know when it's built, people will love it, tell their friends how great it is and convince them to go. The challenge is getting them on it in the first place.
 
Re: Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Project 2017

Smiler had a lukewarm reception...?

Where were you in 2013, it was the most talked about coaster opening I've experienced since at least Saw? People cared a lot more about it than they did Swarm!

I just don't think it was helped by the delayed opening and the fact that when it did open it just sort of... happened.

But, yeah, if this is the double launched, Helix-esque, long Mack the rumours are saying they'll have no trouble marketing it. There is even gimmicks to use - Launches! Hoops! Hills! Lapbars!
 
Re: Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Project 2017

I think part of the reason why Merlin have to rely on gimmicky marketing techniques is because their products just aren't that good. With a Mack launcher it'd be easy to market because all they'd have to do is say "this is a **** great coaster, come and ride it" - and that would be the honest truth.
 
Re: Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Project 2017

Smithy said:
Lofty said:
A launch coaster for Pleasurebeach will be easy to market for them. Their marketing teams are exceptional and this new investment will have the Blackpool tourism board involved, therefore the Lancashire tourism board and the Fyle tourism board, not to mention the benefits it'll do to Northern Rail and First Trans Pennine in which they'll promote the **** out of it, so in other words, a LOT of avenues of promotion.


Sent from my iPhone 6 using Tapatalk.

Their marketing teams are exceptional? Really?

They must be being hugely restricted from above in what they can do then because their marketing has been a sore point for a while now; inept would be a compliment. The actual content itself may be great, the staff may be brilliant, but the end result and strategies are piss poor. Someone over on PBE linked their advert for £20 wristbands that was released with no fanfare or television placements and after a week it had a grand total of 400 views, they'd have been better off recording themselves opening up a Loot Crate.

Ben said:
Oh Smithy, you think like the marketers at Merlin.

Precisely, because that's what works, sadly. Even the smaller parks have used it when they've not got a brand ip they can rely on, Mumbo Jumbo was worlds steepest, Speed before that.

Helix drew people in - a good quality ride is practically its own marketing. And then just show everyone it will be a great, new, huge, brilliant roller coaster and people will come.

And then pray to God it'll make Merlin go "huh. Probably should build an RMC".

In Sweden. Where they're slightly more educated and a lot less impressed-by-gimmicks than the public over here. Word of mouth marketing after people have ridden your world class ride? No problem at all. Actually convincing them to come and ride it without selling it as tallest, fastest, longest? Massive challenge in this country.

I know they tried to push Smilers opening year marketing without focusing on the world's most inversions element to try and prove it could be done and I may be talking out my arse but I swear it's lukewarm reception meant the next season they resorted to hyping it as a worlds first. There's very few successfully marketed rides in recent years that haven't relied on either a strong branding IP or a "unique/first" marketing hype.

It's similat to the woodie at Alton argument; you know when it's built, people will love it, tell their friends how great it is and convince them to go. The challenge is getting them on it in the first place.
I'd hardly call The Smilers opening year luke warm at all, it was pulling at least 90min queues on days when every other ride had 10 min queues, I've never seen such hype for a ride in the UK coaster community and the genral public.

I honestly think if this new ride is good it will market it's self, the problem with UK is that the people want 'big' rides like in America and I honestly think that's why The Big One and Stealth still do so well to this day. I've heard multiple people say Thorpe Park is like an American park when it comes to rides, but never heard anything of Alton's rides being spoken about the same way.
 
Re: Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Project 2017

Ben said:
Smiler had a lukewarm reception...?

Where were you in 2013, it was the most talked about coaster opening I've experienced since at least Saw? People cared a lot more about it than they did Swarm!

I just don't think it was helped by the delayed opening and the fact that when it did open it just sort of... happened.

But, yeah, if this is the double launched, Helix-esque, long Mack the rumours are saying they'll have no trouble marketing it. There is even gimmicks to use - Launches! Hoops! Hills! Lapbars!

I did say I may be talking out my arse with that one, I swear I can recall discussions on here about how it didn't do as well as they hoped (admittedly can be attributed to delays and break downs) and that the following season the focus was all on world record number of inversions.

Aye there's loads they can focus on to market it, I'm just not sure how effective they'll be at drawing people in.
 
Re: Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Project 2017

If it is a Mack launch - and we're still in rumour territory - then it will be a ride that ticks two boxes. The first is they are generally well received by us enthusiasts. Secondly, and most importantly, they appeal to the masses. They're not overly tall, fast, daunting or scary, they look and feel nice. Not sickly or too intense just simple pure, sustained fun from start to finish. Mack launch coasters are incredibly "wholesome" so it would fit perfectly into the PBB brand that was started by Geoffrey and is continuing under Mrs T's watch. They'll have no problem at all marketing this type of coaster.

Imagine this snaking through the heart of the Pleasure Beach. Imagine the UK getting something substantial that doesn't rely on a gimmick. It be like shot of adrenaline direct into the heart of competition, sparking a revitalised life of fab coasters hitting our shores.

Very early on in this topic I suggested the evidence pointed to a Mack mega launch coaster. I really, really, really hope it's true. I've built my hopes up to the point of no return.
 
Re: Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Project 2017

I thought the Smiler got a decent reception actually, and it's probably my second favourite ride at the park. 14 inversions was a decent gimmick which ensured they built something of sustenance. As has been mentioned, the problems lay in its technical difficulties, as a result of perhaps being a little too ambitious. And unfortunately, it's reputation has now been permanently tarnished! (It might become a walk on though...)

I think perhaps Merlin's problem is being too corporate. Especially in the wake of last year, shareholders and stakeholders will want to ensure their assets remain high value (or something like that, I don't do economics ;) ). To solve that, Merlin resort to investing in two debatably short term investments - one involving a new technology, and the other using a celebrity to drag in the guests. Will it work? Probably. They'll both give a short term investment return, before the cycle of needing to increase attendance again returns.
They might initially be well received initially, but in 5-10 years' time, who's going to go back to Thorpe just to find out what those other alternative endings are for the ghost train are? And Air will have returned (possibly).

They've just got to accept long term investments do exactly what they say on the tin - take time, and aren't necessarily a massive success the minute they open.

This is why I'm really excited to see what BPB can do! Hopefully we can all finally agree on the top 2 coasters in the UK!

This is Blackpool Pleasure Beach.
They (will) like building rides because they're good.
This keeps guests returning.
Be like Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

(Joking aside, I really, really hope this actually happens! It would be the best thing to happen to UK theme parks since 1994.)
 
Re: Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Project 2017

Ian said:
If it is a Mack launch - and we're still in rumour territory - then it will be a ride that ticks two boxes.

Don't forget the third on coaster-count ;)

I do hope it's a Mack launch, I've only ridden one, Blue Fire, but I have heard a couple of good things about Helix too ;) I know everyone else has said it too but it really would fit the park too, I want it. I really do.
 
Re: Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Project 2017

I still haven't visited Blackpool (because I'm a terrible enthusiast), but a Mack multi launch does sound like it would suit the park brilliantly. And it'd be a great thing for the UK as a whole.

So please let it happen.
 
Re: Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Project 2017

^we're going on March, why don't you come along?


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Re: Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Project 2017

I'd have loved too, but unfortunately the weekend of the live is the one weekend in March I can make :/
 
Re: Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Project 2017

Oh yh, I hope it's a Mack launch too. Blue Fire is lame but Helix is fab, mostly because it has to deal with its landscape cleverly, which a coaster of this type at BPB would definitely have to do. Excite <3


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Re: Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Project 2017

tomahawk said:
You know another Mack coaster with 2 launches? Manta at Sea World San Diego. Never saw (in my smimming) that it would be a large multi launch, but just trying to keep those grounded who are jumping to conclusions.

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If they spend a huge amount of money (both on the ride and clearing the area) and then build something like Manta, I will be sorely disappointed.

Something similar to Helix would be a huge success for the park IMO, whereas Manta doesn't exactly look visually impressive, and whilst it might be a good family coaster (I wouldn't know - haven't been on it), BPB needs a new thrill coaster as they have already invested a lot in family attractions in recent years.
 
Re: Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Project 2017

From the Internet, here's the new bridge and the big space where the old one used to be.

12662468_1349890895036869_8855019134735268278_n.jpg


12654616_1349890898370202_3286383063092597445_n.jpg
 
Re: Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Project 2017

Oh, when I read that "the bridge is being demolished and a new one built", I thought it would be a replacement.

The area near Space Invader was crowded enough as it was!
 
Re: Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Project 2017

This one comes out next to the Avalanche, so you can go past the Robbie Williams dodgems and under PMBO, so hopefully Nick Land won't end up having to soak up loads more people.
 
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