SeaWorld plans to launch brand-repairing campaign

[ECG]

Although this has a lot to do with keeping orcas in captivity and nothing to do with the Blue World Project, I've decided it really needs a thread of it's own in the News section in order to keep the discussion on topic.

In April Sea World Entertainment will be launching a brand-repair campaign. The theme park chain lost one million guests in 2014 in the midst of the backlash over the Blackfish "documentary" PR nightmare. Unlike Orlando rivals Disney and Universal, Sea World will not raise their current ticket prices and is starting this campaign to rebuild their image.

With its theme-park attendance still declining amid controversy over its killer whales, SeaWorld Entertainment will soon debut a campaign to repair its brand and hold off on ticket-price increases.
Orlando-based SeaWorld told analysts its plans Thursday as it released a fourth-quarter earnings report showing a bigger loss and lower revenue than the previous year. SeaWorld reported an adjusted net loss of $25.4 million versus $13 million a year ago. Year-over-year revenue declined to $264.5 million from $272 million.
The net loss was larger than analysts' expectations, and the stock declined almost 6 percent Thursday, closing at $19.17.
The company's attendance and stock value have declined, in part because of negative publicity over its killer whales. The issue went mainstream after the 2013 documentary "Blackfish," which suggested stresses of captivity could have caused the orca Tilikum to kill Orlando trainer Dawn Brancheau in 2010.
Board Chairman and interim CEO David D'Alessandro told analysts the company a targeted marketing campaign starting by April 1 will focus on consumers who feel ambivalent about SeaWorld. Some people vehemently oppose keeping animals in captivity, while others support SeaWorld enthusiastically. The campaign will focus on those in the middle, a group that D'Alessandro said "wants to know our side of the story."
D'Alessandro said SeaWorld has "some of the best people in the country working with us" and the campaign will be a long-term one.
"This is not a hit-and-run, as we say in the marketing world, where you can just advertise for a month and hope it goes away," D'Alessandro said. "This is changing mind-sets and making sure mind-sets stay changed, recognizing that the opposition is not going to stand still as we do this."
Just minutes after SeaWorld's conference call with analysts ended, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals issued a statement saying "it has never been clearer that the tide has turned against the abusement [sic] park following the critically acclaimed film Blackfish."
It will likely take some time for the marketing campaign to have some effect, said S&P Capital IQ analyst Tuna Amobi.
"Usually things like this in our experience take from two to three years," he said.
The campaign is expected to increase marketing costs. Much of that will be offset by a previously announced $50 million cost-cutting plan that included layoffs of more than 300 people.
SeaWorld also indicated it has no immediate plans to raise ticket prices. Both Disney World and Universal Orlando have broken the $100 threshold for one-day tickets during the last few days. SeaWorld will hold the line at $95 for now.
"We're not interested in necessarily following to follow just yet," D'Alessandro said. "But we think there may be some room there. … I think we'd like to wait until we see how the quarter goes."
Right now, he said, "our strategy is, simply let's get people into the parks, let's re-establish our pass base and then let's market more aggressively on the domestic side with additional marketing programs."
Amobi said that is a wise strategy.
"I think they've got to tackle the attendance question first," he said.
The company said it plans to hold off on giving financial guidance for 2015 as well. It wants to wait until its first quarter finishes as well as analyze spring break and Easter.
The company pointed to what it sees as a positive sign: Attendance, while down year-over-year, declined less than in the previous quarter. While year-over-year attendance dove 5.2 percent in the third quarter, this time it declined 2.2 percent.
Visitors paid less for admission but about 2 percent more on food, merchandise and other in-park spending. Next week, SeaWorld Orlando starts another initiative that could generate more money: charging $15 per person to touch and have photos taken with dolphins. At the same time, SeaWorld has stopped allowing people to buy $7 trays of fish to feed the dolphins.
In Orlando, SeaWorld also acknowledged it has stiff competition from Disney World and Universal Orlando. Without a major new attraction coming online anytime soon, D'Alessandro said, "you don't have a choice but to market, promote, build your pass business and do a better job in pricing. That's the way you at least, at a minimum, maintain share."

Source: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-seaworld-earnings-report-20150226-story.html

 

[nadroJ]

I am glad that they've decided not to raise their gate price, because to do so would send out the message that they're choosing to turn a blind eye and act like nothing bad is happening, which would be incredibly foolish. That said, I've said it before and I'll say it again, they need to have a massive brand rehaul that sees the Sea World chains step away from the key focus of the 'Shamu' character as the star attraction and focus more of becoming a well rounded theme park attraction. Let's get this clear; in a few years time, probably sooner than we think, it will be utterly unthinkable in the public sphere for customers to feel comfortable watching orcas perform. My parents commented on this the last time we were at Sea World in Orlando. It's just life, unfortunately. In the not too distant past it was socially acceptable to chain a bear up and poke it with a spear as entertainment, and nowadays that would be unthinkable. We move on, become more civilised and with that the use of animals as entertainment is deemed less and less acceptable. I would guess that public opinion is still ever so slightly tipping in favour of Sea World in that seeing the whales perform isn't an issue for them, but soon enough that balance will tip in the opposite direction and that is when Sea World will have a big problem on their hands.

The Sea World parks have got such an amazing concept on their hands. What other theme park chain can boast such a successful blend of thrill rides/zoo/shows? If they start moving away from animal performance acts now they can slowly ease into the transition and it will be subtle enough not to rock the boat either way, but I don't think they will. They will cling to their precious orca performance acts as long as they can until it's too late and they're left with shiny new orca performance arenas/tanks that are sat without spectators because it is no longer a socially acceptable form of entertainment.

Basically, they're idiots.

 

[STC]

Keeping massive whales in captivity is pretty crap.

Making them perform in god-awful, cheesy, nauseatingly sentimental shows is even worse.

I hope SeaWorld's business keeps suffering until they do away with this naff behaviour. If your park relies on stripping the dignity of beautiful animals by having them perform circus skills for mouth-breathing idiots, then maybe the rest of your park isn't good enough.

 

[Hyde]

I can't help but wonder how much of this is too little too late.

Seaworld's stock took a 35% hit after the Blackfish documentary and has yet to recover. Attendance and earnings are down. I cannot believe that freezing ticket prices (which will inevitably go-up) and some mildly-flavored program changes will bring about real change.

All of the park's success is routed in the Orca program; they have all of their eggs in one basket. The park chain could look to diversify the types of attractions at parks (more thrill rides, other rare animal enclosures, programming, etc.), but it drives at the question of if Seaworld would have enough capital and time to weather through such change. Need I remind folks of what was Six Flags Worlds of Adventure; the attempt of Six Flags to create an amusement park, water park, and wildlife park in one (after having purchased the old SeaWorld Ohio). Turns out park goers either want attractions or wildlife, not both. And when you add competition from normal zoos with a MUCH lower admission price, SeaWorld is in a tight corner.

The park needs to innovate it's way out of the Orca program fast. Enthusiasts may be patient, but investors are not.

 

[bmac]

Sea World's issues also stem from the fact that they have to refocus their budgeting so that they can show profits to investors. They have two parks in their chain that had budgets most normal parks would utterly kill to have, and now SEAS has to restructure them for profit compared to their old role of being brand recognition parks. Both Busch parks got money from Anheuser Busch, and any profit they made was dumped right back into the parks. It was just a happy realization that even with all the money the parks received they still made profit.

It still is odd that they'd drop $50 million on Verbolten when it was plain as day back then that they needed to be cautious with their money. $100 million refurbishments for their Orca shows and the budget breaking show known as London Rocks. I mean amidst all the budget cuts Busch Gardens Williamsburg pledged to spend more than double what the State of Virginia granted them for their tourism boosting campaign. They have a brand new coaster that was finally mentioned for the first time in a quarterly earnings call. They still have to pay off Blackstone, and buy back stock from them. Just from glancing at their current state of operations I honestly don't believe SEAS knows how to budget properly.

I still don't believe that Blackfish is as big of a deterrent as everyone is saying it is, but I do agree with Hyde that SEAS needs to make something else their focus instead of the whales. Six Flags has their focus more on rides, but some parks do have animals as a part of the attraction, too.

 

[Hyde]

Just to give some illustration to Seaworld's stock market losses:

Blackfish represented an $8 loss per share back in 2013. The bigger hit however was in August 2014, when Seaworld showed a poor quarterly earnings with 7% attendance loss expected for the year. The company lost a third of its shares.

Now things can turn around - Six Flags has shown a complete about face since the bankruptcy days, and has performed well in the market (https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=c ... gs%20stock). Stock market pricing is always to be taken with a grain of salt in terms of overall valuation of a firm; but SeaWorld is certainly not showing positive signs in this arena.

 

[SilverArrow]

^I've heard people saying that they've been hit particularly hard this recently in Orlando because of the new attractions (Harry Potter and Seven Dwarves) that have opened at the other parks. I've also heard reports that quite a few other Orlando attractions (it may have also been in their other locations as well) have seen slowed growth or profits but I don't have the source.

The training that underpins all of Seaworld's animals shows is both humane (they are world leaders in positive reinforcement training) and something that is widespread throughout the zoo industry for both enrichment and healthcare purposes. The issue is how they display it. Due to the fact that they feel they have to compete with Disney and Universal their shows have been jazzed up with effects and showbiz that now doesn't gel well with what the public expects to see in connection with zoo animals.

Aquariums like Vancouver acted when this change of opinion first started to take hold and adapted themselves to be much more educational and open about their training. This is a change that we've seen in UK collections too over the last couple of decades. Seaworld has always taken great pride in their history but they are now lacking behind other facilities who have changed with the times. If they can successfully make this change whilst keeping their charm then they'll do ok.

 

[Gavin]

^ There's very little in the way of education when it comes to Sea World's orca shows. The trainers' spiel served one purpose only really: to try and justify why the whales were there, pretending that their captive breeding programs were somehow saving the species as opposed to keeping their shows stocked. That's not a criticism against the trainers. I've no doubt they really love their animals, but it's very clear from their script that Sea World are in the process of damage control.

That's before you mention the fact that the show is just really bloody boring to be honest.

Instead of spending millions on the new orca tanks, they should look at how they can use that money to actually diversify and move away from the orcas completely. By the time those tanks are ready, public opinion will be even further away from where they want it to be than it is now.

So many people standing in front of the tank after the show were commenting VERY negatively while looking at the whales. This was the same on two different days. Instead of people being excited to see the animals, the whole atmosphere in front of the tank was really subdued, with hardly any conversation, and what little there was was resoundingly negative. Honestly, people were way more impressed and happier around the turtle and stingray exhibits. The atmosphere around those tanks was so much more pleasant.

 

[SilverArrow]

^They certainly need to diversify and move their eggs out of the one basket but there is a lot they can do with their shows too to help this image change. As I said, they're doing it right behind the scenes but currently that's all hidden behind the showbiz. The fact that they haven't been giving out facts and educational material at shows has given activists an open field to fill in the gaps with their own interpretations of the truth.

The new tanks look like a first step into diversifying what they do with the Orcas- i.e. not having it all about the shows and the whales will probably benefit from them so I do think that they're a good idea.

I wait eagerly to see what changes they make but I also cringe at the thought of it going wrong. Hopefully they've got some good people working on it.

 

[ECG]

Re: Sea World plans to launch brand-repairing campaign

The marketing campaign to rebuild its image and its brand has barely launched and yet another hurdle pops up...

A federal class-action lawsuit was filed in California on March 25 alleging that SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. deliberately hid its unethical treatment of captive orcas from customers, according to a news release.
The Seattle office of law firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP announced it is representing SeaWorld customers in a “groundbreaking” class-action lawsuit against SeaWorld Entertainment, alleging the park engages in “psychoactive drugging, forced separation of calves from mothers, forced and unnatural breeding and cramped conditions that lead to aggression and disease,” the release said.
The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of California and names Holly Hall as the plaintiff, the 85-page complaint showed. The complaint asks for injunctive relief, including returning payments to those who had purchased tickets, memberships or SeaWorld orca experiences in the last four years at the SeaWorld parks in Orlando, San Diego or San Antonio, Texas. It also asks that SeaWorld cease unfair business pratices, the complaint said.

Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/blog/2015/03/seaworld-sued-for-allegations-it-deceived.html

 

[bmac]

Well that's going to go nowhere.

 

[SaiyanHajime]

I agree with Nadroj. Mostly.

I personally have no real issue with orcas In captivity or the shows. It irritates me that Blackfish watching armchair activists never mention other cetacean shows, or what about the sealions???

People, IMO, get caught up in this idea of their majestic beauty and size. People talk about them being in bathtubs, or being forced to perform... and all of that is propaganda wording. Animals the world over at reputable zoos are kept in smaller enclosures comparative to body size than those orcas. People often will say birds don't belong in cages, because the concept of flight is linked to freedom. These ideas of mysticism are human constructs. In reality, if one is immoral, they all must be.

And so we come to the idea of shows being morally wrong... And that is a worthy argument. I do think there may come a time when eating meat is considered immoral, when using any animal for human gain is immoral. But there is no reason why an orca jumping through hoops for fish is more immoral than a parrot having to say hello for a nut.

Personally, I believe those shows add enrichment to the orcas lives. Most intelligent species thrive on human enrichment and are capable, willing and seem to actively enjoy performing "non natural" tasks. And we're the same. I'm doing that right now.

This all said... Why SeaWorld doesn't advertise their behind the scenes work more and reduce the shamu show I don't know. I would have thought doing away with the shamu brand entirely and making the show less mystical religious animals and man in harmony story time with Disney and more... Natural. Natural behaviours, education based, etc. That would help in the meantime, IMO. Whilst they develop the brand outside or black and white giant dolphins. I think their new penguin ride sounds like a great idea in theory, just badly executed. I'd like to see more Atlantis style attractions - story telling family THRILL rides about the ocean, with wonderful aquariums and such in the queues like they did with manta.

 

[SilverArrow]

I agree with Nadroj. Mostly.

I personally have no real issue with orcas In captivity or the shows. It irritates me that Blackfish watching armchair activists never mention other cetacean shows, or what about the sealions???

People, IMO, get caught up in this idea of their majestic beauty and size. People talk about them being in bathtubs, or being forced to perform... and all of that is propaganda wording. Animals the world over at reputable zoos are kept in smaller enclosures comparative to body size than those orcas. People often will say birds don't belong in cages, because the concept of flight is linked to freedom. These ideas of mysticism are human constructs. In reality, if one is immoral, they all must be.

And so we come to the idea of shows being morally wrong... And that is a worthy argument. I do think there may come a time when eating meat is considered immoral, when using any animal for human gain is immoral. But there is no reason why an orca jumping through hoops for fish is more immoral than a parrot having to say hello for a nut.

Personally, I believe those shows add enrichment to the orcas lives. Most intelligent species thrive on human enrichment and are capable, willing and seem to actively enjoy performing "non natural" tasks. And we're the same. I'm doing that right now.

This all said... Why SeaWorld doesn't advertise their behind the scenes work more and reduce the shamu show I don't know. I would have thought doing away with the shamu brand entirely and making the show less mystical religious animals and man in harmony story time with Disney and more... Natural. Natural behaviours, education based, etc. That would help in the meantime, IMO. Whilst they develop the brand outside or black and white giant dolphins. I think their new penguin ride sounds like a great idea in theory, just badly executed. I'd like to see more Atlantis style attractions - story telling family THRILL rides about the ocean, with wonderful aquariums and such in the queues like they did with manta.

In the 90s and early 2000s they used to have a really good fun and more educational orca show (The shamu adventure anyone?) but I think they gave in to the pressure the glam things up to compete with Disney et al. The animal's experiences and care might not have changed but visually it looks more circusy and has given activists more fodder to work with. I wouldn't be surprised if we see some show changes as they've started doing talks on their pilot whale rehabs (who are in the shows) in their dolphin shows.

^I also totally agree with your point on people being overly obsessed with orcas (or even cetaceans) over other animals. I think we have some crazy jealousy as a species over what they can do as fellow mammals so people tend to treat then like some kind of aquatic gods compared to other species. Yes, they're intelligent but they're not off the scale compared to lots of other clever animals.

I also think people forget how little each animal is doing in an average show. In Clyde and Seamore for example, every time they go offstage it's likely to be a new sea lion coming back out. This will be similar in the other shows too.