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Thorpe Park | Hyperia | Mack Hyper Coaster | 2024

Huh. Even before I became an enthusiast, I always looked at the map and rides on the website so I could plan my day and get the most out of my time there. I thought that was just a basic thing to do. People seriously show up to theme parks with no plan?!
That maybe because deep inside you were always more enthusiastic and excited about the trip than the average British teen / young adult is.... I agree with @roomraider here, it's generally a goon / US thing to do.

I was talking to some year 12 students I was teaching yesterday who are going on a schoool trip to Thorpe Park in July, they'd never heard of Hyperia and had no idea Thorpe Park had a new coaster. If they are marketing to that audience, I don't think it's working
Yep, I can believe that. Problem with social media marketing is the algorithms... Unless you've expressed an interest in a subject before, that targeted advertising isn't necessarily going to hit you... Meanwhile, they're hitting me and other goons 10 times a day, costing them money with each ad... Yet I knew about Hyperia years ago.

The analytics will look great to Merlin on Screen, but the truth is, without a real viral campaign, they're at risk of missing much of their target demographic, and wasting money advertising to those who are well and truly aware of Hyperia.
 
I think that’s an interesting ad. They have got some nice ride shots in there, they got the records in there, and I like the way that they included the big silhouette at the end. I certainly like this more than the whole story-driven approach they were hinting towards a few days ago.

The hype is definitely building for this now… only 15 days to go!
 
Here's the logic behind it too:

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It's a fine ad. But again, I feel like they should be SHOUTING more that this is the UK's tallest coaster.

I get it might go against the concept of not presenting the ride as a challenge. But it's the tallest ride in the UK. That can still fit in with the "if you can do this, you can do anything". People care about records, and glossing over it feels like a potential oversight.
 
It's a fine ad. But again, I feel like they should be SHOUTING more that this is the UK's tallest coaster.

I get it might go against the concept of not presenting the ride as a challenge. But it's the tallest ride in the UK. That can still fit in with the "if you can do this, you can do anything". People care about records, and glossing over it feels like a potential oversight.

What is strange is we know how much Merlin love a record or a World's First creating some pretty silly records in the process: "World's First Psychcoaster", "World's First Horror Movie Themed Coaster". Yet when they have a genuine record breaker, strangely the record seems to have taken a back seat.
 
Sigh, you’ve really got to hand it to Merlin. On the one hand you have Thirteen, ghost train and Walking dead.. some very mediocre family coasters/VR experience advertised as beyond terrifying experiences… and then on the other they have a coaster that could be genuinely terrifying and they want to go light hearted and “freeing” on the marketing.

Such mixed messaging. 😂
 
Sigh, you’ve really got to hand it to Merlin. On the one hand you have Thirteen, ghost train and Walking dead.. some very mediocre family coasters/VR experience advertised as beyond terrifying experiences… and then on the other they have a coaster that could be genuinely terrifying and they want to go light hearted and “freeing” on the marketing.

Such mixed messaging. 😂
It's a mixed message within the parks. But its so refreshing to see the "this is dangerous, our parks are full of dark secrets" mantra for advertising rides be dropped, particularly for a ride where that could have been exploited the most. The ride is already scary enough in concept: it's enormous, has lots of imposing elements that look like they're trying to reject you, and has the "dangerously unsafe" lap bars at the same time. The GP have enough reasons to see this as a huge step-up from the rest of the park offerings. That, plus the awkward relationship between social media and rollercoasters regarding their safety, would make the ride a tough sell from the start. Spinning it as a positive achievement to overcome bravery comes across as so much more welcoming than the "we're here to kill you or traumatise you" themes of smiler, ghost train, wicker man etc, without undermining the rides scale.

Also, we have enough drab, depressing themes going on all around us at the moment. I'll take a positive theme over a negative one any day of the week currently.
 
I quite like the advert. Reminiscent of the original Colossus and Inferno ads:



I still find it odd they're not shouting about the UK's tallest coaster record. Like, even if you compare the Colossus ad and the Hyperia ad, you can see the difference. The Colossus ad goes for the cool visuals, but still drives home the inversion record. The Hyperia ad slips in the tallest coaster bit.

Obviously they've gone for a different route and that can work out. I just hope it's successful, especially since "UK'S TALLEST COASTER" would have been such an easy win for them.
 
Well i had 20mins spare before picking up a friend from Heathrow so i had a quick walk down monks walk to have a look before opening, nothing you have not seen before but seeing it now fully built, dam, just dam, it looks awesome and it feels nuts knowing it opens in a few weeks.
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Sadly did not get to see it run, the train was stopped on the lift but i ran out of time.
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Minor spoiler for inside the station:

So i could see in kinda and it looks grey/silver-ish on the walls with the same design as the outside. I could see some gold wings against the wall i think waiting to be hung up.

Here is the best picture my phone could muster.
IMG20240510165333.jpg
 
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I quite like the advert. Reminiscent of the original Colossus and Inferno ads:



I still find it odd they're not shouting about the UK's tallest coaster record. Like, even if you compare the Colossus ad and the Hyperia ad, you can see the difference. The Colossus ad goes for the cool visuals, but still drives home the inversion record. The Hyperia ad slips in the tallest coaster bit.

Obviously they've gone for a different route and that can work out. I just hope it's successful, especially since "UK'S TALLEST COASTER" would have been such an easy win for them.
Visually, it's quite stunning, and I like how familiar it is to the classic Thorpe ads from the noughties... but sadly, and I say this as someone who directs... I rather do hope that there's a 60 second version... because the pacing in this 30 second Ad just doesn't allow for the audience to care enough. If the Ad was entirely visual, slightly longer and if it wasn't relying too much on a voice over, they could've engaged people a lot more than the Nemesis Reborn Ad, which is a sublime piece of short-form storytelling.
 
On the subject of our Jack, in his latest construction update we learn that, although the ride doesn't have onboard audio, it will have dispatch audio as you exit the station and lift hill audio as you climb to the top. I didn't know this until now. Sweet! It's hard to make out in the video, but it does sound really cool, bassy and exciting. This makes me happy!
To be honest, at those speeds true onboard audio would probably get drowned out by the wind and train noise anyway so I wasn't too bothered about that, but the addition of a scary music score as you ascend the lift hill is gonna add loads to the experience, I'm sure.
Still not happy about the lack of train lights tho. 😡

 
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