Advertising thru out the US

Hi all, first post here, I'm a long time reader though.

Been going to the park ever since I saw an article in the paper in May of 03 about TTD. I was just getting in to liking amusement parks and roller coasters and seeing the tallest and fastest coaster was in Ohio I knew I had to get there. For the rest of May, June and July I found a lot more things about CP. I could not believe I never even heard of it. I knew about other amusement parks like SFMM, but I live in NY state and flying that far for just an amusement park was not an option. Basically I wish I herd about it before (like on TV or something) because I can only make it to CP once a year.

CP being the roller coaster capital of the world and much more attracting people from other countries, I live 500mi away and never knew about it. I'm just wondering why they don't Advertise thru out the US.

Simply put, the money they generate from advertising nationwide probably does not outweigh the costs of advertising. Just a guess, but I'd say that most people that would take a long trip to Cedar Point already know about it. This of course is from someone living five hours away.

They do run a "national" ad campaign in a way. But I am only aware of the advertising in areas that other Cedar Fair parks are in and draw from. I think they do have a "national ad campaign", it just isn't a major part of their advertising strategy.

I live in Buffalo and they do air CP commercials here every once and a while during the summer.

what part of NY are you in?
*** Edited 1/8/2006 3:35:26 PM UTC by Mean Streak John***

I live a 1/2 hour out side of Albany in the direction of Buffalo. It is a 8 hour drive to CP.

I'm in Iowa and saw advertisements last summer...I was a bit surprised, but thought it was pretty cool :)

The Windsor Star (Windsor's newspaper) did an activity last year throughout the summer where one would look through the paper for 3 different things and then list what page they were on and mail it in and win 2 day passes into the park.

I'm from Rochester NY and just this summer did I see commercials for CP, but not in years past. I heard about the park because of my mom's boyfriend. Really I think they are very dependent on word of mouth.

We see them on the hour here. Really, you can see a CP or MiAv commercial every couple of minutes here in Holland, Michigan.

MrScott

I live in Brighton, Mi, and I only saw a couple MiAdv commercials, but a CP commercial prctically every hour.

CP is on the Travel Channel alot. They were on it the other day on the show called (i think its called anyway) "worlds fastest" they showed millenium and TTD.

Although they advertise on tv, word of mouth is by far Cedar Point's biggest form of recruitment. For example, I know I (and/or my family) have gotten a few different people over the past few years to go down for their first time, just because of the stories we tell and how well we glorify the almighty Cedar Point. And, I'm sure I'm not the only one who has converted someone to Cedar Pointism.

-S. Eagle

.
*** Edited 1/8/2006 10:39:10 PM UTC by sean_s_eagle***

Maybe they are Advertising to more and more spots thru out the country. I know Mr. Kinzel said "We only market a 250 mi radius but the reputation with the coasters has gotten all over and people do come from all over the country to CP." (I know that because I just popped in the movie World's Largest Amusement Park to make sure ;) )

A relative of mine saw a CP commercial in California last year. He said there were a few being shown, just not that often.

On-line advertisements are rather inexpensive (vs. TV and print media...) Does anyone know to what extent Cedar Point (Cedar Fair) utilizes on-line ads?

Even if it were just putting banners on the home pages of major newspapers, they could quickly develop an "awareness" outside the 250 mile radius, targeting non-coaster enthusiasts (those folks already know about CP,) at a very minimal cost.

I've seen Cedar Point banner ads on CoasterBuzz and on the Cleveland newspaper and TV sites. I'm sure there's more than that, too. So, there has been a good bit of Internet advertising.

It's all sold in bundles now. Buy one medium and you get them all.

MrScott

i live in illinois, the only time i ever saw a cedar point tv ad was when i was on vacation in pensacola florida.

sean_s_eagle said:
Although they advertise on tv, word of mouth is by far Cedar Point's biggest form of recruitment. .
*** Edited 1/8/2006 10:39:10 PM UTC by sean_s_eagle***

I have to agree on this. Living in south Florida, I never heard anything about Cedar Point... ever! The only commercials you see there are for Busch Gardens, Disney and Universal. Back in '02 a friend of mine told me about this "Great Park in Ohio" and said I should apply to work there. At this point, I had never heard of CP. The only familiar thing when I got here was I remember seeing a picture of Power Tower in an issue of Popular Mechanics/Science (one of those). But I came in '03 and I'm still here.

I've seen CP advertising here in Las Vegas on cable (TBS I believe).