Playland

Playland, a 15-acre amusement park in Vancouver, attracts two key groups: young people from 12 to 24 and parents with small children. Rethink decided to focus on the youth group, who, according to research, wanted nothing to do with a “family-friendly” amusement park.

Based on the insight that this group wants to show they can handle danger, the agency decided to focus on visceral thrills – including side effects of the rides (from screams to nausea). But Playland’s owner, the City of Vancouver, gave the agency a strict “no gross-out” mandate. The result was a campaign that slyly focused on the after-effects of visiting Playland. Print and OOH played on the idea, showing, for example, toy animals from the carnival games “throwing up” their stuffing. Two TV spots continued the theme. Online, the agency created Scream-O-Meter.com, where visitors screamed as loud as they could at their computers, and those who maxed out the meter received discounted passes. Also, a guerrilla sticker campaign posted in condos and apartment buildings throughout Vancouver included the line “Scream, we dare you,” and featured the Scream-O-Meter URL.

At presstime, attendance figures exceeded targets from 2006, while online ticket sales were at an all-time high.