Hard Rock Park: Selling the Second Season

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John Stine, Director of Marketing for Hard Rock Park

The new owners of the Hard Rock Theme Park have many challenges before them as they work to bring the park to life for a second season.
One of those challenges is overcoming the failures of the previous owners, who drove the amusement park into bankruptcy. One of the most often sited failures was in marketing and sales.
Refusing to follow traditional techniques in marketing theme parks¬-local partnerships, co-op programs and other incentive programs, the original owners isolated the park from the surrounding community of businesses and residents. Not surprisingly, there was little to entice the tourists in visiting the theme park when they arrived in town.
Now that FPI MB Entertainment LLC has taken over the park, they intend to reinvent the rock’n'roll theme park as part of Myrtle Beach business community. The man they have chosen to take on that task is John Stine. With a Bachelor’s in Marketing from University of South Florida, Stine has over 20 years experience in the theme park industry, including Universal Orlando and Dixie Stampede among others.
As director of marketing and sales for Hard Rock’s sophomore year, Stine said he and his department are treating marketing and sales as two different aspects.
“In sales, we are working on presenting ourselves as part of the destination set,” Stine said. “The majority of people research where they are going. We want to be there when they are doing that research.”
Stine explained that Hard Rock would be working closely with area resorts as well as travel agencies and web sites to give people a chance to buy into the park before they arrive in Myrtle Beach.
“We are working with resorts, time shares and campsites, as well as groups like AAA and travel sites like Expedia,” Stine said, “We want to be part of the entire package. We will be offering deals, like if they book a four-night stay, they will get tickets to the park. Or if they don’t stay that long, they can purchase tickets at a discount.”
Even if visitors don’t buy tickets before they arrive at the Grand Strand, they will still have a chance to get a discount.
“They will have a chance to go to the lobby and buy tickets from the concierge,” Stine said. “Before there wasn’t any incentive for the hotels to do this, but now we have deals good enough where there is some financial gain for them to offer these deals.”
On the marketing side of the effort, Stine said there is a lot in the works to increase the visibility of the park on the Web sites where tourists are looking at, as well as traditional advertising in print and radio.
“Every placement is going to be a call to action: an opportunity for the customer to act on a particular offer right away,” Stine said.
They are also working on expanding the people the park would attract.
“We want to cover all the age demographics,” Stine said. “Kids, teens, middle age, grandparents; we want them all to come and have a good time.”
For instance, Stine said they don’t want grandparents to sit around and watch.
“We don’t want them to feel like that is all they can do,” Stine said. “Sure they don’t have to get on the big roller coaster, but we want them to want to go on rides with their grandchildren and not just sit and watch.”
Stine also indicated that there is work behind the scenes to broaden the type of music fans the park attracts, expanding on the classic rock theme predominate at the park.
“Whether that is in live shows or attractions at the park, we are working very hard to cross all boundaries so there is something for everyone,” Stine said.
However, there is a lot Stine can’t say yet, but promises there will be big announcements as the opening approaches.
“There is a lot of really exciting stuff going on behind the scenes,” Stine said. “And there will be a flurry of announcements as we approach the opening at the end of May.”