Cedar Fair Starts New Agressive Advertising Campaign for The Point

Ok, So I turn on the TV this morning (no school, sleep late, memorial day) and casually flip to spike to see if I can watch any sweet MXC action until my girlfriend gets home from Florida. (so we can go to Great Adventure) The first thing I see on TV is a shot of MF going by acompanied by the Absolutely Amazing music that is on those clips on the website. Then the following comercial procedded to highlight dragster, the fact that there are 16 coasters and the fact that there are lots and lots of hotels. It then told me to go to Cedarpoint.com/usa for travel information. I sat there dumbfounded for a minute. I LIVE 8 and a HALF HOURS FROM CEDARPOINT.

Being that I havn't even seen a Dorney comercial this year and i am an hour and a half east of that. I get Great Adventure comercials all the time but i am forty minutes from that. Now common, what is cedarfair doing here? Are they broadcasting to the whole country that they are a mega resort? I thought they only advertised in a 250 mile radius? What kind of effect will a huge nationwide advertising campaign have on park crowds and my ability to book a hotel the next time I go? I mean, this was a nationwide comercial... Atleast it gives me highres shots of Dragster, almost like riding it, just no rush. :-) *** Edited 5/28/2004 3:47:58 PM UTC by arlok2***

Did they mention the fact that there is an excellent chance that you might not be able to ride a handful of their most popular coasters?

Cedar Point really should just build a castle and openly declare war ;)

In Pittsburgh, I hear a Cedar Point ad on the radio at least twice a day, as well as 2-3 Kennywoods and a Geauga Lake. With all the advertising going on this year, I'm *very* surprised Hershey isn't touting Storm Runner in this area. It does seem to be a much more aggressive advertising campaign than years past.

Sorry Rob, 5-3 and 125 pounds. At 17 I don't think i am going to grow much more and if anything it will be up, not outward in the theigh area. And dragster already thwarted me last year and made me go twice. Anything that I can't ride I already have. But COMMON agressive is the understatement of the freakin century.

Too bad you don't see any commercials with a dancing old man!

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it will be up, not outward in the theigh area

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Ah, the optimism of youth. ;)

The dancing old man is quite a joke, people go to greatadventure and look for him for hours, all they find are high prices and some B&Ms

Yep, the optimism of youth, great stuff

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Rob Ascough said:
Did they mention the fact that there is an excellent chance that you might not be able to ride a handful of their most popular coasters?

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And this is where their advertising campaign this might bite them in the butt IMO. I hope it aint so but still their best rides, their most well known rides are Millenium Force and Top Thrill Dragster right now, many people willl not get to ride. And many people who will be going to these parks based on the advertising campaign and base their opinion of the park on this alone...and may never come back. I hope I am wrong because if more people go to the park that means more rides will be built for us to enjoy! *** Edited 5/28/2004 4:23:39 PM UTC by beast7369***

Arlok, you make it sound like Cedar Fair's aggressive marketing approach is a bad thing. What's wrong with advertising nationally?

I only wish they had advertised nationally 10 years ago. I had never heard of Cedar Point until early in '97 when a friend of mine got me the book White Knuckle Ride by Mark Wyatt for my birthday. Keep in mind that, while I've always loved coasters, this was pre-internet (for me), and I had no clue that there were coaster enthusaist communities and clubs, or so much information about coasters and parks that was so easily accessible. In the book, six pages alone highlighted Magnum, Mean Streak, and Raptor, and gave a little blurb about the park and the massive amount of coasters it had. That was all I needed to hear, and I ended up making a trip to Sandusky about 4 months later.

So, what's the problem?

I don't think it is a bad thing as much as i don't think it is a good thing. I will at the most get to spend three days in the park this year. In times past when i have visited I have not been able to ride as much as I would like do to the insane amount of crowds the park brings in. As far as I am concerned a national marketing campaign can only mean bigger lines for me when I have little time in the park anyway.

However, I also do encourage more crowds when I am not there so there is more cash to build new rides with. The only problem with this is that i will maybe get to rides these new rides once or twice before i have to drive/fly all the way back to NJ.

Solution, dump all this advertising money into Dorney. All the extra revanue created by the huge crowds can go into new coasters that are close to me. Yes, I know, Floorless is nice but I am an Intamin whore, I want a good one close to me. So get those crowds to Dorney so they can buy me an Intamin. And then CP will be empty for me to ride their Intamins....

Ok so that was slightly self centered and it didn't make much sense, my point is that CP is too crowded already. This hurts my time at the park, so i don't like it.

Good thing, bad thing... I'm not sure. I just don't get it. Why advertise a park that's a nine hour drive away when you have a property in that area that could probably some help. Storm Runner at Hershey can't be HELPING business at Dorney.

I live in Charleston, WV, roughly about 4 3/4 to 5 hours from Cedar Point. In the past couple of years I have seen a few commercials locally. The former SFWOA and PKI advertise here all the time, along with Camden Park of course. Carowinds advertises every now and then. PKI/Carowinds, and SFWOA is about 3 1/2 to 4 hours from Charleston depending which way you go. Camden Park is about 35 minutes.

Cedar Point is starting to place billboards all along I-64 in Charleston which I think is awesome! One of them is off the exit to my home and it's cool to see it every morning as I go to work. :-) All it says is "World's Best Amusement Park....Cedarpoint.com"

-Tina

*** Edited 5/28/2004 6:59:26 PM UTC by coasterqueenTRN***

..and here I was thinking that the real park was the "best in the world" when it turns out, all along, the website was where the real fun was.

CoasterqueenTRN, I didn't know that anyone else from this area posted here. I am in Huntington. Anyway, I have seen the Cedar Point and PKI commercials plenty of times. I like the CP commercial. It has convinced my roommate that he needs to go there. He's only been to PKI. The one I haven't seen is for Geauga Lake. I am also deeply saddened by the state of Camden Park. I have always said that if I win the Powerball, I would buy the park and try and bring it up to par.

I'll take the quality new coasters that are pretty much guarenteed to come every other year (if not every year like WT/TTD) at the expense of waiting a few minutes longer for a ride at my home park any day.

That's pretty easy for me to say though because if I drive into the park to find it ridiculously crowded (which, thanks to the webcams, doesn't happen too often), I can just hop in a few short lines and then either go home or do something else.

There are a few West Virginians here, Dragster Freak. :-)

I haven't seen any Geauga Lake commercials, if there are any?

I believe this is the first time that Cedar Point has put up billboards around here. I don't remember seeing any before.

-Tina

*** Edited 5/28/2004 7:31:19 PM UTC by coasterqueenTRN***

They are advertising alot here in Chicago this year too. I have seen about 10 Cedar Point commercials within the last 2 weeks and have actually seen those commercials more often then the Six Flags ones. The commercials were advertising for http://cedarpoint.com/chicago

They also have a billboard near O'Hare airport that has been there for 2 years now advertising for "The Worlds Greatest Amusement Park....Cedarpoint.com." Odd thing about this billboard though that Chitown pointed out to me, is that the billboard is owned by Paramount. *** Edited 5/28/2004 8:08:21 PM UTC by CoasterDude316***

I wonder if the campaign is being run in the LA area. If they are doing Jersey with a cedarpoint.com/usa campaign they might as well be doing LA. And if they are, I wonder what all those GP used to thinking that MM is the best park in the world think when they see shots of the TRUE Extreme park.

(disclaimer- Hey CP's 400 footer works, I can take the shot. Besides, MM is an awesome park and neither group of locals has anything to complain about)

There are some Cedar Point billboards in and around Cincinnati! I go to CP every year anyway, but it is somewhat surprising with PKI being so close. SFKK and IB are closer than CP. I have not seen commercial for CP this year though.

Another WV native here, Dragster Freak, in Southern WV(Welch, McDowell County). I've seen local advertising for CP, PKI, and PCar(oh, Camden too during the summer). But now we have Sat, so I get to see stuff from L.A. and NYC/NJ. Plus Travel Channel(my other religion) has stuff for Hershey and other parks all the time(and I see Hershey on NYC's Fox).

I'd rather know that there will be large lines and new rides than not see any ads and not know the fate of the Po!nt(before I even get to go).