Zip World Tower: The Power of Storytelling

Positioning Zip World Tower as an unmissable outdoor adventure

Challenge

After being delayed a year by the pandemic, we were briefed by Zip World to launch their new site at the former Tower Colliery coal mine in South Wales. We needed to launch Zip World Tower to consumers through an earned media campaign to generate awareness of the site, drive traffic to the website, and generates ticket sales.

Solution

With an increase in consumer reluctance to purchase experience tickets due to COVID uncertainty, our messaging needed to be bold, positive, and compelling.

For business and news press, we had a topical story to tell; Zip World Tower represented a new and exciting growth period for a tourism business following COVID challenges. Whilst for consumers, we needed to bring to life the exhilarating combination of a unique adventure experience, set in a spectacular landscape that is steeped in history and heritage, to covert excitement into ticket sales.

Our strategy was therefore to position Zip World Tower as an unmissable outdoor adventure experience for those in Wales through creative storytelling and a strategically executed and comprehensive media and influencer plan.

Press Release announcing launch date

We began to build excitement and awareness of Zip World Tower by announcing the launch date through consumer and business-focussed press releases. Securing coverage in consumer press (Cardiff Life, Buzz Magazine, WalesOnline, etc) with messaging that focussed on the site’s heritage and experiences. Whilst our news and business coverage (Wales Business Insider, Business Live, etc) focussed on the economic impact the site would bring.  

Hero Media Opportunities

We identified BBC’s The One Show, WalesOnline and S4C’s Heno as our hero media targets. We developed bespoke packages for each outlet to secure their interest through exclusivity. E.g. The One Show was offered an exclusive angle that focused on the rich heritage of the site, whilst WalesOnline were offered a “first look at Zip World Tower” one week prior to launch.  

 

Developing a comprehensive media strategy

We placed storytelling at the heart of our strategy by developing a range of angles that we could utilise to target different media outlets. For example, we targeted travel journalists with press trips as part of a wider feature on staycations in South Wales, and arranged a picture story of two former coal miners going down the zip line at Zip World Tower for the very first time that secured local and national press (Guardian, Daily Star, Daily Express, etc).  

Broadcast media day

The launch day of Zip World Tower was planned to coincide with the re-opening of the hospitality and tourism sector in Wales. We utilised the media interest in this date to position our launch as a positive COVID recovery story for the tourism sector in Wales. This resulted in both BBC National News and all local broadcasters (BBC Wales Today, ITV Wales Tonight, Heart FM, BBC Radio Wales and Cymru, Nation Radio, Cardiff TV) covering the launch. 

Gifted influencer experiences

We secured 7 local influencers (including Matt Pritchard and Connagh Howard) with a strong following in South Wales to attend a gifted experience in exchange for promoting tickets on their social media channels.

Results

  • PR activity during the week of launch alone directly generated 70, 200 website views.
  • Over 280,000 website views during the two-month campaign period.
  • Over 19,000 tickets/vouchers have been sold during the two-month campaign period.
  • Secured 7 influencer visits and 54 pieces of media coverage, with a reach of over 27million.