PREMiERdrum

I've noticed several restaurants around me going to bottles of Red Gold ketchup on the tables. I actually can't remember the last time I saw a bottle of Heinz on a restaurant's table. Even Steak n' Shake has gone to generic red refillable squeeze bottles.

Unless it is an issue that simply cannot wait 24 hours to be announced, most of what comes out in PR form on 4/1 is a joke. Any PR class (and I've sat through enough of them!) will teach you that. Anything that can be a distraction from your message will a distraction from your message. I have more faith in Don, Bryan, and Robin than to think they'd do this for real on 4/1.

Also announced on April 1st... Did you guys hear Google is changing their name, too? Weird that all this stuff is happening on the same day!

This roadway, at least, has a nice wide sidewalk alongside of it. The way the tent and tarp are placed at the scene, it looks as though the child may have slipped his bike down off the sidewalk and into the roadway. Very, very sad. Of all places to die...

The new website will surely have a blog built into it, making the kingsislandinsider blogspot page somewhat useless... As to the 5@5, I still blame the date.

I'm not sure how it's related, but CGA's Facebook page shows construction and promised "changes" coming to their Action Theater. So you're saying Carowinds is still showing SpongeBob3D?

Nope, they're neither. They're "ChromaDepth" glasses, which visually "pull" anything painted with UV paint and lit with blacklight up away from the surface. It's a neat effect, but hardly as drastic as the new RealD technology (which, I might add, I don't believe anyone has used in a "live" environment yet, although I've heard rumors that the new Kong attraction will use RealD).

It's sad, but as I can with most of CF's decisions, I see intentions that make sense and an execution that doesn't. They've finally in the last 2 seasons or so realized that they need to appeal to families rather than just thrill seekers. Families will spend the day in the park, eat two meals, buy snacks, and load up on ride photos and suveniers before they leave. After the bigger/taller/faster push of the 90's and early 2000's, the family focus marked a decidedly different outlook on marketing. The "Ride On" advertising was still pushed by the old bigger/taller/faster train of thought, and honestly the "Ride On" tagline didn't fit at all when tacked onto the end of last year's "Come away, come away, come away with me" commercials. So, the marketing types up in Sandusky sat down and came up with "The FUN and Only," which of its own merits, isn't a bad slogan. Instead of looking at what parks that slogan fits best with (which I would say are probably Dorney, Wof, and VF) and working on other good, familiy oriented slogans for the other parks, they decided to take their one new idea and send it chain wide, which is a mistake. If I were at that table, I would have suggested: "The FUN and Only" for the smaller parks (Valleyfair!, Dorney, Worlds of Fun, GL's Wildwater Kingdom) "Where you can" for the former Paramount Parks (playing off of, and improving, the former "Where Else?" slogan) "America's Family Roller Coast" or something similar. Alas, until they call and ask my advice, I can only market the parks from the comfort of my deskchair.

Especially when eating at said parks...

I thought their system last year worked out well... the parks shared a jingle (Come away, come away, come away with me...) but added their own tagline at the end (Ride On, Where Else?, etc). That allowed each park to maintain a bit of their identity, and surely saved Cedar Fair money only having to produce one jingle. I guess making them share slogans, too, must have saved them a few more nickles.

Well, this "media guy" has always wanted to be a "design guy" (with the degree to prove it!), but, alas, I chose to be a "gainfully employed guy" rather than a "starving artist guy." Although, if anyone has any set or lighting design needs...

Oops... I meant to quote Cory. NewsGuy, who is a "news guy," not a "quote guy"

For anyone who caught The Price is Right today (3/30/10), you saw a showcase given away that included a 3 day trip to Cedar Point. As the announcer was reading his script about the resort (surely provided by CP, since they likely gave the trip to the show), he ended by saying "Cedar Point: The Fun and Only." We knew that KI was going to have this slogan, but it looks like other parks are using it as well. I was alright with "Ride On," but I really loved "Americas Roller Coast" (which is still featured on the CP website. I just think it's odd that a slogan which plays on the phrase "one and only" is being used at several distinctly different parks, even though there are parks which have overlapping markets. I'm sure here in Columbus, we'll see commercials for both Cedar Point and Kings Island, both referred to as "The FUN and Only."

It was a swipe at his comment about "being an operations guy, not a finance guy."

I'm nearly certain they aren't done painting that scene... they probably painted over the words (was it "Zoinks" there?) before they put a new coat of flat black on the wall. This will prevent the UV paint used on the old words to bleed thru the new flat black. UV paint is cool stuff, but it can be difficult to work with when you're trying to "hide" it.

What about Boocifer's Enchanted Voyage? Boo Blasters on Smurf Hill?

I just pray they did something with the queue room. The wallpaper was peeling off everywhere and looked terrible. This is one area where the conversion from Phantom Theater to SDatHC was done on the cheap.

Well, in his defense, Kinzel is admittedly an "operations guy," not a communications guy.

*facepalm* I KNEW they were going to sell 3D glasses if they had them for the ride. I can only imagine they'll sell glasses here if our dark ride is in 3D, and then someone will get the idea to sell glasses during the Haunt for CarnEVIL (Knott's does the exact same thing for their 3D mazes, except theirs are $3). And the one user on CarowindsConnection who purchased them said that they didn't add that much to the experience. I'll keep my nickles, thank you very much. On the positive side, though, overall reaction to Boo Blasters on Boo Hill seems to be very positive from the Carowinds crowd.

They've said all along that we'd get details "the week of March 29th". ::checks calendar::: Hmmmmm.....

I just added to your post...

That's what I've been saying all along.. With the Peanuts, the park gets characters that "look" exclusive, and they get to control much more of the character's context than the Nick properties.

It seems to what to have been missed is that Spongebob has been popular for the past 10 years, and is well on his way out (as can be seen- or in this case not seen on Nick) vs. Peanuts which has been popular for the past 50 years. This. Some are acting like this is the first time CF has installed the Peanuts characters in their parks. They have surely weighed their options, looked at how many nickles each would cost, and made what they thought was the best decision for the company. Let's not forget what KI's kiddie area looked like before Nick Central/NickU. It managed to win AT's Golden Ticket with such well-known, loveable characters as Pixie & Dixie, Atom Ant, Dick Dastardly, Captain Caveman, and Top Cat. While a (relative) few of the HB characters worked their way into the "timeless" category (Flintstones, Scooby, maybe the Jetsons), most were just as obscure and unknown, if not more so, than the Peanuts. Yet, despite all that, kids still begged their parents to take them to the park, happily rode the rides, and hugged the big characters for pictures. Did they sell as many Huckleberry Hound T Shirts back then as they sold Dora shirts recently? I doubt it, but with the number of nickles from the sale of that Dora shirt which had to be sent to Viacom, I'd bet the difference shrinks up really quickly.

Kinzel, looking over his right shoulder, talking to unitholders: "Trust me, $11.50 is the best this company is going to deliver. Your best bet is to get out now. Take the buyout." Kinzel, looking over his left shoulder, talking to Apollo: "Trust me, there is so much potential in this company. Your best bet is to keep me on. We'll all be rich! Since I haven't yet weighed in on the top, I'll offer my $.05. I would love to see Kinzel & CO chased out and some fresh blood in the (shiny new) corporate office. It is nearly sickening to walk through the parks and see all the untapped potential. They don't have a weak collection of parks by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I'd argue that they have one of the finest collection of regional parks in the country. They also still have an extremely strong customer following, despite their fleecing of these fine folks for the last several years (remember when food and drink prices were raised "a nickle?"). Thirdly, they have a huge fanbase in the enthusiast community. A fanbase whose first-person accounts could be used to meter and improve customer experience, if only someone would think to do so. Finally, at the park level, they have incredible talent. Guys like Scheid, Falfas, Sphen, they're all solid leaders who "get it." On the PR side, with guys like Helbig, Innis and Edwards, they have some of the best Public and Media relations folks in the business. All the ingredients of a highly successful company are there. The apples, sugar, and pie crust are all out on the counter. It's a shame the one in charge hasn't figured out how to put them together, and is much to stubborn to read a recipe.