New Director of Communications for the Midwest Region for Six Flags

[mikejenkins1]

Just saw a post that Grace Peacock will be the Director of Communications for the Midwest Region For Six Flags Entertainment.

So sounds like Chad and Elizabeth might be gone?   What about Tony Clark? 

Hmmm.   So they dont want info/input from local parks in that region?

[IndyGuy4KI]

KICentral extends its warmest congratulations to Grace on her new role. We look forward to a productive collaboration with her and her team, sharing our passion for Kings Island and inspiring others to embrace their love for the park.

 

 

Follow her on X here: https://x.com/gracepeacock

 

[Orion-XL200]

From various people who visit Canadas Wonderland, there have been nothing but good things said of Grace.  
 

Elizabeth’s position has essentially been eliminated, as has the director role that Chad was in. While they haven’t been let go, they have to reapply and interview for positions within the greater communications/marketing departments under a regional director. Whomever ends up at KI in comms would essentially be a point person and wouldn’t have a big say in PR at the park. 

[BoddaH1994]

Grace will be a regional PR, and have “helpers” who just facilitate on the park levels, but they will not have direct ownership of the parks’ efforts. They will also have a region Social Media person and have local “helpers” that will work on general projects across the region.

If I were a betting man, I’d say that there will be a spot for both Chad and Elizabeth, but Chad at least, may be taking a bit of a haircut when it comes to the take home pay. Just speculation. 

[Tr0y]

So what I take or at least expect is things won’t change from the current “hands off” approach of the current team.. I can’t imagine there will be more involvement now that PR / Marketing is being controlled from Charlotte.

What will happen to Coasterstock? 

[BoddaH1994]

1 hour ago, Tr0y said:

So what I take or at least expect is things won’t change from the current “hands off” approach of the current team.. I can’t imagine there will be more involvement now that PR / Marketing is being controlled from Charolette.

What will happen to Coasterstock? 

Coasterstock will be back in 2025, per the park’s announcement.

. .. Unless they decide not to, of course. 

[Hawaiian Coasters 325]

Tbh I really hope this means future additions to the park can be kept under wraps better. Her and her team at Wonderland did an outstanding job keeping AlpenFury under wraps and nothing got out until announcement day. Also she has a great relationship with social media channels (specifically Amusement Insiders). As for Chad and Elizabeth, I wish them nothing but great things in the future for them as for me personally I have not had any bad interactions with either of them. 

[WoodVengeance]

55 minutes ago, Hawaiian Coasters 325 said:

Tbh I really hope this means future additions to the park can be kept under wraps better. Her and her team at Wonderland did an outstanding job keeping AlpenFury under wraps and nothing got out until announcement day. Also she has a great relationship with social media channels (specifically Amusement Insiders). As for Chad and Elizabeth, I wish them nothing but great things in the future for them as for me personally I have not had any bad interactions with either of them. 

To be fair, there was a shipping document that was posted online a month or two before AlpenFury's announcement that showed that the manufacturer was going to be premier rides, so it wouldn't exactly be accurate to say "nothing got out". Also, we've had Notice of Commencements and blueprints found in public records for several past additions, so I'm not sure if that's going to stop with a new director of communications.

However, I do hope that future additions do become more "secretive" from now on to help fuel speculation throughout the season. I feel as if the decoding season for Orion back in 2019 was somewhat ruined by the fact that the blueprints were posted on here very early in the season. Going back to the 2020 decoding thread, there was only a period of 19 days between the start of the speculation on passholder preview day (April 19th) to when the blueprints were posted with the full layout (May 8th), so at that point there wasn't really much left to decode other than debating if the name was going to be Polaris or Orion.

[mikejenkins1]

So any guesses/updates on Tony Clark at CP?

[DonHelbig]

20 minutes ago, mikejenkins1 said:

So any guesses/updates on Tony Clark at CP?

Tony will be in the same boat as the others throughout the company. He may end up with a position on one of the regional PR teams, or he may be looking for a job outside of Six Flags. He won't be a director of communications at Cedar Point. The PR positions at the park level are being eliminated. The Midwest Regional team will manage the PR function for the parks within that region. It's similar to what they did when the marketing director positions were eliminated at the park level and run out of Charlotte by Brand teams. 

[BeeastFarmer]

I think y'all are putting the cart before the horse. Typically, a new leader comes in and evaluates things before cleaning house. Not knowing Six Flags timeline on these realignments, I wouldn't assume that park level positions are changed much before the end of the year. Many parks still have winter events yet to go. Use them and then reassign, terminate or let attrition happen. 

[DonHelbig]

Just now, BeeastFarmer said:

I think y'all are putting the cart before the horse. Typically, a new leader comes in and evaluates things before cleaning house. Not knowing Six Flags timeline on these realignments, I wouldn't assume that park level positions are changed much before the end of the year. Many parks still have winter events yet to go. Use them and then reassign, terminate or let attrition happen. 

What part of the PR and social media positions at the park level are being eliminated are you having trouble understanding? 

[BeeastFarmer]

I'm sure you have inside information as evidenced by your Racer conversation. If you do, please help me understand the timeline on these eliminations. As an outsider, it doesn't make business sense to do this before the winter events are finished.  I'm sure your insight could help me see the big picture in a more clear manner.

[DonHelbig]

6 minutes ago, BeeastFarmer said:

I'm sure you have inside information as evidenced by your Racer conversation. If you do, please help me understand the timeline on these eliminations. As an outsider, it doesn't make business sense to do this before the winter events are finished.  I'm sure your insight could help me see the big picture in a more clear manner.

Once the director of PR for the Midwest Region has their team in place, the park level PR positions will be eliminated. They were just officially named to the position yesterday. In addition to internal candidates, there will be those outside of Six Flags that will be considered for these roles. 

[BeeastFarmer]

14 minutes ago, DonHelbig said:

Once the director of PR for the Midwest Region has their team in place, the park level PR positions will be eliminated. They were just officially named to the position yesterday. In addition to internal candidates, there will be those outside of Six Flags that will be considered for these roles. 

Isn't that pretty much the same thing I said, minus the piece about outside candidates being considered?

[Tr0y]

Positions are still available for those that are interested:

https://jobs.cedarfair.com/job/charlotte/regional-manager-social-media-and-digital-content-midwest-region/42509/69749220096

[Orion-XL200]

1 hour ago, BeeastFarmer said:

I'm sure you have inside information as evidenced by your Racer conversation. If you do, please help me understand the timeline on these eliminations. As an outsider, it doesn't make business sense to do this before the winter events are finished.  I'm sure your insight could help me see the big picture in a more clear manner.

I would assume they'd want everything filled by end of calendar year. From what I understand everyone who has had a position in a park through "corporate" such as Digital Marketing Manager, Director of Communications, Marketing & PR Professional, etc. have to reapply and interview for positions with the newly merged company. Not only does this help "trim the fat" but it also helps the company restructure into more effective operations. 

[gabelogan99]

On 10/31/2024 at 5:23 PM, Tr0y said:

Positions are still available for those that are interested:

https://jobs.cedarfair.com/job/charlotte/regional-manager-social-media-and-digital-content-midwest-region/42509/69749220096

That's *position (singular), from the way I understand it. That's why it's such a big deal. One position. Fifteen parks.

[BoddaH1994]

What it boils down to is that the company is clearly eager to move forward with this restructure. The director level will not be Chad, at least in the Midwest Region. Both he and/or Elizabeth may be one of the positions below that, but as Don said, they won't be exclusively for Kings Island. This may mean that they get placed in roles that are within the region or they may get "future endeavored." If I were to guess, I'd say that we'll have a pretty good look at what this where people will be by the start of Winterfest.

[Tr0y]

I'm still a bit skeptical on if this is going to lead to the improvements with Comms department that people seek. Although to some, it can't get any worse.

PR / Comms being ran through corporate, hundreds of miles away. I can't imagine we are going to see anymore involvement than we do now. Coupled with the digital content partner guidelines.

I would like to think the park uses KIC as a tool. An advantage to KIC versus other pages such as the passholder group is you don't get the white noise of questions that are asked repetitively. Also, that the criticism is more or less constructive than personal attacks. Although sometimes we, myself included, fall short of that.

[DonHelbig]

4 hours ago, Tr0y said:

I'm still a bit skeptical on if this is going to lead to the improvements with Comms department that people seek. Although to some, it can't get any worse.

PR / Comms being ran through corporate, hundreds of miles away. I can't imagine we are going to see anymore involvement than we do now. Coupled with the digital content partner guidelines.

I would like to think the park uses KIC as a tool. An advantage to KIC versus other pages such as the passholder group is you don't get the white noise of questions that are asked repetitively. Also, that the criticism is more or less constructive than personal attacks. Although sometimes we, myself included, fall short of that.

The 1980 USA Olympic men's hockey team didn't win the Gold Medal because they had the best players. They won because they had the right players. Same thing applies here. For the restructuring to work, the regional PR and social media teams are going to need the right people involved. If they build the regional teams that way, it will lead to the improvements park fans want to see. 

[gforce1994]

2 hours ago, DonHelbig said:

The 1980 USA Olympic men's hockey team didn't win the Gold Medal because they had the best players. They won because they had the right players. Same thing applies here. For the restructuring to work, the regional PR and social media teams are going to need the right people involved. If they build the regional teams that way, it will lead to the improvements park fans want to see. 

It was scripted that way. Otherwise a lot of people would have hated the Miracle film for being inaccurate.

[CoasterJack]

Today's Youtube Advertisement for KI with a lovely spelling mistake . The link is legit too...

[BoddaH1994]

59 minutes ago, CoasterJack said:

Today's Youtube Advertisement for KI with a lovely spelling mistake . The link is legit too...

To be fair, that's probably the agency's mistake.