CASE STUDY

Australian theme park leader scores success with Sitecore

Village Roadshow Theme Parks creates frictionless customer experience across websites to entice guests, drive ticket sales 
Project brief

Sea World Resort, Wet ’n’ Wild Gold Coast, Warner Bros., and many more

Village Roadshow Theme Parks (VRTP) is Australia’s largest theme park operator, providing thrilling entertainment, rides, and slides. Its attractions — including Sea World Resort, Wet‘n’Wild Gold Coast, Warner Bros. Movie World, Australian Outback Spectacular, Paradise Country, and Topgolf — draw over 5 million guests annually from all over the world. 

With its sandy beaches, spectacular hiking, great restaurants, and more, Australia’s Gold Coast is an international tourist hub for 13 million visitors every year. VRTP resorts and theme parks are top draws, but to prevail over competing attractions the company aimed to refresh its outdated suite of websites. Missing from the sites were mobile optimization—a serious drawback since most vacationers use smartphones—personalized messaging, and real-time information about ride closures, scheduled maintenance, and safety restrictions. 

Capabilities

XP

About

Village Roadshow Theme Parks

Media and Entertainment

CHALLENGE

Refresh outdated suite of websites

  • Lack of mobile optimization
  • No personalized messaging, real-time information about ride closures and many more
SOLUTION

Solutions used

OUTCOME

A distinct but unified look to every website

The first two sites VRTP launched on the new platform were Warner Bros. Movie (January 31, 2018) and Sea World. The results were dramatic. Warner Bros. Movie World quickly saw a new-customer growth rate exceeding 40%, and its site hits rose by 30%. Mobile visitation rose 27%. Sea World’s site hits leaped 64% through organic online searches. Return visitation to the site improved by 75%.

Guerrilla assisted with four more sites and built VRTP’s expertise to fly solo with additional rollouts. Over the first 15 months, revenue increased 75%, e-commerce conversion rates 44%, and order value rose 11%. Those results have continued to improve with new content and site rollouts.

Over the next year, VRTP plans to further leverage xDB to refine personalization. It’s also moving ahead to upgrade to Sitecore XP 9 and implement Sitecore xConnect functionality to integrate additional digital marketing platforms, such as Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

“Our guests’ digital experiences have improved significantly. The websites are easier to use, more aesthetically pleasing, and more relevant,” Soutar said. “Our goal was to transform the guest journey with immersive, personalized, and frictionless experiences to facilitate more meaningful engagement — and thereby to increase our profitability. This project delivers 100% on that vision.”

  • 75% revenue increase over 15 months
  • 44% e-commerce conversion rate
  • 11% rise in average order value
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