Hertfordshire Zoo
"We sold 40,000 tickets when the weather was at its worst. Business was still busy, and that is totally down to Groupon."
"Nobody can touch Groupon, in terms of sheer numbers Groupon absolutely slaughters them. This year we have slashed what I call our traditional marketing, the exposure that we got through working with Groupon – being seen by a few millions eyeballs – we can’t do that any other way for free. The spike on our Google Analytics with the number of people coming to our website, even if they don’t necessarily buy the Groupon deal, they’ll come to our website to look at Hertfordshire Zoo, and may come on one of our other experiences, or book a wedding – or some other type of event.
Groupon is perfect for people like ourselves, where you’ve got latent capacity that you can upsell, and discount that to run your business and bring customers to your business. To sum up working with Groupon, it’s completely painless. It’s a win-win situation, and I think it’s the perfect way to market at the moment."
- Steve Sampson, Director
About Hertfordshire Zoo
Visitors can explore the wildlife of every corner of the globe at Hertfordshire Zoo, formerly known as Paradise Wildlife Park. The zoo has 400 animals to meet, from the zebras of the African plains to the fierce American alligators. Other attractions include a woodland railway, an adventure golf and an indoor tropical rainforest, to keep visitors amused all day. There will also be the opportunity to meet a variety of creepy crawlies, wolves, reptiles and big cats.
The Challenge
So many external factors affect business for Hertfordshire Zoo, such as the weather, events, and special occasions. With this in mind Director Steve Sampson decided he needed to try something new in terms of marketing, that would secure ticket sales and attract visitors no matter what was happening.
The Result
To date, Hertfordshire Zoo has run several features with Groupon, resulting in sales of over 100,000 tickets. One deal alone which ran in conjunction with the Marriott Hotel sold over 1,000 vouchers and in 2012 the park saw its best year in 7; selling 40,000 vouchers through Groupon despite the Olympics, the Jubilee and worst weather on record.
