The urgent goal at Ocean Park in year 2000 was to get out of the red and into the black as quick as possible. Above all, to stop the bleeding. In those early years for me, we were looking for ways to address the situation analysis, make the park look new and fresh, give visitors something to do, provide good value for money, give people a reason to visit, and get friends together.
We gathered the sales and marketing team together to explore the challenges ahead.
At that time, summer was coming to an end and fall was around the corner. We brought up an idea of creating “special events” at the Park. "What’s a special event?", the team asked. It is an opportunity to develop something different, not permanent, a new, fresh product, provide a reason to visit, something to do, and a way to gather friends. Sound familiar? Almost in unison, the team asked, “What do you have in mind?”
The idea of Halloween came vividly alive.
October was just a few months away. It had never been done before in Ocean Park and is a foreign concept in Hong Kong. The initial reactions were as expected - skeptical and bewilderment. The entire team unanimously questioned strongly, “Hallo-who, Hallo-what?” I replied enthusiastically, “Halloween! A night when ghosts and goblins come out and scare us into screams and horror." The facial expressions on the team were priceless - from frowns to raised eyebrows, dropped jaws and a big question mark.
“You want us to do what?! Scare people? We want them to come to the Park, not to scare them away.”
“Yes, we want to scare them and charge them for it. The more we scare, the more we charge. If we can scare them enough, they will come and be glad to pay for the experience.”
The shock continued and it seemed they were even more perplexed. They looked at me like I was an alien from another planet, or truly demented.
I explained that Halloween was huge in America, especially in theme parks. It was an event people looked forward to each year in October. Chinese people are very superstitious. They told me that we don’t invite ghosts to our homes. I laughed and joked that these were “Gweilo" ghost (foreign ghosts).
I could see that it was an idea that would take a lot of convincing to become a reality, but worth the effort. It was my turn to be a salesman, to be persuasive and convincing. There are no bad ideas, explore all of them. What could go wrong?
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