Universal Studios Marketing

 Universal Studios has a very complex, layered, and in depth marketing strategy.  I might even think they read the book on guerrilla marketing.  Some of their past marketing phrases have been "ride the movies", "vacation like you mean it", and most recently "let yourself whoa".  The let yourself whoa campaign features Keenan Thompson a comedian and Saturday Night Live cast member walking the viewer through non whoa worthy moments such as being at work or at the dentist.  He then shows us whoa worthy moments such as the rides at Universal Studios.  This marketing approach suggests a visit to Universal is an escape from day to day challenges.  The commercial ends with a shot of the iconic globe located in Universals City Walk ultimately tying the commercial back to brand recognition.

The next layer of Universal's marketing approach focuses on customer engagement and new releases.  Universal utilizes social media such as twitter to engage customers.  For example, during the pandemic in 2020 Universal released recipes for some of their food items in the park.  My family and I made milk shakes from one of their restaurants.  I posted a picture of the kids with their shakes on twitter and received a response from the official Universal Orlando Resort account.

This is an example of how they keep the magic of their brand alive.  The kids were thrilled that Universal recognized how cool the experience was for them to make the milk shakes and this fueled their desire to return to the parks for the real thing.  Another example of how they use social media is by engaging guests in poll questions such as their most recent question about which miniature golf course is preferred.

According to their guests that responded via twitter, the Ghostly Greens course is preferred to Planet Putt.  Universal can potentially take this feedback and use it in their future park strategy.  If they need to find room for a new attraction and need to remove one of the miniature golf courses, they could use the survey results and decide to remove Planet Putt.

Universal hosts a Halloween Horror Nights event annually.  This event brings thousands of horror lovers to the park for haunted houses, scare zones, and horror themed food.  Recently, Universal used twitter to announce one of the haunted houses for 2022.

When booking reservations or purchasing tickets, guests must turnover an email address which is added to Universals email list.  To continuously improve the customer experience at the hotels and park, Universal solicits feedback in the form of email surveys.  Not only does the survey aid in improvement, it shows that Universal values the guest and their opinion. Notice the headline of the email is the globe which is consistent with their branding.

To add another layer to their marketing tactics, Universal has billboards placed all around their theme parks.  Using Florida as an example, there are are billboards and signage advertising for Universal from the time you get off your plane at Orlando International Airport up until the park entrance.  

The last marketing tactic that Universal has is not one they design.  Video logs or vlogs are popular on YouTube where vloggers can showcase the rides, events, food, and entertainment available at Universal Studios.  These vlogs are viewed by hundreds of thousands of people a year.  The drawback to this is most of the vlogs are created by amateur's so they may not showcase Universal in the best angle.  However, if a vlogger has a large enough audience, Universal may choose to compensate them through free trips and access to press only events.

There are certainly more marketing and branding intricacies associated with Universal but I wanted to touch base on some of the more common avenues they use to reach their guests and potential visitors.