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Infectious, or Just Plain Creepy?
[font=Times New Roman,Times,Serif]Six Flags' Elastic Mascot
Is Back With Bald Ambition,
Hoping to Rally Attendance[/font]
[font=times new roman,times,serif][font=times new roman,times,serif]By MIKE ESTERL
[font=times new roman,times,serif]Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL[/font]
July 1, 2005; Page B2[/font]
[/font] He's bald, looks to be 100 years old but dances up a storm. Can his enthusiasm persuade families to visit an amusement park?
Six Flags hopes to have a definitive answer between now and Labor Day after bringing back for a second season its quirky advertising mascot -- a tuxedo-clad man the company calls Mr. Six.
The Oklahoma City, Okla., theme-park company made a big splash on television screens last year when it introduced the offbeat character as the focal point of its first national advertising campaign in seven years.
But attendance at Six Flag parks dropped 3.4% last year, after also having declined in 2003. Six Flags, which operates 28 parks in the U.S. and one each in Mexico and Canada, also lost money for the sixth consecutive year.
Management blames the less-than-stellar 2004 results on the weather and the economy. Six Flags is betting that the eccentric icon with thick glasses, bow tie and two-toned shoes will help drive stronger attendance this year.
"We continue to get very positive and favorable responses," says Hank Salemi, the company's senior vice president of marketing, who describes Mr. Six as "our ambassador of fun."
Six Flags also is trying to ensure its product lives up to its hype. The company is spending heavily this year to add features such as taller and faster roller coasters and bigger water rides in 19 of its parks. As a result, its latest ads put a lot of emphasis on the new attractions. But Mr. Six makes an appearance in all of the spots.
"He's kind of the glue of our campaign," Mr. Salemi says.
Designed to lure families to escape the stress of everyday life, the ads show Mr. Six shuffling exuberantly to the song "We Like to Party" by the Vengaboys. Sixty-six percent of prime-time viewers surveyed by IAG Research say they like the commercials. That's up marginally from last year and above the 55% average for all prime-time ads in 2005, according to the research firm. Six Flags won't comment on its ad budget but it spent $72.1 million last year, mostly on TV, according to TNS Media Intelligence.
It's still early days for this year's theme-park season, but so far at least, business is trending up. The parks operator reported that attendance was 4.4% higher for the year through June 12 and that season-pass sales for the year had jumped 18% through that date. Still, the real test will be the third quarter; Six Flags booked more than half of last year's revenue during the three-month summer period.
Mr. Six has become a pop culture staple. In a live appearance on ABC's "Good Morning America" last year, he gave a dance lesson. In May, NBC's "The Tonight Show" used a clip of Mr. Six dancing in a joke about the upcoming Rolling Stones tour.
Not everyone is convinced the hyperkinetic Mr. Six is good for Six Flags. While he catches your attention, many teenagers are likely to find him "nerdy and goofy" and families with kids are wont to regard him as "weird"and "creepy," says Donny Deutsch, head of Interpublic Group's Deutsch agency.
But Doner, the Southfield, Mich. agency that created the Mr. Six campaign, says critics are missing the point. The character's energy is "infectious" and "seems to capture everyone's feelings about what it's like to go out and play," says Alan Kalter, Doner's chief executive.
Some think Mr. Six could stick around for a long time. "I believe personally, no pun intended, that this character has legs," says Allan Steinmetz, head of Inward Strategic Consulting, a branding consultancy in Newton, Mass.
WSJ.com
[font=Times New Roman,Times,Serif]Six Flags' Elastic Mascot
Is Back With Bald Ambition,
Hoping to Rally Attendance[/font]
[font=times new roman,times,serif][font=times new roman,times,serif]By MIKE ESTERL
[font=times new roman,times,serif]Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL[/font]
July 1, 2005; Page B2[/font]
[/font] He's bald, looks to be 100 years old but dances up a storm. Can his enthusiasm persuade families to visit an amusement park?
Six Flags hopes to have a definitive answer between now and Labor Day after bringing back for a second season its quirky advertising mascot -- a tuxedo-clad man the company calls Mr. Six.
The Oklahoma City, Okla., theme-park company made a big splash on television screens last year when it introduced the offbeat character as the focal point of its first national advertising campaign in seven years.
But attendance at Six Flag parks dropped 3.4% last year, after also having declined in 2003. Six Flags, which operates 28 parks in the U.S. and one each in Mexico and Canada, also lost money for the sixth consecutive year.
Management blames the less-than-stellar 2004 results on the weather and the economy. Six Flags is betting that the eccentric icon with thick glasses, bow tie and two-toned shoes will help drive stronger attendance this year.
"We continue to get very positive and favorable responses," says Hank Salemi, the company's senior vice president of marketing, who describes Mr. Six as "our ambassador of fun."
Six Flags also is trying to ensure its product lives up to its hype. The company is spending heavily this year to add features such as taller and faster roller coasters and bigger water rides in 19 of its parks. As a result, its latest ads put a lot of emphasis on the new attractions. But Mr. Six makes an appearance in all of the spots.
"He's kind of the glue of our campaign," Mr. Salemi says.
Designed to lure families to escape the stress of everyday life, the ads show Mr. Six shuffling exuberantly to the song "We Like to Party" by the Vengaboys. Sixty-six percent of prime-time viewers surveyed by IAG Research say they like the commercials. That's up marginally from last year and above the 55% average for all prime-time ads in 2005, according to the research firm. Six Flags won't comment on its ad budget but it spent $72.1 million last year, mostly on TV, according to TNS Media Intelligence.
It's still early days for this year's theme-park season, but so far at least, business is trending up. The parks operator reported that attendance was 4.4% higher for the year through June 12 and that season-pass sales for the year had jumped 18% through that date. Still, the real test will be the third quarter; Six Flags booked more than half of last year's revenue during the three-month summer period.
Mr. Six has become a pop culture staple. In a live appearance on ABC's "Good Morning America" last year, he gave a dance lesson. In May, NBC's "The Tonight Show" used a clip of Mr. Six dancing in a joke about the upcoming Rolling Stones tour.
Not everyone is convinced the hyperkinetic Mr. Six is good for Six Flags. While he catches your attention, many teenagers are likely to find him "nerdy and goofy" and families with kids are wont to regard him as "weird"and "creepy," says Donny Deutsch, head of Interpublic Group's Deutsch agency.
But Doner, the Southfield, Mich. agency that created the Mr. Six campaign, says critics are missing the point. The character's energy is "infectious" and "seems to capture everyone's feelings about what it's like to go out and play," says Alan Kalter, Doner's chief executive.
Some think Mr. Six could stick around for a long time. "I believe personally, no pun intended, that this character has legs," says Allan Steinmetz, head of Inward Strategic Consulting, a branding consultancy in Newton, Mass.
WSJ.com
