Halloween Horror Nights 32 (UOR) - Speculation & Rumors

[Crypt Keeper]

Announcing all the originals on a single day is mind-bogglingly stupid. You can sing whatever songs of praise you like to the wisdom of the marketing department, it’s still a massive waste of advertising potential.

Oh, 100% it's a massive waste of advertising potential.

While I understand that the GP is coming to see the IPs, advertising the Original houses would help get the GP interested in them.

 

[Legacy]

That’s assuming the GP would actually pay attention to individual announcements for original houses.

 

[CoryLevy91]

I feel like the amount of the regular Joe's who would actually care about original houses has to be supremely minimal.

People who post about HHN year round will lap up everything IP or original. If the general public even cares to look into the event beyond wanting something fun to do around the season, they'll get perked by the IPs and probably gloss over original stuff.

 

[Brian G.]

Each year is going to be different because the lineup is different. Some years may rely more on originals, a mix of IPs, or one big IP. Marketing hasn’t been perfect in the past, but we can’t outright compare because each year has had a different need.

 

[Wigglepebbles]

original houses don’t need that much pre-hype than IP’s. People start planning their trip early just because Beetlejuice, Eleven, Chucky or SpongeBob will have their own attraction…
I doubt kids will be begging their parents a whole trip to Orlando just to visit Midnight Snack 3: Aftercourse.

 

[Imperius]

That’s assuming the GP would actually pay attention to individual announcements for original houses.

Exactly. Have they ever even advertised originals?

 

[Killer Klown]

Exactly. Have they ever even advertised originals?

Only the super marketable ones like Icons Captured lately.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

People remember Scarecrow from HHN27, not the bungled marketing through the spring and summer. As long as what's behind the gates is a good product then fans will remember it.

 

[Legacy]

Exactly. Have they ever even advertised originals?

Outside of icon-based houses, not really. They use to do press releases when for individual originals.

But, more broadly, whatever Universal is doing… however they’re doing it… is working. We have to assume that they have quantifiable reasons to announce things the way they do, because they rarely deviate from the system. Despite the frustration it causes fans, they have way more information and experience doing this than we do.

 

[ParksandSights]

Do we have any official HHN attendance figures? I'm under the impression that crowds have significantly increased in the past 10 years, compared to the first 20. Is that due to the emphasis on IP? Great word of mouth? The increase in popularity of Universal parks in general? Some combination of those?

 

[Tbad556]

Please don't advertise even more, Uni. All of those sell outs last year were rough enough as it was lol. Opening weekend fully sold out and that first Sunday sold out over a week in advance.

 

[Robert Bliss]

They did some fun stuff in 2018

 

[Casper Gutman]

Outside of icon-based houses, not really. They use to do press releases when for individual originals.

But, more broadly, whatever Universal is doing… however they’re doing it… is working. We have to assume that they have quantifiable reasons to announce things the way they do, because they rarely deviate from the system. Despite the frustration it causes fans, they have way more information and experience doing this than we do.

Or, much like Disney, they have an incredibly myopic focus on a very, very narrow understanding of IPs.

 

[Legacy]

Or, much like Disney, they have an incredibly myopic focus on a very, very narrow understanding of IPs.

Except they don’t have a myopic focus at all. They recognize originals (and quality ones at that) are essential to the event. Look at their merch. Look at how they structure the event, where half to two-thirds of the entire event is always originals. And when they have original concepts they think are profitable, they leverage them like crazy (Scarecrow in Hollywood, for example).

But they also see the surveys. They see the social media engagement. They see what draws eyes and what doesn’t. You can look at their history and see when they’ve experimented and when they’ve backtracked. They have way more actual information than we do.

 

[IHateJumpScares]

Outside of icon-based houses, not really. They use to do press releases when for individual originals.

But, more broadly, whatever Universal is doing… however they’re doing it… is working. We have to assume that they have quantifiable reasons to announce things the way they do, because they rarely deviate from the system. Despite the frustration it causes fans, they have way more information and experience doing this than we do.

Fast & Furious, the attraction extravaganza, begs to differ….

 

[Brian G.]

Oh boy…

 

[ultimateforce]

They did some fun stuff in 2018

Making my bi-monthly post to remind everyone to look at all the HHN28 media Universal put out. This includes the awesome round table discussions!

 

[Tbad556]

Except they don’t have a myopic focus at all. They recognize originals (and quality ones at that) are essential to the event. Look at their merch. Look at how they structure the event, where half to two-thirds of the entire event is always originals. And when they have original concepts they think are profitable, they leverage them like crazy (Scarecrow in Hollywood, for example).

But they also see the surveys. They see the social media engagement. They see what draws eyes and what doesn’t. You can look at their history and see when they’ve experimented and when they’ve backtracked. They have way more actual information than we do.

A quick example being the Twitter engagement last year:

• Monsters: 276 comments/2.2k retweets/5.3k likes
• Halloween: 225 comments/2k retweets/5k likes
• Blumhouse: 156 comments/1.3k retweets/3.7k likes
• DoD: 45 comments/272 retweets/1.9k likes
• Fiesta: 16 comments/134 retweets/957 likes
• DMP: 31 comments/179 retweets/1173 likes

Like you said though, it's weird to act like they don't go all out for the originals. Last year alone had a massive concise theme that the fans had been clamoring for, fan-driven characters like Lil Boo & Pumpkin Lord, the Tribute Store, endless merch, etc. Y'all don't realize how good we have it now. Back in the days everyone clamors for a return to because of the "OG content", we had one house shirt that was usually hideous and the IPs were still what was being pushed in advertising (hello Carnival of Carnage). I casually mentioned it in my other post, but AFAIK, last year had a record number of sell outs. Marketing knows what gets butts in the gates.

 

[IHateJumpScares]

I think what most people lament as a lack of marketing is really driven more by a “lack of superfan engagement prior to the event.” Special websites, little videos, the serial postcards from …. dead exposure was it?

I feel like the majority of people who love and miss that stuff were planning on coming since December. And the ones that don’t fall into that group would miss most of it anyway and will only see the IP announcements, if they see anything at all.

I suppose you could argue that more announcements increases the chance that someone sees the event and it attracts new customers, but as has been pointed out by many already- attendance doesn’t seem to be a problem.

 

[Jake S]

i think, and I could be completely wrong about this, it’s more about another opportunity to (and I’m sorry to use this jargon) take people further up the funnel. by promoting your original content more enthusiastically and taking it more seriously, you (theoretically) help create more diehard fans — the ones that come every year and evangelize the event to their friends and family.

I don’t know a single thing about universal’s marketing budget outlay, what their kpi’s are, etc. but I could understand an argument for more social media marketing of original houses — even if universal has considered that and decided it’s just not worth it.