Volume 3, No. 11. June 13, 2003
Healthy
partnership
The first two sponsors were almost a given. As Parrot Jungle in the south suburbs
of Miami, Florida, transitioned to its new location, new stature and new name—Parrot
Jungle Island, scheduled to open June 28 on the MacArthur Causeway between downtown
Miami and South Beach—the theme park announced partnerships with Pepsi
and Kodak. For Emily Marquez, director of sales and management, that news elevated
Parrot Jungle Island’s credibility.
“I was so amazed. When we announced locally to the press that we had a
partnership with Kodak and Pepsi, everybody picked it up because it said to
people, 'Parrot Jungle Island is top notch,'” she said.
The next two sponsorships, however, did not come from your typical pool of marketing
partners: Cedars Medical Center and the South Florida Water Management District.
The latter is helping the new Parrot Jungle Island build its Everglades Habitat
with funding and technical assistance. In turn, that exhibit will serve as an
educational outlet for the District and drive awareness of the Everglades, which
comes under the agency’s jurisdiction.
The Cedars Medical Center sponsorship spawned from Marquez’s former employment,
and her parents’ current employment, at the hospital 2 1/2 miles (four
kilometers) from the theme park. Many people in South and Central America visit
Miami to get U.S. caliber medical care, and Marquez approached Cedars’
Director of Marketing Kristen Koch with the pitch that Parrot Jungle Island
could provide an international marketing outlet for the hospital. With the backing
of Cedar’s new creative CEO, Michael Joseph, Koch jumped at the opportunity.
“Within a 10-mile radius of Miami you’ve got five hospitals, and it's
very competitive” Koch said. With Parrot Jungle Island anticipating 40
percent of its one million annual visitors coming from overseas—the bulk
of those Latin Americans—and the theme park’s close ties with the
cruise ships that dock across the channel from the theme park, “When you
think through all that, it kind of makes sense,” she said. “We have
all these international people coming (to the park), and we are a health care
provider for many international patients, especially Central and South America,
the Bahamas and the Caribbean. It seems a natural.”
With the sponsorship, Cedars Medical Center becomes “Parrot Jungle Island’s
preferred health care provider.” That association is mentioned on all park
media and brochures and becomes part of Cedar’s logo, too. The hospital’s
name will be tagged to the park’s customer service center and a portion
of the park’s walking trail. The partners also will share in putting on
special health-related events, and Cedars will send its nurses to participate
in various Parrot Jungle Island events throughout the year, and Cedars brochures
will be distributed at the first aide station. Parrot Jungle also will take
Cedars along for travel trade shows and powwows. “It’s a way to get
Cedars out to an audience that maybe we wouldn’t reach otherwise,”
Koch said.
Cedars will be able to use Parrot Jungle Island for company events at discounted
rates, its staff members can use the park to meet their company’s requirements
of participating in community service activities, and Koch already has received
several invitations to events at the park’s Treetop Ballroom. In return,
Parrot Jungle Island could use Cedars wellness program at discount rates, and
its staff will have access to Cedars Medical Center’s child care center.
“We have the things that each other needs,” Koch said.
Koch would not say how much the hospital is paying for the sponsorship. “We
just think it’s a mutual benefit to pay a price to be on their brochures,
their pamphlets and at their trade shows,” she said. “We wanted to
be linked to the new Parrot Jungle; it’s a first-class operation.”
This is the hospital’s first-ever sponsorship, too. “A lot of this
I never would have thought of,” Koch said. “It was Emily who came
to me. I just thought they had a vision, they were well organized, they had
a plan. She explained her marketing budget and plan, and I liked her vision
and her objective.”
THE LOOP is written and produced by Eric Minton, Minton Enterprises, LLC. To see more examples of Eric Minton's work and Minton Enterprises services, visit www.ericminton.com.
©2003, Minton Enterprises
LLC
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