Volume 3, No. 9. May 9, 2003
New Arrivals
It’s
a roller coaster!
Six Flags Marine World in Vallejo, California, announces the arrival of Zonga,
April 25, 2003. Measurements: 112 feet high (34 meters), 3,250 feet long (990.6
meters), 53 mph (85 km/h), one 20-passenger train. Delivered by Schwarzkopf.
Weather wherewithal. Even if a ride doesn’t have the flexibility to operate
in any weather condition that does not mean the public relations effort can’t
do so.
So, there was Jeff Jouett, public relations manager at Six Flags Marine World,
facing a crisis the day before his Thursday media day celebrating the park’s
new coaster. Zonga, now in its third incarnation after serving as a fair
unit in Europe and then as Texas Tornado at Six Flags AstroWorld, has
a curving lift hill using rubber tires, and when the tires get wet, the ride
can’t run. “We had 70 percent forecast of rain for the next day,”
Jouett said, “and it rained 70 percent of the day.”
Combining the forecast with the fact northern California already was enduring
one of its wettest springs on record and the new knowledge that, Jouett set
about canceling his big event. It was to feature 40 members of the Youth West
African Music and Dance Ensemble (“I envisioned these kids in native African
costumes going around on the ride, thinking it’s going to be colorful and
the ride’s really colorful and what a nice combination,” Jouett said),
80 coaster enthusiasts, and a large contingent of press, including 16 committed
hits on morning television shows.
It was those morning TV hits that prompted the most concern. By the time Jouett
called in the event’s cancellation late in the afternoon, those shows’
producers had long-ago left their newsrooms, so it was too late for them to
reschedule their coverage.
Jouett therefore turned to the park’s other new offering for the 2003 season:
Sea Lion Celebration, an interaction program run twice a day in which up to
six people for $99.99 each can go behind the scenes with Marine World’s
sea lion trainers. The program had been running since the park opened for the
2003 season on March 15, but, Jouett figured, “At least the sea lions run
in the rain.” He tracked down the head sea lion trainer to call in her
crew for the first 5 a.m. live shot the next day. Not only did all the TV morning
shows accept the switch in topic, “One station liked the sea lions so much
they added a segment,” Jouett said. “We ended up getting 47 minutes
on Sea Lion Celebration, and everybody mentioned Zonga and mentioned
it in a nice way.”
Intermittent showers continued on that Friday, too, when the park, open to the
public, hosted seven live radio remotes and their listeners who had won tickets
to ride Zonga. Marine World also hosted its high school media day that
day. “We gave them press kits and showed them Zonga and told them
Zonga doesn’t run in the rain,” Jouett said. He also learned
for the first time that Zonga required a full hour between last raindrop
and first run.
Finally,
at 7 p.m. (19,00), one hour before the park’s scheduled closing, “Zonga
went up the lift hill with a load of guests, including the diehard high school
journalists,” Jouett said. The park kept the ride running until 10 p.m.
(22,00).
Once opened, Zonga has proven a popular ride, Jouett said. “It’s
an intense enough ride that it scares people just looking at it, but once they
ride it they have a lot of fun. It’s one of those ‘I-dare-you’
kind of rides.”
Meantime, Marine World has seen a spike in interest in Sea Lion Celebration.
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.
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