Alton Towers

Challenge: The birth of Alton Towers can be traced back to 1801 when Charles Talbot, the 15th Earl of Shrewsbury, started work on a gothic style stately home in the village of Alton, Staffordshire. In the 1950s, parts of the grounds were partially opened to the public by the Alton Towers Limited company but it began its evolution into a major theme park in 1980 with the installation of The Corkscrew rollercoaster, the Pirate Ship, and the Alpine Bob sled ride. We, have been working with Alton Towers as individuals since 1991 and as Brand Vista since 2020. Set in over 500 acres of beautiful Staffordshire countryside, Alton Towers Resort has now become the iconic British theme park, home to many of the country’s leading rides and is loved by its many fans.

It is also a business, in a very competitive sector, with ever increasing financial demands. In 2007 it was sold by Bridgestone to Merlin Entertainments as part of their acquisition of the Tussauds Group. The problem we were immediately faced with was a long period of declining volume and revenue and an ever increasing dependency on the single adult market. The task was to re-position the brand as a resort, appeal more to families , align the customer experience to the new vision, engage colleagues in the transformation and reverse the revenue and volume decline.

Actions: (1) Using qualitative research to explore the market and Alton Towers’ position within it, we developed a new brand vision for the business through a series of workshops with the board and the frontline teams. The vision took the form of a simple positioning, 5 values to drive cultural change and a simple brand personality designed to guide tone of voice and all communications from promotional boards outside retail outlets to 60 second TV commercials.

(2) The vision was tested amongst guests, potential guests and internal stakeholders. It provided the guiding vision for communications, the customer experience itself, product development and recruitment and training. Everything started with the vision.

(3) A new Customer Experience was developed through a series of workshops which gave the frontline team ownership and ensured that practicality was woven into the process.The basics of the experience were identified and we developed some new Brand Amplifiers (designed to bring the brand to life in a way that is aligned to the vision and gets talked about) got talked about. These were researched and teams and processes established to make the changes.

(4) The new vision and CX was then launched to the business and embedded through training sessions we ran with key influencers in the business, a measurement programme (The Brand Alignment Monitor or BAM) which monitored change across the whole Customer Experience using NPS methodology and inclusion in the company’s reward and recognition programme.

(5) We wrote the brief and guided the development of a new TV campaign and have continued to advise on CX and communications strategy.

Today, we are working on further development of the brand and remain integral to all new product development. Results: - Alton Towers offers three themed hotels, a waterpark and luxury spa. It is now one of Britain’s leading resorts reducing the dependency on day visits. - The guest profile has moved from a strong teenage bias to families with children between the ages of 2 to 14 . This was heavily influenced by the launch of Cbeebies Land and the Cebeebies Hotel and will be reinforced by the launch of the Gangsta Grannny ride in 2021. Brand Vista has provided research and brand strategy for all these developments. - NPS scores have improved significantly over the past 13 years. It is now over 60 (world class).

The volume decline was reversed and, despite The Smiler accident in 2015, is now 40% higher than it was in 2007. - Brand Alignment Monitor scores for quality, range of facilities and service levels all improved dramatically in the first year.