Alton Towers targets short-break audience

Alton Towers is launching a TV campaign to support a major repositioning away from a theme park to a short-break destination.

The campaign is the first TV work from the attraction for five years. It aims to target a family audience and break across several channels on Saturday evening.

The campaign, created by Delaney Lund Knox Warren, features a new look logo and the strapline, “Stay for days when you escape to the Alton Towers Resort”. Media planning and buying is by Manning Gottlieb OMD.

The TV ads will be supported by a radio campaign and comprehensive through-the-line activity, driving awareness of Mutiny Bay, a £6m pirate-themed land, featuring three new attractions, due to launch on March 15.

Russell Barnes, divisional director of Alton Towers, says the attraction wants to broaden its appeal and promote its two hotels, water park, golf courses and spa.

He adds that the company wants to emphasise that “this unique combination is simply not available at any other location within the UK”.

Alton Towers appointed Morwenna Angove as head of marketing last year, following the announcement of a strategy to position itself as the “UK’s leading short-stay destination” (MW November 1).

Delaney Lund Knox Warren was appointed to Alton Towers’s £5m advertising in September last year. The business was previously handled by TBWA/London (MW September 20).

Alton Towers became the first theme park to sponsora TV show when it agreed a deal with offbeat science show Brainiac (MW April13, 2006).

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