Located in Katy, Texas, Dig World is the first heavy construction equipment-themed amusement park in the state. Dig World was designed for families to enjoy a unique, hands-on experience while safely operating full-size Caterpillar mini-excavators, skid steers and UTVs. With other fun attractions including a gem mining station, a playground and a turf field with games, Dig World is the ultimate family fun day!
Case Study: Dig World's 1 Year Anniversary
CHALLENGE
Dig World was warmly welcomed by the Greater Houston community after opening in March 2022, but soon after opening, it had to close due to internal operational issues that arose. After reopening, the client was unable to regain the momentum it had initially received when it first opened. Dig World sought out Like Minds’ services to create a new big splash and sustain brand awareness so that it can entertain and educate families for years to come.
STRATEGY
Since Dig World’s First Birthday on March 17, 2023 coincided with Spring Break, Like Minds immediately recognized this as a phenomenal opportunity to quickly secure big wins for the amusement park. We created and executed an integrated marketing strategy that utilized Influencer Relations, Media Relations and Digital Advertising. Additionally, we developed a comprehensive Social Media Strategy for the client to execute. Our strategy was centered around a campaign to celebrate Dig World’s First Birthday during Spring Break in order to increase ticket sales while simultaneously beginning to establish long-term brand awareness.
Influencer Relations
Our team hit the ground running by securing an influencer partnership with txvacation to create engaging social media content that would reach a large audience in all of the major markets in Texas. The txvacation content was strategically scheduled to go live at the end of February to drum up excitement in advance of Dig World’s First Birthday, but to also encourage families across Texas to add it to their Spring Break plans.
In early March, we hosted an exclusive birthday bash for key influencers and their families to enjoy a private morning at Dig World. The goal was to introduce key influencers to Dig World in order to develop future partnerships while simultaneously generating a large volume of in-kind content in advance of Spring Break.
Media Relations
After curating a strategic media list, our team created a variety of angles and pitched Dig World to hyperlocal, local, regional and statewide publications to ensure widespread coverage.
Digital Advertising
To kickstart our Digital Advertising efforts, we began to A/B test digital ads to see what creative resonated with the desired target audience. As the quarter continued on, we began expanding our targeted audiences to include additional locations and interests. In advance of the First Birthday and Spring Break, we ran a Lead Generation ad that encouraged those served the ad to enter their email addresses to win a Family Four Pack to Dig World.
RESULTS
Within 24 hours of txvacation’s content (Instagram | TikTok) going live, Dig World immediately saw a dramatic increase in social media followers and nearly a 150% increase in website traffic—the highest spike of website traffic since its grand opening. At the end of the influencer partnership, the content reached 987,900+ people with 2.6 million impressions with an above average engagement rate of 3.56% and it paid for itself by garnering an estimated media value of $129,800+! As a result, Dig World had a 38.24% increase in Instagram followers and a 44.03% increase in TikTok followers.
The exclusive Dig World birthday bash we hosted for influencers helped reach an additional 111,800 people while garnering a combined total of 3.9 million impressions. All of the content generated during the exclusive event was created and shared in-kind with an estimated media value of $101,000+—a huge win!
Our media relations efforts led to several features, just in time for Spring Break, including The Austin Chronicle “Day Trips & Beyond,” CultureMap Houston and Texas Travel Talk. The CultureMap Houston feature became one of the top 10 website referrals for the quarter, so this coverage played a key role in our success.
After successfully A/B testing, our revamp of Dig World’s Digital Advertising efforts led to a 1,979.82% increase in Reach, 341.09% increase in Impressions, a 190.85% increase in Link Clicks and ultimately became the #3 website referral source for the quarter. The Lead Generation ad helped the client build its email database by adding nearly 200 new potential customers to it. Combined with our influencer relations efforts and social media strategy developed for the client, Dig World received a substantial increase in social media metrics across all platforms!
Overall, two months of Like Minds’ integrated marketing efforts resulted in Dig World benefiting from a 103.3% increase in revenue compared to the previous quarter.
The results speak for themselves: investing in a team of skilled creatives is the key to generating high impact results.